See Also: (TheSpiritofTruth) – Dow 13K & The Historical *Affect* Of Psychological Barriers – Read More Here
(ZeroHedge) – Since the amount of coverage the Dow 13,000 has received on CNBC indicates that it is clearly the indicator for half of the actively trading population in America to hang its hat and retire, we can only commiserate with the retirement planners of America who have had to do only to undo retirement plans for all of 7 people give or take (as we said, half the entire active trading population of America, although we should clarifyof the carbon-based variety) a whopping 52 times. Yup: Read the rest of this entry »
(ZeroHedge) – While hardly discussed broadly in the mainstream media, the top news of the past 24 hours without doubt is that in addition to losing its fiscal sovereignty, and numerous other things, the Greek population is about to lose its gold in a perfectly legitimate fashion, following amendments to the country’s constitution by unelected banker technocrats, who will make it legal for Greek creditors – read insolvent European banks – to plunder the Greek gold which at last check amounts to 111.6 tonnes according to the WGC. Read the rest of this entry »
(ZeroHedge) – In Eerie Replay Of 2011, Gold Spikes Abruptly To Over $1770, Silver Follows – Read More Here
(NationalJournal) – Report: Debt would grow under all but one GOP contender
The debt would grow by about $4.5 trillion by 2012 under former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum and by about $7 trillion under former House speaker Newt Gingrich, reaching a level greater than 100 percent of the nation’s economy, according to a report to be released on Thursday by U.S. Budget Watch, a project of the bipartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. Read More Here
(Tampa-Angels) – Feeding The Homeless And The Poor In Tampa, Florida – Food Donation Link – Here
(SteveQuayle) – Request For Food Assistance For The Poor/Homeless In Liberty, Missouri – View Here
(SteveQuayle) – Request For Food Assistance For The Poor In Witchita Falls Texas – View Here
(SteveQuayle) – Request For Food Assistance For The Poor In Ocean City, MD – View Here
(ZeroHedge) – As US Debt To GDP Passes 101%, The Global Debt Ponzi Enters Its Final Stages – Tyler Durden
Today, without much fanfare, US debt to GDP hit 101% with the latest issuance of $32 billion in 2 Year Bonds. If the moment when this ratio went from double to triple digits is still fresh in readers minds, is because it is: total debt hit and surpassed the most recently revised Q4 GDP on January 30, or just three weeks ago. Read the rest of this entry »
See Also: (RussiaToday) – Athens Burns: buildings on fire as chaos, riots flare up – Read More Here
(ZeroHedge) – There is a silver lining to Athens’ ever uglier transition to a third world country: the massive GDP boost that awaits it as it sets off to fix broken windows and burned down buildings. In fact, we eagerly await Krugman’s OpEd praising some of the more recent developments out of Greece in the past 48 hours. Granted, the country will need to get even more bailout funding from the Troika for said GDP boost to occur, but who cares about details anymore. Read the rest of this entry »
(Bloomberg) – Will Free-Marketeers Save Fannie and Freddie? – Read More Here
(MarketOracle) – The Great Global Debt Depression: It’s All Greek To Me – Read More Here
(StateCollege) – What’s the Next Chapter in the Economic Saga? – Read More Here
(FinancialTimes) – Obama struggles to get Wall Street funding – Read More Here
(DelawareOnline) – Failure to raise debt ceiling would put economy in peril – Read More Here
(HoweStreet) – It gets better
When this godawful blog started three years ago the smell of financial collapse hung in the air like a Wal-Mart fragrance. With its message of caution about what was to come (and it did), GreaterFool attracted an audience of doomers, nihilists, conspiracists, survivalists and hot chicks (I mean, look at me). Read More Here
(WallStreetPit) – Fannie, Freddie, and the Three “Crises” – Read More Here
(AgentGenius) – Another mortgage crisis- robo-signing continues, loans missing, MERS under fire – Read More Here
(Bloomberg) – Germany Says It’s Confident EU Will Agree on Greek Debt Plan – Read More Here
(EndoftheAmericanDream) – As The Dollar And The Euro Continue To Collapse, How High Is That Going To Push The Price Of Gold? – Read More Here
(BusinessInsider) – Bill Clinton Would Declare The Debt Limit Illegal
Former President Bill Clinton waded into the debt ceiling negotiations Monday, saying if he were still in office he would raise the debt ceiling unilaterally, “without hesitation, and force the courts to stop me.” Read More Here
(JackFoley) – Gold Needs To Take A Breather.. – Read More Here
(ZeroHedge) – As David Cameron Resignation Odds Surge From 100/1 To 8/1 In Hours, Is UK Default (And Contagion) Risk Set To Follow? – Tyler Durden – Read More Here
Video
(RussiaToday) – Gold is money – except if you’re Bernanke
