Sunday, October 31, 2010

Our Annual Post Of The Top 41 Untruths Perpetuated By Wall Street

We have put this posting up in October for four years now. These are major themes we wrote about years ago.  Obviously before our first post of this list. When this was first posted, we were still in a bull market so obviously they were generally considered to be views of a crackpot by the brilliant savants on Wall Street and our political leaders in Washington.

All of these untruths have proven to be accurate or there are seeds still building in their development. Since we are far from out of this crisis, none of my work or analysis on these issues has changed.  It may appear that they have but in fact all the crooks are doing is making many of the unfulfilled untruths that much worse before they manifest themselves.

If nothing else, this is a reminder of the constant media manipulation and self-delusion that belief systems create. As an example, it's pretty hard to remember before the collapse all of the incessant babble on CNBC and on Wall Street about how much global liquidity existed. And how bullish that was for the future. Contrarily, we were writing of coming liquidity shocks and the highest risk of a credit crunch in my lifetime - views that no one else was talking about before the collapse. 

The same pinheads now talk of quantitative easing guaranteeing the world will again be awash in liquidity.  Remember we have put up at least a dozen posts in the last fifteen months remarking of a dynamic of Wall Street and financial firms batting countless assets back and forth including stocks and commodities and how this would resolve itself.   In other words, the same incompetent financial geniuses with the same beliefs of endless liquidity never seem to go away.  That's because they keep getting bailed out by the corrupt corporatocracy.  Were we to have a working democracy and a merit-based economy, these incompetent and often crooked savants would have been marginalized ages ago.

Top 41 Untruths Perpetrated by Wall Street
  1. We will get a healthy and much needed 10% correction and restart the second phase of a multi-year bull market
  2. Buy this dip because because earnings were great
  3. There is too much global liquidity for the markets to go down
  4. Interest rates must go up to kill the commodity run, inflation and the global equity markets
  5. China is an economic miracle
  6. The 21st century is the Asian century
  7. The U.S. (and I guess by implication all democracies) has lost its economic leadership
  8. The stock market is cheap
  9. Risk management.....Well, need I say more
  10. Continued globalization is a foregone conclusion
  11. Emerging markets and (Brazil, Russia, India, China) are a safe havens while the U.S. economy and dollar craters
  12. American manufacturers cannot compete and offshoring or doom is inevitable
  13. The dollar is doomed because America is a land of spend happy dunces
  14. Capital equipment spending will rise from the ashes and drive us to a new bull run
  15. The Federal Reserve will save the economy and by implication the stock market when they cut rates
  16. Financials are defensive stocks because they pay a dividend
  17. Defensive stocks are a great investment in any coming market decline
  18. Inflation is out of control and interest rates must go higher
  19. This has been the best global growth story ever and it's unstoppable
  20. The American consumer and the housing market are the major concerns behind a recession. (They are symptoms.)
  21. Oil is at a permanently high plateau
  22. Commodities are in a twenty year bull market (Maybe many years of yo-yo action)
  23. The rest of the world will pull the global economy through US weakness
  24. Global companies get more than half of their earnings overseas and that makes them a great investment
  25. There is always a bull market somewhere. (Yeah, and it will likely be in the U.S. dollar comparatively)
  26. Sentiment is too bearish for the market to sell off
  27. The U.S. doesn't drive the global economy any more
  28. Markets must exhibit mania and blow off to have a peak (That's double speak for people who don't know what's going on and they need a sign from God to see a market topping)
  29. The Federal Reserve is printing money (Total baloney)
  30. Alan Greenspan caused all of this (Although he didn't help)
  31. Goldman Sachs is a great investment
  32. This can't be a top because Goldman is levered to the hilt
  33. Wall Street is smart money
  34. It is different this time
  35. The real estate slow down will be contained
  36. The US is a service economy and manufacturing doesn't matter anymore
  37. The consumer loves high gasoline prices (or more eloquently spoken by Wall Street as high oil prices haven't hurt the consumer)
  38. Unemployment is at 4.5% and by implication the economy is great
  39. Apple and Google are the next great thing and deserve their stratospheric valuations (As I said before, I'd rather own all of the equities in Thailand than Google for the same sum of money.)
  40. The Fed equity valuation model tells us the market is very undervalued
  41. This final one is for emphasis and has actually been discussed above: the dollar will crater if the Fed cuts rates.
posted by TimingLogic at 11:59 PM

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Let's Take A Unique Look At The Greek Crisis Through A VERY Different Lens Than Found Any Place Else - The Lens Of Reality That The U.S.'s Financial System Enables Global Predation And Theft

As promised some months ago....  Now is a good time for this post anyway because the criminal Greek austerity measures recommended by IMF and eurozone political idiots and their crooked banking buddies are starting bear fruit.  Unfortunately, it's not the fruit they told us these efforts would bear but instead the fruit of lies and deceit.   Let's get real.  You can't cut society's wages by some massive amount and then burden society with even more debt.  This is more asinine neoliberalism.  Tyranny. Fraud. Corruption.  Greece is going to default.  It's just a matter of when.  I think they should do it now before the social fabric of the country is completely decimated by banksters and crooked politicians.  Austerity is the plan of the day for the corrupt and their useful idiots in society who have no idea they are supporting their own demise.  Austerity or cutting back on necessary support programs for poor or underprivileged people in times of economic crisis has one main purpose - to ensure that society has enough money to pay the massive usury of criminal banking systems.  Austerity is for economic idiots.  You cannot cut your way to prosperity.  And that means austerity will lead to future volatility and chaos.  I suspect I learned about the age of three that if I used to have $4 and now I have $2, I am going in the wrong direction.  Austerity doesn't solve any problems.  Yet the neoliberal elites, central banksters, corrupt politicians and foolish economists tell the Greeks that $2 is better than $4.  The free people of Greece should default on their national debt.  Now.  A public banking system and a democratic economic model that allows a self-determined society to become productive is what Greece needs.  Only then will Greece start to rebuild the country's wealth stolen by political stooges and banking crooks.   On to the post........

I had a friend call me during the height of the Greek crisis and ask how it would affect the United States. I thought I would share my remarks from that conversation. It's just a tad different than you will read elsewhere. As we have cited before, the debt load outside of the United States is many times larger than it is in the United States both in nominal as well as percentage terms. On top of that, countries who now have a foreign exchange surplus are some of the highest risk countries as we have highlighted repeatedly over the years. That doesn't mean the United States doesn't have serious problems. It does. Very, very serious problems. But they are all self-inflicted and easily solved. Very, very easily solved.  We simply need leaders with political will and an economic model which supports democracy and empowerment.

