The Latest News On The United States Of Welfare And Hand Outs
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 12/06/2010 - 20:06The latest from Reuters, on the late news that Obama will both extend Unemployment Insurance for 13 months, and extend the Bush tax cuts for 2 years:
- Obama: has reached a framework for compromise with Republicans to extend all Bush tax cuts for two years
- Obama: compromise also calls for extending jobless benefits for 13 months, and calls for 2% payroll tax cuts next year, and for extension of estate tax
- Obama: says compromise is an essential step on the road to economic recovery
- Obama: he is confident that Congress will ultimately ‘do the right thing’
We just hope that the prostituting administration will finally float the one proposal we have all been waiting for: free blow jobs for everyone in
perpetuity, funded by the Federal Reserve's monetization of the Sinking
Hooker fund.
- Comments: 222
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White House Proposing Temporary Payroll Tax Deduction
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 12/06/2010 - 18:29From the WSJ: "White House proposes temporary payroll tax reduction. The 6.2% Social Security tax would drop to 4.2% for workers for one year." Unclear if this is on top of any additional Bush tax cut extensions. It is amazing that it took D.C. only 1 month to forget that the people are sick and tired of reckless deficit spending (today's debt: 13,833,512,000,000) and will vote out all corrupt idiots who merely pass the hot debt potato to the next generation.
- Comments: 166
- Reads: 8,093
Watch As David Einhorn Makes A Mockery Of One-Man Fed "Expert Network" Larry Meyer
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 12/06/2010 - 18:20
One of the Fed's more arrogant former apparatchiks (of the "100% confidence" interval) Larry Meyer, currently at expert network Macroeconomic Advisors which is used by the likes of Pimco to get inside information on what the Fed will do at its upcoming meetings, appeared on CNBC earlier and attempted to school David Einhorn on "Economics 101." What ensued was yet another confirmation that these Ph.D's (a term we always use in the most pejorative, NC-17 context possible) who destroyed the world, have absolutely no idea what the hell they talk about, and make up bullshit scenarios on the fly. Luckily, it has gotten to a point where every incremental statement catches them in one lie or another. It has become grotesquely comic to watch their faces (as in Bernanke of 60 Minutes infamy) squirm as they realize that the end of the system they created and subsequently destroyed, is near.
- Comments: 164
- Reads: 23,997
It's Official: Assange Will Turn Himself Over To Police Within 24 Hours
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 12/06/2010 - 17:41The inevitable moment for the Wikileaks founder has arrived: the Telegraph is reporting that Julian Assange will hand himself in to police - possibly as early as Tuesday - after a fresh European Arrest Warrant was issued by the Swedish authorities. "Mr Assange is expected to voluntarily attend a police station within the next 24 hours, and will then appear in a magistrates’ court. He is wanted over allegations of sexual assault in Sweden." We hope this means the imminent release of the decyprion key of the torrent file (which can be downloaded here) which is supposed to be Assange's insurance policy. On the other hand, it could an insurance policy on his life, not his freedom so well we monitor.
- Comments: 168
- Reads: 9,041
...And Large Silver Contract Follows Suit As Gold Goes Berserk, Hits New All Time High
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 12/06/2010 - 16:57Fresh all time nominal high in spot gold: $1,427.01
- Comments: 295
- Reads: 20,077
Flash Dash In Silver Mini Contracts On Volume Surge Breaks $30 Stops, Takes Metal Firmly Above Resistance
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 12/06/2010 - 16:35
As the chart below shows something just snapped in Mini Silver several minutes ago, which may have been the proverbial pseudo violent break of the JPM barrier. As the price briefly shot up to well over $30.60 on just under 150 contracts, leading to a $0.30 differential with the large silver contract, an arbitrage which may put the NYSE Liffe in hot water with quite a few clients. Will this third attempt to take out the key $30 barrier prove to be the decisive one?
- Comments: 139
- Reads: 14,128
Assange Arranging To Meet Police "By Consent"
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 12/06/2010 - 15:59Breaking news per Reuters: "Lawyer for WikiLeak's Julian Assange says arranging to meet police by consent." Whether this means an arrest is imminent we hope to find out shortly. And just this out from NBC: Julian Assange's attorney says a place and time are being negotiated for a meeting with Scotland Yard.
- Comments: 154
- Reads: 4,714
Charles High Smith Explains To Chris Martenson Why The Status Quo Is Unsustainable
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 12/06/2010 - 15:53In this week's Straight Talk episode, Chris Martenon interviews Charles Hugh Smith, both very insightful individuals who have repeatedly appeared on the pages of Zero Hedge with unique and always original perspectives. Of all issues that dominate CHS' outlook on the economy, society and politics, the top two items that keep Smith up at night are "demographics and Peak Oil...which cannot be massaged away by policy tweaks or financial engineering." Much more in the enclosed interview.
- Comments: 61
- Reads: 9,364
Step Aside Bernanke: Julian Assange In Leading Spot For Time's 2010 Person Of The Year
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 12/06/2010 - 15:27Earlier today it was announced that in lieu of a physical arrest, Julian Assange is currently undergoing a liquidity one, after earlier today first Swiss NZZ and subsequently the WSJ reported that the Australian's funds in Swiss PostFinance bank have been frozen: "In a statement Monday, WikiLeaks said there was €31,000 in the PostFinance account, belonging to the defense fund and to Mr. Assange personally. WikiLeaks described this money as "frozen." But €31k may be a small price to pay knowing that very soon Assange will most likely succeed Ben Bernanke as the magazine's Person of the Year.