This week Max Keiser and co-host, Stacy Herbert, look at the political theatre of America’s AAA rating in a land where gold is not money and shoplifting is a sign of a strong economy. Read the rest of this entry »
(ZeroHedge) – One look at the most recent naval update maps shows that in addition to global insolvency (courtesy of the broke European dominoes and a potentially technically broke US), a UK on the verge of a parliamentary scandal courtesy of a media baron whose empire is crumbling, and not to mention yet another downward inflection point in the global economic slowdown courtesy of the end of QE2 and no replacement yet, market watchers may have to start factoring in geopolitical risk yet again. Read the rest of this entry »
(ZeroHedge) – Technically the title of this post is wrong: the truth is that nobody could possibly know or predict what a bank run would looks like in details suffice to say that it would have terminal and devastating results on the global economy. One needs only remember what happened when the Reserve Fund broke the buck and the $3 billion money market industry was at risk of unwinding (for those who do not, Paul Kanjorski does a good summary Read the rest of this entry »
(ZeroHedge) – With just days left until the crucial vote on passing the Greek mid-term austerity package, the assured destruction rhetoric used by the Greek status quo has hit fever pitch. Just to make sure the message is not lost on the broader population that Europe’s banks will not admit defeat in a vote that could end the kleptocratic cartel’s hegemony for ever, Greece’s Deputy Prime Minister Theodoros Pangalos has blasted suggestions that it would be better for his country to abandon the euro and return to the drachma as an “immense stupidity”. Read the rest of this entry »
(ZeroHedge) – The world’s premier euroskeptic, Nigel Farage, just held a funeral procession for the Euro after Europe now has just 10 days left in which to save its battered currency. Read the rest of this entry »
(ZeroHedge) – Courtesy of the recently declassified Fed discount window documents, we now know that the biggest beneficiaries of the Fed’s generosity during the peak of the credit crisis were foreign banks, among which Belgium’s Dexia was the most troubled, and thus most lent to, bank. Having been thus exposed, many speculated that going forward the US central bank would primarily focus its “rescue” efforts on US banks, not US-based (or local branches) of foreign (read European) banks: after all that’s what the ECB is for, while the Fed’s role is to stimulate US employment and to keep US inflation modest. Read the rest of this entry »
(ZeroHedge) – The first confirmation of protests expected to sweep across Europe tonight from Greece to Spain, France and Italy comes from Syntagma square where up to 100,000 people are protesting at this moment. Ekathimerini reports: “Greeks inspired by the Spanish “Indignant” or “Indignados” movement held their largest protest so far in Athens on Sunday, which some estimates put as high as 100,000 people, although a more accurate assesment seemed to be that those taking part exceeded 30,000. No official figure was given for the number of people packing into Syntagma Square in front of Parliament but it was clear that the protest was by far the largest since the movement began on Wednesday.” For now the Greek protest is peaceful, but with the US on vacation, and the EURUSD about to be very volatile, we urge readers to follow the real time update at the following live webcast. Read the rest of this entry »
(ZeroHedge) – “A ‘91-style meltdown is almost inevitable.” So says Alexei Moiseev, chief economist at VTB Capital, the investment-banking arm of Russia’s second-largest lender, discussing the imminent economic catastrophe that is sure to engulf Belarus following the surprise devaluation of the country’s currency by over 50%, which we announced on Monday. “Unless Belarus heeds Russia’s call for mass privatization of state assets, it is headed for “hyperinflation, massive un- and under-employment, and a shutdown of production” Read the rest of this entry »
(ZeroHedge) – Paul Craig Roberts: “The west prides itself that it is the standard for the world, that it is a democracy. But nowehere do you see democratic outcomes: not in Greece, not in Ireland, not in the UK, not here, the outcomes are always to punish the innocent and reward the guilty. And that’s what the Greeks are in the streets, protesting. We see this all over the west. There is no democracy, there are oligarchies, some of these smaller European countries are not even run by their own governments, they are run by Wall Street… Read the rest of this entry »
(SkyNews) – IMF Chief Resigns After Sex Attack Charges – Read More Here
(Reuters) – Weekly Claims See Fall, But Jobs Picture Remains Weak – Read More Here
(MSNBC) – Video: Ron Paul – The Problem Is Corporatism and Fiat Money, Not Free-Market Capitalism!
