"We've seen rallies that fizzle before" is why Bob "I don't see the reason to call this a major turning point" Shiller is not calling the bottom in the housing market as he notes that while momentum helps, "right now it is partly seasonal" in an excellent reality-based discussion with CNBC's Rick Santelli. From the rise and fall of Greenspan's nationwide housing market correlations (not convinced this is anything but idiosyncratic) to the fact that a 'bottom' does not mean a recovery is coming and his expectations of longer-to-wait; the esteemed gentleman, dismissing concerns over rising interest rates and house prices - and pointing out how mortgage rates do not help forecast a house price recovery, makes a vital point: "Why the urgency" to buy a house? Despite the 'money for nothing', Shiller and Santelli explain there is "no way for Bernanke to change our 'animal spirits'" and his ZIRP is in fact psychologically damaging not invigorating. Absolute must watch!
Atlas Shrugged Part II in theaters Today 10.12.12
Kaminsky On "Hypocrite" Biden: "I'd Have Punched Him In The Face"
In
a little over three minutes, CNBC's Gary 'Golden Gloves' Kaminsky not
only pointed out the dismal reality of our political class but
explained, in his out loud voice - which we assumed was typically suppressed for career-limiting reasons
- exactly what he thinks of Joe Biden and what he would have done had
be been sat next to him on that table. In saying what we suspect a lot
of readers may have felt, Kaminsky exposes the underbelly; as like many
of Wall Street who are 'compelled' to give politicians money (Biden has raised the great majority of his funds from financial services firms)
hearing the hypocritical "wall-street-vs-main-street" double-talk and
'nasty' laughing and smirking last night made the ex-PM angry. Impressed
at Ryan's calm, Kaminsky sums it all up, about Biden: "I would have punched the guy in the face!" - the truth.Charts Of The Day: Why America Needs To Embrace The Fiscal Cliff Instead Of Kicking The Can Once Again
To quote David Rosenberg: "there is no good time, but better now than waiting to be shocked into the retrenchment later on. If left unchecked, the Federal debt/GDP ratio will breach 100% within the next two or three years. Do we really need to turn European? And more importantly, even under a sustained low interest rate policy, debt service costs will continue to bite into the revenue base - so much so that they will soon begin to absorb more than 20% of total tax receipts. At a time when grim demographic realities will push dependency ratios higher and with that ever-spiralling entitlement spending, the power of compound interest on a continued mountain of debt even assuming years of low rates will ensnare fiscal finances and seriously limit our policy flexibility in the future."
Is This Why Gold Is Selling Off?
From
the morning of Draghi's press-conference on 9/6, Treasury bond prices
and Gold have danced an interesting waltz around one another. After
recoupling on 9/26, they once again divorced for two weeks, only to
reconcile their differences once again today. Is the toing-and -froing
of inflation views driving gold and bonds - and does that mean Gold is
almost done with its drop here as Both the Long-Bond and Gold are now
both up 1.22% from QEternity.From Presidential Election To Popular Insurrection In One Easy Step: Art Cashin Explains
While last night's VeeP debate was all feces and frolics,
UBS' Art Cashin and his 'Friends of Fermentation' recently drifted
onto the topic of the Presidential Election - and the conversation was
not what he calls "reassuring" as they move from margins of victory to
result-challenges and banana-republic like street demonstrations and
riots. The heart of this discussion is the acrimonious tone that has
evolved and grown in our political exchanges. All the "us and them" and class warfare posturing sets a dangerous backdrop to a close election.I Name The New Baby: "Intervention"
There has been the thought, in place for decades, that the greatest danger lay in rapidly escalating Inflation
and that governments could ruin the populace and devastate the purses
of everyone if Inflation was allowed to run rampant. This was counterbalanced by the fear of Deflation which may have an even worse effect.
These two twin evils have been viewed as the mainstay of things that
could go wrong and they have each been battled in various ways for the
last hundred years. Some missions were successful, some not, but the
battle raged on from one administration to another. Now I wonder if some new infant has not been born to join them. This morning I will name this new baby; "Intervention." We find ourselves in unchartered territory and without a decent compass.S&P Futures Break 50DMA
With AAPL sat just above its 100DMA, unable to hold gains this morning, the S&P 500 futures have just broken below their 50DMA for the first time since July 25th.
