Wednesday, June 27, 2012


Philip A. Falcone and Harbinger Charged With Securities Fraud - Full Release
Game Over for the once high flying hedge fund manager: "“Today’s charges read like the final exam in a graduate school course in how to operate a hedge fund unlawfully,” said Robert Khuzami, Director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement."








One on One with John Williams

by Greg Hunter, USAWatchdog:

Anyone who thinks the U.S. is in recovery should stop listening to the mainstream media and listen to John Williams. He heads up Shadowstats.com, and is one of the few economists who crunches the numbers to give unvarnished true statistics. Adjusted for real inflation of about 7%, Williams says, “GDP has plunged, and we have been bottom bouncing” ever since the financial crisis started. Williams says, “The next crash will be a lot worse (than 2008) because it will push us into the early stages of hyperinflation.” He predicts this will happen “by the end of 2014– at the latest.” Long before 2014, Shadowstats.com thinks there is a good chance of “panic selling of the U.S. dollar,” if the Federal Reserve starts another round of money printing (QE3) to save the system and the big banks.
No matter what Williams predicts, “There will eventually be a crisis to bring the system down as we know it. . . . We’re on the brink.” According to Williams, “at some point, you will see a new currency in the U.S.” The founder of Shadowstats.com sat down for a one on one interview with Greg Hunter to talk about the mathematical certainty of a systemic collapse in the not-so-distant future.



Imagining the Unthinkable: The Disastrous Consequences Of A € Crash

As the debt crisis worsens in Spain and Italy, financial experts are warning of the catastrophic consequences of a crash of the euro: the destruction of trillions in assets and record high unemployment levels, even in Germany
from Spiegel International:
It was not long ago that Mario Draghi was spreading confidence and good cheer. “The worst is over,” the head of the European Central Bank (ECB), told Germany’s image only newspaper a few weeks ago. The situation in the euro zone had “stabilized,” Draghi said, and “investor confidence was returning.” And because everything Seemed to be on track, even accepted a Prussian spiked Draghi helmet from the reporters. Hurrah.
Last week, however, Europe’s chief monetary watchdog was not looking nearly as happy in photos taken in front of a circle of blue-and-yellow stars inside the Euro Tower, the ECB’s Frankfurt headquarters, where he was congratulating the winners of an international student contest. He smiled, shook hands and handed out certificates. But what he had to tell his listeners no longer sounded optimistic. Instead, Draghi sounded deeply concerned and even displayed a touch of resignation. “You are the first generation that has grown up with the € and is no longer familiar with the old currencies,” he said. “I hope we will not experience them again.”
The fact that Europe’s top central banker is no longer willing to rule out a return to the old national currencies shows how serious the situation is. Until recently, it was seen as a sign of political correctness to not even consider the Possibility of a € collapse. But now that the dispute has escalated currency in Europe, the inconceivable is becoming conceivable, at all levels of politics and the economy.
Read More @ Spiegel.de



The EU Summit To Save the Euro: It Already Collapsed

from Testosterone Pit.com:

During the two-day EU summit on June 28 and 29, all eyes will be breathlessly riveted on German Chancellor Angela Merkel—with one question on all lips: will she blink? Because nothing less than the future of the Eurozone and the euro is at stake. And by extension, the world economy. Only she can save it. And she’d have only 48 hours!
There is even the Grand Plan, issued by European Council President Herman Van Rompuy. It includes all the goodies: an unelected European Treasury with power over national budgets and how much countries could borrow; Eurobonds; a banking union that would guarantee deposits; and the ESM that would bail out the banks. The Grand Plan would require common policies on taxation and employment regulation. An aura of “democratic legitimacy” would be created by joint-decision making with national parliaments. And every item to be funded would be paid for by taxpayers in other countries, particularly by those in Germany.
Read More @ TestosteronePit.com



What Do Stocks 'Know' That Gold, Treasuries, And The USD Don't (Again)?

The last few minutes of the European day ended with a resplendent surge in stock prices in the face of sideways to wider credit markets and deteriorating sovereign and FX markets. Not to be outdone, US equities remain in a world of hope of their own today having disconnected shortly after the US day-session open as Treasuries, Gold, and the USD have all moved in a more derisking mode. Also, despite S&P's 0.6% gain, VIX has just pushed higher into the green for the day.




