2008 Deja Vu? Treasury Warns Congress - Bailout Puerto Rico Or Risk "Chaotic Unwinds... Cascading Defaults"

They will print money to Infinity and Beyond...

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/02/2016 - 13:39
In a disappointingly similar tone to the warnings, threats, and promises sent to Congress in 2008 when demanding the banks get their bailout (or else), Treasury Secretary Jack lew has released a letter he sent to Congress warning that if Puerto Rico's situation is not "fixed" in an "orderly" manner "quickly" then the nation will face "cascading defaults."

Is Charlie Munger Becoming Austrian: "It Was Massively Stupid For Our Government To Print So Much Money "

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/02/2016 - 13:19 Any moment now we expect Paul Krugman to come out with an op-ed suggesting that not just Time magazine, but Charlie Munger is the latest to join ZH payroll following what were some surprising comments by Warren Buffett's right hand man earlier today on CNBC when he said that "the U.S. is looking more like Japan given the prolonged low-interest-rate environment." The one phrase which Krugman will surely have something to say about was the following: "I strongly suspect it was massively stupid for our government to rely so heavily on printing money and so lightly on fiscal stimulus and infrastructure," Munger told CNBC's "Squawk Box."

9/11 Damage Control Begins: CIA Director Warns "28 Pages" Contains Inaccurate Information

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/02/2016 - 14:00 It appears the reality of the so-called "28 pages" - removed from the 9/11 Commission report - being unclassified may be getting closer and many suspect. Why do we say that? Because none other than CIA Director John Brennan did the Sunday talk-show circuit to start the propaganda, playing-down the report's significance, warning that information in the 28 pages hasn't been vetted or corroborated, adding that releasing the information would give ammunition to those who want to tie the terror attacks to Saudi Arabia - "I think there's a combination of things that are accurate and inaccurate [in the report]."

A Decade Of Maximum Peril

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/02/2016 - 12:55 The sad truth may be that rackets of this kind are unreformable, and that we can’t begin to do things differently until they collapse. Likewise in virtually all other areas of American life, the real trend as yet un-discussed in this election campaign, will be unwinding and downscaling of the onerous, toxic hyper-complexity of the age now passing and finding our way to a workable re-set of what used to be known as political-economy. In the meantime: a clown show.

"The Claims Don't Add Up" - Is The "Unmasking" Of Bitcoin's Satoshi Nakamoto Just A Publicity Stunt

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/02/2016 - 12:40 Earlier today we reported that in what many are convinced is just another self-gratifying publicity stunt, Australian entrepreneur Craig Wright "outed" himself as bitcoin's mysterious creator "Satoshi Nakamoto" by unleashing a major PR campaign and revealing his "identity" to three media organizations - the BBC, the Economist and GQ.  However, reading between the lines suggests there is much more to this story (or perhaps lie) and as many questions emerge the search for the real Satoshi will continue...

"We'll Want People Who Previously Didn't Know Where We Were" - Goldman Makes Push Into Smaller Retail Prey

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/02/2016 - 12:15 We suspect those clients who previously didn't know the vampire squid will be very well acquainted with them in short order.

"Fairness" & Earth's Greatest Currency Manipulator

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/02/2016 - 11:55 The 2016 election has laid bare the deep insecurity of America’s ageing working-class, their resentment toward foreigners, competition, change. While America’s youth clamor for fairness, a future free from crushing student debt, the oppression of a government owned by and run for big business, the US Treasury is responding, warning our trading partners against artificially weakening their currencies, stealing our growth, depressing our wages, destroying our jobs.

WTI Crude Tumbles To $44 Handle After Big Cushing Build

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/02/2016 - 11:48 Following last week's shocking 1.75mm barrel build at Cushing, Genscape just reported an estimated 821k build which has stunned market participants apparently, sending WTI tumbling back to a $44 handle. Will this be the summer of 2015 oil re-run?

This Is "Another Sign That Wall Street Doesn’t Believe The Rally" According To BofA

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/02/2016 - 11:37 "In April, the Sell Side Indicator — our measure of Wall Street’s bullishness on stocks — fell by 1ppt to 51.9, its lowest level in over a year. This was the indicator’s biggest one-month drop in the past two years, as the S&P 500 rallied 15% from the February lows through mid-April.... While sentiment has improved significantly off of the 2012 bottom, today's sentiment levels are still below where they were at the market lows of March 2009."

“Nightmare” Mistake: Visa Free Travel For 80 Million Turks Coming Up

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/02/2016 - 11:13 Of all the inane, self-serving, deals German Chancellor Angela Merkel made with Turkey, visa-free travel for 80 million Islamic Turks tops the list. “This is all a nightmare,” said one diplomat charged with making  the deal work. Nightmares aside, Brussels Prepares Legal Groundwork on Visa-Free Travel for Turks.

Atlantic City Avoids First NJ Municipal Default Since Great Depression, Makes $1.8 Million Bond Payment

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/02/2016 - 10:55 It is only Puerto Rico who will be on the default docket today because in the last possible minute, Atlantic City's mayor Don Guardian announced that his city had made the required $1.8 million in interest payments due May 1, averting what would have been New Jersey’s first municipal default since the Great Depression as state lawmakers bicker over how to assist the troubled gaming hub.

