Archive - Sep 11, 2011

"Can the flap of a butterfly's wings in Brazil set of a tornado in Texas?"--Edward Lorenz

Greece may not file for bankruptcy this weekend... But its time is coming - it is a 100% certainty. And throwing just that little more fuel into the fire is Germany's Economy Minister Philipp Roesler who in an op-ed posted in Die Welt, is once again planting the seeds for the inevitable day when that perpetual transgressor Greece (which just announced yet more tax hikes, and as a result can now shut down its economy as the tsunami of 24 hour strike will be unprecedented) is finally kicked out of the union. The question then, as now, will be: what next?

Even as the eyes of the world are currently frozen in a spot in time from ten years ago, and Wikileaks is making doubly sure of this by releasing the entire record of Metrocall pager (remember those?) intercepts starting at 9:55 am on 9/11/01, the world itself continues onward, and especially those who determine its global policy of "Prevention of Harm to The Status Quo^TM" are busier than ever this weekend. Chief among these is and always has been the one financial firm which has infiltrated "sovereign" decision-making more than anyone in history: Goldman Sachs, whose alumnus, incidentally, is about to replace Jean Claude Trichet at the helm of the world's largest and most undercapitalized central bank (yes, a central bank can be undercapitalized - read on). Which is why the following note just released by Goldman's Dirk Schumacher is of particular attention. Mere hours after Goldman economist Sven Jari Stehn said that FOMC "easing at the September meeting is very likely—around 75% according to our model", Goldman is now taking on European monetary policy, and specifically the question of further quantitative easing, across the pond, where printing money has always been a far more touchy subject than in the US, courtesy of the German experience with hyperinflation. As a result, the key line in the Schumacher note is the following: "How Far Can The ECB Go In Using Its Balance Sheet.  The Short Answer Is: A Lot Further." To be sure, this is not surprising: after all Zero Hedge first predicted that following the latest market trouncing on Friday, in the aftermath of the ECB's admission of failure on Thursday (who can forget Ze Price Stabeeleetee), see "ECBCTRL+P: The Next Steps In The European Implosion", but we are nothing but a simple blog, which predicts what will happen but certainly does not set policy for a corrupt and failed regime. That's Goldman's job. And what is stunning is the brazenness with which it does it now. To sum up: to Goldman both the Fed and the ECB have to engage asap in yet another episode of bonus-preserving currency debasement, middle class be damned. And, we have very little doubt, they will.

Something is brewing on this story. I can smell it.

No doubt September 11, 2001 changed everything. But the business of actually measuring those changes has been as overlooked by most as the nationalities of the hijackers. The following is presented in the interest of truth, justice and the American way.

“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”
- Scientist and writer Arthur C. Clarke

Like many people I have difficulty with thinking about 9-11 because when I do it seems too fresh in my mind. And as we all know that is painful. I go back to a man whom I respect, William Edelen, a Christian minister [I am not religious], an intellectual, a thinker, and very definitely an iconoclast. He wrote the following piece right after 9-11.