Pimco and JP Morgan halt vacations to prepare for economic crash?

by Kenneth Schortgen Jr, Examiner.com:
On June 1, market rumors were coming out of a hedge fund luncheon stating that Pimco, JP Morgan, and other financial companies were cancelling summer vacations for employees so they could prepare for a major ‘Lehman type’ economic crash projected for the coming months. These rumors came on a day when the markets nearly came to capitulation, with the DOW falling more than 274 points, and gold soaring over $63 as traders across the board fled stocks and moved into safer investments.
Todd Harrison is the CEO of the award winning internet media company Minyanville, while Todd Shoenberger is a managing principal at the Blackbay Group, and an adjunct professor of Finance at Cecil College.
Pimco and JP Morgan Chase are not the only financial institutions worried about a potential repeat of the 2008 credit crisis. On May 31, one day before Pinco rumors began to spread around the markets, World Bank President Robert Zoellick issued the same warnings of a potential ‘rerun of the great panic of 2008′.
Read More @ Examiner.com

Euro-zone Galloping Towards Financial Armageddon, Greece Will Take Third World Europe to Inflation Hell! Part 1

By Nadeem Walayat, The Market Oracle:
Can you smell it ? There’s PANIC in the Air!
For instance, apparently Britain is preparing immigration controls for an anticipated flood of refugees from Third World Europe as warns Home Secretary, Theresa May “work is ongoing to deal with large movements of people in the event of the break-up of the single currency”. Though these trends have been in force for the duration of the financial crisis that has resulted in net migration of more than 250k per year as I have periodically commented upon as to why the governments forecasts for UK unemployment to FALL were never going to materialise, as workers (especially the young) from across the bankrupting Euro-zone would see Britain as a jobs safe-haven outside of the Euro-zone and that was some 2 years ago!, which the mainstream with the benefit of hindsight has only recently been picking up on.
Read More @ TheMarketOracle.co.uk
Click Here for Part 2: The Pain in Spain Flashes Financial Armageddon, Inflation Wars

Record number of Phd recipients on food stamps

Eric De Groot at Eric De Groot - 5 hours ago

This news may be a little stale, but the message is still eye-opening to say the least. If public actually looked at what's being swept under the rug as meaningless information about USA, Inc., I suspect they'd be horrified by what they saw. This obscure headline is just another reason why Jim's statement of QE to infinity is totally correct. Headline: Record number of Phd recipients on food... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

And Now, Courtesy of Bridgewater... It's Italy's Turn

Earlier today, by way of a simple graphic, the world's biggest hedge fund, Bridgewater, was kind enough to remind the world just how pointless any debates about Europe's future viability are if the primary funding conduit: the EFSF/ESM hybrid can not provide the cash needed for even half the combined funding needs of Italy and Spain. Now, Bridgewater strikes at Europe once again, this time redirecting the general attention to where it is long overdue: Italy. 

Financial Wealth Evaporating

by John Rubino, DollarCollapse.com:

Live by the sword, die by the sword. The 1% have spent the past couple of decades accumulating an ever-bigger share of the world’s fiat-currency-inflated financial assets. Now, with the air going out of the FIRE (finance, insurance, real estate) economy, the super-rich are discovering that their stocks and bonds, like the paper money on which they’re based, are to a large extent illusory:
World’s Richest Lose $24 Billion as Adelson Fortune Drops
The world’s richest people lost a combined $24.4 billion this week as concerns over Spain’s rising borrowing costs and the sputtering American job market caused global markets to tumble.
Casino mogul Sheldon Adelson lost $2.2 billion. Shares of his Nevada-based Las Vegas Sands Corp. (LVS) fell 10.3 percent during the week. On Friday, Macau casinos reported gambling revenue rose 7.3 percent in May, its slowest pace since July 2009. Adelson, 78, is the 22nd richest person in the world, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Read More @ DollarCollapse.com

Portugal bails out 3 banks/Bank of England rumoured for another 50 billion pound stimulus

by Harvey Organ, HarveyOrgan.Blogspot.ca:
Good evening Ladies and Gentlemen:
Gold closed down today by $7.60 to $1612.90. Silver finished the session down 51 cents to $27.99.
This is par for the course as every time there is a big gold advance, the following day sees a raid as the bankers try desperately to contain enthusiasm for our precious metals. Today was no different. The big news of the day came from China where they announced that Hon Kong (China’s main-gate supplier) exported to China 100 tonnes of gold in April. I cannot wait to see May’s figures next month. The world produces around 195 tonnes of gold per month (ex China) and to see over 50% exported to this nation is simply breathtaking.
Hong Kong receives all of its gold from London. Jeff Christian stated at the CFTC hearings, that the ” new London physical gold market” is in reality a 1 oz of physical market with a paper 100 oz of gold financial obligations attached to that one oz of physical. If you remove that one oz of physical and move it onto China’s shores, you can just imagine the pickle facing the LBMA, the Bank of England and the GLD/SLV boys. Once London is out, the comex will be void of metal in a nanosecond which in turn will cause defaulting all of the world.
Read More @ HarveyOrgan.Blogspot.ca

