First, a little humor for the day. The Hong Kong Gold Exchange is going to build a 1500 tonne vault in China: LINK The rumor in my office is that Janet Yellen has decided that because of all of the bad weather in New York this year, she is going to use that vault to move Germnay's 1500 tonnes into a more weather-friendly environment...
Homebuilder sentiment collapses the most on record in one month, mortgage applications drop to a 19yr low (reported last Wed).
Then there's this string of reports:
- the TIC report shows China reduced its U.S. Treasury holdings in December by the 2nd largest
amount ever
- Student loans hit a record $1.08 trillion in December, delinquencies on this debt hit all time high
- social unrest in Venezuela, violence and deployment of military in Ukraine, bank runs in Thailand
- well-paid bankers, especially JPM bankers, dropping dead with no explanation
Reminds me of the "coup de gras" systemic collapse chapter in "Atlas Shrugged." It's going to get ugly this year...
Tuesday, February 18, 2014
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I was listening to the CNBC dipshits and stock salesmen today. I giggled when they said the housing collapse was the biggest EVER in one month. The market shrugs this all off looking for the resumption of QE which I believe will absolutely occur. They got no choice. I thought of you and smiled.
ReplyDeleteWhen I saw the homebuilders sentiment and the mortgage apps drop I picked up a couple hundred more shares of SRS....
ReplyDeleteI have heard competing theories of 1) QE will be resumed to kick the can as long as possible and 2) tapering will continue and collapse the system because it will collapse anyway and this way the elites can control and direct the collapse instead of a chaotic collapse later. I tend to believe theory 1) myself but it will end in currency crisis. Martin Armstrong says 215.75 and maybe he's right...
ReplyDeleteas they print...all will become poorer....and what little social order we have left in this country...will be under a tremendous assault......imho
ReplyDeleteJanet Yellen's Reply:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHwx0_ZldW8
How about this one for the list :
ReplyDelete- President Obama is cited by a U.S. Naval Admiral for setting up the 2012 Benghazi attack.
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No, it's not going to get ugly this year, it's going to get uglier.
ReplyDeleteWhile historic winter storms have battered much of the US, California is suffering its worst drought on record. So why is America's most valuable farming state using billions of gallons of water to grow hay - specifically alfalfa - which is then shipped to China?
ReplyDeleteThe reservoirs of California are just a fraction of capacity amid the worst drought in the state's history.
"This should be like Eden right now," farmer John Dofflemyer says, looking out over a brutally dry, brown valley as his remaining cows feed on the hay he's had to buy in to keep them healthy.
In the dried-up fields of California's Central Valley, farmers like Dofflemyer are selling their cattle. Others have to choose which crops get the scarce irrigation water and which will wither.
"These dry times, this drought, has a far-reaching impact well beyond California," he said as the cattle fell in line behind his small tractor following the single hay bail on the back.
"We have never seen anything like this before - it's new ground for everybody."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-26124989
stock up on water.
News from the land down under is not good on the jobs front. Unemployment recently hit a 10yr high @ 6%, expected to go higher through 2014, and wage growth is the lowest it's been since records began in 1997. Combine that with the automotive industries, GM, Ford and now Toyota all to pull out of operations by 2017 and the manufacturing industry gaining almost non-existent status and a housing bubble being fed by record low cash interest rates @ 2.5% and ridiculous negative gearing tax breaks, it's all down hill from here. Shell are trying to sell their retail service station network, some 100 sites and you'd have to ask why?
ReplyDeleteIt used to be referred to as "The Lucky Country'.
Yeah right! Such a mess!
http://gopthedailydose.com/2014/02/15/admiral-claims-obama-conspired-with-americas-enemies-to-stage-a-phony-scandal-to-kidnap-chris-stevens/
ReplyDeleteSen. Schumer won't join review of Time Warner Cable sale because of brother's role in deal
ReplyDeleteALBANY, N.Y. — U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer said Tuesday he is recusing himself from any role Congress plays in Comcast Corp.'s planned acquisition of rival Time Warner Cable Inc. after learning his brother was one of the lead lawyers behind the $45 billion deal.
Federal regulators and lawmakers will scrutinize how the acquisition would affect competition and consumers, issues that could have come before the New York Democrat as a member of the Senate's Judiciary Committee's antitrust subcommittee.
Schumer's office said he didn't know his brother Robert represented Time Warner Cable in the talks until The American Lawyer reported Friday he was the publication's "dealmaker of the week." Robert Schumer is co-chair of the mergers and acquisitions practice at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison.
http://www.syracuse.com/business-news/index.ssf/2014/02/sen_schumer_wont_join_review_o.html
Memo to UK's Serious Fraud Office: Your System Is Broken
The UK’s Serious Fraud Office tells us on its web site that its “overarching aims and objectives” are to reduce “fraud and corruption”; deliver “justice and the rule of law”: and maintain “confidence in the UK’s business and financial institutions.”
Given that we now know that Libor was rigged under the nose of the British Bankers Association; that the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority has acknowledged that the foreign exchange markets in the UK have been rigged just as abominably as Libor; and allegations are currently flying that Bank of England officials approved of the sharing of information between traders from competing firms in the foreign exchange market – the Serious Fraud Office has to get a failing grade in maintaining confidence in its financial institutions.
And here’s why it matters to every breathing, investing American. Every time the U.S. public launches a protest or march or hearings to rein in the abuse of the big Wall Street banks, some politician or lobbyist or editorial writer at the Wall Street Journal warns us that our too-big-to-fail banks will move to London if we don’t let them have their way with derivatives or proprietary trading or dark pools or high frequency trading or what have you. This perpetual, ill-conceived whining has set up London and New York prosecutors in a perpetual race to the bottom.
New York’s incessant Whiner-In-Chief is Senator Chuck Schumer.
http://wallstreetonparade.com/2014/02/memo-to-uk%E2%80%99s-serious-fraud-office-your-system-is-broken/
ain't that convenient....?
Queens Library CEO Thomas Galante, shown, is in Queens Borough President Melinda Katz's crosshairs after his $2 million golden parachute, $392,000 salary, $200,000 secret job and bill for $140,000 in renovations to his executive offices came to light.
ReplyDeleteAnd now comes to light another astonishing perk — Galante’s employment contract guarantees him a payout of nearly $2 million if he is dismissed.
That’s right, $2 million in severance — for a head librarian.
The Daily News reported earlier this month that Galante received a whopping $392,000 salary in 2013, plus a sports car, to run the borough’s taxpayer-funded library system. And The News was first to report that he spent nearly $140,000 on renovations to his executive offices — including a $26,000 private smoking deck.
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/queens/queens-president-trustees-nix-money-flush-library-head-2m-exit-deal-article-1.1619207#ixzz2tmfeGOIu
shhhh.....