Banks Reclassify Quarter Trillion In Securities Ahead Of Rate Hike

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 03/25/2015 - 12:10
Banks have reclassified a quarter trillion in assets in order to avoid the negative effects of an impending rate hike cycle. In the end, investors would be wise to remember that something is only worth what someone is willing to pay you for it.

Worldwide Markets To See Total Panic As Massive Derivatives Bubble Implodes!

from KingWorldNews:
Egon von Greyerz: “Eric, there are four people whose words and actions are considered to be critical for the world economy. I call them the three not-so-wise men and a lost woman….
“On the one hand Janet Yellen removed the word ‘patient,’ and on the other hand she then states that ‘The Fed is not impatient.’ Then she states that ‘This does not mean that the Fed will not raise rates in June,’ but then she said on the other hand that ‘We can’t rule it out.’ Eric, you can’t make this stuff up. This is the most whimsical and confused Fed statement(s) I’ve ever read.
Egon von Greyerz Continues @ KingWorldNews.com

Durable Goods Orders Drop And Miss In Worst Run Since Lehman

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 03/25/2015 - 08:37 For the 3rd of the last 4 months, Durable Goods Orders fell and missed expectations (the worst run since Lehman). A 1.4% drop (against expectations of a 0.2% rise) is made worse by downward revisions of the last month's modest bounce. Across the board the numbers are a disaster - Ex-Trans fell 0.4%, Ex-defense fell 1%, Capital Goods Shipments fell 1.4% with capital goods ex-air dropping a stunning 7.6% YoY. Paging negative Q1 GDP print expectations...

THE END IS NIGH

from The Burning Platform:
So it’s off to the races. All I gotta say is; If one doesn’t ‘edumacate’ themselves on the global monetary and financial changes that are undeniably taking place in short order……I don’t know, I guess they can try and play catchup on January 1, 2016.
One of the biggest questions which we need to consider as the world moves closer to the full implementation of the multilateral financial system is when will the RMB end its managed peg to the USD? Now that the official request has been made to the International Monetary Fund, for the yuan to be included into the SDR basket composition, it is only a matter of time before the ending of the peg occurs.
Read More @ TheBurningPlatform.com

Putin Security Council Slams Obama Attempts At "New World Order"

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 03/25/2015 - 13:35 "The Strategy emphasizes the US desire to proceed with the formation of a new global economic order. Significant efforts by the US and its allies will be directed to the formation of anti-Russian policy states, with which Russia has established partnership relations, as well as to reduce Russian influence in the former Soviet Union. [The US will] continue the policy of preserving the global dominance of the United States [and] increasing the combat capabilities of NATO," a statement on the Russian Security Council's webpage says.

Crimeans Keep Saying No To Ukraine

from The News Doctors:
A central piece of the West’s false narrative on the Ukraine crisis has been that Russian President Vladimir Putin “invaded” Crimea and then staged a “sham” referendum purporting to show 96 percent support for leaving Ukraine and rejoining Russia. More recently, Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland claimed that Putin has subjected Crimea to a “reign of terror.”
Both elements have been part of the “group think” that dominates U.S. political and media circles, but this propagandistic storyline simply isn’t true, especially the part about the Crimeans being subjugated by Russia.
Read More @ TheNewsDoctors.com

Is This What's Causing Today's Market Puke?

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 03/25/2015 - 12:28 Correlation is not causation but the plunge began just as The SEC voted in favor of high-speed trading firms being registered with FINRA...

America Is No Longer A Republic Or A Democracy

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 03/25/2015 - 14:38 “Government can have no more than two legitimate purposes,” wrote the 18th-century English political philosopher William Godwin, “the suppression of injustice against individuals within the community and the common defense against external invasion.” But the US system of government – nourished by the almost unlimited credit that its money gives it – has swelled to a shape that would have been grotesque and unrecognizable to Godwin. To those who still maintain some romantic attachment to the ideals of the American Revolution, it is merely repulsive.

On Greek "Independence Day", Creditors Prepare To Seal Athens' Fate

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 03/25/2015 - 14:15 With The ECB banning Greek banks from continuing the GGB-buying ponzi scheme, the banking system in deposit outflow panic, cash running extremely dry, food shortages building, and bond/loan payments looming, Greek celebrations of Independence Day today are likely tempered by European officials coin-tossing over the nation's future (in or out of the EU). 196 years after winning their sovereignty from The Ottoman Empire, one wonders if The Greeks have the ability to fight their sovereignty back from "The Institutions." Perhaps, in the future, The Greeks will mourn "In Dependence" Day as opposed to celebrating "Independence" Day...

