Monday, April 30, 2012

Today's $1.24 Billion Targeted Gold Slam Down Makes The Mainstream Press


For the first time in what may be ages, a phenomenon that has become near and dear to anyone who trades gold, and which at best elicits a casual smirk from those who observe it several times daily, we find that the WSJ has finally picked up on the topic of the endless daily gold slam down, where the seller in complete disregard for market disruption (because in a normal world one wants to sell any given lot without notifying the market that one is selling so as to get a good price on the next lot... but not in the gold market where the seller slams the bid with reckless abandon) ignores market depth and in a demonstration of nothing but brute price manipulation force, slams every bid down just to demoralize further buying. Naturally, that this simply provides buyers with a more depressed price than is "fair" is lost on the seller, but not on the buyers who promptly bid up the metal as attempt to demoralize buying end in failure after failure. Yet it is peculiar that today, for the first time, the intraday gold slam down has finally made the MSM. To wit: "The CME Group Inc.’s Comex division recorded an unusually large transaction of 7,500 gold futures during one minute of trading at 8:31 a.m. EDT. The sale took out blocks of bids as large as 84 contracts in one fell swoop and cut prices down to $1,648.80 a troy ounce. The overall transaction was worth more than $1.24 billion... Gold traders buzzed with speculation that the transaction was an input error — a so-called “fat finger” trade. “Or a Gold Finger as it might be known in the bullion market,” traders at Citi joked in a note to clients." Well, no. It wasn't.





Biderman On The Fed: "They Control The Market, We Play With Their Money"

The pastel-wearing President of TrimTabs proffers an entirely non-perfunctory prose explaining why he believes we are now due for a stock market decline. Echoing our thoughts, Charles notes that "It's the Federal Reserve that controls the market, it's their money, they're the boss, we play with their money that they print or stop printing". Sadly true (especially for all the highly-paid economists and strategists out there), the pre-2009 drivers of equity performance (specifically new or excess savings) are no longer so; since the initial QE1 this has not been the case and providing us with a thoughtful history of equity market valuations relative to the various QE-efforts over the past few years - especially when compared to income growth and/or macro-economic data - provides just the color required to comprehend this essentially a obvious thread of reality that merely  four years ago would have been denigrated to the tin-foil-hat-wearers of the world. Real-time data says that wages and salaries are barely growing above inflation, Europe is a disaster, and the emerging nations are seeing slowing growth; without the Fed's new money where will cash come from to drive stock prices higher? The question is, assuming the Fed will 'stimulate' again pre-Election, will the market react the same way? And will the trigger for such an event be a major decline once again in asset prices?




MUST WATCH: Paul vs. Paul on Bloomberg TV




Paul Vs Paul Post-Mortem

By way of post-mortem of this afternoon's epic Paul vs Paul Bloomberg TV cage-match, we reflect on the various headlines the two gentlemen made during the event and in the context of the credibility with which one of the gentlemen discusses his ability to manage the world and the 'ease' with which he and his henchmen can control inflation (and yet an unmanaged economy is subject to 'extreme volatility'), we remind readers of the post-WWII years and the extreme swings in purchasing power that their so-called managed economy created. As ever it appears the mutually-assured-destruction fall-back premise of Keynesian Krugman is trumped by the fact-based method of the more Pragmatic Paul.
  • *KRUGMAN SAYS UNMANAGED ECONOMY SUBJECT TO "EXTREME VOLATILITY"
  • *PAUL SAYS FED IS LENDER OF LAST RESORT FOR POLITICIANS
  • *KRUGMAN SAYS U.S. ECONOMY IS "PERSISTENTLY DEPRESSED"
  • *RON PAUL: FED HAS DESTROYED 98% OF DOLLAR'S VALUE SINCE 1913





Liar...Krugman Claims FED Policy Doesn’t Effect Food & Oil Prices, The Dollar Hasn’t Gone Down





One Minute Chart of Gold - 7,501 contracts

Trader Dan at Trader Dan's Market Views - 2 hours ago
By request of a reader S Roche, I am providing a one minute chart showing the enormity of the trade in gold early this morning (4-30) more »

 

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One Minute Chart of Gold Detailing Volume

Trader Dan at Trader Dan's Market Views - 2 hours ago

Lousy Chicago PMI figures/bad Greek retail sales/Egan Jones lowers Spanish debt to BB plus from BBB-/ECB set to do margin calls on LTRO banks

Good evening Ladies and Gentlemen: At 8:31 we had a huge 7500 contracts sold at the opening. Some say it was a fat finger. I say hogwash!!! (courtesy Tatyana Shumsky/Wall Street Journal) Gold Shakes Off $1.24 Billion ‘Fat Finger’ By Tatyana ShumskyGold futures ended nearly unchanged Monday, after a large early-morning sell order roiled traders and slashed prices by almost $15. The CME more »

 

 

Monthly Gold Charts

Trader Dan at Trader Dan's Market Views - 8 hours ago
Isn't it amazing that some are so ready to call for an end to the bull market in gold. From a monthly chart perspective, there is nothing to indicate such an occurrence. In 2008, the CLOSING MONTHLY GOLD PRICE dropped 26.5% from its best to worst level before it renewed its uptrend. More recently, gold has dropped a mere 14.4% from it bests closing monthly level to its worst level reached with a handle of "15" in front of the gold price. Keep in mind that purely from a long term technical chart perspective, the metal remains in a solid uptrend. As a side note - for those of you ... more »

 

 

FAT FINGER IN SILVER TOO?