The Bernanke-Spike has gone and now the Draghi-Dagger comes into
focus... as financial earnings fail to spark another hope-driven rally.
From the day before Draghi's spike, the VWAP (volume-weighted average
price) for S&P 500 futures is 1444.5 - so on average in aggregate
buyers are now losers.European Equities End Ugly Week With Credit Unchanged
The
exuberant OMT-driven froth of the European equity markets appears to
be fading. All major stock indices across the region ended the week red
- with Spain worst down 3.3% and Italy down 2.2%
(though as CNBC would say - off their lows). This looks like
catching-down to European sovereign's less sanguine view of the world as
Italy and Spain sovereign bond spreads end almost perfectly unchanged
(having been up 15bps and 25bps respectively mid-week). Corporate and
financial credit spreads outperformed equities on the week - ending
unchanged also - with most of the move occurring today. Interestingly,
the LTRO stigma is rising once again - as non-LTRO-encumbered bank credit spreads hit a 14-month low this week and the spread to LTRO-banks widens. Europe's VIX ended the week unchanged at 21.9% - thanks to a significant spike into today's close.The Debt Drugs Don’t Work
by Bill Bonner, Daily Reckoning.com.au:
First, here’s Nobel Prize-winning Joseph Stiglitz calling for more spending by the feds:
‘For both Europe and America, the danger now is that politicians and markets believe that monetary policy can revive the economy. Unfortunately, its main impact at this point is to distract attention from measures that would truly stimulate growth, including an expansionary fiscal policy and financial-sector reforms that boost lending.’
Yes, get them to spend more money…use more resources on crackpot schemes. Give more money to zombies.
Why not? The whole idea is to boost spending. Or as Stiglitz would say, to ‘increase demand’. Well, nobody is more demanding than a zombie…especially when he’s got a gun in his hand and someone else’s money in his pocket.
Read More @ DailyReckoning.com.au
We love technology. We wouldn’t invest so much of our time and money in
all things tech – particularly the companies that we invest in and
recommend in our Casey Extraordinary Technology
service – if we didn’t. And while firmly established publicly traded
companies garner the bulk of our investment dollars, it’s important to
keep in mind where these entities got their start. Most successful tech
ventures began in a garage, the back room at a university lab, or on
some secret skunkworks project.
Think Google (a computer lab), Microsoft (a dorm room), and Apple (a
garage). So it behooves us – and all investors in the tech sector – to
stay abreast of the latest developments coming out of these venues in
hopes of stumbling upon the next billion-dollar idea.
In this vein (and in the interest of entertainment) we regularly scour the tech world in search of the most promising, cool, or just plain odd things that have been hacked up in the basements of our fellow geeks. Here are some of our favorites that we’ve come across over the past year:
Eyegaze Computing
This first hack is an excellent illustration of the ease with which modern tech allows some unlikely people to reach a very sophisticated level of innovation.
Read More @ CaseyResearch.com
In this vein (and in the interest of entertainment) we regularly scour the tech world in search of the most promising, cool, or just plain odd things that have been hacked up in the basements of our fellow geeks. Here are some of our favorites that we’ve come across over the past year:
Eyegaze Computing
This first hack is an excellent illustration of the ease with which modern tech allows some unlikely people to reach a very sophisticated level of innovation.
Read More @ CaseyResearch.com
by Justin O’Connell, Dollar Vigilante:
Some call it bootlegging. Some call it racketeering. I call it a business.” – Al Capone
The State Versus Al Capone
When Al Capone rushed back to the court room from his hotel headquarters just in time to hear the jury’s verdict, his bald head was sweating as he put on his loud, green suit jacket to accompany his green suit (one of the $135 ones, a New York Times journalist wrote at the time, worth about $2,000 in today’s terms). Judge Wilkerson walked gallantly to his seat and faced the jury.