Let's look at the Greek crisis through the eyes of reality.  One that shows how our banking system not only preys on people in the United States, and our government institutions,  but also preys on people around the world. A "top ten" time line of the Greek crisis....
  1. American financial firms profit by helping Greece shovel debt onto the market over the past decade
  2. American financial firms acting as consultants (hahaha) help Greece hide its debt problem for the last decade. Obviously using this insider information with the intent of profiting from its coming crisis.
  3. Greek politicians, often involved in bribes, load the country up with even greater debt by signing  unnecessary but personally lucrative deals benefiting corrupt politicians and mostly foreign firms enabled by corrupt banksters who knew Greece couldn't afford such deals because they were helping the country hide their horrendous finances. 
  4. The Greek debt bomb becomes public knowledge as Wall Street crooks start the process of creating a panic. Greece is seemingly helpless to deal with its crisis. Euro countries balk at bailing Greece out. Thus, American ratings agencies downgrade Greece, driving its borrowing costs substantially higher and bringing the crisis to a head.  This is an arbitrary process that could easily be applied to any nation including the United States.  But the process and the firms controlling the process are uniquely American.  Something to think about.
  5. Corrupt American hedge funds and American banks (Wall Street) speculate in the American-created credit default swap market and shove Greece's debt spreads through the roof thus creating a panic in Greek and European debt.
  6. The panic in Europe drives the Euro lower and drives money out of Greece and the Euro into dollars. Who was a primary instigator in dumping the Euro?  You guessed it.  Mostly American hedge funds and American banks thus increasing the sensitivity and panic and creating a self-fulfilling prophecy of crisis even though Greek's finances are really no less awful than those of the United States.
  7. Mostly American financial firms but also many other wealthy crooks are now able to buy Greek debt that yields 14% interest. Why own stocks? (You might want to noodle a little bit on this dynamic before you automagically believe the stock market will react positively with Europe's $1 trillion bailout. In addition to the fact that austerity measures around the world - including inside the U.S. - will drain money out of the global economy at a rapid clip.)
  8. European countries initially reject bailing out Greece. This brings in whom? Why that would be our old friends at the IMF, of course. The IMF, an American-controlled financial institution for countries too corrupt or too stupid to solve their own problems, (nearly everyone) now has the leverage to drive a hard bargain with Greece courtesy of the actions of American ratings agency and American financial institutions who have bombed Greek debt in the credit default swap market.  This is something the IMF has great experience with as it has worked in conjunction with American financial firms to thieve country after country in prior decades.  That includes the Russian panic where American financial firms literally raided the country's banking system of billions.
  9. Greece, with seemingly no alternatives, negotiates a bailout loan with the IMF at terms representative of the speculation used to drive Greece debt over the cliff
  10. The American-controlled IMF recommends austerity measures and demands Greece sell of state-owned assets and decimate its social safety nets benefiting the common people or democracy. This "fire sale" of Greek assets is done under duress thus allowing generally American-controlled private equity and financial institutions to buy Greek assets on the cheap.  ie, The criminal theft of public assets under duress.  (The same dynamic we have talked about repeatedly in the U.S. that is sold under the public-private partnership scam and now the unwinding and fire sale of public assets of state and local governments that is outright theft.  Just like the U.S. mortgage foreclosure fraud we are now seeing.)
  11. Greece becomes either a dollar or euro slave, or both, to the IMF or ECB or both. The bailout either weakens the euro as a possible reserve currency or increases the demand for dollars (depending on the structure of the bailouts) thus cementing the dollar's role as the world's currency. The Euro suffers in its desire to become a world currency and competitor to the dollar given it is in the process of destabilized weakness and widespread financial ruin. That weakness and other dynamics translates into less dollar purchasing power thus allowing the United States to do as it wishes by monetizing its own debt, if necessary.
  12. The end result to this charade, which has the potential to be repeated dozens upon dozens of times around the world? Countries become even more enslaved to American financial hegemony and the dollar.
  13. Let's add a final remark to our time line just for grins and giggles. The world all celebrates how fortunate they are to be bailed out by the endless stream of scumbags at the IMF by witnessing more tyranny choking off the self-determination of free societies by criminal bankers and crooked politicians.  The world truly is ruled by evil.  Hell on earth has indeed come to pass and the great Satan is for-profit banking run amok.
The first thing Greece should have done in this crisis was tell its creditors they needed to take a massive haircut or Greece was going to default on their foreign debt. Or selectively default and renegotiate terms. Or just completely default. And the next thing they should have done was start the process of rebuilding their economy outside of the Euro zone with a public banking system.  Something we wrote at the height of the Greek panic.

People who have been talking about a dollar collapse and/or hyperinflation in the United States for years have no idea what they are talking about. Of course, we have said that many times before. We wrote of the Greece dynamic outlined above years ago. Not for Greece but as a dynamic that would develop across the world by using other countries as examples. ie, The rising demand for dollars as their economies collapsed. And who is one country we said would eventually be scrounging for dollars under this dynamic? Why that's right, our commie-lovin friends in the most crooked of crooked Chinese communist party. At the time I'm sure no one even read that post because it was preposterous to consider. Some people will still believe it is preposterous. That's because most people think with their eyes. They have to see it to believe it. One of the greatest tricks perpetrated by the human mind.

By the time China needs dollars, the United States and China could be in the middle of a fully bloomed conflict of words or economics or worse. The Senate has already stated it is going to label China a currency manipulator in 2010. Given the tensions we see between China and the U.S. we see today, and more importantly the direction the tensions are headed, do you think the American-controlled IMF is going to be happy to lend China substantial sums of money at good terms, if at all? Especially after China has repeatedly flipped the U.S. the bird over the last decade? Baahaa! That's my joke of the millennium. What kind of demands would the IMF possibly place on China?  Global finance is dead. Remember, months or years from now if this happens, you read it here and only here just like countless other dynamics we wrote of in advance of them coming to pass.

Anyone know what caused an enlightened cultural mecca of Europe, Germany, to elect a radical nationalist psychopath, Adolph Hitler, who promised to reassert national sovereignty and right the wrongs of punitive international policies? And what pray tell are we witnessing today other than punitive international policies once again? Could we see a similar dynamic develop in the coming decade some place in the world? And what is another of our long-time predictions? That would be rising nationalism and global strife. Possibly even war. Well, where oh where is globalization? It's dead. Just as we have said countless times.

This Greek crisis is far from over. There are likely to be lawsuits, legal challenges, etc. Who wins if the European Union eventually fails at its own bailout? Why that would be the American-controlled IMF - a war horse of apocalyptic American financial hegemony. (No, that isn't some religious end-of-the-world statement. It just has a pleasant ring of truth to it.)

Most likely there is no way forward for the euro currency.  Period.  We were a first to write of the eventual doom of the euro.  There is either substantial marginalization of the euro or the break up of the European monetary union or a new charter which weakens its existence and power. As freedom-loving people, we should hope for the break up of the monetary union and a sovereign repudiation of private banking, or at least central banking as we know it. And with it, the end of the completely morally-bankrupt global financial system as we know it.

This is what the criminals on Wall Street are doing with our society's money and our savings.  And this is what the political stooges and central banking idiots in Washington endorse by hollowing out our banking regulations,  bailing out massive financial corruption and demanding no serious banking reform.  This is what the Washington Republicans refused to reform and the Washington Democrats didn't reform, both for the same reason - corruption.  All while American people rot as they are denied access to our banking resources.  This is the only reason why poverty is rampant in places like Gary, Indiana and Detroit, Michigan and thousands of other communities.  Wall Street serves no purpose to democracy either at home or abroad.  Contrarily, it serves massive fraud while spreading despair, destruction, corruption and poverty not only within the U.S. but around the world.  The financial fraud in our country today is greater than that in Britain before the Revolutionary War.  The status quo truly is morally bankrupt to the core.  And without moral authority, there is no legitimacy in any form of leadership.  Today's Washington politicians have not earned the right to lead our country.  Instead, we see tyranny.  The tyranny of corruption, fraud and greed.  And when the current round of Washington-endorsed corruption ends up with another round of Wall Street insolvency and crises, they will be coming for your Social Security.  The world is a very different place than what is presented on the television and in the know-nothing mainstream media.

Do you think we might need currency or foreign exchange reform?  Real banking reform?  If you ask the sociopaths on Wall Street who are destroying people's lives, the answer is the system is working perfectly.  Ask the people on main street U.S.A. or in Greece or countless other countries.  As we said, the global currency system as it is set up today doesn't work.  It never has.  That is, unless you are a crook.   

Let's celebrate the "ending" of the Greece crisis with a quote from a famous Greek philosopher who lived long ago.....

"Who loves ya baby?" -- Telly Savalas
posted by TimingLogic at 5:55 AM

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Jeremy Grantham On The Halloween Freak Show ‘Night Of The Living Fed–Something Unbelievably Terrifying’

It's been years since we have remarked of anything Grantham has written. Actually Grantham is one of the few people in the financial industry who I respect. But he's a little too beholden to the system and his statistical analyses used to determine future equity market returns are based on bad math.  But this newsletter is too good to pass up.  That said, there is a substantial differentiation here that Grantham doesn’t make.  The Federal Reserve did not create these problems.  The criminal for-profit Wall Street sociopaths did.  This is a big distinction.  The Fed is the incompetent enabler of bad behavior with massive conflicts of interest.  The actual dysfunction lies on Wall Street.  In other words, the Fed is the spouse of a crack addict.  Wall Street is the crack addict.  And the Fed, rather than trying deal with the dysfunctional relationship with its spouse or dealing with their addiction, is instead out on the street corner buying their spouse more crack to perpetuate the addiction.  None of this would exist with a public banking system that served democracy.  Link here.

2010-10-27_0841

Sign up for Grantham's newsletter here.
posted by TimingLogic at 9:07 AM

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Death Toll Rising After Indonesian Tsunami

posted by TimingLogic at 2:11 PM

Washington Politician’s Facilitation Of Corruption And Rot In The Pharma Industry

First of all, I greatly respect those who choose the health care industry as their career.  It’s a noble profession.  But like everything else which may be  noble, money and power corrupts.   In fact, any changes in society that are a result of any influence of money almost always end up being regretful.  We must get money out of politics.  Completely.  Only then will we have rid ourselves of corporatism, corporate welfare, corporate personhood and the abomination of democracy and the rule of law.

I suppose most people who visit this site have a clear understanding that the rot in Washington is not limited to our corrupt financial system.  Everything in Washington is rotten.  For that matter, I suspect most every state government is also rotten.  But the counterbalance and disparity of fifty separate states is a bulwark against hegemony as our Founding Fathers knew.  We surely have some major reform to do in state governments as well. 

