Archive - Feb 15, 2011

UNITED STATES BANKRUPTCY COURT DISTRICT OF MASSACHUSETTS CENTRAL DIVISION | CitiMortgage may not rely on the recorded assignment of the plaintiff’s
mortgage from MERS because it was never the holder of the note, and therefore lacked the right to assign it...

RANsquawk Market Wrap Up - Stocks, Bonds, FX etc. – 15/02/11

In what can only be described as some surreal witches coven, earlier we had Napoleon Dynamite, Dr. Hashimi, ProAm Golf wannabe Champion Kernen, and of course Russian recovery expert Liesman and Koolaid allergic Santelli all together, going at each other. And while the sideshow was the completely discredited former Fed governor Mishkin accusing Roubini about 10 times of being depressing, with Roubini taking an old adage and applying it to our times, saying that "the weather is the last refuge of scoundrels", the real soundbite was Rick Santelli telling Liesman (about 10 minutes into the video), that "Steve you fight like a girl." Soap opera time.

A great, great scam because we spend dollars we don't have, devaluing the Dollar, to prop up the EU and that strengthens the Euro - devaluing the Dollar again! It's a double hit on the Dollar in one morning.

Presented without comment

GEITHNER SAYS `LOTS OF UNFAIRNESS' IN U.S. TAX SYSTEM

Terrorists would have looked at an unguarded canal as the opportunity of a lifetime, now that Mubarak has left office and the military is in control this is out of the cards.

Now that we know that JPM had a statistically impossible 97% win track record in 2010, we can't help but drool in jealousy. However, we wouldn't be doing our journalistic duty if we didn't inquire just how much did JPM brush under the rug on their underwater gold and silver short exposure, and whether or not Blythe Masters' bank is even accounting under GAAP for the now documented price suppression scheme? After all, Blythe is the master brain behind such no margin "bearish exposure" products as CDS - it would be only logical that she discovered some way to make her massive paper silver short carried on the books at a minute fraction of gross notional exposure. Furthermore, it is no wonder that today Gary Gensler demanded a pound of flesh for his kickbacks to the banker lobby which allowed JPM to be grandfathered in with their huge short positions (claiming the CFTC would need to fire hundreds of worthless staffers if the corrupt agency's 2011 budget wasn't lifted, despite O'Malia's protest). We ask all this because despite all the unprecedented manipulation: the close banging, the paper shorts, the AM-PM session divergence, silver is now at $30.80, and is just 12 cents away from its post-Hunt Brothers record close, which was printed on New Year's Day at $30.92.

Bernanke is kidding himself, the House Budget Committee and the entire 60 Minutes audience when he says that he can raise interest rates in 15 minutes. He can raise rates but it would be the INSTANT end of the economy. I’ve read the book: “Temple of Secrets: How the Federal Reserve Runs the Country”, and a large portion of the book was dedicated to Paul Volcker’s 21.5% rate hike. The adverse effects on the economy were disastrous. Businesses stopped borrowing, or went broke borrowing, unemployment went through the roof, housing was crushed, large purchases of automobiles crumbled.

For those wondering why nobody wants to trade ever again on what are now purely legalized fraud markets (and thank god Ze Germans are dumb enough to buy them at any price), here is the reason:

• JPMORGAN RACKS UP THREE PERFECT TRADING QUARTERS IN 2010
• JPMORGAN TRADERS HAD PERFECT SECOND HALF, BANK SAYS
• JPMORGAN TRADERS LOST MONEY 8 DAYS IN 2010, DOWN FROM 42 IN '09

In other words, of 260 trading days in 2010, the firm lost money on 8, or 3.1%. In yet other words, the firm made money 96.9% of the time. We'll repeat that: JPM made money 96.9% of the time.

Konjob Bernankovich...

We give Robert Zoellick 4 to 6 weeks before he follows Axel Weber, Kevin Warsh and the COO of one of the bankrupt GSEs (we forget his name) into the sunset. The reason? After breaking ranks with the Criminal Bank Cartel last year and calling for a return to the gold standard, the president of the World Bank has dared to be the first among the institutional elite to point out that the cotton in the emperor's clothes, were he to be clothed in the first place, would have surged by 100% in less than a year. According to AP: "World Bank President Robert Zoellick says global food prices have hit "dangerous levels" that could contribute to political instability, push millions of people into poverty and raise the cost of groceries." Not to worry. According to Fed VP Christine Cumming who spoke earlier somewhere, rising commodity costs merely indicate "stronger global demand." Oddly enough, it is this supposed demand for products that has forced 44 million people to enter "extreme poverty"... out of their own volition. We are  not sure, but something tells us the Fed's Cumming has a Ph.D.

Forget that the NYSE is being taken over by a German company (sorry guys, nobody is that dumb to buy the bs argument that Fidelity investors, all of whom are "undeniably" American, own both). The biggest nut apparently is the supremely superficial: i.e., what will be the name of the post-merger exchange. No, this is not an Onion summary. And yes, on this issue Chuck Schumer is relentless...

I'm putting together what I see as solutions for the many pricing and valuation problems that I see coming down the pike. If you think real asset markets are a little soft now, wait until rates are controlled more by market forces than by concerted central planning cartels.

Fantasy or comedy? I couldn't decide which way to label the Obama budget, so I went with both. The bottom line is that the Obama administration has brought forth the most unbelievable revenue increase that I have ever seen proposed in a budget, a whopping 65% increase in revenues in just four years, which will - miracle of miracles - drop the deficit as a percent of GDP from nearly 11% to just 3.2% over those same four years. The only problem with this scenario is that it stands virtually no chance of actually happening. Revenue will be far lower than projected and the deficit correspondingly higher.

Since the president's latest Kool Aid, pardon, budget, is making inexplicable waves in the media for some odd reason (why, we wonder - the realized and near-term projected deficit will be revised higher by about 50% within 3-6 months with 100% confidence), here are some additional interactive charts and forensic drill downs to help readers make some sense of the latest plate of steaming lies served piping hot by the propagandura. And no, there is absolutely no chance the deficit will be cut in half by the end of Obama's first term as had been promised at the peak of Obama's popularity.