Archive - Jun 2014

June 28th

williambanzai7's picture

1914





The Schtup Herd round the world...

 

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Mexican Military Chopper Shoots At US Border Guards After Entering American Airspace; Mexico Denies





Late last week, Mexico appears to have taken the US "border-crossing" issue to a whole new level even if it was really a case of a drug bust gone horribly wrong,  when as AP reported, on Thursday Mexican law enforcement crossed into Arizona by helicopter and fired two shots at U.S. border agents, a border patrol union leader says.  According to the Customs and Border Protection: "At approximately 5:45 a.m. Thursday morning, a Mexican law-enforcement helicopter crossed approximately 100 yards north into Arizona nearly 8 miles southwest of the Village of San Miguel on the Tohono O'odham Indian Nation while on a law-enforcement operation near the border. Two shots were fired from the helicopter, but no injuries or damage to U.S. property were reported. The incident is currently under investigation." Art del Cueto, president of the local border patrol union, said four agents were in a marked patrol vehicle when they were shot at. "They could say they didn't fire at the agents intentionally. But for them to say that they were no shots fired within the United States, toward the United States Border Patrol, is a lie. They got in contact with our managers and apologized for the incident," del Cueto said.

 

June 27th

Tyler Durden's picture

Today's WTF Moment Of The Day At 1550ET





We noted previously the comedic melt-up in stocks in the last few minutes of the day but away from the simple-to-see shenanigans in VIX and the major equity indices, Nanex shows a massive number of stocks experienced a stunning coordinated WTF moment at 1550ET... unrigged?

 

Tyler Durden's picture

What's The Biggest Business In Your State?





A state economy is nothing without the businesses that call it home. But, as WaPo notes, those businesses are not created equally - bigger businesses naturally have outsized influence, generating more revenue, paying more taxes and employing more people. As Bloomberg notes below, some are less surprising - GM runs Michigan, ExxonMobil runs Texas, and Berkshire Hathaway runs Nebraska but for Washington (home of Microsoft), it is CostCo that runs the state. So what's the biggest business in your state?

 

Tyler Durden's picture

Networks Vs. Hierarchies: Which Will Win?





Many believe the most significant battle of our era is between the forces of Decentralization vs. Centralization. Niall Furguson takes that battle and looks at it from a historical perspective, describing it as Networks vs. Hierarchies, and warns we "need networks, for no political hierarchy, no matter how powerful, can plan all the clever things that networks spontaneously generate. But if the hierarchy comes to control the networks so much as to compromise their benign self-organizing capacities, then innovation is bound to wane."

 

Tyler Durden's picture

China's Replica Of Manhattan Results In Yet Another Ghost City





China's own Big Apple may be rotting from the core. A new central business district modeled after New York City is going up in Tianjin but the project is in jeopardy. While the growth of China's ghost cities of entirely derelict and unlived-in residential real estate have become anathema; the story of the nation's 'if we build it they will come' commercial real estate bubble has been less exposed but is no less incredible. As Bloomberg reports, China’s project to build a replica Manhattan is taking shape against a backdrop of vacant office towers and unfinished hotels, underscoring the risks to a slowing economy from the nation’s unprecedented investment boom. Stunningly, the development has failed to attract tenants since the first building was finished in 2010 leaving one commercial real estate investor to proclaim, "Investing here won’t be better than throwing money into the water... There will be no way out - it will be very difficult to find the next buyer."

 

Tyler Durden's picture

The Keynesian End Game Is Near: No Escape Velocity This Year, Either





The economic releases of the past few days are putting the lie to the Keynesian escape velocity myth. The latter is not just around the corner—-and 2014 is now virtually certain to mark the fifth year running when the boom predicted by Wall Street economist at the beginning of the year fizzled as actual results unfolded.

 

Tyler Durden's picture

The Pentagon Has A Problem: "Vetting Moderate Al Qaeda Rebels Can Be Tough" - So Here Is A Simple Solution...





