So CNBC plus your local moronic financial adviser are trying to convince you that gold is in a bubble? Barron's online just posted an article in which some shit-for-brains analyst from Piper Jaffray and another one from some bucket shop laid out the case for AAPL to hit a trillion dollar market cap. I've been wondering when Wall Street was going to start throwing out numbers like that for AAPL. I think the absurdity of that valuation in relation to AAPL's underlying business and market fundamentals speaks for itself. I will say, though, if the Fed has to print money in the quantities that will be needed to fund our Government, we could see several stocks hit a trillion dollar market cap, especially the large mining stocks.
Here's the Barron's article if you want either a good chuckle or feel a need to be irritated: LINK
The second source of irritation for me today was when I woke to the reports that Obama accused the Supreme Court of judicial "activism" if they struck down Obamacare. He referred to the SCOTUS as "unelected" officials. Here's a link that's not from Fox News: LINK
Ummm, what I am I missing here? I thought that we learned in like 9th grade that we had three branches of Government in our system in order to provide checks and balances within the Governmental process. I thought that the Supreme Court's function was to determine the constitutionality of legislation created by Congress and signed by the President. If the Supreme Court strikes down Obamacare, isn't the Supreme Court doing what it's supposed to do? If a President can influence the way in which the Constitution is meant to be applied, then isn't our system failing?
It seems to me that the only "activism" taking place here is by Obama. Quite frankly, I find it hard to believe that he is supposedly a Constitutional law expert. But then again, we have already seen by his actions - as opposed to and contrary to his campaign promises - that Obama is systematically putting what's left of the Constitution - that which wasn't destroyed by his predecessor - through a paper shredder. In truth, we should not be surprised that a politician who skated through the system on affirmative action programs and who has lived on public largess his entire career doesn't give a rat's ass about the Constitution. Let's call Obama a "Con" law expert, as he conned a lot of people into voting for him to be the POTUS.
The bottom line is that our system is quickly collapsing into a state of Governmental totalitarianism. The signs are abundant. Just look at the way in which the MF Global catastrophe is being handled by the Justice Department. It's not and that's the problem. The Obama Administration is looking the other way while the JP Morgan and Jon Corzine walk away from looting at least a billion in customer funds.
And what's with Obama signing a law the gives the Government the right to take control of the entire infrastructure and resource base of this country AND to implement martial law WITHOUT the exigencies of a national emergency. I'm referring to the recent National Defense Resources Preparedness Executive Order signed by Obama a couple weeks ago. Think he's not serious about this? Check out the recent ammunition procurement by the Department of Homeland Security: LINK. Those are not crowd control rubber bullets. Those are hollow-points designed for efficient killing. What is our Government worried about?
I guess in the context of the enormous power that has been consolidated into the Executive Branch of Government, first by W and then by Obama, we shouldn't be surprised that Obama is trying to verbally usurp the authority of the SCOTUS to do its job the way it was laid out by Founding Fathers and the Constitution. But then again, with a name like Barack Hussein Obama, we know our POTUS does not have much in the way of American heritage, so why should he respect or heed the system set up by the people who started this country...
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
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Living in Canada I would like to think we are immune to the s**tstorm I see brewing in the USA right now but sadly as the neighbour always willing to please I believe we are following in the same footsteps but just a step or 2 behind. Our Central Bank is run by an ex-Goldmanite, too, for example. Sad that government in the "free world" countries is becoming much more for itself and its real supporters (read JPM, GS, Monsanto)than for the people it is supposed to protect from such entities. So many of Jefferson's warnings about bankers and standing armies, etc have not been heeded (yes we study some American history in school up here). As you always say Dave, "got Gold?"
ReplyDeleteJustin from Canada
They've got plans for us 99%'ers...
ReplyDeleteSomeone You Love: Coming to a Gulag Near You
This is why the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which was contested by me and three other plaintiffs before Judge Katherine B. Forrest in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on Thursday, is so dangerous. This act, signed into law by President Barack Obama last Dec. 31, puts into the hands of people with no discernible understanding of legitimate dissent the power to use the military to deny due process to all deemed to be terrorists, or terrorist sympathizers, and hold them indefinitely in military detention. The deliberate obtuseness of the NDAA’s language, which defines “covered persons” as those who “substantially supported” al-Qaida, the Taliban or “associated forces,” makes all Americans, in the eyes of our expanding homeland security apparatus, potential terrorists. It does not differentiate. And the testimony of my fellow plaintiffs, who understand that the NDAA is not about them but about us, repeatedly illustrated this.