“Gentlemen,” he said, “have you reached a verdict?”
“Yes, sir,” said the foreman in a hardly audible voice.
The verdict, written on a court form, was handed across the bench. The clerk cleared his voice quietly and read:
Read More @ DollarVigilante.com
from visionvictory Some call it bootlegging. Some call it racketeering. I call it a business.” – Al CaponeThe State Versus Al Capone
When Al Capone rushed back to the court room from his hotel headquarters just in time to hear the jury’s verdict, his bald head was sweating as he put on his loud, green suit jacket to accompany his green suit (one of the $135 ones, a New York Times journalist wrote at the time, worth about $2,000 in today’s terms). Judge Wilkerson walked gallantly to his seat and faced the jury.
“Gentlemen,” he said, “have you reached a verdict?”
“Yes, sir,” said the foreman in a hardly audible voice.
The verdict, written on a court form, was handed across the bench. The clerk cleared his voice quietly and read:
Read More @ DollarVigilante.com
by Prof. James Petras, Global Research:
Whenever
financial swindlers prosper at the expense of investors or a bank
jiggers interest rates to bugger their competitors or tax evaders flee
fiscal crises or rent gouging petrol monarchies recycle profits or
oligarchs pillage economies and drive millions to drink, drugs and
destitution they find a suitable secure sanctuary in London. They are
wooed and pursued by big British realtors eager to sell them
multi-million dollar estates, trophy properties and landmark mansions.
Pompous and pretentious British academics convince them to send their progeny to six digit private schools, promising them that when they graduate they will be speaking English through their nasal cavities, rolling their r’s and mastering the art of eloquent but vacuous elocution. British governments, Labor, Liberal, and Conservative, in the best and most hypocritical legal traditions, fashion the legal loopholes to attract the biggest and wealthiest parasites of the world.
Read More @ GlobalResearch.ca
Your support is needed...
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Whenever
financial swindlers prosper at the expense of investors or a bank
jiggers interest rates to bugger their competitors or tax evaders flee
fiscal crises or rent gouging petrol monarchies recycle profits or
oligarchs pillage economies and drive millions to drink, drugs and
destitution they find a suitable secure sanctuary in London. They are
wooed and pursued by big British realtors eager to sell them
multi-million dollar estates, trophy properties and landmark mansions.Pompous and pretentious British academics convince them to send their progeny to six digit private schools, promising them that when they graduate they will be speaking English through their nasal cavities, rolling their r’s and mastering the art of eloquent but vacuous elocution. British governments, Labor, Liberal, and Conservative, in the best and most hypocritical legal traditions, fashion the legal loopholes to attract the biggest and wealthiest parasites of the world.
Read More @ GlobalResearch.ca
Your support is needed...
Thank You
I'm PayPal Verified
by Ben Traynor, Gold Seek:
SPOT MARKET gold bullion prices climbed back above $1770 an ounce
during Thursday morning’s London trading – still a few Dollars below
where it started the week – as the Euro also recovered ground following
falls overnight after Spain had its credit rating cut.
Stock markets edged higher this morning, as did most industrial commodities, while US Treasury bonds fell and German bund prices gained.
Silver bullion climbed as high as $34.33 an ounce, also slightly down on the week.
“We are watching support [for silver] at $33.37,” says bullion bank Scotia Mocatta’s latest technical analysis.
Read More @ GoldSeek.com
SPOT MARKET gold bullion prices climbed back above $1770 an ounce
during Thursday morning’s London trading – still a few Dollars below
where it started the week – as the Euro also recovered ground following
falls overnight after Spain had its credit rating cut.Stock markets edged higher this morning, as did most industrial commodities, while US Treasury bonds fell and German bund prices gained.
Silver bullion climbed as high as $34.33 an ounce, also slightly down on the week.
“We are watching support [for silver] at $33.37,” says bullion bank Scotia Mocatta’s latest technical analysis.