(MaxKeiser) – The Truth About Silver: There’s Tons Of Real Demand, And We’re Not Close To A Bubble – Max Keiser – Read More Here
REPOST – (YahooFinance) – Video: MATT TAIBBI: Goldman Sachs Executives Lied To Their Customers And Congress – Video Link Here
(WealthWire) – Gold Aimed at $6,500/oz, Silver… $600/oz – Read More Here
(ZeroHedge) – Richard Koo Explains Why An Unwind Of QE2, With Nothing To Replace It, Could Lead To The Biggest Depression Yet – Tyler Durden – Read More Here
(CNBC) – Central Banks Snap Up Gold in First Quarter – Read More Here
(GlobalResearch) – Was Dominique Strauss-Kahn Trying to Torpedo the Dollar? – Mike Whitney – Read More Here
(InternationalForecaster) – A Higher Cost of Living and A Weaker Economy The Reality – Bob Chapman – Read More Here
(LiraBlog) – SPG Supplement: Is the Gold/Copper Ratio Predicting A Drop In the S&P? – Read More Here
(Cryptogon) – And Now… J.P. Morgan’s Hunt for Afghan Gold – Read More Here
(ZeroHedge) – Japanese Economy Collapses: Q1 GDP Drops At Double Consensus Rate, Epic Nominal Plunge Of -5.2% – Tyler Durden – Read More Here
(ZeroHedge) – China Central Bank Lays It Down: “New IMF Leadership Should Reflect New World Order” – Tyler Durden – Read More Here
Video
(RussiaToday) – Peter Schiff: “We’re selling our souls to the devil”
Volatility is just part of the market, says Euro Pacific Capital President Peter Schiff. While speculation could smooth this out, however, that isn’t the case right now. Irresponsibly money printing is damaging the dollar, and as currency is continued to be produced in America and elsewhere, commodity prices have nowhere to go but up. While the World Bank says the global economy is climbing itself out of a financial crisis, Schiff says he isn’t so certain. Read the rest of this entry »
(ZeroHedge) – John Taylor: “The Nice Risk Rally Since The First Half Of 2009 Is Ending” And Will Be Replaced By A “Scary Descent” – Tyler Durden – Read More Here
(AlexJonesChannel) – Video: Bob Chapman – The Financial Powers That Be Are In A Trap of Their Own Making Part 1 Here – Part 2
(SilverShield) – The 3 Big Charts I Watch For Silver – Read More Here
(ZeroHedge) – Central Banks Purchase 127 Tons Of Gold In Q1 – Tyler Durden – Read More Here
(ZeroHedge) – Shanghai Silver Trading Volume Surges By 65% Last Month – Tyler Durden – Read More Here
Video
(RussiaToday) – U.S. middle class disappearing into abyss?
As America’s joblessness and poverty remain at a peak, RT’s Anastasia Churkina delves deep into the sorrows of the country’s middle class to find out if its future is doomed. Read the rest of this entry »
(ZeroHedge) – This won’t sit too well with the GCLU. We are, in fact hearing, that there is already a protest organized to protest police brutality, which will culminate with more cops beating the austerty out of more protesters, and so forth at an exponential pace. Read the rest of this entry »
(ZeroHedge) – And while everyone has forgotten about the terabequerels of radiation released on a daily basis out of Fukushima, even as the Japanese Center for Economic Research just revised March GDP massively lower (more shortly), TEPCO, nearly two months after the explosion, has released the following very brief video of the spent fuel rod pool at Reactor 4. The good news: it is submerged in water; the bad news: it is submerged in water, meaning nobody is even one step closer to safely removing the constantly leaking radioactive material. Read the rest of this entry »
(ZeroHedge) – Black Swan Clusterflock +1. As if earthquakes, tsunamis, nuclear meltdowns and war was not enough, the Examiner now discloses that a replay of the BP oil spill could be in the making, sending WTI to the (super)moon, the economy collapsing, and Ben Bernanke starting the printer in advance of QE 666. To wit: “The U.S. Coast Guard is currently investigating reports of a potentially massive oil sheen about 20 miles away from the site of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion last April.” Read the rest of this entry »
See Also: (WashPost) – Japan’s Nikkei plunges 11 percent on radiation fears, sending global markets into a tailspin – Read More Here
(ZeroHedge) – Marc Faber appeared earlier on CNBC in response to a plunging market, and gave his latest updated outlook on QE3… and 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 (not to mention 18). “We may drop 10 to 15 percent. Then QE 2 will come, (then) QE 4, QE 5, QE 6, QE 7—whatever you want. The money printer will continue to print, that I’m sure. Actually I made a mistake. I meant to say QE 18.” Read the rest of this entry »
(ZeroHedge) – After Julian Assange crashed and burned in his threat to release documents that expose fraud at Bank of America, many thought he had been only bluffing, and that BofA is actually clean. Not so fast. Read the rest of this entry »
(ZeroHedge) – Ever wonder why the banks have been stowing away cash as if in anticipation of a torrential rainy day? Well, it just started pouring. According to the WSJ: “The Obama administration is trying to push through a settlement over mortgage-servicing breakdowns that could force America’s largest banks to pay for reductions in loan principal worth billions of dollars… Read the rest of this entry »
(ZeroHedge) – The quietest bank run that has so far completely evaded mainstream attention, that of Korea, is spreading, and an eighth bank has now shuttered after “Domin Bank, a savings bank with a capital adequacy ratio below 5 percent, voluntarily decided yesterday to suspend its operations temporarily because of massive withdrawals.” As JoongAng reports: “The decision took both depositors and financial regulators by surprise since it was the first time that a local bank shut its doors on its own.” Apparently the courageous decision by the Financial Services Chairman Kim Seok-dong to deposit $17,864 in a troubled bank has not done much if anything to prevent the locals from realizing that their banking system is built on a house of cards. Read the rest of this entry »