Trader Dan at Trader Dan's Market Views - 9 hours ago
Traders continue to chatter about the so-called "FAT FINGER" trade in gold that occurred early this morning, a trade which dropped the gold price $15 in minutes and consisted of an order of 7,500 contracts. Many seem to agree that it was a trade placed in error. The problem is that we also witnessed a similar surge in the volume done in the nearby silver pit at the exact same moment. Note the time right after the 5:00 AM hour (Pacific time) on the following 5 minute chart and see how large the volume was compared to that for the remainder of the session. No matter who did the trade,... more »

Economy May Be Headed Into Free Fall Again

Dave in Denver at The Golden Truth - 11 hours ago
*Many borrowers, particularly since late 2010, thought they were buying at the bottom of a housing market that had already suffered steep declines, but have been caught out by a continued fall in prices in wide swaths of America. - *source link below First things first. Remember this big dog and pony show Bernanke went on a couple weeks ago to pontificate on how open the Fed is about how it conducts its operations now? Well it turns out that is just another well-crafted cover-story for the truth. Those of us who follow and understand the truth know that Bernanke is about as ful... more »

Gold Takedown Rejected

Trader Dan at Trader Dan's Market Views - 12 hours ago
Take a look at the following 5 minute chart and note especially the volume readings posted below each individual price bar. Look just past the 5:00 AM Pacific time hour and you will see the enormous volume spike accompanying the sharp downdraft that occured in the gold price dropping it $15 in the course of minutes. Analysts are still grasping for an explanation. The most common is that it was another one of those "fat fingered trades". Have you ever noticed how many fat fingered human beings apparently camp out in the trading community. Last time I checked a skinny finger could hit ... more » 

 

 

In The News Today


The issue which has swept down the centuries and which will have to be fought sooner or later, is the people versus the banks. – Lord Acton [1834-1902]


Gold has Bottomed, Alf Fields
Elliott Wave Gold Update: In the article “What Happened to Gold” dated 1 March 2012, the “other possibilities” mentioned in the event of gold dropping below $1650 related firstly to the 61.8% retracement of the prior rise. The prior rise was from $1523 to $1792, so the 61.8% retracement was $1626. There was a further possibility of the retracement being 2/3 of the prior rise, also a Fibonacci relationship. That produced a figure of $1612. The first number $1626 did provide some support to the market but the absolute low was $1612.8 on 4 April 2012. This low came at the culmination of a double zig-zag correction, which adds to the validity of that low. The odds now suggest that the gold correction bottomed at $1612.8 on 4 April 2012 and that the gold market is in the early stages of a sharp upward move.
Apr 28, 2012
Alf Field



Dear CIGAs,

Yra Harris seriously is the brightest intellect in the Western financial world today. He is a fully balanced individual capable of being the Secretary of Treasury with skill sets in excess of any individual holding that office in my lifetime. Here is his take on the French election which I assure you has the ability of being the most important event in the saga of Euroland. I am proud that Yra was my Chicago floor partner in the wild 70s. Yra’s father Lenny, like Bert, is a legend in this business, but I feel Yra will do more important and bigger things than I or Lenny have. This man is a financial leader for the future. He is a major resource for you.
Jim

Notes From Underground: No Box Can Contain These Thoughts (Excerpts from post)
OUTSIDE THE BOX ON THE FRENCH ELECTIONS: Everyday I think about this Sunday’s French presidential elections the outcome grows in importance. WHY? If Sarkozy were to lose, in my mind it will represent a sea change in the political fabric of the European polity. Sarkozy is a disciple of Charles de Gaulle whose policies for France, both foreign and domestic, were to return France to its role as an economic power and diplomatic hegemony. However, after the Suez debacle of 1956 when Eisenhower admonished Israel, France and Britain for their international bravado in seizing the SUEZ CANAL, the British understood their role in the world had changed and it was now the U.S. shaping global policy. De Gaulle understood the game had changed also, but his stance was to keep the U.S. from being the world’s dominant power. Under de Gaulle, whatever the U.S. favored, France was against. France as a participant in NATO … ABSURD.
De Gaulle thought to tie France and Germany together in a unified Europe that could counter-balance the global power of the U.S. The French diplomatic corp with the German economic locomotive. Remember, it was de Gaulle who crowed that Europe was France and Germany. It was also de Gaulle’s  economic advisor, Jacques Reuff, who helped put an end to the Bretton Woods’ world by French demands for U.S. GOLD as they sought to exchange their vast horde of GREENBACKS all in an effort to prevent the U.S. from being the global HEGEMONY.
So as the election of 2012 reaches its end, will Francois Hollande defeat Sarkozy and put an end to MERKOZY? The SOCIALIST candidate Hollande seems to be seeking to  diminish the incipient strength of Germany by espousing the belief that France should align with the peripheries and others in pushing for a GROWTH PACT rather than the FISCALSADISM PROMOTED BY THE GERMAN BUNDESBANKERS.
The death of Gaullism will create a period of confusion in a Franco-German-dominated EU. A French alliance with the weaker states would be a major statement about contemporary Europe. With Putin always looking to roil the status quo and Gerhard Schroeder heading NORDSTREAM, the pipeline arm of GAZPROM, Germany’s largest energy provider, the French election looms very large indeed. Russia can become a very significant variable as an alternative to the role that France has played in Europe during the last 50 years. As the SUNDANCE KID SAID: “YOU JUST KEEP THINKING BUTCH. THAT’S WHAT YOU’RE GOOD AT.”
More…




Jim Sinclair’s Commentary

I told you my clone would arrive. The difference is he is in the cash market.
The squeeze is on and this time it is for real. Alf sees it. I see it.
The invisible hand is a stronger long in the cash market than the obvious shenanigans of the paper trading banksters.

