Faster And Furiouser: Darrell Issa Strikes Back, Holds Eric Holder In Contempt

After earlier none other than Obama stepped up and invoked an executive privilege, hoping the next step would be avoided, Darrell Issa just called the president and the AG's bluff:
HOUSE PANEL VOTES TO HOLD ERIC HOLDER IN CONTEMPT - BBG
But aside from this soaring acrimony between Republicans and Democrats, the Fiscal cliff issue will be promptly resolved. Promise.

Presenting The Fundamental Flaw In The Fed's Thinking

This one simple chart below shows what is the biggest and most fundamental flaw in The Bernank's approach to spurring the economy, which to him, of course, means rising prices of risky assets, aka the stock market.

Commodities Crumble As Stocks Only Stumble

Gold and Treasuries tipped their hands a little pre-FOMC and risk assets plunged immediately on the release's lack of an explicit and immediate print-fest gratification. But between short-squeezes (and stating the obvious news) from Europe and a dangling-chad of hope for future QE as the economy was marked down to a 'must-do-better' grade by Bernanke, we ripped higher in most risk-sensitive assets to test the day's highs. We then plunged back down to the lows of the day as the press-conference went on and left most wanting more kool-aid than Ben was willing to deliver. However, with 10 minutes to go in the day, EURUSD staged an impressive squeeze higher of shorts and that dragged stocks up to VWAP and beyong for a green close. What a shit-show - excuse our French. Gold had outperformed for much of the sell-off and recovery and Treasury yields, the USD, and stocks had stayed in sync with one another - until the last few minutes when stocks and the USD went vertical and overshot gold. Commodities were generally decimated on the day (with WTI -2.7% on the week, Silver -2%, Gold -1.2%, and Copper unch) while the USD is modestly lower -0.23% on the week ending the day practically unch having given all its gains back in the last few mins. Stocks trading very technically, stalling the sell-off at Friday's closing level, pivoting on volume around VWAP and Monday's opening highs, and closing at basically yesterday's day-session close. Despite stocks lack of excitement (though intraday bipolarism), VIX managed to drop notably - down 1.2 vols to close at almost 17.00% (its lowest in 7 weeks). Treasuries ended the day mixed with the long-end lower in yield (not participating in the selloff that dragged the rest of the curve higher by 4-5bps). EURUSD squeezed back up over 1.27 by the close.

Prepare For Market Seizures

Eric De Groot at Eric De Groot - 1 hour ago

Liquidity or velocity always contracts during panics. They're particularly acute when debt burdens and complacency are high. Headline: Prepare for Lehmans re-run, Bank official warns Banks and traders must prepare for a devastating market seizure as governments grapple with the escalating economic crisis in Europe, a Bank of England policymaker has warned. Cheap and ready access to... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

This Is The Big Picture For Markets After The Fed Meeting

from KingWorldNews:
On the heels of the Fed expanding Operation Twist by $267 billion, investors around the world are wondering which direction markets will head next, so today King World News interviewed 25 year veteran Caesar Bryan. Gabelli & Company has over $31 billion under management and Caesar Bryan has managed the gold fund since its inception in 1994. Here is what Ceasar had to say regarding the big picture after the Fed meeting: “Clearly markets are in a bit of a holding pattern, although market operatives took the opportunity to take gold down this morning. We have some activity on both sides of the Atlantic because not only is there the meeting with the Fed, but there is also a meeting of some European leaders on Thursday.”
“Taking a step back, we have a bit of a global slowdown. The European economy appears to be at or near recession. If you look at some of the news yesterday, from the economic survey in Germany, it revealed a bit of a slowdown as well.
Caesar Bryan continues @ KingWorldNews.com

Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts - More Wiggle Waggle

SP 500 and NDX Futures Daily Charts - Much Ado About Bernanke

 

Global Capital Flows Influencing Long-Term Rates

Eric De Groot at Eric De Groot - 1 hour ago

Capital flows directed by return of rather than return on capital continues to flee the growing risks contained of the periphery economies towards the safety of the center. The center is the US dollar, US bonds, and gold. While operation twist captures a lot of headlines and spawn numerous discussions, today's decision to extend operation twist has little influence on the direction of long-term... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

 

China: Hard-Working & Energetic People

Admin at Jim Rogers Blog - 2 hours ago

China is growing. These are hard-working, energetic people who are on the rise again. Don’t get me wrong – there will be setbacks. Some China real estate may be heading for a hard landing – but other parts of the Chinese economy are going to boom. -* in CNBC * *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.*

Guest Post: The Housing Recovery - Based On What?