(ZeroHedge) – What could possibly be the most important unreported news from the weekend comes out of China, where quietly Internet postings have circulated, calling for disgruntled Chinese to gather on Sunday in public places in 13 major cities to mark the “Jasmine Revolution” spreading through the Middle East. The postings, many of which appeared to have originated on overseas websites run by exiled Chinese political activists, called for protests in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and 10 other major Chinese cities. And while there has been some speculation this latest “social network” protest is nothing more than performance art, the Chinese authorities sure are taking it seriously: Read the rest of this entry »
(ZeroHedge) – So far all attempts by the flailing Mubarak regime to stem the revolution and return life to normal in Egypt have failed, and at this point the fate of the president appears to be sealed, with its final resolution just a matter of time. The one key trade off to delaying the inevitable, however, is that the US, and specifically its Egypt-centered policies, which had far has been largely absent from the rioters’ rhetoric, is starting to appear more and more often as a subject of discussion…. and not in a flattering way. Read the rest of this entry »
(ZeroHedge) – While the biggest threat to the Middle East region is the possibility that the population of Saudi Arabia may try to imitate what has been happening in the area, thereby bringing total chaos to the established regional geopolitical and more importantly, energy, structure, the first protests in the Saudi Arabia city of Jeddah are already in the books. Read the rest of this entry »
(ZeroHedge) – In lieu of a credible macroeconomic data reporting infrastructure in America, increasingly more people are forced to resort to secondary trend indicators, most of which have zero economic “credibility” within the mainstream, yet which provide just as good a perspective of what may be happening behind the scenes in this once great country. Read the rest of this entry »
(ZeroHedge) – After a week ago we learned that the central bank of Tunisia had parted with 23% of its gold stash courtesy of now deposed president who fled the country with a 1.5 ton shipment of gold, it appears that Egypt is preparing for a comparable spike in revolutionary activity. Only unlike the now former Tunisian president whose gold sequestering actions were retroactive and thus, quite lucky to succeed, Egypt has taken proactive measures. Read the rest of this entry »
(ZeroHedge) – First president Obama becomes Bush in all but name with respect to his predecessor’s economic policies, and now he follows by espousing Bush’s interpretation of “civil rights” as well. According to Pro Publica, the White House is preparing an Executive Order for indefinite detention. And while the premise behind a comparable draft has been circulating around for 18 months, the uptake was seen as problematic. The “humanitarian” premise behind the order is that it will “provide for the periodic reviews of evidence against dozens of prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay… and allow for the possibility that detainees from countries like Yemen might be released if circumstances change.” That’s the theory. The “practice” is that the Order will, as the name implies, afford the administration the option of “indefinite detention as a long-term Obama administration policy and makes clear that the White House alone will manage a review process for those it chooses to hold without charge or trial.” Read the rest of this entry »
(ZeroHedge) – A rather indicative poll released by Rasmussen earlier this week finds that a majority of Americans (44%) now believe that the government operates outside the confines of the Constitution, compared to just 39% who believe government does not take liberties with the precepts laid out by the founding fathers (and 17% were busy watching dancing with the stars to have an opinion either way). Some other unflattering findings on US democracy: Read the rest of this entry »
(ZeroHedge) – While nominal stocks will soon be reaching for new all time highs, very much in the spirit of the Zimbabwe stock market, all of these so-called price levels (and the associated “wealth effect”) are increasingly irrelevant as they continue to come solely at the expense of ongoing global currency devaluation, whose only alternative is the purchasing of hard currencies such as gold and silver. Read the rest of this entry »
(SteveWatson) – Gold Surges As Euro Continues To Collapse
Highest gain for four weeks on fears of disintegration of Euro zone Read More Here
(Maclver) – Wisconsin Borrows $1.4 Billion from Feds for Unemployment Funds
Wisconsin’s loans place the state as one of the largest Unemployment Reserve debtors in the country. Read More Here
(Money&Markets) – The Biggest Shock of All
Why did the specter of collapse in far-away Hungary help sink the Dow by 323 points on Friday?
And why did similar scenarios in Greece, Spain, and Portugal trigger the Dow’s 1,000-point Flash Crash one month earlier? Read More Here
(ITN) – Impact of cuts will be enormous, warns PM
In a major speech on the economy, the Prime Minister will say the proposed cuts programme will affect “our whole way of life” and could be felt for decades, such is the scale of the debt problem. Read More Here
(WSJ) – Tax Hikes and the 2011 Economic Collapse – Read More Here
(Globe&Mail) – Canada wins key fight against bank tax
Proponents of such a tax including the United States and Europe are free to go it alone, but the new plan allows the rest of the G20 to avoid the controversial idea and find other ways to reduce banking risks. Read More Here
(DailyReckoning) – Government Desperate. Gold Tax Imminent?