Alexa O’Brien, a content strategist and information architect who co-founded the U.S. Day of Rage, an organization created to reform the election process and wrest it back from corporate hands, was the first plaintiff to address the court. She testified that when WikiLeaks released 5 million emails from Stratfor, a private security firm that does work for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the Marine Corps and the Defense Intelligence Agency, she discovered that the company was attempting to link her and her organization to Islamic radicals and websites as well as jihadist ideology.
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/coming_to_a_gulag_near_you_20120402/
Well, Dave. What do you think? Any buyers gonna step in with size and put a floor under this, or are we gonna see $1500 again before we see $2k?
ReplyDeleteAre you even safe in your own home? Forget the color issue for a moment, what about the sanctity of your own home?
ReplyDeleteKilled at Home: White Plains, NY Police Called Out on Medical Alert Shoot Dead Black Veteran, 68
Kenneth Chamberlain, Sr., a 68-year-old African-American Marine veteran, was fatally shot in November by White Plains, NY, police who responded to a false alarm from his medical alert pendant. The officers broke down Chamberlain’s door, tasered him, and then shot him dead. Audio of the entire incident was recorded by the medical alert device in Chamberlain’s apartment. We’re joined by family attorneys and Chamberlain’s son, Kenneth Chamberlain, Jr., who struggles through tears to recount his father’s final moments, including the way police officers mocked his father’s past as a marine. "For them to look at my father that way, (with) no regard for his life, every morning I think about it," he says. [includes rush transcript]
http://www.democracynow.org/2012/3/29/killed_at_home_white_plains_ny
"And what's with Obama signing a law the gives the Government the right to take control of the entire infrastructure and resource base of this country"
ReplyDeletenot a new law, it's been around for decades...here's the version from the Clinton administration.
http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/executive-orders/pdf/12919.pdf
This will become the norm...rich or poor...
ReplyDeleteMike Bloomberg's New York: Cops in Your Hallways
An amazing lawsuit was filed in New York last week. It seems Mike Bloomberg’s notorious "stop-and-frisk" policy – known colloquially in these parts by silently-cheering white voters as the "Let’s have cops feel up any nonwhite person caught walking in the wrong neighborhood” policy – isn’t even the most repressive search policy in the NYPD arsenal.
Bloomberg, that great crossover Republican, has long been celebrated by the Upper West Side bourgeoisie for his enlightened views on gay rights and the environment, but also targeted for criticism by civil rights activists because of stop-and-frisk, a program that led to a record 684,330 street searches just last year.
Now he’s under fire for a program he inherited, which goes by the darkly Bushian name of the "Clean Halls program." In effect since 1991, it allows police to execute so-called "vertical patrols" by going up into private buildings and conducting stop-and-frisk searches in hallways – with the landlord’s permission.
According to the NYCLU, which filed the suit, "virtually every private apartment building [in the Bronx] is enrolled in the program," and "in Manhattan alone, there are at least 3,895 Clean Halls Buildings." Referring to the NYPD’s own data, the complaint says police conducted 240,000 "vertical patrols" in the year 2003 alone.
In recent years, as Wall Street firms turned into veritable felony factories, we had pundits and politicians who cranked out reams of excuses for one white-collar criminal after another and argued, in complete seriousness, that sending a rich banker to jail "wouldn’t solve anything" and in fact we should "tolerate the excesses" of the productive rich, who "channel opportunity" to the rest of us.
On the other hand, we’ve had politicians and pundits in budget fights and other controversies railing against the parasitic poor, who are not only not "productive" enough to warrant a break, but assumed to be actively unproductive (they consume our tax money and public services) and therefore sort of guilty in advance.
Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/mike-bloombergs-new-york-cops-in-your-hallways-20120403#ixzz1r2P88oGr
i thought silver was supposed to do well when the economy does well? It was to do well when there is good news and well when there is bad news.
ReplyDeleteSilver is a broken parabola and every single technical analysis is being cut down to worthlessness.
Not a single entity has any credible research on the physical stocks on silver. The physical Comex keeps on growing.
By the way - what a setup that was - the commercials increased short positions in gold big time last week to set the FOMC minutes up - worked like a charm - some more profits. Next the Jobs report.
Its all so easy. And the goldbugs have no idea.
Not sure why I posted your comment because it does not have one correct statement in it. I guess to show people just how idiotic and negative the sentiment has gotten w/respect to the PM sector.
DeleteYou need to do a lot of homework to understand why your comment is seeded in complete ignorance.
I thought we had freedom of speech? It so easy to see the destruction of the economy and democracy...and the goldbugs know what's coming.