- Comments: 73
- Reads: 3,992
ECB Buys A €2 Billion In Sovereign Bonds Last Week
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 12/06/2010 - 15:09
It is confirmed: last week's incursion by the ECB in buying any and all offered Irish and Portuguese bonds is now in the history books. As the ECB reports, "in the week from Monday 29 November to Friday 3 December were of a volume of EUR 1,965 million, the rounded settled amount - and the intended amount for absorption accordingly - increased to EUR 69 billion. The transactions made between Wednesday 1 December and Friday 3 December have, with few exceptions, not yet settled and hence are not reflected in this figure." In other words, the bulk of the peripheral bond buying is not even included, and we will share the final tally with readers next Sunday night. We fully expect the amount for the week ended December 13 to be another all time record. In the meantime, the chart below shows all of the recent purchases under the ECB's SMP (aka sterilized open market monetization) program. As an aside, the biggest amount monetized occurred in the first week of the program's launch when the ECB monetized €16.5 billion.
- Comments: 20
- Reads: 3,227
Barry Ritholtz's Advice For Tim Geithner On How To Make A Comparable Killer Blog
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 12/06/2010 - 14:34Now that Tim Geithner has put the bond issuance machinery on autopilot, and all future bond auctions will be eventually monetized by Bernanke (and then some: after all a fiscally united Europe is expected to start bond issuance soon), he has decided to branch out into the next best thing to destroying the once greatest country in the world - blogging. And, sure enough, that titanic scion of the blogging world, Barry Ritholtz takes some time away from his busy schedule which lately involves a daily stint on CNBC's Fast Money, to share some brilliant insights with Tim Geithner on how to create a killer blog. We present this without commentary, because after one reads such words, and what can one say but... Ritholtz.
- Comments: 62
- Reads: 7,667
Brian Sack Sneaks A Fast One: 20% Of Today's Long-End POMO Monetization Is 30 Year Auctioned Off Last Month
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 12/06/2010 - 14:13After in the last two POMOs Brian Sack put the most recently issued bond on the exclusion list, today, as part of today's micro $2.044 billion long-end (2028-2040) POMO, the PPT head tried to sneak a fast one, after the second most monetized issue ended up being the QL5 of 11/15/2040, which just happens to be the bond auctioned off less than a month ago (November 10). This amounts to 2.6% of the entire $16 billion auction. We are confident that before all is said and done, not only will the 35% SOMA limit be raised on this 30 year CUSIP, but the Fed will be the proud owner of well over half of any and all recently issued long-end bonds.
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Is Kemp v. Countrywide The Case That Will Bring Down Bank Of America (And RMBS)?
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 12/06/2010 - 13:49Two weeks ago, the New York Times's Gretchen Morgensen wrote an article in which she touched upon the curious case of Kemp vs. Countrywide Home Loans in which Countrywide held on to the original mortgage note and related docs "even though the pooling and servicing agreement
governing the mortgage pool that supposedly held the note required that
it be delivered to the trustee, the court document shows" thereby impairing the integrity and validity of all downstream securities. Prior to this (and since) we have seen many more cases in which there was outright court fraud in some capacity, either w/r/t the PSA or the already well known issue of robosigning. It is no surprise that after making a splash, this topic has disappeared from the mainstream media, as banks are doing all they can to "silence" the debate, whose implications could be terminal for the US leveraged housing paradigm, which has existed since the advent of the GSEs. Yet, surprisingly, in today's Weekly Credit Outlook, Moody's brings new attention to this particular case, and adds some language that if one were the CEO of Bank of America, one would be very, very nervous, more so than even how damaging the revelations from the Wikileaks disclosure on BofA may end up being. To wit: "We believe the case will lead to increased litigation, higher servicing costs, and more foreclosure delays. This will pressure BofA’s earnings. Increased foreclosure timelines and costs associated with potentially defective loans will also increase losses for Countrywide-sponsored RMBS. This is negative for both BofA and Countrywide-sponsored RMBS." Did Moody's (always horrendous at timing its entrance and exit) just pee in the proverbial RMBS pool?
- Comments: 36
- Reads: 7,863
Guest Post: Bernanke Is 100% Sure
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 12/06/2010 - 13:09I don’t know about you, but I’m not 100% sure about anything. The older I get, the less sure I am about everything. I question things that I was sure were true when I was 25 years old. I’m not sure I’ll wake up in the morning. I’m not sure I’ll survive my commute to work. That is why I was flabbergasted last night as I watched Scott Pelley interview Ben Bernanke on 60 Minutes. As a side note, boy this show has gone downhill. In the old days of real journalism, Mike Wallace would have scorched Ben Bernanke, pointing out his phenomenal ability to be wrong or clueless on every financial issue the country has faced in the last 10 years. Today, Pelley underhands softball questions to Bernanke and never challenges him. It was a pathetic display of journalism. Below is the dialogue that made me almost fall off my chair...
- Comments: 135
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Irish Independent MP Lowry To Support 2011 Ireland Budget, Giving Budget Vote Majority Of Two In Dáil
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 12/06/2010 - 12:48Update: Second Independent Irish lawmaker Healy-Rae to back budget, essentially guaranteeing budget passage.
Reuters reports that the Irish Independent MP Lowry says he will support the 2011 budget. Presumably this means that the Irish budget tomorrow should pass, which is likely good news for the euro as it means the eurozone has bought itself a few more months of breathing room. Or not. Who cares anymore. At this point just one more independent vote is needed to pass the Irish budget vote.
- Comments: 32
- Reads: 3,948