The thrust is that, as Mr. Steer says, “Adrian floats the disturbing possibility that governments, looking around for easy sources of revenue, may decide to tax the private ownership of gold.” Read More Here
(EconomicCollapse) – U.S. National Debt 2010 – Read More Here
(Economicrant) – By Christmas 50,000,000 Americans will be eating at the government trough
Other presidents get the picture on paper currency. Obama should have his picture on food stamps. There are now 40 million Americans who choose to have the government feed them rather than feed themselves. This is almost 1 in 7 people who depend on government food. Now do you see how totally and completely hopeless things are? Read More Here
(BusinessWeek) – Fed Denies Bernanke Attended Bilderberg – Read More Here
(CNSNews) – U.S. Will be Like Greece in ‘Seven to 10 Years,’ Say Congressmen, Experts
Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.), along with other members of Congress and leading financial experts, is warning that the United States is in danger of being in the same dire situation as Greece – national bankruptcy — in seven to 10 years if the nation doesn’t slash its debt and control spending, unless the federal government radically curtails spending. Read More Here
(ZeroHedge) – On The Imminent US Debt To GDP Parity – Tyler Durden
One of the most recurring and troubling topics on Zero Hedge is the imminent US Debt to GDP parity: even as the US economy is starting to roll over from a temporary sugar high into a double dip, the hangover effect of $2.1 trillion in debt incurred since March 2009 will linger for a long, long time. Read More Here
(BusinessInsider) – In 5 Years, UK Will Be Spending More On Interest Than Schools, Climate, And Transport Combined
Based on the calculations of the last government, in five years’ time the interest we are paying on our debt is predicted to be around £70bn. That is a simply staggering amount. No wonder the previous government refused to publish the information. Read More Here
(EconomicCollapse) – College Students This Is Your Future: High Unemployment And Student Loan Hell
Hundreds of thousands of college students all over the United States have just graduated and are getting ready for their first taste of the real world. Unfortunately for them, the real world is not always easy and it is not always fair. Read More Here
(Bloomberg) – U.S.’s $13 Trillion Debt Poised to Overtake GDP Chart of Day
President Barack Obama is poised to increase the U.S. debt to a level that exceeds the value of the nation’s annual economic output, a step toward what Bill Gross called a “debt super cycle.” The CHART OF THE DAY tracks U.S. gross domestic product and the government’s total debt, which rose past $13 trillion for the first time this month. Read More Here
Protesters have clashed with police as they tried to break through the gates of the Irish parliament during a march against bank bailouts. Read More Here
(AmericanThinker) – The Failure of the Unfree Market
What we have here is the failure of the unfree market. That means the failure of Greece. And the other PIGS (Portugal, Italy, Greece, Spain). And Europe. And it means the U.S., too. It even includes the Great Recession. The modern welfare state is collapsing around us. Read More Here
(SteveWatson) – New UK Government To Be Infested With Bankers
One in ten new MPs has background in international banking Read More Here
(SteveWatson) – UK Economy May Be Allowed To Crash And Burn Like US Banking Giant
Analysts, Economists: Britain May Become Lehman To Greece’s Bear Stearns Read More Here
(Reuters) – Food-stamp tally nears 40 million, sets record – Read More Here
(FoxNews) – World Health Organization Moving Ahead on Billions in Internet and Other Taxes
The World Health Organization is moving full speed ahead with a controversial plan to impose billions of dollars in global consumer taxes on such things as Internet activity and everyday financial transactions like paying bills online — while its spending soars and its own financial house is in disarray. Read More Here
(GlobalResearch) – “Drop Dead Economics”: The Financial Crisis in Greece and the European Union – Michael Hudson
Riddle: How are the Greek rioters like America’s Tea Party movement?
Answer: Both reject government being taken over by the financial oligarchy to shift the tax burden onto labor. Read More Here
(USNews) – U.S. Cancer Costs Double in Two Decades
Study also finds that private insurance pays greater share today Read More Here
(PaulWatson) – Tea Party Clueless About U.S. Tax Dollars Funding Bailout Heist
Silence from anti-tax movement on bailouts is deafening – and dangerous Read More Here
(WashingtonsBlog) – The European Bailout: Not a Very Promising Start
Many people have written insightful criticisms of the European bailout. For example, Tyler Durden, Joe Weisenthal and Gregory White point out that the French banks are the real winners of the bailout (but don’t forget JP Morgan).
Ron Paul points out that the Fed opening its swap lines to Europe violated its promise to Congress not to do so. Paul also says the bailout will help lead to the destruction of all fiat paper currencies, ensuring that “gold will rule the roost”. Read More Here
(House.gov) – The Fed Is Using Its Cronies And Lobbyists To Stop Us From Auditing It – Ron Paul
It doesn’t come as too much of a surprise that the measure to audit the Federal Reserve is coming under continuous fire from the central bank and its cronies. For the first time since the Federal Reserve was created nearly a century ago, they have hired an actual lobbyist to pound the pavement on Capitol Hill. This is a desperate effort to hang on to the privilege of secrecy and lack of accountability they have enjoyed for so long. Last week showed they are getting their money’s worth in the Senate. Read More Here
(WSJ) – Did a Big Bet Help Trigger ‘Black Swan’ Stock Swoon?
Shortly after 2:15 p.m. Eastern time last Thursday, hedge fund Universa Investments LP placed a big bet in the Chicago options trading pits that stocks would continue their sharp declines.
On any other day, this $7.5 million trade for 50,000 options contracts might have briefly hurt stock prices, though not caused much of a ripple. But coming on a day when all varieties of financial markets were deeply unsettled, the trade may have played a key role in the stock-market collapse just 20 minutes later. Read More Here
(Reuters) – Gold rises above $1,220 on euro zone debt fears
Gold hit five-month highs on Tuesday, rising to within $5 of its December record peak as risk aversion returned on doubts over smaller euro zone countries’ ability to cut their deficits despite a $1 trillion aid package. Read More Here
(BusinessInsider) – Gold Is On Fire, As Market Sneers At Euro Bailout
Along with the overall market malaise, the other big warning sign right now is the gold surge. The metal is now nearly $1220/oz. As Stacy Herbert puts it: The gold vigilantes are in a shootout with the ECB and the Fed. Read More Here
(GoldTrends) – Brother Can You Spare a Trillion?
