Archive - Sep 28, 2013

I have never been fashionable enough to conjure up surely one of the silliest startup ideas with, bar none, the worst name of all time: Fashism. I only know of this site because I read about its demise yesterday. Evidently Ashton Kutcher (who, for reasons wholly alien to me, is heralded as some kind of tech-savant investing genius) put $1 million into this dog.

This morning we received a research note from a private bank. Buried in the text was a call for lower gold prices, and the analysts listed five reasons why they think gold prices will decline. Our analysis? These guys are completely missing the point. Precious metals are like an insurance policy. It’s a policy you hope you’ll never need to cash in. But if the need ever arises, it’ll probably be because the financial system has collapsed. If that day ever comes, you’ll be thankful that you had the foresight to trade away some paper currency for real savings.

UPDATE: The Bill is currently under debate on the floor - live webcast (Final votes are expected after 11pm ET.)

It appears investors (CDS markets, VIX, T-Bills anxiety) were on to something as each side in the  looming government shutdown debate seems mired in their own belief that the other has more to lose. House Republicans are aiming to hold a vote today on a bill to extend government funding through December 15th and ensuring the military gets paid on any shutdown, but...

• HOUSE PLAN WOULD DELAY OBAMACARE ONE YEAR, LAWMAKER SAYS

And as the WSJ reports, Harry Reid has already stated that "we are going to accept nothing as it related to Obamacare," before adjourning the Senate until Monday afternoon (narrowing the gap for a shutdown-avoidance vote). The shutdown-blame-game has begun as it seems the ball is back in the Senate's court...

In record-breaking time, categorical promises that resulted in a phenomenal victory in the September 22 election turned out to be lies

"'I don't care what [you] call me so long as...[it's not] what they used to call me in school...They used to call me Monkey King!'"--Lord of the Flies

When back in February 2012 we first suggested (sarcastically) "A Modest Proposal To Boost US GDP By $852 Quadrillion: Build The Imperial Death Star" which as the title suggested, was a quick and easy way to boost US GDP by $852 quadrillion through 'building' the Imperial Death Star (on credit of course - remember: in modern finance, one's "growth" is only limited by how much debt they can issue), little did we know that this would promptly become a viral campaign which in early 2013 culminated with a White House petition to do just this thing. Unfortunately, since then things have devolved so much that science fiction is rapidly becoming the bedrock of both US fiscal and monetary policy. So as we continue to slide down the rabbit hole of insolvency, in a world of peak absurdity, it only makes sense to revisit some comparable, if smaller scale, ideas that may at least prevent another imminent middle east conflict false flag, seeking solely to boost the US economy. Presenting: space ships.

In what may be a highly destabilizing step, both political and socially, Greece announced this morning that in a shocking political crackdown, the biggest since the fall of the military junta in 1974, the Police had arrested the leader and more than a dozen senior members of the far-right Golden Dawn party after the killing of an anti-fascist rapper by a party supporter triggered outrage and protests across the country. Reuters reports that the party's leader Nikolaos Mihaloliakos, spokesman Ilias Kassidiaris, two other lawmakers and 10 members were arrested on charges of founding a criminal organisation. They are due to appear in court this weekend to be charged formally. Police confiscated two guns and a hunting rifle from the home of Mihaloliakos, saying he did not have a license for them. As has been reported previously, Golden Dawn, is under investigation for the murder of Pavlos Fissas, who bled to death after being stabbed twice by a party sympathiser.

Overview of near-term dollar outlook.

The Egyptians dispensed with the life of their slaves in the construction of the pyramids as if they were nothing but throw-away products before that had even been invented in the modern day and age in which we live.