Archive - Jan 31, 2014

williambanzai7's picture

TOKE-A-BOWL 2014 (Updated)





Prepare for a Lame Change...

 

Tyler Durden's picture

Third Banker, Former Fed Member, "Found Dead" Inside A Week





If the stock market were already crashing then it would be simple to blame the dismally sad rash of dead bankers in the last week on that - certainly that was reflected in 1929. However, for the third time in the last week, a senior financial executive has died in what appears to be a suicide. As Bloomberg reports, following the deaths of a JPMorgan senior manager (Tuesday) and a Deutsche Bank executive (Sunday), Russell Investments' Chief Economist (and former Fed economist) Mike Dueker was found dead at the side of a highway in Washington State. Police said the death appeared to be a suicide.

 

Tyler Durden's picture

The Bernank Celebrates





BernankeSmilingIn economics the chicken must always come home to roost. Man can only live beyond his means for so long. Bernanke’s reputation hinges upon the market not tanking as his successors close up the spout of gushing currency. The endpoint is coming. When it happens, the house of cards will tumble down. And with it will come the livelihoods and hopes of many. With every boom there is a bust. It’s an immutable fact of government intervention into the economy. As Bill Bonner writes, articles full of lavishing praise for Bernanke will begin appearing in coming weeks. Writing puff pieces on state bureaucrats is often a high-paying gig. But they all reveal a particular trend: celebrating the wise achievements of someone empowered to govern society. When businessmen are praised in print, their accomplishments are chalked up as minor victories reserved for the few. When the selfless man of charity is given his due, the praise is mild. When a lord of government sees the pages of a major periodical, it’s the kind of brown-nosing that would make a teacher’s pet uncomfortable. For now, Bernanke will bask in exaltation. But his just deserts are coming. You can bet $4 trillion on it.

 

Tyler Durden's picture

China, Japan, The Yasukuni Shrine, And The Confederate Flag





A common interpretation of history, Jordan's Prince Zeid told the UN this week, helps smooth tensions between former enemies, "as we have seen repeatedly, fighting that ends without reconciliation – especially fighting inside States – is fighting that can, and often does, resume." To those following the tensions between Japan and China (as well as South Korea), the implications are obvious. While the fighting between these nations ended almost 70 years ago, the process of reconciliation remains incomplete. The “deeper reconciliation” Zeid described, one based on “a shared memory of a troubled past,” has not yet emerged. The current tensions in Northeast Asia have another analogue: the conflicted legacy of the U.S. Civil War.

 

Tyler Durden's picture

What America's CEOs Really Think





With analysts preferring gloss over the massive bellwether stock earnings misses, focus on non-GAAP manufactured releases, and cling optimistically to hopes that weak performance, inclement weather, and volatile currency fluctuations will all go away soon and that the future looks rosy. However, as Bloomberg's Richard Yamarone notes, the US economy continues to cling to an historical subpar growth and CEO comments hardly support any hope for a change.

 

Tyler Durden's picture

Guest Post: From PetroDollar To PetroYuan – The Coming Proxy Wars





Why would the central bank of Nigeria decide to sell dollars and buy Yuan? At first glance it might not seem the most interesting or pressing question for you to consider. But we think it is one of those little loose threads that if pulled upon carefully begins to unravel the hints and traces of a much larger story.

 

Tyler Durden's picture

The Best And Worst Performers In 2014, Or The Worst Shall Be First





Despite every talking head having written off the miners, they were the best performer across US equity sub-indices. In the US equity markets Biotech and REITs also performed well. On the other hand,  Nasdaq Insurance and NYSE Arca Oil ETF were the worst...along with the NYSE Composite Index (which represents 61% of all global market capitalization).

 

Tyler Durden's picture

Where America's Wealthiest Suburbanites Live - And Where They Don't





For years, Bloomberg Businessweek notes, the American residential dream went something like this: Move to a city, work hard, and eventually you’ll make enough to move out. So perhaps it’s not surprising that today many of America’s largest metropolitan areas house their highest earners on the outskirts of town. Exactly where they live varies from city to city — or rather, from suburb to suburb. Perhaps this is what they mean by 'rotten to the core'?

 

Tyler Durden's picture

Beer Delivery By Drone? A Reality, Until The FAA Shoots It Down





Who says Amazon is only good for putting other retailers out of business with its 1% margins: in the aftermath of Jeff Bezos' announcement that the online retailer is considering launching drone delivery, one company took the concept from merely the theoretical stage to practical implication. The company in question is a Minnesota Micro Brewery called Lakemaid Brewery and the product it had hoped to deliver by remote control airplane to ice fishermen is beer. However, before beer fans around the country rejoice at the prospect of having a buzzing airborne beer delivery, we have some sad news: less than a week after the company posted a promotional YouTube video showcasing the first test flights across mid-sized lakes, the Federal Aviation Administration called Lakemaid Beer to immediately pull the unmanned beer from the skies.

 

Tyler Durden's picture

Caption Contest: Bye Bye Ben





It would seem, after 8 years at the helm of the Federal Reserve, that Ben Bernanke's colleagues were a little too busy fielding calls from Emerging Market bankers to wish him good bye.

 

Tyler Durden's picture

Christie Busted: Port Authority Official Says NJ Governor Lied About Lane Closings, "Has Evidence To Prove It"





The sharks are circling Chris Christie who just sprung a bloody leak (either that or the population must really need to be distracted from a horrible January for stocks and what may be coming next). Moments ago the NYT reported that the former Port Authority official who personally oversaw the lane closings on the George Washington Bridge "said that the governor knew about the lane closings when they were happening, and that he had the evidence to prove it." Of course, if such evidence exists, Christie can call it a career after claiming the opposite on numerous occasions in the past month. Of course, one wonders whether Obama would have been impeached by now had the "independent and impartial media" hounded him with the same fervor for his numerous transgressions and repeated lies to the American public. Alas, we will never know the answer.

 

Tyler Durden's picture

5 Things To Ponder: Random Thoughts Edition





This past week we read some very diverse articles, which, hopefully, will stimulate your grey matter over the weekend as you indulge in melted artifical cheese, processed fillers, and copious amounts of artificial colorings and flavors during the Super Bowl showdown (assuming you did not order any of the party packs). With everybody hoping that someone else is going to pull them out of the quicksand - who is left to do the pulling?

 

GoldCore's picture

Gold In 2014: Scramble For Physical Gold As Price Manipulation Unravels?





2014? Well now, THIS could be the year that true price discovery begins in the gold market. If that turns out to be the case, it will be driven by a scramble to perfect ownership of physical gold; and to do that you will be forced to pay a lot more than $1247/oz. 

 

Tyler Durden's picture

Dow Dumps To 2nd Worst January In 24 Years





Another volatile day ended with the Dow is down around 5% in January - the worst start to a year since 2009 (and 2nd worst since 1990) and the worst month since May 2012 (a 3-sigma miss of the average +1.5% per month gain since 2009's lows). Japan, Brazil, and Russia suffered greatly on the month as gold miners, Egypt?, and US Biotech did well. There is a huge 380bps spread between the performance of the Industrials and the Transports YTD. Gold had its best month in the last 5; Treasuries rallied with 10Y yields dropping their most since May 2012; USD rallied the most in 8 months with JPY's biggest rally (and Nikkei's biggest loss) since April 2012.

 
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