The Table Is Set for a Mania

from Jeff Clark, Casey Research:

It may feel like I’m out of touch with the precious metals markets to broach the subject of a mania today, but I think the table is being set now for a huge move into gold and silver.
There are, however, very valid reasons to reasonably expect a mania in our sector. For one thing, manias have occurred many times before, but the main issue is that a mania in gold and gold stocks is the likely result of the absolute balloon in government debt, deficit spending, and money printing. Saying all that profligacy will go away without inflationary consequences seems naïve or foolish. Inflation may not attract investors to gold and silver as much as force them to it.
Read More @ CaseyResearch.com

Merkel and Her Crew: Only More Union Will Do

The Daily Bell:
Europe mulls major step towards “fiscal union” … When Jean-Claude Trichet called last June for the creation of a European finance ministry with power over national budgets, the idea seemed fanciful, a distant dream that would take years or even decades to realize, if it ever came to be. … One year later, with the euro zone’s debt crisis threatening to tear the bloc apart, Germany is pushing its partners for precisely the kind of giant leap forward in fiscal integration that the now- departed European Central Bank president had in mind. After falling short with her “fiscal compact” on budget discipline, German Chancellor Angela Merkel is pressing for much more ambitious measures, including a central authority to manage euro area finances, and major new powers for the European Commission, European Parliament and European Court of Justice. She is also seeking a coordinated European approach to reforming labor markets, social security systems and tax policies, German officials say. – Reuters
Dominant Social Theme: This Union is not working. We need more of it.
Free-Market Analysis: Reuters does us the service of providing a view of the bigger picture when it comes to the European Union: The choice is between more of the same – and a LOT more of the same.
You would think that a political process that has bankrupted half of Europe, inflamed citizens to the point of rioting and burning down parts of Greece might be abandoned as a detriment to the larger society. But when it comes to power elite machinations there’s little chance of that.
Read More @ TheDailyBell.com

Breaking: G7 to Hold Emergency Euro Zone Talks Tuesday on Spain

from Silver Doctors:
Reuters has just reported that the G7 will hold emergency euro-zone talks Tuesday regarding Spain.
The sovereign debt crisis is rapidly beginning strongly resemble Lehman Brothers circa Sept- 2008.
It appears the s*** may be inches from the fan.
What do you think the G7 response will be?  It will be to Cntl + P, and do it to infinity.
TORONTO/BERLIN (Reuters) – Finance chiefs of the Group of Seven leading industrialized powers will hold emergency talks on the euro zone debt crisis on Tuesday in a sign of heightened global alarm about strains in the 17-nation European currency area.
With Greece, Ireland and Portugal all under international bailout programs, financial markets are anxious about the risks from a seething Spanish banking crisis and a June 17 Greek election that may lead to Athens leaving the euro zone.
Read More @ SilverDoctors.com

David Versus Goliath – The SNB Against Everybody Else

A picture says more than a hundred words, so I wanted to present in graphical terms what happened at the Swiss National Bank over the last few quarters.  Central banks have tried to “manage” currencies in the past. Sooner or later, market forces win. As all other major central banks keep printing additional Euros, Dollars, Yen etc., the SNB looks prone to lose this game. A run on the Swiss Franc could lead to a further increase in prices of Swiss government bonds. Swiss equities however would decline, at least measured in Swiss Francs.

Let's Twist Again? The Bond Market Is Hinting At A Huge Disappointment For Stocks On June 20