The real estate industry announces the housing recovery is finally underway every year. 2012 is no different from previous years: various positive data points are duly cherry-picked (multiple offers are back in West Hollywood, sales are up year-over-year in Las Vegas, inventory is down, etc.) to back up the claim the "bottom is in" and the recovery in sales and prices is rock-solid. We understand the industry's extreme self-interest in attempting to re-inflate housing, but let's begin with the obvious question: what's the housing recovery based on? The standard answer is of course "super-low mortgage rates, courtesy of the Federal Reserve."  But people need a sufficient income to qualify to own a house, regardless of rates, so let's look at income by age, and focus on the key homebuying ages of 25 to 44. The only age group whose incomes continued rising during the past five years is the over 65 cohort--the very group who is "downsizing" or selling their homes to live in assisted living. The key homebuying cohorts have seen their incomes plummet since the housing bubble popped.

The Bernank "Thinks" A Lot About The Economy

Things are bad and getting worse. We have a plan but can't tell you all about it. We have guns (and ammo) - do you feel lucky? All paraphrasing today's press conference by The Bernank but perhaps most notable when one analyses his comments was the overwhelming use of the word 'think'. It seems, as ever, that us mere peons in the global game of survival chess must once again bow to the great central planners' deep thought (and actions).
 

Fed Releases New Economic Forecast, Sees Deteriorating Economy, Up To 8.2% Unemployment At Year End

In April, the Fed saw 2012 GDP between 2.4-2.9% and unemployment of 7.8%-8/0%. The just released updated forecasts table has these two critical for the election campaign data points at 1.9%-2.4%, or a major drop since April, for GDP and unemployment declining to 8.0%-8.2%. One thing is certain: whatever GDP and unemployment are at the end of 2012, they will not be whatever the perpetually inaccurate Fed forecasts.

Part 1 How undervalued?

by Neil Charnock, Gold Seek:
This article is really about potential energy. The coming gold stock mania is gathering essential potential ahead of the most exciting capital growth opportunity we may witness in our lifetimes. As if this was not valuable enough, it will occur as other assets continue to devalue. This is the role of gold for investors in a crisis. For the banks it may well assist them to regain confidence once it is completely lost.
Before I get into this discussion, we need to check a number of factors. I need to begin with a basic and that is that there are a limited number of gold producers on a global basis. Investors will get crowded out of physical and there will be a scramble for gold stocks in all markets due to their rarity.
China remains the world’s number one gold producer however it is a net importer. This means that the growing production is not able to keep up with their growing demand.
Read More @ GoldSeek.com

Abandoning Ship

by Alasdair Macleod, Peak Prosperity:
It will be no surprise to PeakProsperity.com readers that the news coming out of the Eurozone just gets worse and worse. The reality is that Ireland, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Belgium, Greece, and France (in no particular order) are all in debt traps from which there is no escape. A debt trap is sprung when bankruptcy becomes the only outcome. With corporations, this usually becomes readily apparent and directors are forced by law to stop trading, but countries conceal this reality by printing money. Otherwise there is no difference in the two cases, despite what politicians and neoclassical economists would have us believe. This is why we are painfully aware that the Eurozone is in trouble, since nation states are unable to cover and conceal their obligations by printing money, having surrendered this role to the European Central Bank (ECB).
The ECB is meant to be independent of politics and political pressures. But the reality facing any central banker is that s/he cannot stand by and let politicians drown in their own mess. The politicians know this, and it’s what is behind current attempts to move away from austerity towards Keynesian growth. The plea is exactly the same as that of the spendthrift who tells his bank manager that the only chance he has of getting his money back is to increase the overdraft to allow him to trade his way out of difficulty.
Read More @ PeakProsperity.com

The Mancession: 16 Signs That This Economic Decline Is Sucking The Life Out Of The American Male

from The Economic Collapse Blog:
This economic decline has been really hard on everyone, but it has been particularly hard on American men. During the last recession male employment dropped like a rock and it has not recovered much at all since then. That is why many referred to the last recession as a “mancession”. Industries where men are disproportionately represented such as construction and manufacturing have really been hit hard in recent years. In the old days, you could take a high school education down to the local factory and get a job that would enable you to live a middle class lifestyle and support a growing family on just that one income. Sadly, those days are long gone. Today, American men live in a world where their labor is not really needed. Wages are falling because almost any worker can be easily replaced by the vast pool of unemployed American workers that are currently searching for work, and a lot of big companies are shifting labor-intensive jobs overseas where workers only make a small fraction of what they make in the United States. American workers (especially those without much education) are considered to be expensive liabilities in a world where labor has become a global commodity. So the percentage of working age American men that have jobs is likely to continue to decline and wages are likely to continue to stagnate as well.
Read More @ TheEconomicCollpaseBlog.com