In a nutshell they will buy bonds and will intervene in markets and “do what they have to” in order to avoid a meltdown. This is akin to the USA bailout of 1 Trillion dollars. This will only buy time, but it is all that can be done right now. For the moment the term being touted this Monday morning is “putting a floor on risk assets”. This time they mean stocks and bonds and not commodities. Read More Here
(Goldseek) – Where’s my Government Check
Reading the financial press, I recently noticed that of the 139 million workers in the Bureau of Labor Statistics household survey of workers, 47 percent don’t make enough to file and pay federal taxes beyond any collected social security tax. This means that out of a population of 310 million Americans, only 74 million (about 24 percent) pay federal taxes on April 15th. Read More Here
(ZeroHedge) – European Banks Now Feverishly Betting Against Euro, As Bailout Fails, Gold Surges – Tyler Durden
Thought experiment: You are the head FX trader at French megabank Croc Monsieur & Cie. (HFT: CMC) For the past 5 years, your bonus has been getting paid primarily in company stock. In the last two weeks you have seen the stock of your firm plunge as the markets have finally realized that those idiots in the Fixed Income desk have loaded up to the gills with PIIGS debt which is now worth 60 cents on the dollar at best. And to top things off, the euro has plunged to multi year lows killing any chance of buying that New York Pied A Terre which seemed so cheap when the EURUSD was 1.50 a few months ago. So what do you do? Well, you short the living daylights out of the EUR, knowing full well that the EU, the IMF and the ECB will not let Europe crash. You sell, you sell on margin and then you sell some more, trying to get EURUSD all they way down to 1.20, to 1.10, even to parity if possible, to make it all that more believable that the end of Europe is coming. Read More Here
If Marijuana Production Were Legal: Projected Tax Revenues, by State
Love it or hate it, people smoke marijuana – lots of it. In some states marijuana consumption and possession have been decriminalized, and even legalized for medicinal purposes. But, have you ever wondered how large the economics of Marijuana were? Us too. As a result ,have decided to put together this graphic, which illustrates the popularity of marijuana consumption, the federal tax dollars spent to keep marijuana illegal, and the possible tax revenues that could be generated if marijuana production were legalized and taxed like any other agricultural product. Read More Here
(RussiaToday) – Video: Alex Jones on Greece: It’s Robbery, Not Bailout!
Greece has kick-started talks on implementing its new economic austerity measures despite warnings of new union rallies. The plans will see pensions slashed and the retirement age increased. The measures were a pre-requisite for an international loan to pluck the country from the brink of bankruptcy. But investigative journalist Alex Jones says the bailout is a crime and will only hit tax payers even harder in the pocket.
(Infowars) – Video: Webster Tarpley Predicts End of The EURO on Alex Jones Tv
(Boston) – Double dip in housing values continues, despite tax credit/spring bump – Read More Here
(ClarionLedge) – Revenue: April numbers are sobering
Gov. Haley Barbour said last week that April revenue was 8.5 percent below estimates – a $45.1 million shortfall. Read More Here
(SacramentoBizJournal) – State’s revenue below projections for April
California’s controller, John Chiang, said the state’s April cash receipts fell below budget estimates by $3.6 billion, or 26.4 percent. Read More Here
(MinnPost) – 41 percent of metro area single-family homes believed ‘underwater’ – Read More Here
(MaverickBlog) – What Business is Wall Street In ?
My last two posts were designed to stimulate discussion. But lets talk the real problem that regulators, public companies, investor/shareholders and traders face. The problem is that Wall Street doesn’t know what business it is in. Regulators don’t know what the business of Wall Street is. Investor/shareholders don’t know what business Wall Street is in. Read More Here
(WashingtonsBlog) – Challenger Investigation Got $175 Million. Columbia $152 Million. Lewinsky $30 Million. 9/11 $15 Million. Financial Crisis Gets Only $8 Million – Read More Here
(Bloomberg) – Video: Jim Rogers on Greece Bailout, Yuan, Stocks – View Video Here
(NewsMax) – Video: Jim Rogers – Next Recession Will Be Much Worse! – View Video Here
(KurtNimmo) – Video: Obama’s Supreme Pick Kagan Is A Bankster Operative
Democrats are going gaa-gaa over Obama’s Supreme pick Elena Kagan. “Democrats praised Kagan as ‘razor sharp’ and impeccably qualified for the lifetime appointment on the nine-member bench, but Republicans promised to vigorously vet a ’surprising’ choice, noting she had never been a judge,” reports Agence France-Presse. “I have selected a nominee who I believe embodies… excellence, independence, integrity and passion for the law, and who can ultimately provide that same kind of leadership on the court,” Obama said at the White House. View Video Here
(AmpedStatus) – High Frequency Terrorism: How the Big Banks and Federal Reserve Maintained Their Death Grip Over the United States – David DeGraw & Max Keiser – Read More Here
“A narrow elite is imposing itself through the legal system, and ordinary Americans need to start asserting themselves.”