Gold Shakes Off $1.24 Billion ‘Fat Finger’ By Tatyana Shumsky
April 30, 2012, 3:59 PM

Gold futures ended nearly unchanged Monday, after a large early-morning sell order roiled traders and slashed prices by almost $15.
The CME Group Inc.’s Comex division recorded an unusually large transaction of 7,500 gold futures during one minute of trading at 8:31 a.m. EDT. The sale took out blocks of bids as large as 84 contracts in one fell swoop and cut prices down to $1,648.80 a troy ounce. The overall transaction was worth more than $1.24 billion.
Gold traders buzzed with speculation that the transaction was an input error — a so-called "fat finger" trade.
"Or a Gold Finger as it might be known in the bullion market," traders at Citi joked in a note to clients.
One indicator that the transaction was a mistake was its size. At 750,000 troy ounces, such large trades are rarely conducted amid very thin trading volumes. Monday trading was expected to be quiet as market participants in China and Japan are out on holiday and many European traders are preparing for a holidays there.
More…





Jim Sinclair’s Commentary

We will take it a step at a time. The true range in 2012 is $1700 to $2111. There is no way in hell Martin is correct short term.

Gold may touch $7,000 per ounce before end of uptrend
Reuters Apr 25, 2012, 03.51AM IST
NEW YORK: While gold’s latest price gyrations may seem excessive to some investors, Bank of America analyst MacNeil Curry said the volatility was nowhere near extreme enough to convince him the precious metal’s long-term uptrend was nearing the end.
In fact, at last week’s Market Technicians Association symposium he said of gold’s secular bull trend, "From an Elliott Wave perspective, we have seen a nice, solid, orderly advance."
Though gold has swung in ranges of roughly $40 per ounce in the last week, $90 per ounce over the last four weeks, and close to $400 since last September when it reached its all-time high at $1,920.30, Curry said any long-term commodity advance tends to end with, "a massive speculative blow-off."
"They don’t end quietly," the technician told conferees. He projects gold will ascend to levels somewhere between $3,000 to $5,000 and potentially $7,000 per ounce before the rally, now in its 11th year, comes to a close.
Spot gold prices jumped on Tuesday to a high at $1,648.91, after sliding almost $22 in the previous session to $1,619.99 an ounce, nearly matching the April 4 low. It stabilized at $1,640.60 per ounce in late Tuesday trade.
More…





Jim Sinclair’s Commentary

Go Bill!

Russia Today’s ‘Capital Account’ interviews GATA’s Bill Murphy Submitted by cpowell on 06:33PM ET Monday, April 30, 2012. Section: Daily Dispatches
9:36p ET Monday, April 30, 2012

Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:
GATA Chairman Bill Murphy was interviewed today for about 20 minutes by Lauren Lyster on the cable television network Russia Today’s "Capital Account" program. There’s a reason why the subject — gold market manipulation — can be discussed only in non-Western news media, and the continuing interest shown in it by Russia Today, a creation of the Russia government, suggests that governments not part of the market rigging have long figured it out. While Lyster’s skirt is, certainly by design, shorter than JPMorgan’s position in silver, she is once again well-versed in the subject and unafraid to press it to its uncomfortable conclusion, unlike the "money honeys" of U.S. cable TV networks. The RT interview with Murphy is posted at YouTube here:

 

The Decline And Fall Of Suburbia

As Arch Daily notes, for decades the suburbs and the American Dream went hand-in-hand but the age-of-sprawl is ending; people are leaving the suburbs and once again flocking to cities in search of a better way of life. Whether Suburbia can be saved or not, this useful infographic looks at the key factors (from Poverty to Transportation costs to Generation Y's preferences) with a view to reinventing Suburbia as a sustainable alternative to urban life.





China Manufacturing Continues To 'Contract-And-Expand' Even As April PMI Misses Expectations

The topsy-turvy world of Chinese macroeconomic data continues to provide the Schrodinger-prone unreality that we have come to expect in this keep-'em-guessing Central Bank-driven fiat-fest we are experiencing. For 9 of the last 10 months, HSBC's China Manufacturing PMI has been in a contraction (sub-50) regime, while China's own Manufacturing PMI saw only 1 dip below the apocryphal 50-level (in Nov11) and has miraculously expanded for the last six months. The latest data from China (HSBC reports their final number tomorrow - as opposed to the Flash data already reported) showed the highest level of expansion for Chinese manufacturing in 13 months but missed economist's expectations - notably the first miss since November 2011 - as the divergence between HSBC and China remains near record levels. Of course, this makes perfect sense given this evening's 2nd worst three-month plunge in Australian Manufacturing since January 2009 (which seems to fit with the HSBC data as opposed to the 'strength' of the Chinese data). It seems tough for anyone to try to justify expectations of a Chinese stimulus given the country's own indication of its performance - check back to you Ben.




