Archive - May 14, 2014

A clearly irritated Sergei Lavrov - Russia's Minister of Foreign Affairs - appeared on Bloomberg TV this morning and warned that "Ukraine is as close to civil war as you can get." The minister further exclaimed that Russia "would like to understand how helicopters with a UN logo were used against protesters in the south-east," adding that "Russia has serious suspicions that mercenaries from the USA are acting in Ukraine’s south-east." Furthermore, Lavrov warned that "attempts to force Ukraine into NATO may have a strong negative impact on the whole system of European security." But apart from that... BTFWWIII

It would seem that the day after Tuesday is not Tuesday... and so stocks sold off. The Russell 2000 is now 3% off its Monday highs, comfortably red for the week, and back below its crucial 200day moving-average. The Nasdaq is also down with the 50DMA crossing death-like below the 100DMA. Of course, it is the "you can't trust the signals" bond market that is making the real headlines as 10Y yields slump to fresh 7-month lows breaking notable support. The USD leaked lower on the day (but USDJPY was stable under 102) as ECB talked back some of the recent EUR losses. Commodities all pushed higher with silver up over 3% onthe week, gold back over $1305, and WTI over $102. VIX pumped-and-dumped at the open but could not sustain weakness as 330RAMP saw VIX's slam unable to drag stocks notably higher.

Don’t look for the truth about inflation to come from the financial powers that be nor from the financial media. We’re on our own on this one.

Last week in the Land of the Free, I heard a radio campaign ad for a local political candidate while in Texas. In the ad, he was talking about the debt and excessive government spending. And then he said something along the lines of, “We need to get this under control before America goes bankrupt.”

‘Buddy,’ I remember thinking, "America isn’t going bankrupt. It already IS bankrupt."

This is the stuff that revolutions are made of. It’s already happening around the world from North Africa to Southeast Asia. And it’s starting to spread to the West.

NSA Routinely Shares Raw Intelligence Data With Israel WITHOUT First Sifting It To Remove Information About US Citizens

Q. What will happen after 14 August 2014? Will the Silver Fixing cease to exist?

A. With effect from the close of business on 14 August 2014, the Company will cease to administer a Silver Fixing, and a daily Silver Fixing Price will no longer be published by the Company.

It is a mark of the fanaticism and desperation of the Keynesians that they would resort to threats of money confiscation in order to prevent people from saving and force them to spend in the present. This is shear and utter madness... some might say it is theft on a vast scale, perpetrated by government fanatics.

With stocks at record highs and priced for some nirvanic perfection of future growth reaching escape velocity at some point soon, the question of why bonds keep rallying is vexing to the status quo minders who just can't fathom it. However, as Bloomberg notes, the world’s most actively traded short-term interest-rate futures are signaling the path higher for the Federal Reserve’s benchmark rate won’t be that high. "The market now sees diminished macroeconomic expectations and expects the Fed to ending the upcoming tightening cycle at around 3 percent." In other words, the bond market believes in the Japanization of America and another lost decade as the new normal low/no growth world slugs along with no escape velocity dreams anytime soon.

In his first major speech since The White House got their 'flexible' man in to manage the GSEs, Mel Watt outlined his strategic plan for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Predicated on the maintenance of liquidity, competition, and resilience of the national housing finance market, Watt's remarkably blind to the past proposal will, as CNBC's Rick Santelli warns, create Subprime 2.0. Easing lending standards, not lowering limits, and raising the possibility of principal reduction seems to do anything but reduce taxpayer risk and merely creates more perverse incentives. Santelli steams, as the orthodox monetary policy channel of the last 30 years continues to be pumped ever higher, "immense fiscal and monetary stimulus has gotten us nowhere." As we suspect Rich might have concluded... Watt the fuck!? "if you believe any of this, you have to be crazy after what we've been through."

In honor of the end of the one of the most infamous price manipulation cartels in precious metal history - the London silver fix - below we present (pdf) the full history of the london silver market, from 1600 all the way until the year 2000. There is just one more event to add to the timeline: 2014 - the end of the silver fixing cartel (and its replacement with the BIS manipulation cartel?)

Is the top 10% up to the task of borrowing and blowing enough money to prop up a debt and bubble-dependent economy? Right now, we're one stock-market-and-housing bubble pop away from finding out if the top 10% will be able and willing to spend, spend, spend once their bubblicious assets are evaporating like mist in Death Valley.

"...Since March, 20 property developers in Guangzhou have been offering "zero down-­payments" to attract buyers, in addition to large discounts and tax refund, the National Business Daily reported Monday."

And come to think of it, neither do these...

"by July we expect the US economy to be in full recovery from the weather- and inventory-induced slowdown in Q1, and this should push US rates higher and boost the Dollar, including against the Yen." - Goldman Sachs