Read More @ GoldSeek.com
Employees
who belong to the National Union of Mineworkers didn’t accept the
offer, spokesman Lesiba Seshoka said in a text message in response to a
Bloomberg query today.
by Paul Burkhardt, MineWeb.com
Members of South Africa’s biggest union rejected a proposal by the
nation’s largest gold companies to raise wages and end strikes that have
crippled the industry.
Employees who belong to the National Union of Mineworkers didn’t accept the offer, spokesman Lesiba Seshoka said in a text message in response to a query today.
AngloGold Ashanti Ltd., Gold Fields Ltd. and Harmony Gold Mining Co. had offered an additional 2 percent raise and Harmony 1.5 percent in categories four through eight this year, Elize Strydom, the chief negotiator at the Chamber of Mines, an industry body that represents the companies in wage talks, said yesterday. Category three, the entry level, would be eliminated in the proposal, meaning the lowest-paid workers would get a wage at the higher category.
Read More @ MineWeb.com
by Paul Burkhardt, MineWeb.com
Members of South Africa’s biggest union rejected a proposal by the
nation’s largest gold companies to raise wages and end strikes that have
crippled the industry.Employees who belong to the National Union of Mineworkers didn’t accept the offer, spokesman Lesiba Seshoka said in a text message in response to a query today.
AngloGold Ashanti Ltd., Gold Fields Ltd. and Harmony Gold Mining Co. had offered an additional 2 percent raise and Harmony 1.5 percent in categories four through eight this year, Elize Strydom, the chief negotiator at the Chamber of Mines, an industry body that represents the companies in wage talks, said yesterday. Category three, the entry level, would be eliminated in the proposal, meaning the lowest-paid workers would get a wage at the higher category.
Read More @ MineWeb.com
By Peter Michaelson, Op Ed News:
Political scientists and other experts say there’s no simple cause of
war. Human nature, they say, is just another ingredient in the recipe
for war, along with varying portions of racism and religion, geography
and language, and economics and culture. If so, is war too complex a
problem for us simple people to understand or prevent?
Does war, to put it in the guilt-free passive tense, just happen? Or can war be understood in a way that enables us to take responsibility for this continuing shame upon our species?
Most people cite aggression as a primary cause of war. However, underneath the aggression, deep in our unconscious mind, resides the passivity that enables war to happen. This inner passivity largely takes the form of self-doubt about one’s value and significance. This self-doubt is a void–our heart of darkness–that strands us in the shadows of our better nature. The main cause of war is our difficulty in recognizing this grave liability, this wasteland in our psyche where our humanity has not yet penetrated.
Read More @ OpedNews.com
Augason Farms Hard Red Wheat - 45 lb. Pail - Emergency Preparedness (Google Affiliate Ad)
from RonPaulCC2012 :
Political scientists and other experts say there’s no simple cause of
war. Human nature, they say, is just another ingredient in the recipe
for war, along with varying portions of racism and religion, geography
and language, and economics and culture. If so, is war too complex a
problem for us simple people to understand or prevent?Does war, to put it in the guilt-free passive tense, just happen? Or can war be understood in a way that enables us to take responsibility for this continuing shame upon our species?
Most people cite aggression as a primary cause of war. However, underneath the aggression, deep in our unconscious mind, resides the passivity that enables war to happen. This inner passivity largely takes the form of self-doubt about one’s value and significance. This self-doubt is a void–our heart of darkness–that strands us in the shadows of our better nature. The main cause of war is our difficulty in recognizing this grave liability, this wasteland in our psyche where our humanity has not yet penetrated.
Read More @ OpedNews.com
Augason Farms Hard Red Wheat - 45 lb. Pail - Emergency Preparedness (Google Affiliate Ad)
from RonPaulCC2012 :
by Paul Kiel, Pro Publica:
Late last year, the country’s bank regulators launched a massive
program to evaluate millions of foreclosure cases and compensate
homeowners who fell victim to the banks’ flawed or illegal practices.
Regulators dubbed it the “Independent Foreclosure Review” to emphasize
that the banks would not be making key decisions about loans they had
made or serviced.