When it comes to the future, suddenly torn by economic uncertainty driven by a plunging stock market and a tanking economy, the talking heads and the sellside brigade have opined: more QE, preferably in the form of asset purchases. After all it was none other than Goldman earlier today who said that "our confidence that the FOMC will ease policy once more at the June 19-20 meeting has also grown... Our baseline remains that Fed officials will purchase a mixture of mortgages and long-term Treasuries, financed via balance sheet expansion... If they decide to extend their balance sheet, they could add excess bank reserves or “sterilize” the reserve impact via reverse repos and/or term deposits." In other words: not sterilized, or bye bye Chubby Checker (recall that even Goldman finally admitted two months ago that when it comes to Fed intervention, what matters is flow - as a result Twist has been largely ineffective in recreating the effect of QE1 and 2). To be sure even more respected investors like Pimco have bet the house that the NEW QE will constitute primarily of more MBS purchases. Yet the real question is what is the bond market telling us: after all when it comes to matters such as these, one should completely ignore stocks, and certainly the talking heads, and instead focus on what bonds are saying. And here is where the stock market may be headed for a great disappointment: because now that the bar has been set so far, anything less than full blown LSAP, or a merely extension of Twist, would likely send stocks plunging. Which, ironically, and completely in opposition to stocks, is what bonds are expecting...

And Then There Were Three...

Last September we were delighted to bring you the following great news:
DAVID BIANCO NO LONGER WORKS AT BOFA, SPOKESWOMAN SAYS
Now, we are even more delighted to bring you the following breaking news:
BLACKROCK CHIEF EQUITY STRATEGIST BOB DOLL TO RETIRE
And then there were three...
 

Dead Bank Deja Vu? How The Sovereigns Killed Their Banks & Why Nobody Realizes They’re Dead

by Reggie Middleton, BoomBustBlog.com:
Last week I penned Sophisticated Ignorance Part 2: Pressuring Germany To Do The Wrong Thing Is A Short Seller’s Dream, wherein I continued the argument that serial bailouts of banks whose assets dwarf domicile GDPs has never, ever worked. Part and parcel to said argument was Germany’s resistance to such profligate spending and the perception that Germany was somehow immune to the economic maladies that afflicted its European trading partners – reference The Biggest Threat To The 2012 Economy Is??? Not What Wall Street Is Telling You… An astute reader commented on these postings as follows:

Reggie, all well argued, but the scramble for German Bunds is still on and even if it were to stop there won’t be many who sell. (or COULD sell). Even if, you have the ECB who could easily buy up German bunds as well and keep rates down. At the end of the day it’s a complete fiasco, no doubt, but that day could last a lot longer than you (or me) currently assume…

Read More @ BoomBustBlog.com

Bank Run!

by Andrew Hoffman, MilesFranklin.com:

I had this topic queued up all week, but just got to it today – Friday afternoon.  What perfect “literary karma,” given GLOBAL stock markets are collapsing – led by the banks – and sovereign debts of numerous European nations.
I’m going to make this short and sweet, starting with a quote from Eric Sprott’s most recent commentary:

No matter what happens in the Eurozone, the absolute worst case scenario is a bank run.  It terrifies all involved, because they can spiral out of control faster than governments can stop them, save for the most Draconian measures.  They also prompt banks to liquidate whatever they can, revealing the truth about what their “assets” are actually worth.  In this environment, no one wants to find out what the market will really pay for them.  We’re seeing this now in Spain, where many banks are avoiding property sales so they don’t have to mark to market the REAL valuations. Instead, they’re giving developers new loans to pay debt coming due, to prevent defaults.

The flimsy “banking system” is all that stands between today’s “modern world” and chaos.  Born of the unholy union between Washington, Wall Street, and London, its sole foundation is fiat currency, backed only by the “full faith and credit” of lying, thieving, MONEY PRINTING governments (i.e., ALL of them), whose top officials have nicknames like “Tiny Tim”, “Brown Bottom,” and “Helicopter Ben.
Read More @ MilesFranklin.com

Turk – Bank & Government Collapses, Gold Spike Coming

from KingWorldNews:
With continued volatility in major markets, as well as gold and silver, today King World News interviewed James Turk out of Europe. Turk told KWN, “if the central planners try to paper over the insolvency of governments and many of the big banks with more money printing, then gold, silver and the mining shares will rocket even higher than I can imagine.” Here is what Turk had to say about the recent action: “The significance of the big jump on Friday in gold, silver and the mining shares cannot be overstated, Eric. It was very important for a number of reasons. First, it was a continuation of the trend we spoke about on Thursday. The precious metals and the mining shares are showing clear, independent strength.”
Turk continues @ KingWorldNews.com