As Europe's Most Pathological Liar Departs, Questions About Europe's Band-Aid Union Reemerge

We doubt many tears will be shed over the now official departure of Europe's most embarrassing political figurehead: the head of the Euro-area finance ministers, one Jean-Claude Juncker, whose presence did more documented damage to the credibility of Europe than... well, we would say virtually anyone else, but then again since everyone else in the European pantheon is a shining example of DSM IV-level sociopathology, we are kinda stuck. But anyway: Juncker is finally gone "he’s tired of Franco-German interference in managing the region’s debt crisis." And while the decision was known for a while, the ultimate catalyst is rather unexpected, and exposes just how frail the entire Eurozone is: “They act as if they are the only members of the group,” Juncker said today at a podium discussion in Hamburg." If this is coming from the man who admittedly lies for a living, we can't imagine just how bad the truth about the internal fissures within the Eurozone must be. Actually, we can.




Rosenberg Takes On The Student Loan Bubble, And The 1937-38 Collape; Summarizes The Big Picture

Few have been as steadfast in their correct call that the US economy sugar high of the first quarter was nothing but a liquidity-driven, hot weather-facilitated uptick in the economy, which has now ended with a thud, as seen by the recent epic collapse in all high-frequency economic indicators, which have not translated into a market crash simply because the market is absolutely convinced that the worse things get, the more likely the Fed is to come in with another round of nominal value dilution. Perhaps: it is unclear if the Fed will risk a spike in inflation in Q2 especially since as one of the respondents in today's Chicago PMI warned very prudently that Chinese inflation is about to hit America in the next 60 days. That said, here are some of today's must read observations on where we stand currently, on why 1937-38 may be the next imminent calendar period deja vu, and most importantly, the fact that Rosie now too has realized that the next credit bubble is student debt as we have been warning since last summer.




Treasury Forecasts $447 Billion In Funding Needs Thru End Of September - $300 Billion Shy Of Trendline

Earlier today, the Treasury forecast that in the third and fourth fiscal quarter of 2012 (April-September), the US would need a total of $447 billion in new debt (split $182 billion in Q3 and $265 billion in Q4), bringing the total debt balance to just over $16 trillion by the end of September. While this is a commendable forecast, and one which certainly has provided to alleviate rumors that the US debt ceiling of $16.4 trillion would be breached by the mid/end of September, the chart below shows that it may be just a tad optimistic.




Treasuries And Gold Outperform As Financials Drag Stocks Down In April

April ended on a weak tone (after another set of weak macro data) with a day of risk-asset deterioration amid low ranges and low volumes as the S&P 500 broke its 4-day rally streak. AAPL was a standout having given back over 60% of its post-earnings spike and nearing a break below its 50DMA once again. HY credit outperformed with an afternoon surge (in HYG also) taking it back into the green for the month - even as the S&P 500 remains marginally off March's close and underperformed along with IG credit today. Treasuries leaked lower in yield for most of the day but gave half of it back into the close (after Treasuries' best month in 7 months - perhaps a modestly expected give back on some rebalancing). Gold outperformed Silver once again today as Silver fell back to basically retrace all of its YTD gains relative to stocks - both up just over 11% YTD now (note that Silver was +32% prior to LTRO2). Stocks remain rich relative to Treasuries less-than-stellar implications but financials (which had their worst month since November) dragged the broad market down for its first losing month in the last six, as Utilities and Staples the only sectors with a reasonable gain this month. JPY strength and AUD weakness were evident and implied weakness today but in general the USD did very little on this last day of the month. VIX ended above 17% on the day, up almost 1vol as the term structure bear-flattened a little. Overall, a weak-end to the month with little apparent confidence in extending the QE-hope trend of the last few days as stocks remain hugely rich to broad risk-assets overall and most notably Treasuries.




Egan Jones Cuts Spain For Second Time In Two Weeks, From BBB- To BB+

Even as the SEC is hell bent on destroying Egan Jones as a rating agency, in the process cementing its status as an objective, independent, and honest third party research entity, the firm is just as hell bent on milking its still existing NRSRO status for all it's worth. Because while Egan Jones was the first entity to cut Spain two weeks ago, only to be followed by Spain, it just did so again minutes ago.




Money Can Buy Happiness

The oft-cited idiom that "money can't buy you happiness" - except in Phat Phong from what we hear - is summarily discussed by Michael Norton in this TED Talk as he notes that if you think that money cannot buy happiness then you are not spending it right. His point is (and his delivery is comedic yet clarifying) that money makes you anti-social or selfish (rather than happy) as we will tend to spend that money on ourselves (or the wrong things - a new Veyron perhaps?). But via experimentation (among people from Vancouver to Uganda) he discovered that spending money in a pro-social way will make you happy... So money can buy you happiness as long as you give it away once you have it - a noteworthy caveat - especially as Norton notes that the size of spending does not matter - as long as it focused towards someone else (and not, as he notes, in a dinner for your girlfriend with hopes of benefits later). In almost every country in the world, people who give money to charity are happier than people who do not give money to charity and interestingly spending-on-other-people made teams or people (sports or sales) more successful - of course, we assume taxation does not count as spending on other people.