But a raft of evidence — internal [1] Bank of America memos [2] and emails obtained by ProPublica, interviews with two bank staff members who have worked on the review, and little-noticed documents released late last year by a federal banking regulator — throw the independence of the review into serious doubt. Together, they indicate that Bank of America — the financial giant with the largest number of homeowners eligible for the program — is performing much of the work itself.
The ultimate decision as to whether and how much a homeowner will be compensated is not made by Bank of America, the evidence shows, but is based largely on work that the bank itself performs. One current employee called that crucial judgment “only a matter of double checking” the bank’s work.
Read More @ ProPublica.org
BTFD...
Late last year, the country’s bank regulators launched a massive
program to evaluate millions of foreclosure cases and compensate
homeowners who fell victim to the banks’ flawed or illegal practices.
Regulators dubbed it the “Independent Foreclosure Review” to emphasize
that the banks would not be making key decisions about loans they had
made or serviced.
But a raft of evidence — internal [1] Bank of America memos [2] and emails obtained by ProPublica, interviews with two bank staff members who have worked on the review, and little-noticed documents released late last year by a federal banking regulator — throw the independence of the review into serious doubt. Together, they indicate that Bank of America — the financial giant with the largest number of homeowners eligible for the program — is performing much of the work itself.
The ultimate decision as to whether and how much a homeowner will be compensated is not made by Bank of America, the evidence shows, but is based largely on work that the bank itself performs. One current employee called that crucial judgment “only a matter of double checking” the bank’s work.
Read More @ ProPublica.org
BTFD...
from Gold Core:
Gold remains robust in euro terms at €1,364.50/oz and remains less
than only 1% away from new record highs in the single currency (see
chart).
India and China are embarking on their peak consumption season which may create a boost to the physical market.
The far from resolved debt crisis in Greece, Spain and most countries in the western world means that this is another correction and investors and store of wealth buyers should continue to accumulate on the dip.
Prices may remain contained until after the U.S. election but we expect that soon after the election (we expect Obama to be re-elected), precious metal prices will again surge. Indeed, from November into the early months of 2013, we could see one of the largest upward price movements in gold and silver so far in their bull markets.
U.S. election years tend to see gold underperform vis-à-vis other years and this was seen in 2004 (+4.7%) and 2008 (+5%) when gold saw only marginal gains compared to the 17% annualised dollar returns seen in that decade.
Post election years saw stronger gains – with a 22% in 2005 and a 25% return in 2009.
Read More @ GoldCore.com
Gold remains robust in euro terms at €1,364.50/oz and remains less
than only 1% away from new record highs in the single currency (see
chart). India and China are embarking on their peak consumption season which may create a boost to the physical market.
The far from resolved debt crisis in Greece, Spain and most countries in the western world means that this is another correction and investors and store of wealth buyers should continue to accumulate on the dip.
Prices may remain contained until after the U.S. election but we expect that soon after the election (we expect Obama to be re-elected), precious metal prices will again surge. Indeed, from November into the early months of 2013, we could see one of the largest upward price movements in gold and silver so far in their bull markets.
U.S. election years tend to see gold underperform vis-à-vis other years and this was seen in 2004 (+4.7%) and 2008 (+5%) when gold saw only marginal gains compared to the 17% annualised dollar returns seen in that decade.
Post election years saw stronger gains – with a 22% in 2005 and a 25% return in 2009.
Read More @ GoldCore.com
from KingWorldNews:
Today John Embry told King World News, “We
are literally witnessing a war between the physical buyers (Eastern
central banks), and the paper manipulators (commercials or bullion
banks), and that is why there is such a fierce battle being waged in
gold between $1,735 and $1,800.” Embry also stated, “If
the commercials run into trouble (with their massive short positions),
KWN readers will see a move in gold that will leave them breathless.”
Here is what Embry, who is Chief Investment Strategist at Sprott Asset Management, had to say: “This is one of those moments in the gold market where there is a distinct possibility that we will see a commercial signal failure. A commercial signal failure is an extremely rare event, but we could well be setting up for just such an occurrence right now.”