Delete1st Amendment Protesting Is Now A Felony Punishable By Jail
http://youtu.be/PkWZz9G48IQ
Add this to your wtf...
ReplyDeletepension obligation bonds
Credit Derivatives took down the mortgage industry (almost the banking industry, except for the gift from US taxpayers) and the US housing market.
Pension Obligation Bonds will take down state, county, and local governments and all related pension funds.
Click here for the full story.
Pension obligation bonds are a type of derivative.
Struggling to pay employee pensions, local governments are increasingly borrowing money to cover their obligations — exploiting a loophole in federal law that allows them to issue taxable bonds without seeking voter approval.
Oakland took a bet on its pension fund that ended up costing the city an estimated $245 million — nearly a quarter of its annual budget. That hasn’t stopped the city from looking to try its luck one more time.
POB will take down every city, county, and state, that the US government chooses not to bail out. Pensions will go under or be severely reduced and then infrastructure (not financed by the Feds) will slow or cease.
The bets are being made using an exotic but increasingly popular financial instrument known as a pension obligation bond. Cities, counties and states use the bonds to take out high-interest loans from private investors to plug shortfalls in their employee pension funds.
http://totallygroovygirlfriday.wordpress.com/2012/04/04/pension-obligation-bonds/
Here's a question to all the fixed income experts out there because I'm just a simpleton....How can you ever truly know how much debt is held off balance sheets by governments and corporations? Anyone?
ReplyDeleteWhen Is QE Not Really QE, a Bailout Not Really a Bailout?
IMF chief calls on US for more cash
3 April 2012
WASHINGTON: IMF managing director Christine Lagarde implored the United States to help back-stop debt-ridden European countries Tuesday, wading neck-deep into bubbling US political waters.
Speaking in the US capital, Lagarde said the 187-nation International Monetary Fund needed more firepower to tackle financial crises raging around the globe, arguing it was in the US interest to pitch in and help Europe.
"Americans might ask themselves: why should what happens in the rest of the world concern us? Don't we have our own problems?" she said, according to prepared remarks.
"The answer is simple: In today's world, we cannot afford the luxury of staying in our own mental backyards."
"If the European economy falters, the American recovery and American jobs would be in jeopardy. So America has a large stake in how Europe fare -- and how the world fares."
http://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/2012/04/when-is-qe-not-really-qe-bailout-not.html
Police Are Using Phone Tracking as a Routine Tool
ReplyDeleteMany departments try to keep cell tracking secret, the documents show, because of possible backlash from the public and legal problems. Although there is no evidence that the police have listened to phone calls without warrants, some defense lawyers have challenged other kinds of evidence gained through warrantless cell tracking.
“Do not mention to the public or the media the use of cellphone technology or equipment used to locate the targeted subject,” the Iowa City Police Department warned officers in one training manual. It should also be kept out of police reports, it advised.
In Nevada, a training manual warned officers that using cell tracing to locate someone without a warrant “IS ONLY AUTHORIZED FOR LIFE-THREATENING EMERGENCIES!!” The practice, it said, had been “misused” in some standard investigations to collect information the police did not have the authority to collect.
“Some cell carriers have been complying with such requests, but they cannot be expected to continue to do so as it is outside the scope of the law,” the advisory said. “Continued misuse by law enforcement agencies will undoubtedly backfire.”
Clashes over the program’s legality led Congress to broaden the government’s eavesdropping powers in 2008. As part of the law, the Bush administration insisted that phone companies helping in the program be given immunity against lawsuits.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/01/us/police-tracking-of-cellphones-raises-privacy-fears.html
Syntagma Square Suicide Note Ends With Call To Young Greek People To "Hang The Traitors"
ReplyDeleteEarlier today, we remarked on the story of a 77-year old Greek, now identified as Dimitris Christoulas, who at around 9 am took his life in the middle of Athens' central Syntagma Square with a bullet to his head. His full suicide note has been released. The note, presented below, ends in a solemn call to arms to "hang the traitors of this country."
"The Tsolakoglou government has annihilated all traces for my survival, which was based on a very dignified pension that I alone paid for 35 years with no help from the state. And since my advanced age does not allow me a way of dynamically reacting (although if a fellow Greek were to grab a Kalashnikov, I would be right behind him), I see no other solution than this dignified end to my life, so I don’t find myself fishing through garbage cans for my sustenance. I believe that young people with no future, will one day take up arms and hang the traitors of this country at Syntagma square, just like the Italians did to Mussolini in 1945"
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/syntagma-square-suicide-note-ends-call-young-greek-people-hang-traitors?