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Hugh Hendry Is Back - Full Eclectica Letter

Hugh Hendry is back with a bang after a two year hiatus with what so many have been clamoring for, for so long - another must read letter from one of the true (if completely unsung) visionary investors of our time: "I have not written to you at any great length since the winter of 2010. This is largely because not much has happened to change our views. We still see the global economy as grotesquely distorted by the presence of fixed exchange rates, the unraveling of which is creating financial anarchy, just as it did in the 1920s and 1930s. Back then the relevant fixes were around the gold standard. Today it is the dual fixed pricing regimes of the euro countries and of the dollar/renminbi peg."





John Williams – The “Recovery” Faked By Phony Gov. Numbers

from KingWorldNews:

John Williams, of Shadowstats, stated in his latest commentary, “The recovery is an illusion.”  There are two graphs in this piece from Williams, which show highly manipulated and phony government GDP reporting versus the inflation corrected real GDP.  The difference between the two graphs is a shocking revelation of government propaganda at its best.  Here is what Williams had to say:  The illusion of an economic recovery continued with today’s (April 27th) headline report of 2.2% growth in first-quarter gross domestic product (GDP) … Official reporting now shows that GDP activity has moved successively higher … Yet, no other major economic series has confirmed that pattern.  If the GDP data were meaningful, that circumstance would be nearly impossible.”
Read More @ KingWorldNews.com




Anything The Government Gives You, The Government Can Take Away

"A majority of doctors support measures to deny treatment to smokers and the obese, according to a survey that has sparked a row over the NHS‘s growing use of 'lifestyle rationing'", The Guardian notes, and that’s the trouble with services and institutions run from the taxpayer’s purse, administered by centralists and bureaucrats. It becomes a carrot or a stick for interventionists to intervene in your life. Its delivery depends on your compliance with the diktats and whims of the democracy, or of bureaucrats. It is easier to promote behaviour desired by the state when a population lives on state handouts; and increasingly throughout the Western world, citizens are becoming dependent on the state for their standard of living. With the wide expansion of welfare comes a lot of power, and the potential for the abuse of power. Citizens looking for a free lunch or an easier world should be careful what they wish for. Welfare recipients take note: you depend on government for your standard of living, you open yourself up to losing your liberty.





 

Gold Takedown Rejected

Trader Dan at Trader Dan's Market Views - 13 minutes ago
Take a look at the following 5 minute chart and note especially the volume readings posted below each individual price bar. Look just past the 5:00 AM Pacific time hour and you will see the enormous volume spike accompanying the sharp downdraft that occured in the gold price dropping it $15 in the course of minutes. Analysts are still grasping for an explanation. The most common is that it was another one of those "fat fingered trades". Have you ever noticed how many fat fingered human beings apparently camp out in the trading community. Last time I checked a skinny finger could hit ... more » 

 

 

Goose-Stepping Hitler-ites Threaten Greece's Utopia

In this case we really do hate to say we-told-you-so but our concerns over social unrest and the rise of extreme nationalism (here, here and here) in an austerity-focused and massively unemployed Europe appear to becoming ever more prescient. Just last week we saw extreme parties in France of all places receive high levels of votes and in a note today from BBC News, the leader of the Greek Socialist Pasok party, Mr. Creosote himself - Evangelos Venizelos, told a rally in Patras that voters should not allow neo-Nazis to "goose-step into Parliament with Hitler salutes".




Charting Equity's Hype/Hope

On this slow news and market action day it is worth noting that Equities and Treasuries have dramatically dislocated in the last few days with Treasury yields near multi-month lows and stocks at one-month highs. Whether this is the ($700 billion expected) QE3-trade or a reflection of the increasingly bifurcated world in which we live is unclear but for certain this is the largest disconnect (with equities rich) of the year so far.




Is ISDA About To Be Forced To Cave?

Given the TBTF's dominant oligopoly of the credit derivatives market (due mainly to the large exchange's unwillingness to act appropriately when they know the blow-back from their sell-side clients would be considerable), it is perhaps surprising that ISDA (the body that 'regulates' watches over and determines credit events in the CDS market) is coming under increasing pressure to honor the spirit of CDS contract after the FUBAR debacle surrounding the Greek restructuring. As Katy Burne notes in today's WSJ, ISDA is set to decide on a revamp of the CDS rules within weeks as pressure from the buy-side (the other side of the trade obviously) to alter the legal wording governing what is (and is not) a credit event trigger. "Whether it is a series of small fixes or a root-and-branch rewrite is still to be decided" but we note that the market - as we discussed in depth with regard to Portugal over the weekend - is becoming more comfortable once again with the CDS contract as a hedge against 'problems' in the $2.9 trillion sovereign credit derivatives market. This is without doubt a positive step - as opposed to the typical silent arrogance of the ISDA or more broad dismissal of CDS (ban them - they are to blame) arguments that political leaders will tend to bias to. The simple fact of the matter is that CDS have been a much less manipulated market indicator of real-money stress than bonds for much of the last four months and with Portugal's basis normalizing (presumptively on the back of lower concerns at CDS event risk dislocation), perhaps real-money will slow its bond selling (choosing to hedge instead) and/or Italian/Spanish banks will be forced to buy back protection en masse to cover the huge leap in exposure they have taken on - especially with the surcharge chatter of Basel III re-appearing.