John Embry continues @ KingWorldNews.com
Today John Embry told King World News, “We
are literally witnessing a war between the physical buyers (Eastern
central banks), and the paper manipulators (commercials or bullion
banks), and that is why there is such a fierce battle being waged in
gold between $1,735 and $1,800.” Embry also stated, “If
the commercials run into trouble (with their massive short positions),
KWN readers will see a move in gold that will leave them breathless.”Here is what Embry, who is Chief Investment Strategist at Sprott Asset Management, had to say: “This is one of those moments in the gold market where there is a distinct possibility that we will see a commercial signal failure. A commercial signal failure is an extremely rare event, but we could well be setting up for just such an occurrence right now.”
John Embry continues @ KingWorldNews.com
How's that Hopey Changey thing working out for you?...
by Mac Slavo, SHTFPlan:
One key measure of global economic health is how much freight – raw
materials and manufactured goods – is being shipped around the world and
in the United States. In July of this year the Balctic Dry Index, a
measure of the price to pay for the movement of raw materials by sea, hit a record breaking low and signaled a steep decline in global manufacturing and consumption.
This was a key indicator for where the economy was headed on a global scale.
Just a few months later we’ve received confirmation of this trend from FedEx, one of the largest shipping companies in the world.
Yes, Americans are still shopping, but they aren’t shopping at the same pace they were five years ago. Their jobs have been eliminated, wages reduced and credit has been restricted. FedEx’s latest earnings report is proof positive of this:
Read More @ SHTFPlan.com
Thank You
I'm PayPal Verified
One key measure of global economic health is how much freight – raw
materials and manufactured goods – is being shipped around the world and
in the United States. In July of this year the Balctic Dry Index, a
measure of the price to pay for the movement of raw materials by sea, hit a record breaking low and signaled a steep decline in global manufacturing and consumption.This was a key indicator for where the economy was headed on a global scale.
Just a few months later we’ve received confirmation of this trend from FedEx, one of the largest shipping companies in the world.
Yes, Americans are still shopping, but they aren’t shopping at the same pace they were five years ago. Their jobs have been eliminated, wages reduced and credit has been restricted. FedEx’s latest earnings report is proof positive of this:
Read More @ SHTFPlan.com
from Testosterone Pit.com:
It’s been a phenomenal circus, the screaming and hollering on all sides
about the “fiscal cliff,” in the media, from lawmakers, from chieftains
of our industries, particularly those that feed at the government’s big
trough, such as defense contractors, which include some of the largest
global corporations. Even NPR this morning postulated that it would
cause a million job losses. Hysteria comes to mind.
The fiscal cliff is to the US what the Troika is to Greece: an unwelcome dose of self-imposed half-assed discipline. Self-imposed in Greece because they could send the Troika packing, default on the rest of their euro debt, revert to the drachma, and print themselves into poverty [Greece, Tell Brussels “To Take A Hike” And Let The Troika Bail Out The ECB Instead]. Self-imposed in the US because Congress passed, and the President signed, the laws that make up the fiscal cliff. And half-assed because it doesn’t mean that either country will ever live within its means.
According to the fear mongers out there, the US would fall off that fiscal cliff if (most notably):
- the Bush tax cuts are allowed to expire, sending us back to where we were before.
Read More @ TestosteronePit.com
Your support is needed...
It’s been a phenomenal circus, the screaming and hollering on all sides
about the “fiscal cliff,” in the media, from lawmakers, from chieftains
of our industries, particularly those that feed at the government’s big
trough, such as defense contractors, which include some of the largest
global corporations. Even NPR this morning postulated that it would
cause a million job losses. Hysteria comes to mind.The fiscal cliff is to the US what the Troika is to Greece: an unwelcome dose of self-imposed half-assed discipline. Self-imposed in Greece because they could send the Troika packing, default on the rest of their euro debt, revert to the drachma, and print themselves into poverty [Greece, Tell Brussels “To Take A Hike” And Let The Troika Bail Out The ECB Instead]. Self-imposed in the US because Congress passed, and the President signed, the laws that make up the fiscal cliff. And half-assed because it doesn’t mean that either country will ever live within its means.