Our Supreme Court, the White House, the Congress and everything they touch has to some degree been tainted by legalized bribery and the subversion of democracy.  I think it’s fairly obvious that the pharma industry is one of the most corrupted by money and influence-peddling in government. 

And now one of those dynamics within pharma is exposed by ProPublica.  All of this and other schemes are accepted and even endorsed because the rule of law in Washington has been subverted by fraud and money.  Our government is for sale to the highest bidder and that means anything goes.  And many of those bidders are even foreign entities.  Is treason the order of the day? 

Primary story of how unqualified doctors under the influence of substantial money to push drugs like illegal drug users push crack cocaine.

And secondary story here.  How the “new” Democrats are just what the pharma industry ordered.

posted by TimingLogic at 10:29 AM

Monday, October 25, 2010

These Are The Kind Of Really Ridiculous Statements Made By Really Ridiculous Financial Clowns At The Exact Time Markets End Up Peaking – Societe Generale “Strategist” (A Term I Would Use Very Loosely When Applied To Financial Clowns) Says BRIC Stocks May Double From Here

Equity markets are now the most overbought in the last twenty years by one measurement.  (Probably longer if I would go back even further.)   And we are overbought with the stock market making a lower high comparative to the April-May high of this year.  If I factor that overbought reading by a very important filter, we are the most overbought in the last seventy-plus years.

Bailing out the financial idiots guaranteed us one thing.  That idiots would continue to have the microphone.   And that means our media and our banking system would continue to be rewarded for economic and financial stupidity.

link here.

posted by TimingLogic at 2:40 PM

Germany, One Of The World’s Biggest Currency Manipulators, Accuses U.S. Of Currency Manipulation

Let’s use this post as an example of how countries around the globe have and continue to endlessly manipulate their currencies for personal gain.  Not only personal gain, but personal gain at the expense of other nations.  Or as many like to call it today, free markets.  Hahaha.  The only thing free is media air time banksters and crooks use to manipulate the public.  You see, the economic model of neoliberalism encourages countries to prey on each other rather than create models of sustainable economic development.  In other words, wealth is generally created at the expense of someone else.   Globalization is all about predation. 
  
Germany is one of the world’s most successful currency manipulators today.  And they have been for decades.  Frankly, this is not a matter of blame.  This system morphed out of nothing because the United States wiped its hands of its obligations as the world's reserve currency under one of the great crooks of our time, Richard "Dick" Nixon.  (By the way, he did so at the behest of the economics community and the criminal banksters.)  Germany is simply taking advantage of a system which allows them to manipulate their currency.  So why wouldn’t they?   Every nation is a currency manipulator under this economic model.


The Euro was most likely conceived by bureaucrats in France and Germany to provide unfettered access to larger markets for their exports.  Exports from very protected industries that were shielded from competition and subsidized by domestic policy.  (ie, currency manipulation.)  This isn't an indictment of either country.  It's just a fact.  Would you rather have a job or not?  Additionally, including weak export nations into the Euro zone benefits France and Germany by weighing down the value of their currencies with the much weaker euro currency instead.  In other words, adding the dogs of Europe's economies into the eurozone benefits France and Germany by weighing down the euro curency.  What does this mean?  Well, amongst other things, the weaker nations of the eurozone have paid for Germany’s cost of reuninifcation of East Germany through this dynamic.

In other words, when the euro was first set up, the weaker nations were given a much higher exchange rate into the euro zone than their currencies deserved.  And that meant they had greater purchasing power to buy more exports from France and Germany without any type of import regulations or tariffs.   This benefited Germany and France and provided substantial economic activity in these two nations.  Exports into propped up euro countries effectively paid for the cost of German reunification while burdening these weaker nations with tremendous debt.  So, why are the Greeks, the Spanish, the Portugese, the Italians and the Irish broke?  It isn't because they like vacations or only work 46 weeks a year as many idiots would tell us.  It is because German and French banks lent them astronomical sums of money to buy exports from French and German factories.  And the higher the unifcation value of each of these country's currencies, the more they could afford to buy from the French and the Germans.  And that means the greater the ultimate mess it would create in these "second tier" eurozone countries.  And now in retrospect were doing just that with the countless German companies bribing officials in weaker euro area countries to buy endless products from Germany which were not needed.  (Remember, while many are bullish on Germany, we have been and remain very bearish.)

I think now you can understand how currencies are manipulated for personal gain at the expense of another nation.  And why we have remarked that the Greek people should default on their foreign debts.  This fraud in Greek and other euro nations is no different than what is happening in the U.S. housing market.  Bankers preyed on homeowners, most of whom were manipulated for personal gain by banksters.  Now on the back end when the system collapses, who suffers?  Again, the homeowner who bears the burden of the great debts built up by a criminal banking system.  Debts that we are now backstopping with endless bailouts and burdens placed on us by the Federal Reserve and politicians.  Ditto in Greece where society and necessary social programs are being ripped apart by the criminal activities of endless spending for the sake of a very few.  And now the burdens or subjugation created by new banking bailouts of Greece.  The bailouts serve no purpose other than to make sure the banksters get their criminal take on the backs of the Greek people.  Effectively enslaving the people of Greece for the criminal activity of globalization.

Germany accusing the United States of currency manipulation is a little like the devil himself blaming others for sin.  Germany personifies currency manipulation. 

Title link here.

Next post will be our look at the Greek crisis through the lens of reality we promised some months ago.
posted by TimingLogic at 11:11 AM

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Update On Our Theme Of Volatility - Real IRA Will Target Bankers In Acts Of Terror

Europe is embroiled in social unrest with massive protests and violence against the state in many countries.  It’s only going to get worse.  The world is now in a struggle against bankers and politicians who wish to keep a corrupt private banking system intact.  

Recently announced austerity measures in Britain benefit the corrupt.  The state needs to be resized from the power grabs it has been on in prior decades but first we need to eradicate corporatism, private banking and corporate welfare programs from the public dole.  Then government can be rightsized.  Until then, austerity programs are just another word for cuts to important social programs benefiting We The People while bankers and corporations continue to suck the public coffers dry.  There is no government money left for social programs because it’s all being paid to bankers and corporations.  A public banking system and an end to the current neoliberal economic model would free up money for needed social programs that disproportionately benefit the underprivileged who have no voice against the tyranny of the state.  A new economic model supporting democracy would also substantially reduce the need for government assistance over time as society became more empowered economically.  Britain, for one, is in serious trouble.

Remember, as we have remarked previously, fringe elements in society now find cover for their radical views when government has become corrupt and society suffers.  We see it in the U.S. with very radical views in a small number of conservative political candidates who are expressing substantial hatred and bigotry for innocent people in society and yet are maintaining large acceptance in polling numbers.  We see the same dynamic with the Real IRA publicly throwing down the gauntlet of murder and violence rather than peaceful activism as a method of change.  Murder begets murder.  Peaceful activism is the only successful form of lasting change. 

"Let's not forget that the bankers are the next-door neighbours of the politicians. Most people can see the picture: the bankers grease the politicians' palms, the politicians bail out the bankers with public funds, the bankers pay themselves fat bonuses and loan the money back to the public with interest. It's essentially a crime spree that benefits a social elite at the expense of many millions of victims."

posted by TimingLogic at 2:49 PM

Saturday, October 23, 2010

Wall Street Looting And Washington Cover Ups – America’s Foremost Authority On Wall Street Fraud Is Hammering The Crooks Again

 

If it wasn’t already blindingly obvious that pervasive fraud was at the heart of the financial crisis and the ensuing foreclosure catastrophe, you would think that the latest news — that banks have routinely been lying their heads off in the rush to kick homeowners off the properties they fraudulently induced them to buy in the first place — would pretty much clinch it.

The fact that these mortgage frauds were overwhelmingly due to consciously fraudulent lending practices in which the CEOs of seemingly legitimate entities used accounting tricks as their “weapon of choice” to report higher profits and get bigger bonuses. (George A. Akerlof and Paul R. Romer got it right in the title to their 1993 article: Looting: The Economic Underworld of Bankruptcy for Profit.)

The ongoing massive cover up of losses on bad assets, particularly by the “too big to fail” institutions, which I call “systemically dangerous institutions” (SDIs). Those institutions, along with Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke and Congress (at the behest of the Chamber of Commerce and with no opposition from the Obama administration) in April 2009 forced the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) to change the rules so that the banks do not have to recognize their losses unless and until they sell the bad assets. The implications of this cover up are large (and rarely reported)

The continued absence of effective regulation. It should be scandalous that Obama left in charge, or even promoted, the anti-regulators who permitted the Great Recession. The (failed) anti-regulator of Fannie and Freddie, for example, remains FHFA’s acting director. This is significantly insane as a matter of both economics and politics. (The administration doesn’t even seem to realize the issue of integrity.)