Chris Duane & SGT: The White Knights Coming to Save Us Are ALL OF US, Not Ninjas

 

 

The FUKUSHIMA HORROR: Spent Fuel Rod Pool No. 4 Completely Exposed to the Elements, Supported By Temp Rigging

by SGT
This horrifying video footage shows just how dire the situation in Fukushima still is, 13 months after the earthquake and tsunami.
The temporary support structure helping to support SFP #4 is at 4:00. The support provided by that temporary structure – which could easily fail in the event of even a moderate earthquake – is all that stands between humanity and the ingredients for an ‘extinction-level’ event. White sheets can be seen covering the completely exposed fuel pool as rain begins to fall, at 6:00.
As IntelHub has reported, The worst-case scenario drawn up by the government includes not only the collapse of the No. 4 reactor pool, but also the disintegration of spent-fuel rods from all the plant’s other reactors. Read More & See VIDEO…




The Bernank’s Pickle

from Gold Seek:

The Bernank is in a pickle. And when Bernank is in trouble, we’re all in trouble.
Why is Bennie in trouble? He is in trouble because he has a debt, or should I say an obligation to Obama for reappointing him Chairman of the Federal Reserve, the Fed. Here’s where the problem lies. In order to fulfil this bond of duty, Bennie and his buddies down at the Fed will need to pull off slight of hand tricks that would put the best of magicians to shame. They will need to keep people’s attention focused on the left hand while the right continues to do their ‘dirty work’. (i.e. print new currency and create inflation at ever-increasing rates.) They will need to print ever-increasing currency because the hollowed out US economy demands it, Presidential election year or not. But of course because this is an election year, and Bennie has this debt to Obama to make the economy appear as good as possible (so he can get re-elected), you can expect the Fed and all their friends in the larger bureaucracy (government, media, etc.) to work overtime creating obfuscation about what they are doing on one hand, while keeping other fingers on the button – the currency printing button. (i.e. think True Money Supply [TMS] growth, unstated Quantitative Easing [QE], and all the other sources of currency printing not accounted for in “conventional money supply measures”.)
Read More @ GoldSeek.com




U.S. Debt Culture and the Dollar’s Fate

IN OUR common narrative, the modern era of global finance—what we call the Old Order—begins with the Great Depression and New Deal of the 1930s. The economic model put in place by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and others at the end of World War II is seen as a political as well as economic break point.
by Christopher Whalen, nationalinterest.org

As America comes to accept that there are real limits on its economic and military power, the leading role of the dollar in the global economy eventually may have to end. In that event, the world will face a future with no single nation acting as the guarantor of global security and economic stability. Instead, we may see a world with many roughly equal nations competing for a finite supply of global trade and economic resources, precisely the situation that prevailed prior to World War I. The choice facing all societies going back to the Greeks, Romans, the British Empire and now America seems to lie between using inflation and debt to stimulate economic growth when real production proves inadequate and turning to war to create growth at the expense of others.
Read More @ nationalinterest.org




Obama’s Osama Deception Proves Reality Has A Conspiracy Bias

by Saman Mohammadi, Prison Planet:

Reality does not have a liberal bias; it has a conspiracy bias. Liberals and conservatives deny reality when they deny the validity of falsely labeled “conspiracy theories.”
But the denial camp is running out of steam. The documented deception about the Osama Bin Laden assassination provides the proof of reality’s conspiracy bias. These three articles destroy the credibility of the official mythic story of Obama’s takedown of Osama in Abbottabad: ’10 Facts That Prove The Bin Laden Fable Is a Contrived Hoax’ by Paul Joseph Watson; ‘Osama bin Laden’s Second Death’ and‘How Many SEALs Died?’ both by Paul Craig Roberts.
To date, the U.S. government has offered zero evidence that a) Osama Bin Laden was killed on the night of May 1st, 2011,  and b) Osama Bin Laden was responsible for the September 11 events. They have not presented to the global public neither photos or videos related to the capture and killing of Osama not because of national security reasons but because they are lying about the story of his death. On top of not providing any evidence to back up their claims, they gave the lame excuse that they buried Osama’s body in the sea. Only fools believe this nonsense.
Read More @ PrisonPlanet.com




What Do California And Detroit Have In Common?

from The American Dream:
When most people think of the economic decline that is happening in America, most of them think of states like California and cities like Detroit. In both cases, unemployment is rampant, government finances are a mess, and businesses and families are both leaving in droves. So what is causing this? What do California and Detroit have in common? Well, for one thing, both the state of California and the city of Detroit have been run by anti-business socialist control freaks for decades. Once upon a time millions of young Americans that dreamed of a better life flocked to California and Detroit was one of the most vibrant manufacturing cities in the history of the world. But now both of them are in an advanced state of decline, and a lot of the blame can be placed at the feet of the politicians in both cases. Both California and Detroit have become very unfriendly places to businesses and families, so businesses and families have been leaving both California and Detroit in very large numbers. At the same time, the socialist welfare policies in both places have caused them to become magnets for those that enjoy being dependent on the government. Welfare recipients are not likely to pack up and move down to Texas because they know that their benefits would not be nearly as good down there. So both California and Detroit will continue to attract those that want to live under socialist control freaks and it will continue to drive away those that do not want to live under socialist control freaks.
Read More @ EndOfTheAmericanDream.com