The Wall Street Journal reports:“The White House said Friday that Elena Kagan’s membership on an advisory panel for the securities firm Goldman Sachs Group Inc. wouldn’t disqualify her for a position on the Supreme Court. … From 2005 to 2008, Ms. Kagan was a paid member of the Research Advisory Council of Goldman Sachs Global Markets Institute, according to financial-disclosure reports she filed after being appointed to her current job. The form shows she was paid $10,000 in 2008, when she was dean of Harvard Law School.”Read More Here
(StraightGoodNews) – Goldman Sachs Set to Plan Sell-Off of Ontario Assets
Huge and controversial banking firm has a history of playing both sides in privatization deals Read More Here
(AmericanEveryman) – The Stock Market “Glitch”: Blackmail by Big Banking?
The White House gets its way again. They get their way on two measures that would have given the people at least a little control of the “too big too fail” banking system. But how they got it, well that might just be the REAL story of the day. “I mean this really sounds like market manipulation to me. This is outrageous.”Read More Here
(PaulWatson) – Bankers Destroy Global Economy by Design to Consolidate Power
American taxpayers have been freshly liberated of hundreds of billions more dollars as part of the IMF’s new bailout package which is principally going straight to European banks, in addition to the Federal Reserve program to ship U.S. dollars to Europe, in a move that represents little more than a desperate effort to save the Euro and rescue the credibility of economic global governance. Read More Here
(SteveWatson) – Bankers, Economists: Mass Centralization At Heart Of Euro Bailout
Huge Euro rescue is latest step on the road toward a monolithic globalist federal union Read More Here
(AFP) – Fannie Mae seeks new $8.4 billion US bailout to stay afloat – Read More Here
(ZeroHedge) – EURUSD Roll Over Accelerates, Market Playing Catch Up – Tyler Durden
This may very well still turn out to be the shortest and must futile trillion dollar bailout in history yet. Don’t forget it was the EURJPY correlation desks that freaked out on Thursday and drained all NYSE liquidity in stocks.
It will be truly amazing if we get another 1000 point move in the Dow… But not up. Read More Here
(InternationalForecaster) – The latest Greek tragedy And Sovereign Defaults Pose A Great Threat – Bob Chapman
The latest Greek tragedy continues to leave carnage in its wake, crime compounds the debt problems, Problems everyone knew about nobody did anything about, the Sovereign debt bubble is now upon us, and could bring the world financial system down, a situation like the French Revolution in Greece, food stamps at a record high, unemployment and problems of poverty in the US, Read More Here
Global markets rallied Monday, reversing the steep declines of recent days, after European leaders agreed to provide a huge rescue package of nearly $1 trillion to combat the debt crisis that has engulfed Europe, and central banks began injecting cash into the financial system. View Video Here
(EconomicCollapseBlog) – Is The Greek Debt Crisis Being Purposely Hyped And Manipulated? – Read More Here
(KurtNimmo) – Banksters Throw a Trillion Bucks Down a Black Hole
The EU apparatchiks are in crisis mode. European Union boss Jose Manuel Barroso told us not to worry, though. They’re on it.
“This morning’s agreement will ensure that any attempt to weaken the stability of the euro will fail,” said Barroso today as the EU threw around a trillion bucks at the cancer spawned by the Greek debt crisis. “We have stated that we will do whatever is necessary to defend the stability of the euro,” he said with an actor’s confidence. Read More Here
(Guardian) – The Greek spirit of resistance turns its guns on the IMF
Years of national denial about looming bankruptcy have turned to resentment as Greece is told how it must tackle its debt crisis Read More Here
(PaulWatson) – American Taxpayers Looted To Bail Out The Euro
American taxpayers have been freshly liberated of hundreds of billions more dollars as part of the IMF’s new bailout package which is principally going straight to European banks, in addition to the Federal Reserve program to ship U.S. dollars to Europe, in a move that represents little more than a desperate effort to save the Euro and rescue the credibility of economic global governance. Read More Here
(ZeroHedge) – The Latest US Taxpayer Bill To Save Europe, And Specifically The French Banks: $57 Billion – Tyler Durden
As the US and its taxpayers represent roughly 20% of total IMF funding, today’s 3% loss in dollar purchasing power to the middle class will cost the middle class $57 billion. Read More Here
(ZeroHedge) – Summary Of The Biggest Bail Out Ever: Even Keynes Is Spinning In His Grave – Tyler Durden
Europe has now followed the Fed in its all in move to prevent the disintegration of the euro and of Europe. As we expected, the EU was leaking various rumors to gauge market interest, and as speculated earlier, the final cost ended up being just short of one trillion. Here are the key summaries: Read More Here
(LondonTelegraph) – British taxpayers ordered to bail out euro
All 27 EU finance ministers have been summoned to Brussels on Sunday to sign up to a “European stabilisation mechanism. Britain will be unable to veto this as it will be put through under the “qualified majority voting” system. Read More Here
(AP) – Federal Reserve opens credit line to Europe
The Federal Reserve late Sunday opened a program to ship U.S. dollars to Europe in a move to head off a broader financial crisis on the continent.
Other central banks, including the Bank of Canada, the Bank of England, the European Central Bank, the Swiss National Bank and the Bank of Japan also are involved in the dollar swap effort. Read More Here
(Vlog) – Video: Peter Schiff – Income Tax vs Consumption Tax – Video Link Here
(RevolutionaryPolitics) – Why Are Silver Sales Soaring?