Wall Street criminals bilked society out of literally trillions and trillions of dollars in their housing scam.  And now that they have created the greatest fraud in history across every business they are engaged in, they are now ramping up the foreclosure crisis into the same type of assembly line looting that they used to create the housing mess by shoving masses of defrauded homeowners into the streets.  Apparently illegally, might I add. 

Where is the FBI?  The Justice Department?  The SEC?  The White House?   The Congress?  To turn a blind eye to fraud is to endorse it.  Our government endorses fraud.  Our government has destroyed the rule of law in the name of fraud, cover ups, corporatism and cronyism.  And without a rule of law, anything goes.   Anarchy.  

posted by TimingLogic at 8:30 AM

Want To Frighten Trick-Or-Treaters? Get Your Creepy Elitist Al Gore Trick-Or-Traitor Halloween Mask

posted by TimingLogic at 5:55 AM

Friday, October 22, 2010

A Halloween Tribute To The Freak Show - Bill Moyers And Former Military And CIA Officers On How America’s Secret Government Subverts The Rule Of Law, Democracy And The Constitution To Perpetuate Endless Deceit, Death, Instability And Corruption Around The Globe

There’s nothing better to enjoy the Halloween season than watching the freak show.  So, as the holiday approaches, we are going to watch a horrifying and prescient video from Bill Moyers.

Bill Moyers is not a fringe element in society. Nor is he a paranoid conspiracy theorist. He is a seeker of reason and truth. Some of you may be familiar with the 'rare earth' minerals issue that has jumped into the press in the last year.  It used to be that our government recognized that self-sufficiency was actually a national security issue. And they had policies in place to ensure self-sufficiency or national sovereignty was maintained in all industries necessary for national defense be that energy, ball bearings, electronics, rare earth minerals or whatnot. 

But eventually the lure of money became too much for politicians to ignore and Washington became captured by special interest money. 

Now through decades of currency manipulation and endless subsidies by foreign governments, many minerals-producing businesses (this is far larger than the issue of rare minerals) considered essential for national security and future invention have been shuttered because the all-knowing market determined it could be done cheaper outside of the U.S. or because businesses were forced into bankruptcy by subsidized foreign competition, or as we wrote a handful of posts ago, endless currency manipulation.  And because our government is on the take, nothing was ever done to stop it.   Now all of this leaves us where exactly?

Bloomberg has a story this week about this dynamic.  And what is mentioned in this story?  The United States’ Secret Government, part of which is the National Security Council, is looking into it. 

The Secret Government, or what we affectionately call ‘the state’, is the bureaucracy which exists outside of the rule of law and transparency of democracy.  It is an unspoken part of our government that has usurped democracy and participated in turning the United States into a police state, or the National Security State as is mentioned in this video.  Under the National Security State, the United States is under a permanent state of war that has existed since the passage of the  National Security Act of 1947.  And that means the Constitution, to some degree, has been suspended since 1947 as it pertains to national security.  Don’t believe me?  Let Bill Moyers, retired rear admiral Gene La Rocque and former CIA officials tell you in the video below.

This video is an exposé of what President Dwight Eisenhower warned us about - the military-industrial complex. (A video of his warning speech has been shown on this blog before.)  This Moyers PBS video is a prescient piece from almost a quarter century ago on the unconstitutionality of our current government.   And it pretty much predicted what we see today.  That is, a federal government run amok that is not beholden to We The People, the Constitution or the rule of law.   Maybe you knew this.  If not, now you know why issues affecting state control and law enforcement both within and outside of the U.S. never change whether the Dummycrats or Republikaaners are in charge.  Because democracy has been hijacked.  I bet they don’t teach that in high school civics or history.

The mass of men serve the state thus, not as men mainly, but as machines, with their bodies. They are the standing army, and the militia, jailers, constables, posse comitatus, etc. In most cases there is no free exercise whatever of the judgment or of the moral sense; but they put themselves on a level with wood and earth and stones; and wooden men can perhaps be manufactured that will serve the purpose as well. Such command no more respect than men of straw or a lump of dirt. They have the same sort of worth only as horses and dogs. Yet such as these even are commonly esteemed good citizens. Others, as most legislators, politicians, lawyers, ministers, and office-holders, serve the state chiefly with their heads; and, as they rarely make any moral distinctions, they are as likely to serve the devil, without intending it, as God. A very few, as heroes, patriots, martyrs, reformers in the great sense, and men, serve the state with their consciences also, and so necessarily resist it for the most part; and they are commonly treated as enemies by it.-- Henry David Thoreau

Democracy is dead.  Long live the state.

 

posted by TimingLogic at 10:47 AM

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Google Games The Tax System And Pays A 2.4% Rate. Democracy Loses Billions.

We’ve remarked on here that the ideologues who want to cut corporate tax rates to get out of this environment are simply perpetuating the neoliberal economic environment of the last thirty years. Cutting the corporate tax rate will not bring the economy back.   We’ve been cutting corporate taxes and regulations (taxes) for thirty years.  How’s that working out for you?

Additionally, as we have remarked, the U.S. already has one of the lowest corporate tax environments in the world.   The con artists tell us our corporate rate is one of the highest in the world.  It is.  But what they don’t tell you is that there isn’t a multi-national corporation in the U.S. that pays the corporate rate.  The effective taxes collected in the U.S. on multinationals yields one of the lowest rates in the world. 

That Google is gaming the system is no great surprise.  All multi-nationals game the system.  If you want to cut any tax rates, cut the income tax rate to zero on all Americans.  And if we would get rid of a private banking system, we could easily do that. 

Neoliberalism is by definition gaming the system.  Corporations benefit.  Democracy suffers. 

Story link here.

posted by TimingLogic at 7:06 PM

There Is Creative Destruction And Then There Is Just Plain Corruption. Gary, Indiana Is The Result Of Corruption.

As we’ve written before, Schumpeter’s creative destruction involves the replacement of an industry or product with a new product. Schumpeter was clear in stating the new product must exist before the destruction. Those who use creative destruction, including the likes of Treasury Secretary Paulson, to describe the process that is happening in the U.S., are stooges to the status quo of corruption.  

I have friends who have never been to the midwest.  But the dynamic in Gary is replicated countless times.  Hundreds of thousands of former facilities lie in rot with nothing to replace lost economic opportunity.  This is the direct result of government corruption and private banking. 

The people who call for the abolition of social programs have merit in their desire to downsize the scope of government.  But, their head and the understanding of the problem is in the wrong place.   They are focusing on the symptom.  We must first restart the economic engine of opportunity that was turned off decades ago.  And then, the need for many social programs will ameliorate and often completely disappear. 

Gary, Indiana looks like any other corrupt country around the world.  Places where crooks and liars have thieved the people repeatedly.  It’s hard for me to watch this because I know so many people and so many communities that have been devastated by impacts similar to this.  Democracy is dead in Gary, Indiana.  And it was killed by the state. 

Video link here.

posted by TimingLogic at 3:53 PM

The Predator’s Ball - The Stench Of Money In Our Elections And In Our Court System

Why don’t we have publicly-funded elections with spending limits?  How is a mom or dad or farmer or doctor or whomever from Dubuque, Iowa ever to serve in our country’s process of governance?  A government of the people, by the people, for the people.  They can’t.  That’s the intent.  Enormous money in politics guarantees only candidates supported by the corrupt political machines beholden to the will of their masters – the uber rich oligarchs and large corporations.  Our Supreme Court, under dubious sway from money, hides behind the Constitution allowing billions and billions of corporate dollars to determine our elections.  Funny, I never read that in the Constitution.  And I have this sneaking suspicion our founding fathers would puke all over our Supreme Court and the endless rot of money. 

Who can honestly say this is a noble process of a republic, a democracy or a country ruled by laws?  This is a process determined by the golden rule – those who have the gold make the rules.

Links here

here (I really like this one.  Our Supreme Court is not above bribery, manipulation or impropriety, be it through persuasion or other means.)

and here

posted by TimingLogic at 3:24 PM

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

The Massive Fraud Of Neoliberal Economics Is Coming To An End - Finance Chiefs Fail to Resolve Currency Spat as G-20 Splits

Title link here.

This post is a handful of days past the title link but that's really irrelevant.  This topic ties into many of our long term themes.  As you think through this dynamic, it’s important to understand many of the variables that have impacted our economy over the last thirty plus years and much of the pablum fed to us by crooks and liars as to why certain economic dynamics came to pass.  And of course that many of these were positive development regardless of whether it seemed so at the time.  By the way, most didn't.   That includes all of our trade agreements and why financial liberalization and deregulation of other country's financial systems was the primary variable of concern in those agreements.   Be that Bill Clinton, George Bush, Barack Obama, their cabinets or Congress.  In a follow up post next week we will look at the Greek crisis using much of what is discussed below, something we promised quite a few months ago but never got up. On to the post. 

