Archive - Feb 13, 2011

All those who were hoping that Egypt would open its stock market today, as had been indicated previously by the Egyptian Central Bank, will be disappointed. Not only will the CASE not open today, but it will remain shut on Monday and Tuesday as well. The reason: the Thermidor reaction at local banks is starting. Per Reuters: "Egypt's central bank declared Monday a bank holiday after a series of worker protests and strikes on Sunday at state-owned banks." Oddly enough, in the power vacuum immediately following a revolution, when the country has just transferred power to a supposedly beneficial, but not really, military regime, Egypt's number one priority is not to keep the general casino open. What a disgrace. More from Reuters: "Banks were also due to be closed on Tuesday, which is an official holiday marking the Prophet Mohamed's birthday. "Employees are demanding higher salaries," Deputy Central Bank Governor Hisham Ramez said by telephone, adding that strikes were mainly at state and not private banks." But do not despair, according to the perfectly efficient ($25MM AUM) EGPT ETF, the Egypt stock market is currently 15% undervalued. All that is needed to make sure that someone can pocket a guaranteed 14.6% arbitrage is for the Egyptian financial industry to have enough people left employed to open the stock market.

Now that the FCIC has declassified all of its interviews with the people responsible, or profiting, for the housing crisis (among which are those of John Paulson, Hank Paulson, Lloyd Blankfein, Dick Fuld, Jonathan Egol (the man who helped Fab Tourre construct Abacus), Alan Greenspan and of course Agent Orange himself - Angelo Mozilo), there is one interview strangely withheld. That of the man largely at the heart of everything - Ben Bernanke. From Bloomberg: "The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, created by Congress to investigate and report on the causes of the market meltdown late last decade, won’t publicly release its full 2009 interview with Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke, a commission spokesman said. The interview is quoted in the congressionally authorized
panel’s final report, which cites the November 17, 2009,
“closed-door” session in 11 footnotes. The Fed chief discussed
a range of topics including the central bank’s failures and why
the government rescued Bear Stearns Cos. and let Lehman Brothers
Holdings Inc. go bankrupt, the FCIC report shows." And yet, it appears to contain information so sensitive it would once again rain fire and brimstone on everyone, and like an audio medusa, lead to widespread petrifying contagion everywhere it was heard. Once again we discover that the Fed has learned nothing from the Pittman episode, nor from the Paul campaign to bring some transparency to its actions. We do learn, however, that the Fed continues to believe it is above the people, and that the information it is privy to will never be voluntarily released to those whom it supposedly serves courtesy its three mandates, all of which have the words "Russell" and "36,000" in them.

Sure, there is pure imperial motivation ... but there is also a faulty economic model.

Wake up, liberals.

Wake up, conservatives.

Hear the whispers of the Founding Fathers ... and of Gandhi, and King, and the Egyptian people.

"By attempting to gratify their desires we have in the results of our legislation arrayed section against section, interest against interest, and man against man, in a fearful commotion which threatens to shake the foundations of our Union." -- Andrew Jackson, Veto Message to Congress regarding the Second Bank of the United States, 1832

Yet another to be filed under revolving Squids...