According to the fear mongers out there, the US would fall off that fiscal cliff if (most notably):
- the Bush tax cuts are allowed to expire, sending us back to where we were before.
Read More @ TestosteronePit.com
from, via Wealth Wire:
It is still amazing how few people realize how subsidized the housing market really is…
I have talked to people that walked into a too big to fail bank, received a government-backed mortgage yet assume this is somehow the “free market” at work. Even after pulling up their loan on a public Fannie Mae database they still want to believe they are participating in a free-market. Why? Ultimately it is a direct benefit to their bottom line. The housing market lost any free-market label post-Great Depression. Plus, that bank is only able to function courtesy of rewriting accounting rules and trillions of dollars in emergency loans.
For over a generation the loans that were made were conservative, required a large down payment, and came at a time when household incomes were rising. We can argue the merits of government-banking intervention (i.e., the Fed with QE3, mortgage interest deduction, etc) yet the market is now fully addicted on all these external factors. A Pandora’s Box has been opened and now every action that is taken is more extreme and more permanent. Yet the housing market of today is nothing like the one many baby boomers grew up in and eventually purchased. Demographics and stagnant incomes will create different variables for the housing market going forward.
Read More @ WealthWire.com
Beneath a façade of tedious price action, U.S. stocks appear to be
weakening by the hour. Yesterday, for instance, the Dow couldn’t even
muster a 100-point boost on news that jobless claims had fallen by
30,000 in the week ended October 6. Earlier this year, before our
perennially recovering economy encountered some stiff recessionary
headwinds, that stat would have been worth at least 150 Dow points on
the opening. This time around, though, DaBoyz could milk only a paltry
84-point gain from it. When a second-wind flurry of buying failed to
drive the blue chip average any higher, it was time to unload. We said
so in the Rick’s Picks chat room at the time, noting that the rally felt
“doomed,” as it indeed was. Have investors finally figured out that
virtually all employment-related statistics, especially so close to the
election, are economically meaningless at best and brazen lies at worst?
Even if they have, it would hardly have mattered. Since early in 2009,
and up until recently, any item from the Labor Department that was
other than catastrophic has been seized upon by institutional traders to
stampede bears into short-covering. As we’ve pointed out here many
times before, that’s the only kind of buying powerful enough to push
stocks through levels of supply or to jolt shares from doldrums. Now,
this effect appears to be dead, or at least dying.
Read More @ RickAckerman.com
It is still amazing how few people realize how subsidized the housing market really is…
I have talked to people that walked into a too big to fail bank, received a government-backed mortgage yet assume this is somehow the “free market” at work. Even after pulling up their loan on a public Fannie Mae database they still want to believe they are participating in a free-market. Why? Ultimately it is a direct benefit to their bottom line. The housing market lost any free-market label post-Great Depression. Plus, that bank is only able to function courtesy of rewriting accounting rules and trillions of dollars in emergency loans.
For over a generation the loans that were made were conservative, required a large down payment, and came at a time when household incomes were rising. We can argue the merits of government-banking intervention (i.e., the Fed with QE3, mortgage interest deduction, etc) yet the market is now fully addicted on all these external factors. A Pandora’s Box has been opened and now every action that is taken is more extreme and more permanent. Yet the housing market of today is nothing like the one many baby boomers grew up in and eventually purchased. Demographics and stagnant incomes will create different variables for the housing market going forward.
Read More @ WealthWire.com
Ignore Signs of Distribution at Your Peril
by Rick Ackerman, Rick Ackerman.com:
Beneath a façade of tedious price action, U.S. stocks appear to be
weakening by the hour. Yesterday, for instance, the Dow couldn’t even
muster a 100-point boost on news that jobless claims had fallen by
30,000 in the week ended October 6. Earlier this year, before our
perennially recovering economy encountered some stiff recessionary
headwinds, that stat would have been worth at least 150 Dow points on
the opening. This time around, though, DaBoyz could milk only a paltry
84-point gain from it. When a second-wind flurry of buying failed to
drive the blue chip average any higher, it was time to unload. We said
so in the Rick’s Picks chat room at the time, noting that the rally felt
“doomed,” as it indeed was. Have investors finally figured out that
virtually all employment-related statistics, especially so close to the
election, are economically meaningless at best and brazen lies at worst?