Economic Reality Bites

Peter Schiff, Lew Rockwell.com:
Many people became convinced that data releases earlier this year indicated that “recovery” in the U.S. was imminent. But as I have been saying for months, this evidence would ultimately be shown to be as reliable as sightings of Bigfoot. Lots of people claim to say they have seen it, some even produce plaster footprints, but in the end all we have is a guy in an ape suit. The economic recovery, that has been discussed so loudly and often in recent months, will be shown to be similarly mythical.
A torrent of recent economic data now reveals weakness, and investors are beginning to take notice. Today’s release of the May jobs report showed a paltry 69,000 jobs created during the month, far below consensus estimates. Not only did the current month disappoint, but the June numbers were also revised down by 49,000. This release follows yesterday’s downward revisions of first quarter GDP growth from 2.2% to 1.9%. Also lost in the headlines was that the savings rate dropped to 3.4% in April, the lowest rate since December 2007. This shows that Americans may need to deplete their already meager savings just to keep their heads above water as the U.S. economy sinks back into recession.
Read More @ LewRockwell.com

Gold bushwhacks bears, again

by Peter Brimelow, MarketWatch:
Two weeks ago, after making a new low for the year, gold violently reversed. ( See May 21 column. )
Last Friday saw an even more violent reversal. Gold for August delivery GCQ2 +0.58% saw a gain of 3.6%, and there was a gain in the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index XX:HUI +1.44% of 6.74%. In contrast, two weeks ago, gold and shares gained only 2.41% and 4.45%, respectively.
Last time, gold subsequently lost momentum as May wore on. But gold shares did not.
“Trader Dan Norcini” points out on his website: “The last time we had THREE CONSECUTIVE WEEKS during which the mining shares outperformed the broader U.S. equity markets was in late October/early November of 2011. While the month of May this year has been atrocious for the S&P 500 SPX +0.01% , it has been an excellent month for the miners. June is starting out on a good note to say the least. …”
Read More @ MarketWatch

Gold Is At Imporant Intermediate Term Resistance – Long Term GATA Has It Right

from Jesse’s Café Américain:
After the spectacular rally of last Friday it is natural for gold to pause and consolidate here.
However, I wanted to make sure you could see the position of the gold price with regard to the intermediate trend.
This is the key resistance which I referred to last week, clearly visible in the chart below.
The hedge funds were leaning very hard on the short side as we had shown in some of the indicators, and as several others had shown in the market structure through the Commitments of Traders Reports. And the bears had ‘gotten smoked’ by the commercials who hit them with a stiff short squeeze last week. As Ted Butler remarked, ‘manipulation goes both ways.’ Yes it does, but not in this case, because Ted does not understand even yet it appears the basic underlying reality of the long term gold market, perhaps because he is so focused on silver.
I think that the downward pressure, or bearish manipulation if you will, was greatly exaggerated by the trading desks because of the key market dates including option expiration. The ferocity of the rally was due to that pressure being relieved and turned back. It perhaps then could be better described as ‘the end to the manipulation’ than an active manipulation itself.
Read More @ Jesse’s Café Américain:

Warning: COLLAPSE AGENDA UNDERWAY !

from crabbydogtrix :

The Most Important Article of the Day – Is the UK About to Engage in a Stealth Default?

from Liberty Blitzkrieg

If there was ever an article that should spark every British citizen to immediately shift their savings into physical gold this is it.  Basically, proposals are on the table to change the way inflation is calculated for bonds that payout based on the rate of change in prices.  Unsurprisingly, they are purposely attempting to use an alternative measure of inflation that allows substitution (so when people can no longer buy a steak and must spend the same amount of money on spam this shows up as no inflation)!  If this goes through, it is blatant theft.  This is why owning TIPS in the U.S. is a total fool’s game.  They will mark inflation to whatever level they want at the end of the day.  To whatever is most convenient at the moment.  You know, just like the banks mark their balance sheets.  But don’t take my word for it…
Key quotes from the FT article:
Holders of some UK index-linked gilts could see more than 40 per cent wiped off the value of their bonds, according to M&G Investments, as a result of technical changes to the way the retail price index, which underpins these “linkers”, is calculated.
Read More @ LibertyBlitzkrieg.com

Federal Law Proves All Delegates Are UNBOUND! All Delegates Must See This!

from Matlarson10:

Wow. An amazing example of why this country is headed in the wrong direction.

by Simon Black, Sovereign Man :
 

This past Friday, Barack Obama was at a Minneapolis-area Honeywell plant touting his economic recovery credentials to cheering disciples. One of the excited faithful was a young boy, fifth-grader Tyler Sullivan, who took the day off from school to hear the President speak.
The President was full of the usual bombast about how Congress needs to work with him to ‘build a strong economy’, and how he wants to get $3,000 to everyone in the American middle class so that people can go out and buy ‘thingamajigs’.
Naturally, the crowd cheered. It was the typical sort of gross misunderstanding of economic prosperity that you see from politicians… and most people at this point.
Read More @ SovereignMan.com

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