Golden Lies In The Media

Dave in Denver at The Golden Truth - 1 hour ago
*The big banks have becoming hedge funds but are backed by the Fed and taxpayer funds. You think that provides them with a competitive advantage? The Fed encourages and abets big banks to trade like hedge funds so the banks can generate, even craft, earnings to keep them afloat. *Bill King, The King Report If you woke up this morning and read some of the headlines that pertain to the housing market, you might be convinced that the bottom is in and the next bull market in housing is starting. Of course, it's funny how homebuilder, realtor and Government numbers diverge from one o... more » 



The Breathless (And Baseless) Bailout Hope


Earlier we noted that while the rhetoric on a European debacle is particularly negative, it appears positioning for it is actually considerably less bearish in FX markets. From a credit perspective, based on Citi's investor survey, it appears we have a similar picture of breathless anticipation and front-running of some central-planning solution to save the day. As they note, almost all respondents expected spreads, even in USD credit, to widen notably in the event of Spanish and Italian bond yields continuing to crack higher; and yet there was relatively little change in investors' overall net long position - and in USD credit it actually increased. One piece of reality is in European banks where real-money remains notably underweighted, and while leveraged money (hedgies) remains overweight, they have reduced their exposure somewhat recently. Leveraged accounts have reduced their short positions recently in peripheral Europe while real-money accounts are still avoiding it like the plague. The point being that fast money is certainly not going to be the ammo for a short-squeeze in European credit (or FX) that everyone appears to believe it to be.




Primary Dealers Save Weak 5 Year Auction


There was nothing pretty about today's 5 Year auction, which confirmed the trend of weak bond auctions started with yesterday's 2 Year issuance. Pricing at 0.752%, superficially it was only the second lowest yield ever for a 5 Year bond. However, with the When Issued trading at 0.734%, the tail was surprisingly wide for US paper which had not seen a such a big miss from market implied prices in many months. Add the Bid To Cover of 2.61, which was the lowest since June 2011, and things start to get really ugly. Finally observe the take down which saw Indirects account for only 35.1% or the least since February 2011, forcing Directs to load up with even more paper they don't want or need courtesy of the Twist extension through year end (meaning Dealers are stuck buying up all the Fed's unwanted paper in the short-end), forcing them to take down 54.1% of the auction, or the most since February 2011 also, and one can see why Rick Santelli gave the auction a barely passing grade of D. And with these two auctions, and tomorrow's 7 Year issuance, net US debt will be a solid $50 billion greater next week when all the bonds price, and rapidly on its was to $16 trillion, which should be breached in just under 6 weeks time.





And Next On Deck: Slovenia May Request Bailout Next Month PM Says

Because once you pop, you can't stop.














Cliff Asness' Cliff Notes To Progressive America

Cliff Asness, head of the quant hedge fund AQR, has been known to be a vocal opponent of various failed governmental policies in the past few years. Today, he has shared his "dictionary" (of "humorous" persuasion as he himself notes, with definitions "written sarcastically as a faux left-winger, some just conservative/libertarian interpretations of what the left really means.") of the key terms dominant in Progressive America right now. In a world in which other people's money has pretty much run out, and ahead of a rather historic Supreme Court ruling tomorrow, we believe some of these are quite relevant.





John Embry Interview on Silver, Precious Metals & More – GoldSeek.com Radio Nugget Interview

by Dr. Jeffrey Lewis, Silver Seek:
Chief Investment Strategist
John Embry joined SAM as Chief Investment Strategist in March 2003, with a focus on the Sprott Gold and Precious Minerals Fund. He plays an instrumental role in the corporate and investment policy of the firm. Mr. Embry, an industry expert in precious metals, has researched the gold sector for over thirty years and has accumulated industry experience as a portfolio management specialist since 1963.
After graduating from the University of Manitoba with a Bachelor of Commerce degree, John Embry began his investment career as a stock selection analyst and Portfolio Manager at Great West Life. He then became Vice President of Pension Investments for the entire firm. After 23 years with the company, John became partner with United Bond and Share, the investment counseling firm acquired by Royal Bank in 1987. John was named Vice-President, Equities and Portfolio Manager at RBC Global Investment Management, a $33 billion organization where he oversaw $5 billion in assets, including the flagship $2.9 billion Royal Canadian Equity Fund and the $250 million Royal Precious Metals Fund, the #1 ranked fund across the country for its 2002 net performance of 153%.
Click Here to Listen to the Audio




To Euro or not to Euro? Markets Hold Breath Ahead of EU Summit

from Liberty CPM:
Gold and silver remain basically unchanged since Tuesday, although investors are optimistic as the price did not just stay above $1550, but indeed $1560 even.
Volume has been down overall ahead of the European Union summit on the euro zone crisis, which George Soros – the famous investor who successfully shorted the UK Pound (despite the moral hazard tied to such a trade) – has said could mark the end of the euro should European leaders not act in the common good of the continent. What Soros says the eurozone needs is a “united front” aimed towards saving the common currency.
Talks before the meeting detail an unlikelihood of the continent moving towards a common euro-zone bond system at the summit, although the mainstream press has not predicted decisions and outcomes regarding other important meetings accurately, such as last week’s FOMC meeting.
The exchanges have overall kept the physical markets stable, as some would argue is their purpose. Gold and silver price remain rangebound, as silver trades at the low of its range, and indeed at the low of the past 18 months.
Read More @ LibertyCPM.com