Authorities Refuse to Disclose Details of Chicago Evacuation Plan

Information lockdown by Secret Service and city officials
by Paul Joseph Watson, Infowars:
City and federal authorities have reacted bizarrely to the revelation that the Red Cross has been ordered to prepare for the possible evacuation of Chicago during next month’s NATO summit by refusing to acknowledge that the directive came from them.
As we reported last week, Red Cross volunteers in the Milwaukee area were sent an email instructing them that, “The American Red Cross in southeastern Wisconsin has been asked to place a number of shelters on standby in the event of evacuation of Chicago.”
According to a chapter Red Cross spokesperson, “Our direction has come from the City of Chicago and the Secret Service.”
However, according to a CBS 2 report, the Secret Service has refused to even acknowledge the issue and “Chicago officials say the plan didn’t come from them.”
Read More @ Infowars.com




CISPA passes the House; epic privacy battle moves to the Senate

by J.D. Heyes, Natural News:
If you’re not familiar with “Washingtonspeak” – that odd, unique variance of the English language in which words don’t really mean what they are supposed to mean – you might not know that the lawmakers who wrote the new Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) aren’t really too concerned about the protection aspect of the legislation, at least as it applies to the general public’s concern about privacy.
Yes, the word “protection” is in the title, but a closer examination of the language of the bill, as well as its intent, by those who know how things works on Capitol Hill, find that the only “protection” the bill offers is that afforded the federal government.
Read More @ NaturalNews.com




Austerity Staggers, Germany Blows Up?

from The Daily Bell:
Hollande’s ‘Growth Bloc’ spells end of German hegemony in Europe … For two years Germany has had its way in Europe, treating historic nations much as Bismarck treated Bavaria – sovereign only in name … The French-led counter-attack and rumblings of revolt through every branch of the EU institutions last week have brought this aberrant phase of the eurozone crisis to an abrupt end … “If I am elected president, there will be a change in Europe’s construction. We’re not just any country: we can change the situation,” he said. European allies are flocking to his cause from left and right, he claims. Not even Austria supports Germany’s austerity drive any longer. This then is the birth of a Euroland growth bloc with well over 200m people and a commanding majority vote in the European Council, a defining moment in this saga. Mario Draghi at the European Central Bank is quickly bending to the new political dispensation with calls for a “Growth Compact”. The Commission – liberated at last – is finding ways to “extend deadlines” on fiscal targets. – UK Telegraph
Dominant Social Theme: Everything is under control, and EU austerity is working …
Free-Market Analysis: Here’s another winning analysis from UK Telegraph columnist Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, in our view. As spectacularly wrong as he was about Spain avoiding a collapse (and we called him on it then, months ago) so we think he’s correct about the demise of austerity in Europe.
Read More @ TheDailyBell.com




500%+ Club: Student Debt Load & Silver Price Increase by 500%+ Since Start of “Century of Change”

from Silver Vigilante:

Student loans are an excellent example of how the modern lending system manifests ancient modes of control. In the United States, long before the modern student loan, for the promise of prosperity thousands of individuals came to the New World as indentured servants. Once they arrived in ‘America,’ ‘twas their job to work to pay off their sail across the pond, an endeavor which lasted years and a decision most young men did not make for themselves. Instead, their fathers worked out the terms and signed the legal papers, handing custodianship of son over to ship captain. Sound familiar?
In the last decade, as student loan debt  increased, so too did the price of silver.  Both trends are poised to continue over the medium term. (5 years+)
First up is a chart based on New York Federal Reserve data for household debt.
Read More @ SilverVigilante.com




Critical Factors that will Impact Silver

by Steve St. Angelo, Silver Investing News:

Let’s look at the important factors that will impact silver in the future:
CRITICAL FACTOR #1: Controlling Silver Market Sentiment
CRITICAL FACTOR #2: Energy Supply & Diesel Consumption
CRITICAL FACTOR #3: Declining Average Ore Grades
CRITICAL FACTOR #4: Future Silver Mine Supply
CRITICAL FACTOR #5: Nationalization & Monetization of Precious Metals

Unfortunately, the majority of the public gets their news from the TV and mainstream media. From this perspective, gold is only something to be hocked at the pawn shop or to be sold to those rip-off gold dealers advertised on late night TV. Silver, on the other hand, is totally off their radars altogether. Very few individuals understand the real reason to buy and hold precious metals.
Currently, the world is witnessing the disintegration of the global fiat monetary system.
Read More @ SilverInvestingNews.com




Indian gold prices testing new highs

by Shivom Seth, MineWeb.com

Gold is near the crucial $570 per ten gram ($1773/ounce) mark in India, with most traders insisting that gold could cross another record soon with the Indian, U.S. and Eurozone economies all seen as faltering
For the first time ever, gold appears to be nudging the $570.77 (Rs 30,000) per ten gram mark in India, driven by consistent investment and speculative demand in the country. Gold prices have surged all of last week to touch a new peak at the bullion market, with prices edging past the crucial $562 per ten gram mark on Saturday. Because of the premium paid for gold on Indian markets this price level, equivalent to around $1773/oz, is higher than that quoted on Western markets.
The precious metal appears to have staged a comeback, rising nearly $12 per 10 gram over the last week.
Read More @ MineWeb.com