US-Armed Rebels Force Yemen President To Flee Country As Saudis Prepare For War

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 03/25/2015 - 14:00 UPDATE: *PRESIDENT OF YEMEN SAID TO HAVE LEFT THE COUNTRY ON BOAT FROM ADEN, AP SAYS
The countdown for yet another proxy war, this time involving Iran and Saudi Arabia, has begun.

Contango Tumbles To 2-Month Lows As WTI Crude Melts Up Above $49

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 03/25/2015 - 13:57 Fifth ramp in 5 days takes WTI crude back above $49 for the first time in 2 weeks... on the heels of record production, record streak of inventory builds, and record inventory at Cushing. The 1Y spread has compressed to 2-month lows...

Some Folks At The Fed Are Lost - No Juice To The Macros, Part 1

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 03/25/2015 - 13:17 Does it really take purportedly intelligent people six years to see that the macros are not responding? Better still, isn’t it time for the Fed to explain the exact channel by which its interest rate pegging and forward guidance is supposed to be transmitted to the main street economy? After all, if these channels are blocked or ineffective - then its flood of liquidity never leaves the canyons of Wall Street. In that event, the central bank actually functions as a financial doomsday machine, inflating the next financial bubble until it bursts. Then, apparently, its job is to rinse and repeat.

Greek Finance Minister Praised By FT In 2010 As Europe's "Top Politician" Is Now A Convicted Criminal

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 03/25/2015 - 12:46 Back in 2010, a panel of Financial Times "experts" was asked to rank Europe's finance ministers. Nineteen European finance ministers were judged. Greece's then finance minister George Papaconstantinou was found to have the best political skills among the 19 EU ministers and got an over 8th rank overall. Specifically, as Keep Talking Greece reported then, the FT said Papaconstantinou  had "the best political skills after displaying “panache” in his handling of the country’s economic crisis." That was then, this is now: Yesterday a special court found him guilty of fabricating a Swiss bank account document and  handed him a one-year suspended prison sentence.

Fed Now Sees Only 0.2% GDP Growth In Q1

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 03/25/2015 - 12:21 From almost 2.5% GDP growth expectations in February, The Atlanta Fed's GDPNow model has now collapsed its estimates of Q1 GDP growth to just 0.2% - plunging from +1.4% just 2 weeks ago. The reality of plunging capex and no decoupling is starting to rear its ugly head in the hard data and as the sun warms things up, weather will start to lose its ability to sway sentiment. While sell-side consensus has dropped (Goldman, Morgan Stanley, and Barclays all cut today following Durable goods), it remains unable to quite accept the reality of massively weaker than expected macro data evident everywhere (except in the soft-survey PMI data).

WTI Ignores Large EIA Crude Build, Gains on Dollar

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 03/25/2015 - 12:02 Dollar dumpage is trumping fun-durr-mentals once again as WTI crude surges back to the highs of the day after its post-inventories plunge... The Algo correlation trades are all breaking down as carry comes undone...

Nasdaq Gives Up Post-FOMC Gains, Trannies Tanking

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 03/25/2015 - 11:43 Across the board stocks are getting slammed as NASDAQ just joined Trannies in the red post-FOMC... we're gonna need another FOMC meeting...

 

European Bond Market May See Nasdaq 2000 Style Collapse, AXA's Haley Says

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 03/25/2015 - 11:21 According to AXA’s Nick Hayes, the EGB bubble may end in a 2000 Nasdaq-style collapse. "The comfort with which investors are embracing negative yields is similar to behavior of those who had been underweight technology stocks in 1999 before rushing in."
 

US Border Patrol Agents Burn Man Alive, While US Gov’t Burns Constitution & Bill of Rights

…There was a time in America, not too many decades ago, when cops were known as “peace officers”. When Border Patrol agents were busy protecting our BORDERS instead of harassing, assaulting and executing American citizens. How did we get here?
by Semper Fidelis, The Phaser.com:
WARNING: The video below is deeply disturbing. Please do NOT watch it if you are not prepared to see the execution of an American citizen at the hands of US Border Patrol agents.
I was made aware of this horrific video today by Paul Joseph Watson who tweeted, “another wonderful advertisement for the US Border Patrol.” Unfortunately, for the young man who was MURDERED by the US Border Patrol in March of 2012 on Interstate 8 in Pine Valley, California, that’s the understatement of the century.
According to NBC SanDiego.com:

A plainclothes agent is seen using a flashlight to break the passenger side window. He then raises up his Taser and shoots inside. Immediately, an explosion rocks the car, throwing the agent against the hillside behind him.