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ECB’s Draghi Considering One-Upping Fed, Launching NEGATIVE Interest Rates! (NIRP)

from Silver Doctors:
ZIRP is so 2008 (-2015). Bloomberg reports ECB head Mario Draghi is considering cutting ECB interest rates BELOW ZERO from their current 0.25%.
That’s right, Draghi is considering one-upping The Bernank himself, bypassing ZIRP, and going straight to NIRP (negative interest rate policy)!
Nothing like the smell of desperation in the morning. Perhaps Draghi was listening when Soros stated yesterday that Europe has 3 days to solve the crisis? Anyone remain unconvinced QE Will Go to Infinity??
Read More @ SilverDoctors.com


 

Romney Admits He Would Act Like a Dictator if Selected President

by Michael Krieger, Liberty Blitzkreig

Have you seen the video clip of Mitt Romney stating he doesn’t need Congressional approval to wage war?  Yep, on Face the Nation, Romney stated:
“I can assure you if I’m President, the Iranians will have no question but that I will be willing to take military action if necessary to prevent them from becoming a nuclear threat to the world.  I don’t believe at this stage, therefore, if I’m President that we need to have a war powers approval or special authorization for military force. The president has that capacity now.”
Well there you have it.  Definitive proof that no matter which puppet is selected (uh, elected) President in November, the shredding of the U.S. Constitution will proceed along as planned.  USA! USA!  Land of the thief, home of the slave.
Read More @ LibertyBlitzkreig.com


 

Ron Pual’s Floor Speech on Syria, June 27th 2012

from CongressmanRonPaul:




Citi’s Fitzpatrick – Major Markets to Resume Their Decline

from KingWorldNews:
Today top Citibank analyst, Tom Fitzpatrick, told King World News, “For people who feel that Germany is just going to capitulate, Merkel has been fairly clear that she is taking a hard line.” Fitzpatrick, a 28 year veteran and top analyst at Citibank, which has $1.3 trillion in assets, also said, “We expect to see a reemergence of the stresses, as well as the equity markets beginning to fall again.” But first, here is what he had to say about deteriorating consumer confidence: “We’ve been looking at this for a while, and, if you look at the overlay of the consumer confidence index vs the equity markets (see chart below), what it quite clearly shows, contrary to what most people think, is that the consumer sentiment drives the equity markets rather than vice versa.”
“We saw that in 2000, 2007, and again in 2011, that when consumer confidence peaked and turned, it’s often an early warning sign that markets are headed lower. Within a couple of months you started to see equity markets come under pressure.
Tom Fitzpatrick continues @ KingWorldNews.com



Japan Diplomat: A problem with Fukushima No. 4 fuel pool would be the end of Japan — “We cannot sleep peacefully”

from voltscommissar:


In-depth update from ABC-Australia’s Mark Willacy, the ABC’s Japanese-speaking correspondent based in Tokyo.
Willacy interviews Japanese nuclear professor Hiroaki Koide, US energy policy adviser Robert Alvarez, TEPCO spokesman Yoshimi Hitosugi, undercover journalist Tomohiko Suzuki and most importantly retired diplomat to Switzerland, Misuhei Murata.
Murata states he has written to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon, urging international intervention to save the world from another bigger nuclear catastrophe of the spent fuel pool at Unit 4 failing and releasing huge extra amounts of deadly radiation.



No Time For Real Thinking in a Radical Share Market

By Dan Denning, Daily Reckoning.com.au:
Somebody had better tell Angela Merkel the story of Franz Ferdinand. The Archduke of Austria was assassinated on June 28th, 1914 – nearly 98 years ago to the day – in Sarajevo by a 19 year old Serbian named Gavrilo Princip. Europe, already a political tinderbox, fell headlong into the Great War.
Surely Merkel knows this history as well as anyone. But we couldn’t help thinking of the anecdote when we read her comment this morning. She replied to a seven page document by European Council President Herman von Rompuy which, among other things, argued for a Eurozone Treasury that would issue common debt. This proposal is backed by France, Italy, and Spain.
Merkel’s reply was, ‘I don’t see total debt liability as long as I live.’
Hmm. Only the German Chancellor now stands between a fiscally integrated Europe that’s able to borrow against Germany’s credit rating for ‘ever closer union’. The simple solution for centrists and Statists is to get rid of the democratically elected German Chancellor the same way they did in Greece and France. Watch out, Frau!
Read More @ DailyReckoning.com.au



Blame NATO: Syrian Rebels Ransack Christian Churches [The Goal? To Make You Angry Enough to Beg For More War]