TTIP Leaked Documents Show Obama Demands Killing Paris Accord Against Climate Change

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/02/2016 - 10:42 "248 pages of leaked Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiating texts” show that the American negotiating position, as Greenpeace put the matter, allows "No place for climate protection in TTIP,” and, though "We have known that the EU position was bad, now we see the US position is even worse.”

Another "Conspiracy Theory" Confirmed: ECB Finds Widespread Trading On Leaked Inside Information

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/02/2016 - 10:41 ECB: "information of many macroeconomic announcements is known by some market participants in advance"

Translation: the market was and remains rigged

"No End In Sight To Current Downturn" - US Manufacturing Plunges To Sept 2009 Lows

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/02/2016 - 10:04 Following April's flash PMI print plunge to cycle lows - blamed on the presidential election uncertainty - Markit's Final Manufacturing PMI printed 50.8 (as expected) its lowest since September 2009. New orders weakened further as the rate of job creation tumbles to thre-year lows. ISM Manufacturing fell back from its oddly decoupled bounce to July 2015 highs to a coincidental 50.8 (missing expectations of 51.4). As Markit concludes, apparently peddling fiction, "the April PMI data suggest there’s no end in sight to the current downturn in manufacturing activity...raising question marks over whether GDP growth will improve on the near-stalling seen in the first three months of the year."

Goldman Throws In The Bearish Yen Towel: "There Is Little Doubt That The USDJPY Will Keep Falling"

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/02/2016 - 09:40 "There is little doubt in our minds that $/JPY will keep falling in the near term, until Governor Kuroda is forced to respond with overwhelming force. We therefore hold to our structural view that $/JPY ultimately will go a lot higher. But in the short term, it will fall.... Until Governor Kuroda is willing to grab the bulls by the horns and confront market fears over the BoJ’s balance sheet, the path of least resistance for $/JPY is down"

Europe's Migration Crisis: No End In Sight

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/02/2016 - 09:26

According to France's Defense Minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, 800,000 migrants are currently in Libyan territory waiting to cross the Mediterranean. The multitude of very costly social problems that Muslim migration into Europe has caused thus far, do not exist in this whitewashed European Union report, where the "research" indicates that migrants are always a boon. Similarly, any mention of the very real security costs necessitated by the Islamization occurring in Europe, and the need for monitoring of potential jihadists, simply goes unmentioned. Several European states have a less optimistic picture of the prospect of another three million migrants arriving on Europe's borders than either the Pope or the European Commission do.

Two Charts Showing How Dazed And Confused Hedge Fund Traders Currently Are

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/02/2016 - 09:05 For months, the best performing strategy of 2016 was being long "low hedge fund concentration stocks." Amusingly, as of a few days ago, the second best performing strategy of 2016 is being long "high hedge fund concentration stocks", demonstrating vividly just how schizophrenic hedge fund traders have become...

Why China Is Really Dictating The Oil Supply Glut

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/02/2016 - 08:43 Similar to Saudi Arabia, which is a swing producer, China is acting like a swing consumer. However, as China doesn’t report its storage data, it is difficult to estimate how long this trend will continue. Though other factors were involved in encouraging the bulls to buy at lower levels, the increased demand from China also helped in lapping up the excess production. If their imports drop, the world will return to the supply glut and oil prices will retrace back to the lower $30s per barrel.

Gold Surges To Jan 2015 Highs, Tops $1300 As Euro Hits 9-Month High

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/02/2016 - 08:18 A lack of intervention in the Yen and strength in EUR have combined to weigh on the US dollar (following the Treasury's "currency manipulator" report. Bloomberg's USD Index is back at one-year lows as, while overnight chaos sent stocks higher, it has driven investors into the safety of bonds (Treasury yields down 2-3bps) and precious metals. Gold topped $1300 and Silver $18 as EURUSD pushes above 1.1500...

The Best And Worst Performing Assets In April

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/02/2016 - 08:08

After Failed Halliburton Deal, Baker Hughes Unveils "Path For The Future" Including $2.5BN Stock, Bond Buyback

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/02/2016 - 07:21 While it wasn't exactly breaking news, with consensus having long ago decided that Halliburton and Baker Hughes would ultimately call off their ill-timed $28 billion merger announced in late 2014 following recurring media leaks, overnight the two companies officially ended speculation when they announced that the contested merger would be called off, resulting in a $3.5 billion termination fee payable to Baker Hughes. And with its immediate future somewhat in limbo, moments ago Baker Hughes outlined its "path for the future."

