ECB Pulls The Trigger: Blocks Funding To Greece - Full Statement (Bank Runs start in 3.2.1...)

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 02/04/2015 - 16:25
Just what the market had hoped would not happen...
ECB SAYS IT LIFTS WAIVER ON GREEK GOVERNMENT DEBT AS COLLATERAL
ECB SAYS IT CAN'T ASSUME SUCCESSFUL CONCLUSION OF GREECE REVIEW
What this means simply is that since Greek banks are now unable to pledge Greek bonds as collateral and fund themselves, and liquidity is about to evaporate, the ECB has just given a green light for Greek bank runs... and all the worst parts of the bible (or merely a negotiating move to let Greece see just what kind of chaos this will create). What is at stake now, if only for Greece, is everything: Syriza either folds, and cedes by withdrawing all demands, thus effectively ending its mandate less than 2 weeks after coming to power, or it exits the Eurozone.

Greece as a Pawn in Putin’s Chess Game vs. the West

by Martin Fluck, Casey Research:
Last week the world woke up to the fact that Greece’s new government holds a geopolitical trump card: it can hold the EU ransom by threatening to break the fragile consensus on Russia.
The renewal of sanctions against Russia requires the unanimous support of EU members… which means Obama’s alliance against Russia needs Greek cooperation. What’s more, Greece has veto power over whether NATO can retaliate for an attack on any of its members. Article V, which states, “[A]n armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all,” may only be invoked with unanimous agreement among NATO members.
Read More @ CaseyResearch.com

What Draghi Just Did (Explained In One Cartoon)

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 02/04/2015 - 16:44 That's going to leave a mark...

SNB Busted Twice In 1 Month: Swiss Franc "Corridor" Breached Following Greek Shocker

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 02/04/2015 - 16:37 Moments ago the latest attempt by the SNB to halt the surge of the CHF ended in flames, when following the ECB story, the EURCHF just tumbled well below 1.05, with barely a fight to keep it above the lower end of the corridor.

President Of Euro Parliament Warns Greece Risks National Bankruptcy; Varoufakis Replies: "Greece Already Is Bankrupt"

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 02/04/2015 - 17:00 With the ECB escalating matters this afternoon, the craziness of European leaders talking past one another in an effort to create the next headline-driven narrative continued to gather pace today. That idiocy was nowhere more obvious than when EU President Martin Schulz warned ominously that Greece risks national bankruptcy if it continues down the path of non-agreement when Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis has previously explained quite clearly that "Greece is already bankrupt."

Here's A Startling Fact About President Obama's New Budget

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 02/04/2015 - 16:30 As politicians know, dead people don’t vote. In fact, politicians today routinely steal from the dead... specifically the unborn. Children that won’t even be born for decades will inherit enormous debts that have been racked up today on drones, bombs, and wars that were waged in our era. President Obama’s most recent budget makes this abundantly clear...

The Face Of The Oligarch Recovery: Luxury Skyscrapers Empty As NYC Homeless Population Hits Record High

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 02/04/2015 - 15:55 As Manhattan builds eight figure luxury apartment units merely to serve as bank accounts for international oligarchs, New York City’s homeless population soars to a new record high. It’s the ultimate manifestation of how criminal and crony this so-called “recovery” has been.

Turkish Lira Plunges To Record Low After Erdogan Lambasts Central Bank "Independence"

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 02/04/2015 - 15:30 "The honeymoon is over," warned SocGen overnight as "the trade of the year" turned into carnage after, essentially, a big policy error on the part of the central bank in the context of serious political pressures. Just today President Erdogan explained to whoever would listen that "interest rates are the cause of inflation," and "some are trying to hold Turkey back with interest rates," adding that "you can't decide interest rates based on inflation." However, his conclusion was what really sent the Turkish Lira spiralling... "unfortunately, this is the result of an independent central bank."

These Are The "Highest Conviction" Hedge Fund Strategies And Most Crowded Trades

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 02/04/2015 - 15:14 What are the other "highest conviction trades", i.e., most crowded trades, for the hedge fund community? SocGen has the answer.

"Dear 1%"

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 02/04/2015 - 14:13 Dear 1%,
You are receiving this invitation because you live in the most expensive postal routes of Los Angeles...

Terrorism Works? UAE Suspends ISIS Attacks, Threatens To Pull Out Of Coalition

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 02/04/2015 - 13:41 Following the disgusting images of a Jordanian pilot being burned (allegedly) burned alive by ISIS yesterday, the US coalition against the terrorists appears to be faltering. As The NY Times reports, The United Arab Emirates, a crucial Arab ally in the American-led coalition against the Islamic State, suspended airstrikes against the Sunni extremist group in December, citing fears for its pilots’ safety. The UAE made it clear its pilots will not return to the fight until the Pentagon improve its search-and-rescue efforts, shifting the base of support from Kuwait to Iraq, after foreign minister, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, "let [Barabara Leaf] have it over this," the new American ambassador, why Central Command, in his country’s view, had not put proper assets in northern Iraq for rescuing downed pilots.

Bulls Beware: Dennis Gartman Just Flip-Flopped To Bullish... Again

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 02/04/2015 - 13:21 "... we would, under most circumstances, “see” this unanimous direction of all ten markets to the upside to be a harbinger of a bearish move… the harbinger of the end of the current bull market; but… and this is perhaps the very biggest of “buts”…this time may be different… maybe. This time the markets seem to want to levitate skyward and thus far any attempts to “call” the top and positions ourselves in anticipation of a downward price correction have proven futile and badly wrong."

Mainstream Media Narrative Implodes As WTI Slumps Below $50

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 02/04/2015 - 12:56 Presented with no comment...