NATO-backed thugs desecrate places of worship
by Paul Joseph Watson, Prison Planet:
Shocking images have emerged which show the aftermath of Christian churches ransacked by NATO-backed Syrian rebels, illustrating once again how western powers are supporting Muslim extremists in their bid to achieve regime change in the middle east.
A photograph provided to us by a Christian woman in Homs, scene of some of the bloodiest clashes of the conflict, shows a member of the Free Syrian Army posing with a looted Catholic cross in one hand and a gun in the other while wearing a priest’s robe.
“Everyone knows simply removing these garments from the church is a sin. The priest is the only one who wears them too. They even pray before putting them on. Him posing in front of the funeral car as well is disgusting to the max,” our source told us.
“They destroyed the church and went in to film it. I know this for a fact. The Robes can only be worn by Deacons or Priests or Sub-Deacons, and they a Christian man wouldn’t hold a Cross in one hand and a gun in another,” the woman explains.
Another image shows a ransacked church in Bustan al-Diwan (Old Homs). While Syrian rebels busy themselves ransacking Christian churches, they also rallying around the Al-Qaeda flag just as their counterparts did in Libya.
This video shows Syrian “activists” flying the Al-Qaeda flag during an anti-Assad protest in the northern Syrian town of Binnish.
Read More @ PrisonPlanet.com



The Statist Propositions of Protectionism

by Gary North, Whiskey and Gunpowder:
“Where there is free trade, foreign competition would even in the short run frustrate the aims sought by the various measures of government intervention with domestic business. When the domestic market is not to some extent insulated from foreign markets, there can be no question of government control. The further a nation goes on the road toward public regulation and regimentation, the more it is pushed toward economic isolation. International division of labor becomes suspect because it hinders the full use of national sovereignty. The trend toward autarky is essentially a trend of domestic economic policies; it is the outcome of the endeavor to make the state paramount in economic matters.”
~ Ludwig von Mises, Omnipotent Government (1944), p. 4.
Free trade is a crucial economic policy in the program to restrict the growth of socialism. Mises never wavered from this view. He recognized the threat of all arguments for protectionism: they help to expand the power of the state. They move in the direction of central economic planning.
I have known for at least 50 years that the central dividing issue economically in the right wing movement is the issue of protectionism. People who believe that they are defenders of the principle of free enterprise at some point face a moment of truth. They have to decide whether they are in favor of tariffs or free trade. They have to face the reality of the arguments in favor of free enterprise. Do they believe in free enterprise, or do they believe in the mixed economy of the modern welfare state?
Read More @ WhiskeyAndGunpowder.com



TPP: America Going (Gone?) 100% Fascist

by Tracy Turner, Op Ed News:
When George H.W. Bush, an oilman who was so bad as President he only served one term, talked of a New World Order” what did he mean? A new era, when oil companies did not have to deal with pesky EPA laws and rules? When the US could attack two countries at once with drones and an all-volunteer army? When the US Constitution was entirely suspended, and corporate rights would always trump individual rights?
A Huffington Post Article titled, “Obama Trade Document Leaked, Revealing New Corporate Powers And Broken Campaign Promises” was posted June 13 and updated June 14, 2012. A few articles, blogs and discussion thread groups are criticizing Obama for closed door negotiations on the Trans Pacific Partnership, which gives both US Citizens rights and US Law (all branches of all US courts) over to jurisdiction of corporate tribunals. The corporate Tribunals consist of three lawyers. The full, leaked TPP document is here: http://olivebiodiesel.com/tppinvestment.pdf
There are two things that most or all of the blogs and articles describing the TPP and Obama don’t seem to mention: 1) That Obama, himself is a lawyer, and 2) That Obama is a cool as a cucumber lawyer. Not only is Obama a lawyer, he is a former US Constitutional Scholar. Who would know best, how to thwart, unwind, disassemble and circumvent the US Constitution but a Constitutional Scholar?
Read More @ OpEdNews.com.com



Supremecy of the Dollar Fading Fast: China, Chile to establish strategic partnership, boost trade

China and Chile agreed Tuesday to upgrade their bilateral ties to a strategic partnership, and double trade in three years.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and Chilean President Sebastian Pinera announced Tuesday the establishment of China-Chile strategic partnership and the completion of negotiations on investment-related supplementary deals to a bilateral free trade agreement.
During their talks, Wen urged speedy signing and ratification of these supplementary deals and called for the finalization of the China-Chile free trade area.
Wen called on the two nations to expand trade in goods, promote trade in services and mutual investment, and double bilateral trade in three years.
The Chinese leader also said the two countries should enhance cooperation in mining, expand farm product trade, and promote cooperation in farm product production and processing and agricultural technology.
Read More @ Xinhuanet.com



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