Finally, it seems some are now arguing that we are bound to see currency wars as countries race to devalue their currency as an attempt to gain competitive favor in the neoliberal game of unregulated capital.  This is something we have written of quite extensively over the years.  But let’s get something straight.   This isn’t something new.  We have had currency wars since the beginning of floating foreign exchange rates.  The last thirty plus years have seen currency war after currency war.  And if you don’t understand that dynamic, you are missing a central tenant to the fraud that exists within global finance, our government and globalization.   That the keepers of the status quo now are howling about possible currency manipulation as the world economy craters is a ruse.  Crooks and liars are simply trying to protect a corrupt system they built for their own personal greed.
   
Banksters and crooks now want to claim that this is protectionism.  What the hell was it for the last thirty years when countries manipulated their currency and it served often crooked self-interest and greed?  It surely didn’t serve democracy or We the People.   This was all completely predictable.  And we predicted it.

So, in support of the title link story, let’s take a look at a few headlines over the past month and year.

Peru intervenes in forex market
Chile Peso at 36 week high
Brazil forex inflows surge
The EU and China cannot agree on currency measures
Japan intervenes to weaken the yen
The ECB buys hundreds of billions of bonds to tame debt (currency) crisis

Under the terms of economic neoliberalism that has been embraced for decades around the globe, everyone is a currency manipulator.   And they have been for decades.  The American banking cartel, Wall Street, has manipulated currency for decades to feed their self-interests.  Interests that are destroying democracy and the rule of law.  Japan has manipulated its currency for decades in its self interest.  China too.   Every single country manipulates its currency either directly or through economic policy.  Under the rules of economic neoliberalism, currency manipulation is a major part of the game.  And it is so easy to do, often with devastating impacts both domestically and internationally.
 
So what’s different now?  We are in a global depression.   So now the supporters of this neoliberal-induced crisis, of which the manipulation of currency dynamics are a major component, are starting to howl because the system is unraveling.   This includes corporatist  politicians in the U.S. and thugs on Wall Street.  This propaganda regarding currencies today is similar in nature to the Smoot-Hawley ruse perpetuated by neoliberals, Wall Street crooks and corporate fascists as a cause of the Great Depression.  A ruse perpetuated by special interests and their brainwashed useful idiots in the press and society as we have remarked numerous times before.  Smoot-Hawley had nothing to do with the Great Depression or making it worse.  The course of events had already been set.

We said the currency markets were due to see change long before the 2008 global collapse.  And now we are seeing central banks and politicians do anything and everything to manipulate the system as it is today to gain competitive advantage in the bureaucrat’s game of  power.  And how do they do that?  By attempting to go broke as we have remarked many times.  ie, By devaluing their currencies.   It’s time we take our economy back from the crooks by voting these political idiots out of office and getting rid of private banking.

By the way, let’s digress a minute for this paragraph.  If you haven’t noticed, crooked participants in global equity markets - American, British, French and German firms (mostly American) – ramp the futures markets at the first hint of central bank intervention in any particular market.  Now why is that?   The Federal Reserve and other central banks all want to devalue their currency as we have said time and again.   As it pertains to the U.S., other countries around the world don’t want this to happen.  Their wealth is predicated on selling cheap goods, mostly cheap junk, to the United States and to a lesser extent, Europe.   And they have been able to do this by manipulating their own currencies for ages.    Germany, Japan and China get high marks for this type of manipulation as do almost all emerging markets.   So when the Federal Reserve gives free money to American speculators, they ramp currencies in emerging markets by literally flooding them with massive new money courtesy of the Federal Reserve.   Yet, everyone is trying to get to the same end state - making their currencies worthless.  So other countries have to counteract this dynamic.   And how do other countries do that?  Well, in large part, by buying dollars in the currency market in an effort to devalue their own currency.   What happens when central banks are forced to buy dollars?  I think you can figure out that supply and demand dynamic.  This allows a predatory Federal Reserve and Wall Street to ease without fear of currency collapse.  Something we wrote about quite some time ago.  Something you won’t read anywhere else because unreasoned histrionics and a lack of understanding of how the world actually works is a driving force behind the howling monkeys and their endless calls of a dollar collapse.
 
Anyway, central bank intervention in currency markets as an attempt to devalue their currency, requires countries to sterilize their operations.  Or to issue debt to ensure these operations do not cause a major impact in their money supply, thus causing severe inflation.  But, Japan, as an example, has not sterilized their actions recently.  Or at least they hadn’t the last time I looked.  So, when Japan or other countries intervene in the currency markets, the crooked financial cabal on Wall Street pushes the buy button on global assets believing that increased money in these economies caused by Wall Street will lead to rampant inflation or higher asset prices.  This all serves the “investor class” in the United States while at the same time putting massive economic pressure on other countries.  It’s a game of political will right now.  Who will sneeze first.  As we have said since this crisis started, these G20 meetings on cooperation are a joke.  Literally.   The seeds of volatility were set long ago by crooks and liars.  There is nothing a roomful of political idiots are going to do to stop it.  Politicians, or those seeking power, are some of the most untrustworthy psychological profiles in any society….Which is why we have a written constitution limiting the size of government.

There are only two choices in currency interventions to stop appreciation.  Pay for it with newly issued debt, or watch inflation run through their domestic economies.  It’s quite apparent what is happening as I write this.   Most emerging markets have been witnessing enormous inflation for the last ten to fifteen years.  Much of it courtesy of Wall Street and Federal Reserve policies.  Their economies are running off of a cliff before their ultimate collapse and their currencies with it.  But Wall Street tells you what has happened is the global economy has recovered.  Hahaha.  Idiots.  The same predatory idiots that destroyed our country and our banking system with the help of crooked politicians are also destroying the rest of the world.  The remarks of currency wars upsetting the global economy are ridiculous.  This has been going on for decades.   And our corrupt government created the trade agreements and the laws in our country to allow it.  Globalization serves one god – corruption.

Anyone who is or has been telling you the dollar is going to zero has no idea how the world works.  And that means everything else they are telling you is likely to be dubious as well.


We are headed for crises in the currency markets, but it won’t be because the dollar is going to zero.  It’s because foreign exchange markets as they are set up today don’t work.  And they never have.   Just like all of the other Wall Street magic that never worked.  Magic that was worshiped until the world collapsed.  This isn’t the start of a currency war.  It is simply a realization that currency wars have defined neoliberalism for the past thirty years.   All brought to us by the elitist crooks who have destroyed our economy for their personal greed.

I don’t know what will break first but at some point we could see almost all currency markets freeze until something is done to change the system.  And if that happens, it’s plausible the dollar demand could actually rocket much higher.  And that means the dollar would go with it. 

What needs to be done is to institute capital controls and to have a fixed exchange rate that is foundational to a new economic model.  And we needed it like thirty years ago to have avoided this calamity.  And what impact would currency or capital controls have?  That's right.  The dollar will rise.  Maybe uncontrollably.  And as we have written, a strong dollar would be exactly what the Federal Reserve and neoliberal idiots don't want.  And as we have written, that could very well force the Federal Reserve to swallow trillions of dollars of debt permanently.  And if that happens, it will expose the fraud of our banking system.  When people realize debt can be erased with a keyboard stroke, they are going to wonder why we paying interest on all of this government-borrowed debt.  And that could very well be the death knell of our corrupt banking system.  Something we should all wish for. 

In closing, let’s pull out a few comments from years past that apply to this post.  Some back many years when the world was celebrating this fraud and corruption. 
  1. Globalization is dead
  2. Global finance is dead
  3. We could see all of the wealth created since 2000 disappear
  4. The dollar is putting in a long term bottom 
  5. Emerging markets were going to collapse
  6. China is a massive bubble the likes of which the world has never seen
  7. Foreign exchange reserves held by emerging markets are a mirage of wealth
  8. The world will shudder and shake when this cycle ends
  9. The United States will once again dominate the world economy unlike at any time in the last fifty years when we clean up this corruption
Currency is a weapon and when allowed, the state will most assuredly use it as such.  You had better believe the state understands this fact.  Absolutely nothing has been fixed.   The crooks are still running the global economy and driving our country into the dirt.  We need a new banking system and a new economic model.
posted by TimingLogic at 5:38 AM

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Robert Reich - Corporate Personhood And Oligarchs Are Killing Democracy

posted by TimingLogic at 9:42 AM

Monday, October 18, 2010

Britain’s Predatory Pension Providers

I can’t wait to privatize Social Security.  You know, like we did with defined benefit pensions replaced with 401Ks.  That was a winner, for the corrupt banking system that is.  When we privatize Social Security we can look forward to even more corruption in the United States.  Just like in Britain.   These criminals need to be put in prison and not given any soap on a rope.

posted by TimingLogic at 1:17 PM

These Bureaucrats And Their Idiotic Models Really Do Annoy Me.