The U.S. Mint just reported another record, but this time it wasn’t for gold. The Mint sold more Silver Eagles in March and in the first quarter of the year than ever before. A total of 9,023,500 American Silver Eagles were purchased in Q110, the highest amount since the coin debuted in 1986. Read More Here
(MarketWatch) – Paulson & Co. not charged in SEC suit against Goldman
Paulson & Co. became enmeshed in a Securities and Exchange Commission civil lawsuit filed Friday against Goldman Sachs Group Inc. But the hedge-fund giant wasn’t charged. Read More Here
(Breitbart) – California jobless rate swells to 12.6 percent
California’s unemployment rate hit a modern record of 12.6 percent in March, though it rose only a fraction over the previous month, the state Employment Development Department reported Friday. Read More Here
(GlobalResearch) – The Economic Crisis in the UK: Inflation and Debt Default Bankruptcy – Read More Here
(RealNews) – Video: Can US Dollar Remain World’s Currency? – Video Link Here
(InfoClearingHouse) – Housing Crash Update: There’s A World of Pain Ahead – Mike Whitney
The brief period of stabilization in housing appears to be over and the next leg-down has begun. Mortgage rates are edging higher, foreclosures are on the rise, and the government programs that supported the sector, are being phased out. Read More Here
(Bloomberg) – Goldman Sachs Sued by SEC for Fraud on Mortgage-Backed CDOs
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. was sued by U.S. regulators for fraud tied to packaging and selling collateralized debt obligations that contributed to the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. Read More Here
(WRH) – Vote Fraud and the Bankruptcy of the United States
Note: This article first appeared as a post written by myself(Michael Rivero) at Free Republic in late 2000. I was surprised to learn that it was copied re-posted at dozens of sites around the world. So, it seems only fitting that the article should re-appear here on my own web site. Read More Here
(MyBudget360) – The Great American Bank Heist – On the Day we Reach a Monthly Foreclosure Filing Record Banks Announce Record Profits and the Stock Market is up 80 Percent – Read More Here
(WashingtonsBlog) – Yet Another Reason To Break Up The Big Banks – Read More Here
(RawStory) – Wamu bankers sang ‘I like big bucks and I cannot lie’ before bank failed – Read More Here
Video: Ron Paul vs. Ben Bernanke at JEC Hearing April 14, 2010 – View Video Here
(Reuters) – Markets could be derailed again, warns Soros
Railway porter-turned-billionaire financier George Soros delivered a stark warning last night that the financial world is on the wrong track and that we may be hurtling towards an even bigger boom and bust than in the credit crisis. Read More Here
(CommodityOnline) – Silver prices to zoom if manipulation is proved
As the CTFC begins to investigate claims by a whistle blower that the precious metals markets have been manipulated by several large US banks, investors are left to ponder: “What will happen to silver if manipulation is found?” Can you say, payday? Read More Here
(ZeroHedge) – March Foreclosures Surge To Absolute Record, At 369,491, 19% Jump from February
RealtyTrac reports the next catalyst that will surely take the Dow to 12,000 by 9:31 am tomorrow. “Foreclosure filings were reported on 367,056 properties in March, an increase of nearly 19 percent from the previous month, an increase of nearly 8 percent from March 2009 and the highest monthly total since RealtyTrac began issuing its report in January 2005.” And people were wondering where consumers get all their money from. Read More Here
In the week ending April 10, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 484,000, an increase of 24,000 from the previous week’s unrevised figure of 460,000. The 4-week moving average was 457,750, an increase of 7,500 from the previous week’s unrevised average of 450,250. Read More Here
(ZeroHedge) – Morgan Stanley Warns Germany May Decide To Secede From EMU
A fantastic overview of all the game theory aspects embedded in the European crisis, from Joachim Fels, head of Euro research at Morgan Stanley.
* Somewhat paradoxically, the show of solidarity for Greece by other euro area members and the ECB raises the risk that the euro will break apart eventually.
* Seceding from the euro area to devalue is very costly and risky. But seceding to revalue and introduce a harder currency is easier. Germany might opt to do so one day.
* The road to such a break-up scenario leads through even more fiscal profligacy and divergence in the euro area, a politicisation of monetary policy, and a weaker currency. Recent events suggest that the trip down this road has started. Read More Here
(ZeroHedge) – Is war just around the corner? While in theory it would make perfect sense to distract Americans from the long road to US insolvency, and other more pressing issues such as the endless criminality all around us, in practice we have so far heard merely rumors. The Herald of Scotland, however, may have credible proof that a US-led attack on Iran approaches and could be just days away. Read the rest of this entry »
(ZeroHedge) – Is war just around the corner? While in theory it would make perfect sense to distract Americans from the long road to US insolvency, and other more pressing issues such as the endless criminality all around us, in practice we have so far heard merely rumors. The Herald of Scotland, however, may have credible proof that a US-led attack on Iran approaches and could be just days away. Read the rest of this entry »
The financial channels are abuzz with talk of a recovery, but we’re not out of the woods yet. In fact, the deceleration in the rate of economic decline is not a sign of recovery at all, but proof that the economy is resetting at a lower level of activity. That means the recession will drag on for some time no matter what the Fed does. Read the rest of this entry »
