Archive - Nov 12, 2013

Obamacare - it's not just for college-age kegstanders... now available to sluts easy women across the United States...

With Kill-Bill body-double Chilton fading poetically into the dark, and Gensler gone, President Obama is set to nominate Timothy Massad to the Chairmanship of the CFTC. We can't wait to hear how the man who was responsible for bailing out the banks at any cost, will now make sure these same banks don't do anything bad again. And he will also, somehow, "supervise" America's $234 trillion in derivatives and make sure nothing bad ever happens there too?

Over the weekend, in "Venezuela Government "Occupies" Electronics Retail Chain, Enforces "Fair" Prices", we reported that unpopular president Nicolas Maduro ordered the "occupation" of a chain of electronic goods stores in a crackdown on what the socialist government views as price-gouging hobbling the country's economy. Various managers of the five-store, 500-employee Daka chain - the local equivalent of Best Buy - have been arrested, and the company would be forced to sell products at "fair prices." Since then things have escalated rapidly. Because as we queried, and many wondered, the first question that arose is how would Maduro i) assure that prices were indeed kept at their "fair values" and ii) how would the cool, calm and orderly social order be preserved when suddenly everyone scrambles to buy all those flatscreens (which may have certain operational problems once the socialist paradise is hit with daily electric brown and blackouts very soon) they have been dreaming of for years. Now we know: with the help of the army.

Read the script...

The establishment would have us believe that a world without central banks would be 'like all the worst parts of the bible', but as Professor Lawrence White notes, as failures among central banking systems mount, it is time to reconsider the alternative of free banking. Private banks would have better incentives than the federal government to ensure their currency retained its value, because if it didn't, people would bank elsewhere. By contrast, White notes, central banks controlled by the government are able to devalue currency as they see fit and can even quit redeeming notes for coins of real value if they want to do so. It sounds like social-science fiction, but there are numerous real-world examples in history of successful free-banking systems.

Many have likened the ETF structure of today to the CDO structure of the last bubble as the potential catalyst for accelerating moves in risk markets. If that is the case, then the collapse in the shares outstanding of the massively popular and liquid Russell 2000 ETF IWM will likley make some ask WTF?

A total of 60 months have passed since the Fed announced QE 1. The Fed was not engaged in major monetary interventions in only six months out of these 60. Put another way, the Fed has been actively intervening to the tune of billions of dollars in 90% of ALL months since it began QE 1.

It would appear that the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) website - required when purchasing a gun or explosive - is capable of handling large volumes of users...

Anyone who says that he or she is prepared to “do whatever it takes”, whether it’s Mario Draghi and Angela Merkel talking about support of the euro, Ben Bernanke talking about preventing deflation, George W. Bush talking about pursuit of terrorism, or Barack Obama talking about growing the economy … is making a preventive war argument just like Curtis LeMay. Not a preventive war against a particular nation, but a preventive war against some conceptual social ill. Of course, you can’t defeat a conceptual social ill like you can defeat a nation. You can’t accept the surrender of General Deflation. These social ills will always be with us in one form or another, which means that a preventive war in the modern context is a permanent and constant war. It may not seem like we are on a war footing when it comes to NSA eavesdropping or QE, because the trappings of war … mobilizations, set battles, etc. … may not be present. But the language associated with a war footing is definitely present, and this is what creates the social space that allows these policies to exist and thrive. I am struck almost every day by how the language of extremism and war pervades our domestic political and social institutions, on both the left and the right.

The Intellistreets system has finally come to the corridors of Las Vegas. So what is Intellistreets? On its website, the system is described as “the only wireless information and control network for sustainability, security and entertainment.” Even more amusing, the company that owns the Intellistreets system is rather appropriately called Illuminating Concepts. The best part is that city officials claim “right now our intention is not to have any cameras or recording device.” This is far from the first time we have learned about the installation of devices that can record audio and video being surreptitiously put in public places.

It was all going according to plan. POMO lifted the S&P 500 instantly 7 points at 1015ET back to unchanged and the mainstream media could discuss the fact that stocks are "off the lows." Then (admittedly non-voting member) uber-dove Dennis Lockhart hit the wires with some oddly hawkish commentary: *LOCKHART SAYS TAPERING 'COULD VERY WELL TAKE PLACE' NEXT MONTH

*LOCKHART SAYS QE NOT MEANT TO BE 'PERMANENT FIXTURE' OF POLICY

Which sent stocks to the lows of the day. We are sure, of course, that these remarks will be walked back by the next Fed speaker but for now, it is clear the market remains entirely headline (and Fed) driven.

Following the DoJ's 'surprising' August decision to block the $11bn merger of American and US Airways (after approving other airline mergers in the recent past), it would appear the parties have reached a settlement:

*U.S. FILES PROPOSED SETTLEMENT IN AMR CASE IN FEDERAL COURT
*DOJ REQUIRES US AIRWAYS, AMERICAN AIRLINES TO DIVEST FACILITIES
*AIRPORT SLOTS TO BE SOLD UNDER PROCESS APPROVED BY U.S.
*AMR SEES COMBINED CO OPERATING 12 FEWER DAILY DEPARTURES AT LGA
*AMR SEES COMBINED CO OPERATING 44 FEWER DAILY DEPARTURES AT DCA

Some of the initial details (Full statement below) include divesting slots at Laguardia and Reagan National. AMR is trading up over 25%...

We missed you yesterday POMO, welcome back...

Whether or not one believes the Fed will taper (then almost instantly un-taper based on the market's reaction) or not in the coming months, Bernanke's "tease" in the early summer this year should give most pause for thought as to just how dependent 'everything' is on the Fed's money printing. As the following chart from Bloomberg's Michael McDonough shows, things changed when big Ben dropped the hint that the punchbowl will not be here forever. There is one region, however, that for now has improved its outlook for 2014 GDP growth since the taper-tease...