Moments ago, none other than the Pentagon's rear admiral John Kirby confirmed that there is a glaring problem with Obama's intentions to disburse $500 million to "moderate" Syrian rebels.

  • KIRBY SAYS A LOT OF WORK NEEDED TO VET MODERATE SYRIAN REBELS
  • KIRBY SAYS CONCERNED ABOUT AID `ENDING UP IN THE WRONG HANDS'

While we share his sentiment (which we doubt is much of a concern to the US MIC as it will merely provide one set of US-made weapons to destroy another set of US-made weapons), we repeat that there is a simple solution. It comes from Andy Borowitz, who appears to have read our mind, and is breathtakingly simple. Presenting: The Moderate Syrian Rebel Application Form.

 

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Bitcoin Vs Gold - The Infographic





While Marc Faber has said "I will never sell my gold," he also noted "I like the idea of Bitcoin," and the battle between the 'alternative currencies' continues. The following infographic provides a succinct illustration of the similarities and differences between gold and bitcoin.

 

Tyler Durden's picture

How The Fed Distorts Everything





Jeff Deist, of The Mises View, explains how the Fed has created a perilous landscape in which there is no 'honest' pricing left - everything has been distorted. As David Stockman exclaimed, "The system we have now is one in which the Fed decides, through a Politburo of planners sitting in Washington, how much liquidity is necessary, what the interest rates should be, what the unemployment rate should be, and what economic growth should be."

 

Tyler Durden's picture

What The CEOs Are Really Saying In Q2: "The Recovery Remains Fragile"





Despite exuberant Services and Manufacturing PMIs, Bloomberg's index of CEO sentiment remains stagnant near 2014 lows as April's hope for Q2 has faded into 'more of the same' by June. As Bloomberg's Rich Yamarone points out, in reality (in spite of all the hope), the second quarter is drawing to a close and it was a rough one for corporate America, with CEOs citing "slower growth in household income overall", "the recovery remains fragile, especially for customers on a budget", and perhaps most concerning, "whether or not this softness in store traffic is representative of a permanent sea change in customer behavior or a temporary phenomenon is hard to tell at this stage."

 

Tyler Durden's picture

100-Year Flashback - Even The Father Of The Fed 'Feared' Fiat Money





Paul Warburg - the oft-cited 'father of the Federal Reserve' - pushes back on those who see him as favoring the issue of 'fiat money'... No one, he writes, "has given more time and energy to "the fight for sound money," adding a warning that "all direct connection between the government and the banking business is undesirable." We suspect Warburg would be turning in his grave at the oligarchy he unleashed...

 

Tyler Durden's picture

5 Things To Ponder: The More Things Change





This week's "Things To Ponder" is focused on things that, in my opinion, far too many individuals are ignoring. Bob Farrell once wrote that "when all experts and forecasts agree; something else is bound to happen." Today, that is the case as much as it ever was. Despite rising geopolitical risks, weak economic data, deteriorating fundamentals and softer internals - the overwhelming belief is "equities are the only game in town." Of course, we have seen this mentality many times in past history whether it was 1929, 1987, 2000 or 2007. While every market peak was different, there were all the same.

 

Tyler Durden's picture

Panic-Buying Melt-Up Rescues Stocks From Red Close





Before 330ET, the Nasdaq was the lone survivor in the green this week despite every effort to spark short squeezes and ramps day after day - but that all changed as the ubiquitous late-Friday buying panic occurred of course - lifting stock green for the day (and desperately searching for green on the week). There was a sudden heavy volume dump at 1315ET with no news catalyst amking many wonder if a dark pool puked its orders? A glance at the week's market moves would suggest 'volatility' is anything but low - yet we always manage to close day-to-day calmly. Wondering what provides the ammo for Nasdaq's rise? "Most shorted" stocks are up for the 7th week in a row. Despite all that idiocy, bond yields tumbled the most in 6 weeks and USDJPY fell the most in 14 weeks. Oil slipped on the week but copper, gold, and silver all gained. With the Rusell rebalance, volume was extreme today (but only at the close and that 1315ET dump).

 
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