 

 

How The ISM Beat Expectations: It Assumed January Weather Was Worse Than The Polar Vortex

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 02/04/2015 - 12:55 Earlier today, when the Markit PMI and the ISM non-manufacturing data disagreed violently over a key aspect of the economy, namely that according to the first, the all important, forward-looking New Orders had dropped to the lowest since the great financial crisis, while according to the latter, they rebounded modestly in January, we decided to go straight to the source: the unadjusted data which does not incorporate any gratuitous seasonal adjustments (which for the ISM, were just adjusted as part of its annual revision spectacle).  This is what we found.
 

2008 Deja Vu: GMAC Confirms SEC Probe Of Subprime Loans, Will "Investigate Itself"

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 02/04/2015 - 11:24 While not entirely surprising, the fact that GM Financial has admitted that:
*GM FINANCIAL: SEC PROBING SUB-PRIME LOAN SECURITIZATION
Of course, we should not worry about this... we are sure it is "contained" as GM reports it is "investigating matters internally" - just like it did with the ignition switch year ago?

9/11 Conspirator Admits Saudi Royal Family Funded Al-Qaeda Attacks

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 02/04/2015 - 10:56 "Keep your friends close and your enemies closer," appears to be the 'do-nothing-stupid' strategy that Washington continues to play in The Middle East. How else to explain the continuing 'close-ally' relationship with Saudi Arabia given that, as Reuters reports, Zacarias Moussaoui - a former al Qaeda operative imprisoned for life for his role in the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks - has told lawyers for victims of the attacks that members of the Saudi royal family supported the Islamic militant group. Saudi officials were quick to denounce these statements as those of "a deranged criminal whose own lawyers presented evidence that he was mentally incompetent," as he included some "extremely famous" Saudi officials as 'donors' during Osama bin Laden's tenure.

Another Conspiracy Theory Becomes Fact: The Entire Oil Collapse Is All About Crushing Russian Control Over Syria

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 02/04/2015 - 10:45 And so the great chess game involving Saudi Arabia, Russia, the United States, Qatar, Syria, ISIS, Ukraine, natural gas and lots and lots of oil, is finally revealed.

11-Year-Old Girl Greets Intruder with Shotgun

 A pair of burglars chose the wrong Michigan house to break into last week.
James Wasson and Rhonda Steward scoped out a North Branch Township home on January 30. They knocked on all the doors, and when no one answered, they forced their way inside.
Wasson entered one of the home’s bathrooms and opened the closet door…and was greeted by an 11-year-old girl aiming a shotgun at him.
Wasson and Steward then fled the scene.
Police praised the girl’s courage in handling the invasion, as reported by mlive.com:
Read More @ FreedomOutpost.com

The largest bracket of tax payers in the United States is made up by those making $15,000 a year or less

Half of all federal taxes paid by those making $250,000 or more. Sample $50,000 budget.
from MyBudget360.com:

New IRS tax filing data sheds an interesting light on the American economy. Americans for the most part comply with paying their taxes as measured against other countries. However, when we look at tax data we get an interesting picture on the low wage economy. As it turns out, the largest tax bracket comes in the form of those making $15,000 or less per year (this group makes up 25% of tax filings). What the data also finds is that households making $250,000 a year or more make up 2.4% of filers but pay 26% of all federal income tax. So when we hear about large spending proposals we have two ways to fund them. It means higher taxes or simply more deficit spending. We’ve already covered how inflation is really hitting the family budget even though we continue to hear stories to the contrary. Just look at the actual numbers on real life spending. The IRS data always gives us a nice look at how household spending is measuring up.
Read More @ MyBudget360.com

2015 is the year the global debt delusion implodes, says capital investment guru

by J.D. Heyes, Natural News:
A capital investment expert who chose to shutter his short-only hedge fund during the depths of the Great Recession of 2008-09 has warned in a recent interview that 2015 is likely the year in which the U.S. dollar takes a steep decline.
In his interview with King World News, Bill Fleckenstein, president of Fleckenstein Capital, also warned that the dollar “is an Internet stock that’s on borrowed time.”
“People are going to lose confidence in the central banks and there is going to be an ugly dislocation when that happens,” he continued. “Will they come back for another round (of money printing)? I’m sure the Fed will come with QE [quantitative easing] again when it turns out this one doesn’t work.”
Read More @ NaturalNews.com

The FDA Allow Additives in Our Food That Are Banned in Other Countries

from Ready Nutrition:
You have to ask why the United States still allows proven carcinogens to be added to our foods. Why they allow arsenic in chicken feed, and why it allows companies to lure in children with bright attractive packaging when they know those kids are going to be guzzling flame retardants.
Mtn Dew contains a chemical that also is used to prevent carpets from catching on fire.
The list of food additives banned in other countries but still in use in the United States is a long one. Here are a few of the worst to whet your appetite…or not.
Read More See Infographic @ ReadyNutrition.com

Report: The Gravy Train Is Over For Welfare Recipients: ‘Earn Your Keep or Go Hungry’

by Mac Slavo, SHTFPlan:
For those who are tired of seeing their hard earned money forcibly seized by the government and redistributed to those who refuse to contribute anything of value to society. Even the staunchest of conservatives and libertarians understands that a civilized society needs to provide some level of support for those who are sick, disabled, or simply going through a rough period like losing a job. Americans are a generous people and for the most part we’re all willing to chip in to make our country a better place.
But we can all probably agree that within the social programs designed to provide for the truly needy there also exist hundreds of thousands of people who have made a career out of taking advantage of our good nature and living off government subsistence. These people are able-bodied and fully capable of performing labor of some kind, but like one woman who recently called in to an Austin radio show, they prefer to sit at home because they know they are “still gonna get paid.”
Read More @ SHTFPlan.com

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