Photographer: X-ray-like image shows how radioactivity has spread throughout bodies of Fukushima wildlife

from ENE News:
This image was published on the photo blog of Takashi Morizumi. It appears Dr. Satoshi Mori was responsible for the x-ray-like view showing black dots spread throughout the body of a small bird from Iitate Village. The dots are said to be radioactive particles of Cs-137 internalized by eating contaminated insects.
“Takashi Morizumi is a photojournalist who covers topics in Japan and overseas such as the effects of US military bases and environmental problems. In particular, since the later half of the 90s, he has covered the damages caused by nuclear mining, testing, power plants, and the use of depleteted uranium and other nuclear weapons.”
Read More @ ENEnews.com




Canada Introduces Plastic Cash – Say, How About Trying a Little Gold and Silver?

from The Daily Bell:
Canada Introduces New Plastic Currency … Canada may be permanently swapping paper for plastic, providing its recently-released polymer $100 note is well-received. The brand new bill was put into circulation starting Nov. 14, with $50 and $20 bills scheduled for 2012 and $10 and $5 bills slotted to come out in 2013. Polymer currencies, first developed in the 1980s in Australia, have helped countries cut back on counterfeit bills. Australia introduced polymer cash in 1988. A transparent maple leaf and a clear portion on the left side of the bill with holographs that change color in the light are designed to foil counterfeiters attempting to create fake notes. – ABC News
Dominant Social Theme: Cash evolves like everything else. Eventually we’ll get rid of it. In the meantime we’ll make it look as much like a credit card as possible.
Free-Market Analysis: Used to be that money was at least in part gold and silver, circulating as gold and silver or as bank notes that represented gold and silver.
Read More @ TheDailyBell.com




22 Signs That The Collapsing Spanish Economy Is Heading Into A Great Depression

from The Economic Collapse Blog:
What happens when debt-fueled false prosperity disappears?  Just look at Spain.  The 4th largest economy in Europe was riding high during the boom years, but now the Spanish economy is collapsing with no end in sight.  When a debt bubble gets interrupted, the consequences can be rather chaotic.  Just like we saw in Greece, austerity is causing the economy to slow down in Spain.  But when the economy slows down, tax revenues fall and that makes it even more difficult to meet budget targets.  So even more austerity measures are needed to keep debt under control and the cycle just keeps going.  Unfortunately, even with all of the recently implemented austerity measures the Spanish government is still not even close to a balanced budget.
Read More @ TheEconomicCollapseBlog.com




Three U.S. Marines Threw Prostitute Out of Moving Embassy Car, a Fresh Embarrassment for Obama (and the U.S.)

by Matt Roper, Daily Mail:
Probe found four Obama officials hired prostitutes in Brasilia nightclub – It comes a week after scandal over the President’s Security Staff using prostitutes in Colombia.
American marines injured a Brazilian prostitute after throwing her out of an official Embassy car, it was reported today.
Romilda Ferreira was left with a broken collar bone, two broken ribs and a punctured lung after the incident in Brazil’s capital Brasilia.
The three marines on a U.S. Embassy security team, and an Embassy staff member, were pulled out of the country before police were able to press charges, according to Brazil’s Jornal Nacional programme.
This latest incident, which happened in November last year, came to light after U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, in Brazil during a Latin American tour, was questioned about it by a Brazilian reporter during a press conference.
Read More @ DailyMail.co.uk




Fox TV versus The New York Times

from The Daily Bell:

Fox TV news is no doubt conservative in its political and economic outlook, although it’s by no means libertarian, even civil libertarian. John Stossel is constantly debating with Bill O’Reilly about civil libertarian issues such as the fascist drug laws of the country. Judge Andrew Napolitano, who no longer has his own libertarian program but is still referred to as Fox TV’s expert on legal matters, including the U. S. Constitution, has no patience with denying gays the right to marry or other right wing causes. The roundtable programs on Fox usually include an intelligent left of center voice, even on the Fox business channel.
Of course, people like O’Reilly and Sean Hannity are no-holds-barred right wingers, at least as this is understood in American culture in our time (although critics who throw around the label usually make no distinction between a Right Wing outlook such as the Latin American fascist sort now exhibited by Venezuela’s Leftist Hugo Chavez and that espoused by Mitt Romney, for example).
Read More @ TheDailyBell.com




Gold caught in range as Europe heads to a ‘suicide’

by Ben Traynor, MineWeb.com

Gold prices remained steady around the $1,650 mark on Friday heading for its seventh successive Friday PM gold fix between $1600 and $1700 an ounce.
SPOT MARKET prices to buy gold remained steady around $1650 an ounce during Friday morning’s London trading – well within their range from mid-March – as stock markets and commodity prices were also flat and US Treasury bonds gained following a credit ratings downgrade for Spain.
Heading into the weekend, gold looked set to record its seventh successive Friday PM gold fix between $1600 and $1700 an ounce.
Read More @ MineWeb.com



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