Now we have Orwellian model builders trying to plan how many children are possible because of their flawed global warming models.  I think these are a few bureaucrats I would vote to kick off the taxpayer’s dole. 

I have a great idea.  Since these self-appointed geniuses are now so concerned about overpopulation and our planet, as a great act of altruism and compassion for their fellow man and for Mother Gaia, they could euthanize themselves and do the world a favor in more ways than one.   First by reducing population.  And secondly so we don’t need to listen to any more of their endless bullshit that is too often portrayed as scientific fact.   

Link.

posted by TimingLogic at 1:04 PM

The Gambino Crime Family Would Blush - The Organized Rackets Of Wall Street And The Complicity Of The State

Remember none of the crimes of Wall Street would have existed under a nonprofit public banking system.  Absolutely none of them.  Additionally, as we have remarked countless times, finance is a tax on capital.  Finance creates zero new wealth.  Zero.  Zilch.  Finance profits are created by a transfer of wealth from capital-creating industries and businesses.   From productive assets in society. 

The people in the political arena and mainstream media who are now telling us that Wall Street is going to pay all of the TARP money back and how that was a good investment are clueless cheerleaders for the corrupt.  That money Wall Street is paying back came in the form of sucking capital out of the underlying economy.   Their ability to repay the TARP money is simply an indication of usury and tyranny against productive assets.  Propping up Wall Street is a perpetuation of that tyranny.  If you don’t understand this concept, then you don’t know one of the primary dynamics that is killing the U.S. economy.  Yet no one ever talks about this other than us. 

There is a reason why Sharia law prohibits interest on loans.  There is a reason why India has a public banking system which is now under attack.  There is a reason why ancient civilizations considered anything greater than small interest rates to be usury.   

All of Wall Street’s profits come through bureaucrats inserting their dirty fingers into the pockets of productive assets in society to take a cut.  It’s the same dynamic as the Gambino crime family coming into your business and demanding their weekly cut.  I think the Department of Justice would call that extortion.  Or on a grand and concerted scale, it would be classified as racketeering of organized crime. 

How’s that new financial regulation working out for you?  We need a banking system which serves democracy.   Absolutely nothing has been fixed.

 

posted by TimingLogic at 10:59 AM

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Foreclosure Fraud - It's Time To Put The Perps In Jail

How's that banking reform working out for you?

Title link here.
posted by TimingLogic at 1:15 PM

Fascism And The State Destroy Economic Opportunity - 85% Of College Graduates Move Back Home

We have ridiculed our President's uneducated remarks about sending more kids to college as a way to work our way out of this crisis. Frankly, this is an idiotic neoliberal view of economics that does not mesh with democracy and freedom. And what exactly are all of these college graduates supposed to do if most of them cannot either find employment or employment of self-sufficiency? Work for our President and the state as a bureaucrat or work for a lobbying firm or maybe a good corporate firm who loyally pays our politicians like Wal-mart or McDonalds or the war machine's defense contractors?

This is not a new dynamic but instead a trend created by Republican and Democrat neoliberalism founded in corruption. In a democracy those who wish to go to college should never be turned away due to lack of financial means. A public banking system would ensure this. But what about a living wage for the rest of society? What is his centrally planned Soviet answer to their lack of opportunity? The state has crowded out economic opportunity through its meddling. Economic opportunity is severely limited in our country by neoliberal policies of our bought and paid for corporatist government.

Our economy will only recover with government restoring freedom and an ability of self-determination to create economic value of what any American is capable of dreaming as a viable form of employment or value creation. A government which does not first serve the people has become the primary problem for our country's economy.

Title link here.
posted by TimingLogic at 8:30 AM

.......That All Men Are Created Equal......We Mutually Pledge To Each Other Our Lives, Our Fortunes And Our Sacred Honor......America's New Declaration Of Independence From Corporatism, Endless War, A Corrupt Monetary System, Foreign Bribery Of Our Government And Endless Corruption

posted by TimingLogic at 5:55 AM

Friday, October 15, 2010

Were Our Financial Leaders In President Clinton’s White House Cabinet Pushing For The War In Iraq?

Anyone who understands for-profit banking and the role it plays in subverting sovereignty will appreciate this article over at Salon.  If we are to take this general at his word, someone or more than one people in the Clinton cabinet were pushing for a war with Saddam Hussein in the late 1990s.  And if one looks at the cabinet possibilities provided at the bottom link in that article, there are only a handful of plausible choices.  It surely wasn’t the Secretary of the Interior or the Secretary of Education in that meeting.  And I doubt it was the Secretary of Labor engaging a general over serious discussions of foreign policy and war.   The only plausible attendee who would seemingly be in attendance would be from the Secretary of Treasury’s office. 

If this is so, then it would be ridiculous to label the Iraq war as President Bush’s war.  It would more likely be a  profit-driven war manufactured by elitist crooks or profit-driven interests.  Seemingly unbelievable.  But then the general’s accusations aren’t run of the mill remarks either.

To what ends does secret Washington mischief lead?

Link here.

posted by TimingLogic at 2:37 PM

Tower Of Babel’s Rent Drops 40% In Ten Months. That’s Just The Beginning. The New Name For the Burj Should Be The Ghost Tower Of Inverness.

When the world was in awe of Dubai’s stupidity, we said the oil fiefdoms were headed for a bust.  And that the Burj was the modern day Tower of Babel – man’s arrogance personified.  All things come in due time.  Central bankers and politicians can’t spend other people’s money forever. 

Remember our post back in the summer of 2007 highlighting Thailand’s property bubble?  And how it paralleled the emerging markets building boom of today?   There are thirteen year old skyscrapers in Thailand half finished that are rotting as I type this.  Because the iron structures and rebar have been exposed to the elements for years, they will never be finished.  They are structurally unsound.  Yet no one has the money to tear them down after the party stopped.

In the linked article, it’s mentioned that a studio apartment can be rented for 80,000 dirhams a month.  That’s about $22,000.  And 72 of 900 apartments are rented.   A smashing success!   At this rate, the entire building will be rented in ten years.  Of course, it’ll more than likely never be fully rented.  It may even be abandoned at some point.     

It appears the property management at the Burj needs to hire some of those Goldman Sachs sales reps.  You know, the ones who sold all of those shitty deals.  Sounds like they can sell anything to anyone without a conscience. 

Link here.

posted by TimingLogic at 10:05 AM

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Let's Take A Second Look At September 21st’s Turn Date And The Price High Of 519.64 In The S&P 100



Our remarks of a possible turn date a month or so ago was in fun rather than anything I would bet my life on.  But the S&P 100, where most of the index derivatives are concentrated, hit 519.64 on September 21st, the turn date we anticipated in the prior week of September 13th.

There were numerous attempts to push price through that level after September 21st but they all failed.  That is very important because this is a leverage-driven market.   In other words, the only way to circumvent the negative supply and demand characteristics of this market is to employ leverage with a positive bias.

The S&P 100 finally pushed through and closed above the anticipated September 21st turn date's closing price on October 5th.  But it did so on collapsing advancing volume.

The intraday graphic above actually shows our anticipated September 21st turn date as the peak in the advancing volume data (shown in red).  Yet, the S&P 100, and S&P 500 for that matter, have made new highs.  But look how the advancing or constructive volume has fallen off of a cliff while the market has pushed higher.

I expect we could blow right back down through the September 21st high rather rapidly because of the failing participation in this rally..... unless we see a big change in market internals.  This market and many other financial markets are trading higher on leverage and fumes.   That includes gold.
posted by TimingLogic at 12:11 PM

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

The Anthropogenic (man-made) Global Warming Community Shudders And Shakes At Its Core As Distinguished Physicist Publicly Proclaims His Rejection Of The American Physical Society’s Money-Driven Global Warming Stance. The Backlash Against Group Think, Bad Science, The Manipulation Of Science By Political Idiots And Massive Corruption Is Coming Home To Roost In The Global Warming Scam

Link here

From distinguished Physicist Lewis:

“It is of course, the global warming scam, with the (literally) trillions of dollars driving it, that has corrupted so many scientists, and has carried APS before it like a rogue wave. It is the greatest and most successful pseudoscientific fraud I have seen in my long life as a physicist. Anyone who has the faintest doubt that this is so should force himself to read the ClimateGate documents, which lay it bare. (Montford’s book organizes the facts very well.) I don’t believe that any real physicist, nay scientist, can read that stuff without revulsion. I would almost make that revulsion a definition of the word scientist.”

