Archive - Nov 11, 2014

The WTF charts just got WTF-ier...

The U.S. booty business is getting a big bump, as AP reports companies are cashing in on growing demand from women seeking the more curvaceous figures of their favorite stars. While Millennials may spend most of their day sitting on their Minaj-esque "big fat butts" playing Kardashian, the business of boosting butts is bursting. From padded panties and gym classes that promise plumper posteriors to the "Brazilian butt lift," in which fat is sucked from a patient's stomach, love handles or back and put into their buttocks and hips, French sociologist Jean-Claude Kaufmann says "there's a trend to show off the buttocks in place of breasts due to the rise of Beyonce," Jennifer Lopez, and more recently Meghan Trainor. The bottom line - butt lifts and implants are the fastest growing plastic surgery, helping GDP at a cost of $10-13k each.

while almost all oligarchs are extremely wealthy (or have access to extreme wealth), not all people with extreme wealth are oligarchs. The term oligarch is reserved for those with extreme wealth who also want to control the political process, policy levers and most other aspects of the lives of the citizenry in a top-down tyrannical and undemocratic manner. They think they know best about pretty much everything, and believe unelected technocrats who share their worldview should be empowered so that they can unilaterally make all of society’s important decisions. The unwashed masses (plebs) in their minds are unnecessary distractions who must to be told what to do. Useless eaters who need to be brainwashed into worshipping the oligarch mindset, or turned into apathetic automatons incapable or unwilling to engage in critical thought. Either outcome is equally acceptable and equally encouraged. These oligarchs and the centralized institutions they control pose the greatest threat to humanity at this time.

Obama: "So how did you like that whole "costs" part? Was it too much? I think they bought it."
Vladimir: "You have been fantastic. Truly flexible, and so persuasive: I almost believed it myself. Great job comrade."

Our political-financial system has gone from the dysfunctional to the failed to the surreal. Speculation, once left to individuals and investors, is now federally sponsored, subsidized and institutionalized. When this sham finally buckles and the next shoe falls and rates do eventually rise, the stock market will tank, liquidity will die, and the broader economy will plunge into a worse Depression than before. We are not there yet because of these coordinated moves and the political force behind them. But we are on a precarious path to that inevitability.

Hat tip to Usain Bolt

Did the election last week really mean that much? I took to my Twitter account on Tuesday to point out that the change in control of the Senate from Democrat to Republican actually means very little, despite efforts by politicians and the mainstream media to convince us otherwise. Yes, power shifted, I wrote. But the philosophy on Capitol Hill changed very little. The warfare/welfare state is still alive and well in Washington.

Overall, CPI’s are used to index payments on over $10 trillion in liabilities. Any underestimation of  CPI benefits the federal government at the expense of the taxpayer and amounts to a backdoor default on its financial obligations. Please understand this could be deliberate or the result of dubious econometric methods. Using a bad model is like using a random number generator as a compass.  To get an idea of the sums of money involved, for every 1% of CPI underestimation the federal government saves $8.4 billion on social security payments alone.  The lack of transparency regarding quality adjustments (and their perceived complexity) provides a perfect smoke-screen for covert debt management through CPI under-reporting.

There are things in this world which simply look plain stupid, and then there are those that at closer examination prove to be way beyond stupid...

"They are building stuff that nobody really wants or needs," sums up yet another mega ghost city project under development in China. As NBC News reports, China's $50-billion knock-off of the Big Apple - near the port city of Tianjin, some 120 miles from Beijing - complete with its own Rockefeller Center and Twin Towers has been billed as the world's largest financial center in the making. But this Manhattan still has a long way to go...

The recent mid-term elections sent a very clear message to Washington, D.C., which was simply "the economy sucks."  While statistical economic data suggests that the economy is rapidly healing, it has only been so for a very small percentage of the players. For most American's they have only watched the "rich" prosper as the Federal Reserve put Wall Street before Main Street. Stock buybacks, dividends and acquisitions are great for those that have money invested in the financial markets, however, for the rest of America it is only a spectator sport. The risk to the markets currently is that the wave of deflationary pressures engulfing the globe have only begun to wash back on the domestic economy. The drag on exports, combined with the potential for extremely cold winter weather, puts both economic and earnings growth rate projections at risk. With the markets in extremely overvalued territory, the risks to investors clearly outweigh the rewards over the long-term.

Presented with no comment...

Still think fundamentals matter? Still believe your analysis of Free-Cash-Flow, energy policy, or P/E multiples will payoff? Think again... according to our Gavekal Capital's Factor Scoring Model, the US dollar has been the most highly correlated factor (out of 30) with the MSCI World Index over the past year (which is why we have been focusing so much of our attention on it over the past few months). It has had a 0.98 correlation with the MSCI World Index.

Today we see actions by many groups calling or demanding wage increases; especially when it comes to the minimum wage. Yet, isn’t the real underlying issue more in line with what was once an “entry-level” position filled by teenagers has now turned into the only positions available for the now “entry-level, unskilled, first time employed, degree bearing” 26 year old’s and older?

Having exposed the arrogance and self-admitted deception that was used to get the healthcare law past the "stupidity of American voters," it seems ObamaCare architect Jonathan Gruber regrets his comments... As The Daily Caller reports, during an interview with MSNBC, Gruber explained he "was speaking off the cuff and basically spoke inappropriately," adding, "I regret having made those comments." We suspect what he means is "I regret being caught saying those comments."