The passenger inside, a US citizen, was a lost, exhausted young man named Alex Martin who, according to his family’s attorney, was driving for 22 hours on his way back home from Texas when he got lost in Pine Valley, California. Court documents indicate that Border Patrol agents tried to pull him over for driving the wrong way on Interstate 8.
Read More…

6 Major Flaws in the Fed’s Economic Model

by Jim Rickards, Daily Reckoning.com:
The U.S. dollar is the dominant global reserve currency. All markets, including stocks, bonds, commodities, and foreign exchange are affected by the value of the dollar.
The value of the dollar, in effect, its “price” is determined by interest rates. When the Federal Reserve manipulates interest rates, it is manipulating, and therefore distorting, every market in the world.
The Fed may have some legitimate role as an emergency lender of last resort and as a force to use liquidity to maintain price stability. But, the lender of last resort function has morphed into an all-purpose bailout facility, and the liquidity function has morphed into massive manipulation of interest rates.
Read More @ DailyReckoning.com

High Debt, Dollar Strength: Capital Controls on U.S. Dollar Likely

by Alex Volsky, Profit Confidential:
The possibility of capital controls coming to the U.S. is not as much of a stretch as you may think. Consider the precedents and don’t be caught off guard.
Capital controls are any measure taken by a government authority that limits the flow of foreign capital into and out of the domestic economy. In its ugliest forms, capital controls in the U.S. would restrict bank withdrawals and limit foreign currency transactions, including overseas stock purchases.
While capital controls can be seen as strong measures, they are often needed to curb weak economic conditions. Several recent examples come to mind: Cyprus 2013, the continued “Grexit” crisis, and less dire events like January 2015’s Swiss franc surprise.
Read More @ ProfitConfidential.com

Paul Craig Roberts On Economic Collapse And Nuclear War

from BlackTowerRadio, via The Victory Report:

Police Officer Charged With Homicide for Shooting Unarmed Man

from The Daily Sheeple:
This isn’t something you hear very often.
From ABC27 News:
A Hummelstown [PA] police officer has been charged with criminal homicide in the fatal shooting of a South Hanover Township man last month.
Dauphin County District Attorney Ed Marsico said following a state police investigation, he concluded 36-year-old Lisa Mearkle was not justified in using deadly force when she shot 59-year-old David Kassick.
his story is quite disturbing. On February 2, Mearkle attempted to stop Kassick for an expired inspection sticker. Instead of stopping, Kassick drove to his sister’s home and fled on foot.
Read More @ TheDailySheeple.com

33 Strange Facts About America That Most Americans Would Be Shocked To Learn

by Michael Snyder, The Economic Collapse Blog:
Did you know that about one-fourth of the entire global prison population is in the United States?  Did you know that Apple has more money than the U.S. Treasury?  Did you know that if you have no debt and also have 10 dollars in your wallet that you are wealthier than 25 percent of all Americans?  Did you know that by the time an American child reaches the age of 18, that child will have seen approximately 40,000 murders on television?  There are some things that are great about the United States, and there are definitely some things that are not so great.  Once upon a time we were the most loved and most respected nation on the entire planet, but those days are long gone.  We have wrecked our economy, we have lost our values and we have fumbled away our future.  But if you look close enough, you can still see many of the things that once made this country a shining beacon to the rest of the world.  This article includes some weird facts, some fun facts, but also some very troubling facts.  It has been said that a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down, and hopefully as people enjoy reading the fun facts in this article they will also take note of the more serious facts.  If we are ever going to change course as a nation, we need to come to grips with just how far we have fallen.  The following are 33 strange facts about America that most Americans would be shocked to learn…
Read More…

U.S.-v.-Russia: Even Stephen Cohen Is Starting to Speak the Truth

from Washington’s Blog:
An alarming development is that Stephen F. Cohen, the internationally prominent scholar of Russia, is acknowledging that (1:35 on the video) “for the first time in my long life (I began in this field in the 1960s), I think the possibility of war with Russia is real,” and he clearly and unequivocally places all of the blame for it on the U.S. leadership. He calls this “possibly a fateful turning-point in history.” He also says “it could be the beginning of the end of the so-called trans-Atlantic alliance.”
He goes on to say (2:20): “This problem began in the 1990s, when the Clinton Administration adopted a winner-take-all policy toward post-Soviet Russia … Russia gives, we take. … This policy was adopted by the Clinton Administration but is pursued by every [meaning both] political party, every President, every American Congress, since President Clinton, to President Obama. This meant that the United States was entitled to a sphere or zone of influence as large as it wished, right up to Russia’s borders, and Russia was entitled to no sphere of influence, at all, not even in Georgia, … or in Ukraine (with which Russia had been intermarried for centuries).”
Read More @ WashingtonsBlog.com

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