I don’t endorse any web sites I link to.  But this story provides the best fact-based look at how prominent scientists are starting to realize that Algore, his bureaucratic friends in politics, finance and “pseudo-scientific” bureaucracies are anything other than con men. 

Lewis states exactly the truth.  That is, corruption and money are driving this scam.   Corruption and money primarily from a corrupt banking system and their beholden political stooges.

We need to protect our planet.  But the political movement behind global warming is an effort to impose the will of the powerful and connected cronies on the rest of us in the form of a massive tax.  We protect our planet through transparency in government, incentives to innovate and an informed society that can make informed decisions about our safety and health.

The awakening continues.

posted by TimingLogic at 1:29 PM

Attorney Generals in 49 States Launch New Criminal Probes Into Wall Street And Our Criminal Banking System

That new consumer protection agency in Washington is doing a fine job.

Link here.

posted by TimingLogic at 12:32 PM

Ron Paul Video On The Corruption Of Our Government, The Military-Industrial Complex And Our Banking System

You don’t need to agree with everything Ron Paul states, and I don’t, to agree that our government and banking system are out of control.   All Americans want a government that works for the people and a banking system which supports democracy. 

Link here.

posted by TimingLogic at 12:10 PM

Apple’s Stock Hits $300. Baaahaaa!

2010-10-13_1104

It’s been no secret on here that we hate Apple stock.  If you are a decent trader, it’s been pretty easy to ride this pig.  But we have written ad nauseam about the bubble it is.  It’s so ridiculous to listen to bozos, I mean analysts, prattle on that Apple’s stock at $200 or $300 a share because of the iPhone or iPad.  This is the same pump and dump bullshit fed to people in the Wall Street-induced internet bubble. 

Apple is at $300 a share because we have an out of control financial system manipulating the stock just like the price of oil is being manipulated or as housing was being manipulated or just as our government is being manipulated. 

Apple is conservatively trading at 300-500% of the Dow’s valuation in 1929 depending on the metrics being measured.  We all know what happened after 1929.  The Dow fell by almost 90%.  This isn’t new to long time readers.  We wrote that Apple’s stock was headed for the dung heap back  before the 2008 crash.  And crash it did.  But with plenty of new fuel provided by the Federal Reserve, our crooked financial system is back to the same old tricks.    

Today Apple hits the 161% Fibonacci projection.  This area  will more than likely provide very stiff resistance going forward. 

This is going to end very, very, very badly. 

posted by TimingLogic at 11:16 AM

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

What Do ‘We The People’ Define As Treason?

Treason: 1.the offense of acting to overthrow one's government or to harm or kill its sovereign.  2.a violation of allegiance to one's sovereign or to one's state.  3.the betrayal of a trust or confidence; breach of faith; treachery.

"If any citizen of the United States shall accept, claim, receive, or retain any title of nobility or honour, or shall without the consent of Congress, accept and retain any present, pension, office, or emolument of any kind whatever, from any emperor, king, prince, or foreign power, such person shall cease to be a citizen of the United States, and shall be incapable of holding any office of trust or profit under them, or either of them."

How do we define legal bribes from corporations or the richest people in the world?  Or quid pro quo employment offers once politicians leave office in return for political favors made while in office?  Or lobbyists offering private jets on “official” trips or paid vacations lobbyists take with public servants?  Or foreign corporations or foreign governments lobbying our government with money?   All of these are efforts to gain favor with rules changes that benefit the richest corporations and individuals while subverting the one-person, one-vote process.   Have Washington politicians forfeited their citizenry and their ability to hold public office as part of this dynamic?

A friend sent me this link regarding treason and loss of citizenship for politicians who sell out our country, We The People and their soul under the 13th Amendment.  I haven’t researched this topic beyond what is available on this site and others like it.   I am often dubious of what often appears to be fringe elements expressing fringe views but it appears the people behind this effort are searching for truth in a world of corruption, and that there may be legitimacy to their claims as provided by ample supporting documentation going back hundreds of years.   In other words, many politicians in Washington would be in jeopardy of losing their citizenship as a matter of treason outlined in the original intent of the 13th Amendment.  

“This Article of Amendment is intimately connected to questions of loyalty, honesty, war and national defense. It is designed to combat internal subversion and discord sowed by people who are adhering to powers foreign to the Congress of the United States without stepping across the bold Constitutional line of treason. The authors of the TONA wrote it after some additional experience with how the British Empire, as well as other European nations, actually conduct their affairs. It is a corrective and supplemental measure to go along with Constitutional treason.

This Article of Amendment added an enforceable strict penalty, i.e., inability to hold office and loss of citizenship, for violations of the already existing constitutional prohibition in Article 1, Section 9, Clause 8 on titles of nobility and other conflicts of citizenship interest, such as accepting emoluments of any kind for services or favors rendered or to be rendered, and is particularly applicable today in the 21st Century as government is increasingly FOR SALE to the highest bidder, as foreign nations and multinational corporations and individuals compete to line the pockets of politicians and political parties to accommodate and purchase protection or privilege for their special interests, i.e. with honors, such as money or allowing dual-citizenships.

In terms familiar to the common man, this might quite properly be called the use of bribes and graft by individuals and powers foreign, i.e. external, to the Congress of the United States to subvert the constitutional process and suborn our political system and the interests of WE THE PEOPLE. “

If this indeed has merit, and I am inclined to believe it may, the original 13th Amendment was modified most assuredly under the banner of fraud and corruption. 

Regardless of whether acts of selling out our government and our people is law or not, it is an act of treason if not by law then measured by morality of any reasoned mind.  And that means the Constitution needs to be amended to reflect that fact and the original intent of the 13th Amendment.  

posted by TimingLogic at 9:47 AM

The Knights Of The Round Table Are In Fact Pigs At The Trough. Foreign-Funded Chamber Of Commerce “Legally” Bribing Our Government And Deciding Our Political Elections?

Title link here.

Long time readers know we are not pro-business on here.  Pro-business defines the corporatist or fascist state that has become Washington politics.  Where favors are given to dismantle the rule of law using other people’s money   We are pro-markets.  Working markets support an open and free society.  They support local job creation and a meritocracy.  They support integrity and an environment where one’s work ethic and ability plays a reasonable role in economic opportunity.   While not perfect, we know functioning markets serving democracy were the foundations of the rise of America as the greatest experiment in human rights and freedom ever undertaken.   Pro-business politicians are killing that experiment while lining their pockets with corporate money and bending or destroying our rule of law for favor or possibly even worse.

As an extension of corporate personhood and pro-business political and economic policies, I believe it’s arguable that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and its beholden political stooges in Washington has morphed into one of the most subversive elements undermining democracy (one person, one vote) and proper functioning of our government and markets today.   It’s quite revealing to see where the Chamber of Commerce is throwing its money.  As we have noted time and again, both parties in Washington are corrupt.  But the modern day Republican party is the founding party of modern day corporatism or fascism in Washington.  This seems to support that notion quite clearly. 

posted by TimingLogic at 9:46 AM

Monday, October 11, 2010

The Fed Is Dead - The Beast We Call The Federal Reserve Is Living On Borrowed Time And So Are The Crooks On Wall Street.

Paul Farrell is at it again.  And we agree.  Nothing would be better for America’s economic future than to have the American people take down the Federal Reserve and the cabal on Wall Street by electing superior representation.  We don’t need either to have a vibrant economy and a functioning democracy.   If you haven’t noticed, as each have gained more and more power in our political system and our economy, we have become more like the Soviet Union or Humpty Dumpty.  Take your pick. 

posted by TimingLogic at 5:16 PM

A Celebration Of Columbus Day – An Alternative Perspective

A repost from last year with a short addition in this paragraph.  Howard Zinn passed away in this year.  The people of the world lost a great man who had a deep compassion for others.  Zinn spent much of his life furthering the cause of others less fortunate.  Others who were often persecuted.  Zinn understood what many often don’t – that there is a timeless struggle between those who would be our kings were they able to enforce that control over society, and the rest of us who simply want dignity, respect and a voice in determining our own existence - I think we used to call that democracy.  This struggle, which really is a timeless battle, has existed since the beginning of man.   Howard knew as the Buddha knew, as Jesus knew, as Gandhi knew, as Martin Luther King knew, as Nelson Mandela knew, that as sentient beings,  the whole of life on our planet is greater than the self or the ego.  Something megalomaniacs and psychopaths who timelessly seek to control society, have no respect for.   Is your voice respected by your government today?   