The End Of America?: 13 Catastrophic Events Which Could Soon Lead To An American Apocalypse

by Michael Snyder, The Economic Collapse Blog:

Is the strongest and most powerful nation on the planet headed for an apocalypse which will bring it to its knees?  We live in a world that is becoming increasingly unstable, and apocalyptic themes have become very common in books, movies, television shows and video games.  It is almost as if there is an unconscious understanding on a societal level that something very big and very bad is coming, even if the vast majority of the population cannot specifically identify what that is going to be.  Last week, the Global Challenges Foundation released a new report entitled “Global Catastrophic Risks 2016” in which they discussed various apocalyptic events that they believe could wipe out more than 10 percent of the population of our planet, and they warned that these types of events “are more likely than we intuitively think”…
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Cruz’s Hemlock Beverage Served To The GOP

from The Burning Platform:

Cruz is at it again.
In two states over the weekend Cruz’s “ground game” steamrolled state conventions following losses in those state primaries, putting overwhelming majorities of delegates on the state slate that support Ted.  In Arizona, for example, Cruz lost by roughly half compared to Trump; 47% to 25% (Kascish got 10% and the rest went to candidates who have dropped out.)
How does a political party manage to justify a delegate split that doesn’t look like 47-25-10, roughly?  Oh sure, such a result might be “legal” under the rules of the party, and further on the first ballot the delegates are all “required” to vote as pledged, but that’s not the point of the exercise and Cruz knows it.
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Donald Trump Has the Chance to Complete the Unfinished Work of JFK

by Dave Hodges, The Common Sense Show:

When it comes to vilifying his political enemies, Donald Trump is a master of reducing the computed character of his opponents through short, catchy phrases:
“Little Marco.”
“Lyin’ Ted.”
“Crooked Hillary.“
We have heard these insults over and over. Trump is a master at using insults in such a way that they stay indelibly embedded upon our consciousness in a manner that they are not easily forgotten. And as the Washington Post has noted, these insults have gathered media coverage and these insults are immortalized because Trump has the courage to speak the truth.
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CIA Runs Public Relations Spotlighting 5 Year Anniversary Of Osama Bin Laden “Raid”

by Kerry Flynn, The News Doctors:

TND Editor’s Note:  Osama Bin Laden, also known by his CIA cover “Tim Osman,” is perhaps the most famous man to have been officially killed or expired on at least three occasions following September 11, 2001.
In the 10 years that Twitter has been around, celebrities and fans have tweeted along, in 140 characters or less, to live events. But there are some things that people — especially government agencies — choose not to share.
Today, boundaries were crossed. To mark the five-year anniversary of the finding and killing al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, the Central Intelligence Agency chose to tweet the raid as if it was happening live.
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The Magic of Gold Ratio Charts

from GoldSeek:

The first point I would like to make is that many of you are probably wondering how I could reverse my long term bearish view on the precious metals complex to a bullish view in such a short period of time. The other point I’ve been trying to make is to get you positioned and sit tight, as this new bull market is just getting started. Understanding the Chartology of this sector from the many different precious metals stock indexes, to individual PM stocks and especially the combo ratio charts, paints a picture that if one keeps an open mind and truly understands what is taking place right now, getting positioned and sitting tight makes alot of sense. This is easier said than done of course.
Many are surprised by the magnitude of this bull market rally in the precious metals complex and are trying to come up with all kinds of reasons why it should or shouldn’t be taking place right now, based on whatever trading discipline they’re using.
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The Open Secrets of Modern America

by Nick Hodge, Outsider Club:

One of the reasons I founded Outsider Club — several years ago now! — was because of the fallout from the financial crisis and the Establishment’s response to it.
Stocks were breaking out to new all-time highs but there wasn’t a shred of recovery in sight. Good jobs were replaced with worse jobs, lower paying jobs. A record number simply dropped out of the labor market altogether. But executives at banks — with shots of Federal free-money coursing through their veins — were being showered with record bonuses.
The mess they caused to begin with was nowhere near resolved — and still isn’t — and the tools the Establishment used to resolve it only further exacerbated the underlying problems and widened the inequality gap.
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A Pro- and Anti-War Dialogue

from Washington’s Blog:

Anti-War Advocate: Is there a case that can be made for war?
Pro-War Advocate: Well, yes. In a word: Hitler!
Anti-War Advocate: Is “Hitler!” a case for future wars? Let me suggest some reasons why I think it isn’t. First, the world of the 1940s is gone, its colonialism and imperialism replaced by other varieties, its absence of nuclear weapons replaced by their ever-present threat. No matter how many people you call “Hitler,” none of them is Hitler, none of them is seeking to roll tanks into wealthy nations. And, no, Russia did not invade Ukraine any of the numerous times you heard that reported in recent years. In fact, the U.S. government facilitated a coup that empowered Nazis in Ukraine. And even those Nazis are not “Hitler!”
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Massive vaccine protests erupt in China over widespread deaths of children … Govt. responds by arresting protesters

by Amy Goodrich, Natural News:
Recently, a massive vaccine scandal in China exposed the weakness of government efforts to build up China’s immunization program. It uncovered the system’s flaws regarding the way in which vaccines are distributed, and revealed close links between vendors and government clinics.
Although the vaccines were made by licensed manufacturers, they were transported and stored without any refrigeration, and then sold by unlicensed distributors. Improper storing conditions may have ruined the vaccines, leaving children unprotected and at risk of disabilities and death.
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