Even if they have, it would hardly have mattered. Since early in 2009,
and up until recently, any item from the Labor Department that was
other than catastrophic has been seized upon by institutional traders to
stampede bears into short-covering. As we’ve pointed out here many
times before, that’s the only kind of buying powerful enough to push
stocks through levels of supply or to jolt shares from doldrums. Now,
this effect appears to be dead, or at least dying.Read More @ RickAckerman.com
We last reported on widespread drought the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) called “the biggest disaster in history,” in a July 31 piece called Food Prices – It’s Lights Out for Agriculture.
Today we update the situation in the context of a new QE printing
program and the outlook for the coming months. Of course, we develop our
long-held position that quickly rising food prices will trigger a
search for money of stable value.
In conjunction with the chart above, the drought is best observed in the average yield–how many bushels of corn are produced per acre. Average yield is estimated to be the smallest since 1995 at 122.0, bushels per acre, compared to estimates of 122.8 last month, averaging 147.2 last year.
Corn supply is hovering near historic lows, while this year’s crop, according to the newest USDA estimates, will be 13% less than 2011, 21 million bushels less than the September estimate. This has pushed prices closer to recent highs today, pulling wheat prices along for the ride.
Read More @ WealthCycles.com
In conjunction with the chart above, the drought is best observed in the average yield–how many bushels of corn are produced per acre. Average yield is estimated to be the smallest since 1995 at 122.0, bushels per acre, compared to estimates of 122.8 last month, averaging 147.2 last year.
Corn supply is hovering near historic lows, while this year’s crop, according to the newest USDA estimates, will be 13% less than 2011, 21 million bushels less than the September estimate. This has pushed prices closer to recent highs today, pulling wheat prices along for the ride.
Read More @ WealthCycles.com
by Greg Hunter, USAWatchdog:
The Vice Presidential debate was this week, and it was supposed to get into the real down and dirty numbers. Vice Presidents rarely make a difference in the outcome of a Presidential election, so who cares who won. I am focusing on what is not said, and both parties conveniently leave out the $85 billion a month the Fed is printing to bail out bankers and suppress interest rates. Both parties get plenty of help from the mainstream media not talking about the real issues. For example, yesterday’s USA Today ran a piece titled “Analysis: Recovery begins to look normal.” This is analysis? You’ve got to be kidding me. What is “normal” about unprecedented money printing that will total more than $1 trillion a year and interest rates frozen to near 0% until 2015? If the U.S. was in a real so-called “recovery,” the Fed would not be printing $85 billion a month in “open-ended” (unlimited) QE, or what most people simply call money printing. By the way, the IMF said this week it sees an “alarmingly high” risk of a much deeper worldwide downturn. I guess the IMF doesn’t see a recovery either.
Read More @ USAWatchdog.com
The Vice Presidential debate was this week, and it was supposed to get into the real down and dirty numbers. Vice Presidents rarely make a difference in the outcome of a Presidential election, so who cares who won. I am focusing on what is not said, and both parties conveniently leave out the $85 billion a month the Fed is printing to bail out bankers and suppress interest rates. Both parties get plenty of help from the mainstream media not talking about the real issues. For example, yesterday’s USA Today ran a piece titled “Analysis: Recovery begins to look normal.” This is analysis? You’ve got to be kidding me. What is “normal” about unprecedented money printing that will total more than $1 trillion a year and interest rates frozen to near 0% until 2015? If the U.S. was in a real so-called “recovery,” the Fed would not be printing $85 billion a month in “open-ended” (unlimited) QE, or what most people simply call money printing. By the way, the IMF said this week it sees an “alarmingly high” risk of a much deeper worldwide downturn. I guess the IMF doesn’t see a recovery either.
Read More @ USAWatchdog.com
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