Being that anything beyond reading, writing and arithmetic is often not the search for truth or knowledge at all but is often biased beliefs and even dogma or indoctrination, let's consider a very different perspective on Christopher Columbus presented by historian Howard Zinn.

I would highly encourage you to take twenty minutes or so to read this. But only if you truly want to consider a very, very different perspective than you were taught in school. You will never again view Columbus Day in the same light. Maybe that's a good thing. You be the judge.

posted by TimingLogic at 9:12 AM

Friday, October 08, 2010

IMF Chief Warns Global Economic Cooperation Falling Apart

What a surprise.  And what have we been saying since this crisis started?  All of this is expected.  I’s  really unavoidable as neoliberalism runs its course.  Everything continues to fold exactly as we have expected.  Albeit more slowly given political idiots are trying to keep their scheme going by giving other people’s money to economic criminals and banksters.

Title link here.

posted by TimingLogic at 12:45 PM

The Documentary INSIDE JOB Is Released Today

From the movie’s web site:

From Academy Award® nominated filmmaker, Charles Ferguson, comes INSIDE JOB, the first film to expose the shocking truth behind the economic crisis of 2008. The global financial meltdown, at a cost of over $20 trillion, resulted in millions of people losing their homes and jobs. Through extensive research and interviews with major financial insiders, politicians and journalists, INSIDE JOB traces the rise of a rogue industry and unveils the corrosive relationships which have corrupted politics, regulation and academia.

Narrated by Academy Award® winner Matt Damon, INSIDE JOB was made on location in the United States, Iceland, England, France, Singapore, and China.

The web site at Sony Films is horrible but their Facebook page is pretty decent.  I would highly recommend this movie.  It is probably the first movie that really takes an investigative documentary-style look at just how corrupt our banking system is, how that has completely corrupted our government, how incompetent the Federal Reserve and the economics community is and how these psychopathic criminals within our banking system defrauded society while awarding themselves criminal wages paid by average Americans to do it.  As we have said, these are surely some of the greatest crimes against humanity ever committed.  Ever.  And surely the greatest organized crime ever committed in American history.  The banksters make the Mafia and Mexican drug cartels look like Mother Teresa.  You will be mad as hell after watching it.  And that is exactly the appropriate response as long as it is channeled into constructive reform..
  
It’s time for a public banking system, greater transparency into Washington corruption and permanent democratic changes to our Constitution to never again allow fascism, or the purchase of our government by private criminal interests, to rise in this country.  And let's be frank.  They are criminals of the worst order.   And it's time to permanently get the political idiots out of our economy and their never-ending whoring out of public resources and economic rules of engagement to evildoers and special interests.  That includes our military-industrial complex and private corporations as well as a heinously corrupt Wall Street. 

Let's add an update here.  The films director also has an audio interview at NPR and the link is here.


posted by TimingLogic at 12:01 AM

Thursday, October 07, 2010

Investment Banks Give Taxpayers A Good Soaking

posted by TimingLogic at 4:28 PM

Scientists Say Heavy Metal Sludge Disaster Not Dangerous. Scientists Also Note That Pigs Now Fly.

Link here.

We are killing ourselves and our planet with this neoliberal economic race to the bottom of the barrel in more ways than one.  One impact of unregulated capital is that societies must dismantle their regulations to compete.  Or put another way, we become slaves to corporations.  Now mind you, we are talking about necessary regulations not red tape.  They are different.  Red tape is driven by corporations and special interests manipulating our governments to deny us economic opportunity so that these same special interests are able to pillage our societies without the threat of competition.  Unlike regulation which protects a free society, red tape is bought and paid for through corporate lobbying and bribery.    

So, as a simplistic example, if I can make aluminum in China, most likely subsidized at below production cost by the communist government, for X and the cost of shipping is Y, if you have an aluminum mill in Hungary that produces product for more than X+Y you are going to have a bad day.  Now there are easy solutions to this dynamic that would involve a new economic model that eschews neoliberalism.  But sans that, what is the easiest way for that mill in Hungary to lower costs?  Dismantle regulations to lower costs.   Maybe environmental regulations?  And what do we call that?  We call that pro-business in modern Orwellian neoliberal-speak. 

Remember, on here we are not pro-business.  We are pro-markets.  Pro-business leads to corporatism, cronyism, fascism or whatever you want to call it.  It’s all part of economic neofeudalism.   

This mess in Hungary is horrendous.  And it is being replicated countless times around the world today.  Including in China where corrupt communist officials are doing an extra special job killing its own citizens through unbelievable pollution. 

The headlines of this article are a joke.  There are no levels of heavy metals that are safe.  None.  Zero.  Let’s give you a nice mercury cocktail well within the EPA’s guidelines and watch the effects on your health or the health of your unborn children if you believe otherwise.

This Hungary story gives me a chance to throw up a video from IAOMT on smoking teeth and the devastating effects of heavy metals on the health of  animals and humans. 

posted by TimingLogic at 1:51 PM

Physicists Release Surprising Analysis Showing How Little We Understand Factors Affecting Earth’s Climate And How Dubious Current Models And Generally Accepted Group-Think Are

Link here.

"The findings could prove very significant when it comes to understanding, and quantifying, natural climate fluctuations," he says. "But no matter how you look at it, the Sun's influence on current climate change is at best a small natural add-on to man-made greenhouse warming."

"All the evidence is that the vast majority of warming is anthropogenic," agrees Lockwood. "It might be that the solar part isn't quite working the way we thought it would, but it is certainly not a seismic rupture of the science."

Hahaha.  If that isn’t a line of ideological religion, I don’t know what is.  So a group of scientists uncover what they agree is an enormous impact on climate, one they say may have had the largest impact on climate change in the last handful of years, yet they discount the fact that there are countless equally large impacts that they haven’t uncovered.  Or how this discovery might impact long term climate patterns.  I think we call that bullshit where I come from.   These scientists are either brainwashed or don’t want to be ostracized by the global warming religionistas. 

The climate change deniers are Luddites.  The anthropogenic or manmade global warming leaders are cult members pushing their religious ideological crack.  Neither represent the nobility or purity of science.  Or put more simply, we don’t know what we don’t know.  And that is almost everything in all disciplines of science. 

posted by TimingLogic at 9:57 AM

Saudi Arabia’s Earthquakes Portend First Volcanic Activity In 800 Years?

posted by TimingLogic at 9:27 AM

Wednesday, October 06, 2010

Crimes Against Humanity - The United States Government Performs Nazi-Style Experiments On Unsuspecting Guatemalans. What Other Unsavory Secrets Are Yet To Be Exposed?

Title link here.

Excerpted from the title link:

They (these revelations) also come as U.S. drug companies are increasingly going to poor, less-educated countries to test new drugs and other therapies.

I’m not going to get into it on this blog but re the article comments above, American  drug companies are now holding clinical trials in third world countries where many believe they are exploiting poor people with miniscule financial payments in return for what may be unsafe or inhumane experiments.  Why are drug companies doing trials in poverty-stricken countries anyway?  Why aren’t they being performed in the United States?  I’m not an expert in this arena but many are and it doesn’t take too much searching on the internet to find massive potential  abuse or worse. 

The United States government responded to the public exposé involving Guatemala with surprise.  Was that surprise real or for public consumption?  Given the cover up of fraud in our banking system, potential war crimes, the selling out of our government for money, corruption involving FDA policy and our food supply and countless other disturbing realities, we need to be dubious of everything Washington says and does until it is once again held to account as a transparent democratic government working on behalf of We The People.

Well, let’s put this Guatemala revelation in context.  We already know the U.S. government and the CIA have been involved in countless secret experiments that would be classified as crimes against humanity in times gone by.  In other words, this is not an isolated case but instead is a pattern. 

Where does all of this end?  We really don’t know because enormous components of the United States government are not accountable to a democratic society and there is absolutely no transparency into what major state bureaucracies are doing.  That includes the CIA which needs to have its charter revoked or needs to have it completely rewritten to be accountable to We The People.   The CIA is endlessly involved in breaking American laws and shitting on our Constitution in addition to its endless human rights abuses.  

The end does not justify the means.  We are a civil society where We The People are supposed to decide democratically how our government operates.  The rule of law and human rights are all that separates us from the ravages of living like animals.   When we tolerate these crimes, we are no better than the thugs around the world who rule their societies as they see fit using any method they deem necessary. 

Remember, we have written numerous times that I believe many revelations in coming years could be exposed about disturbing activities our government has been involved in.    All of this adds to the awakening process.  No bureaucracy should ever be trusted.  Complete transparency and oversight are the mechanisms of trust for a free society. 

posted by TimingLogic at 5:55 AM