Ron Paul: There’s “No Way” I’m Endorsing Romney

“He has the delegates, but he doesn’t have the hearts and the minds of the people”
by Paul Joseph Watson, Prison Planet:
Congressman Ron Paul has appeared on two major news networks and declared that there is “no way” he will endorse Mitt Romney for president.
On last night’s Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer, Paul said that despite his own son’s endorsement for Romney, he would not be throwing his hat in with the former Massachusetts governor.
“Well, it looks like he has the delegates, yes,” Paul told Blitzer. “But he doesn’t have the control of the hearts and the minds of the people. And right now a lot of people — a lot of delegates who are pledged to vote for Romney are actually very strong supporters of ours and will be strongly supporting us when we want to put things into the platform that say, hey, we don’t need another war. Yes, we do need to audit the Federal Reserve. Yes, we ought to really cut spending.”
Read More @ PrisonPlanet.com

Treasure Hunting, Prepper-Style, by PrepperGal in Colorado

from SurvivalBlog.com:
Nearly two-thirds of all the furnishings and prep items in my home were used when I got them. As the economy has continued to crumble, any stigma attached to shopping on the cheap has given way to pride at getting a good deal. Forget designer shoes or imported coffee – I get absolutely giddy when I come home with a great “find”!
But can you rely on bargain shopping to get all the things you need to help your family be prepared for whatever comes your way? Is there a way to really make “treasure hunting” both fun and successful?
Yes! All it takes is some planning together with a positive attitude and a pre-determined budget. Even if you aren’t pinching pennies, why waste your money when you can find great items at bargain prices and redirect those extra dollars to food or debt reduction? And if you are on a budget (and most of us are), this organized approach lets you decide what’s important and where you should look for the best buys.
Do your homework
What can I expect to find?
Where to look
Tools of the trade
Ready, Set, Save!
Read More @ SurvivalBlog.com

Credit vs. Monetarism: [LaRouche Agrees With Bill Still]

“Money, as associated with the notion of monetary values, such as gold and silver, is a hallmark of the inherently oligarchical characteristics of a monetarist system, as distinct from what is to identified as a credit system. The founding constitutional system of the United States Federal Constitution was a credit system, not a monetarist system.” – L. LaRouche
from LaRouche Pac:
Q: Mr LaRouche, I highly respect the work that you are doing, you are truly doing god’s work. Thank you. I keep up with your web site daily.
I agree that the transatlantic monetary system is dead and it is all over for us here in the US and Europe. My personal wake up call was reading Edward Griffins “Creature From Jeckyl Island,” a second look at the Federal Reserve. You are right that most people have absolutely NO idea of what is going on; others like myself are totally wide awake and are planning for a catastrophe that is soon to come.
I was wondering if you could clarify your statement May 14, that the government will have to fix the price of the currency (US).
It certainly would not be at the present value of 82 . Wouldn’t the currency need to be fixed at a much lower level than 82? What level would you feel would be fair based on the fact that we are hopelessly bankrupt?
I have no debt and all of my assets in gold and silver. I can understand why the price and gold and silver are manipulated, to give the illusion that the USD is still viable. Where would you suggest people put their “money” if there is none? tangibles? Oil, gold or silver?
I’m ready to take back my country Mr LaRouche!
Read More @ LaRouche Pac

More from DHS Insider

by Doug Hagmann, Canada Free Press:
[Excerpt] …“Before we get into the grit, I want to make sure you’re clear about what we talked about before, especially about the economy. You know there’s talk at the highest levels about a coming financial meltdown. When I say the highest levels, I mean the highest. But certain information is being compartmentalized, and almost no information is being sent to out-of-the-loop law enforcement agencies about why things are about to get ugly. They’re getting bigger and better equipment and loving it – not questioning it beyond what they’re told. But here’s what you need to make sure everyone understands when you write about our talks: Despite the fact our economy is on life support, DHS will be budgeting another trillion dollars in surveillance measures and equipment for police state tactics for two reasons.The first is to protect the politicians and the elite who are concerned about their physical safety, and rightfully so. This is why you hear no meaningful objections from either party, because both sides are benefiting, at different levels, from the controlled economic meltdown. They are all in the pockets of the big banks, along with the regulators, and so on. They are paranoid. Even the few who aren’t neck deep in graft – just knee deep. When everything starts to unravel, they will be exposed as complicit, so they have been reminded not to object to the increase in police state tactics,” said my source…
Read More @ canadafreepress.com.com

 

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