Archive - May 2015

So much for the Saudi and OPEC strategy of putting a dent in US Oil Production by not cutting production and hoping to gain market share for their oil by putting the Shale Industry out of business.

There are no free financial markets in America, or for that matter anywhere in the Western word, and few, if any, free markets of any other kind. The financial markets are rigged by the big banks, the Federal Reserve, and the Treasury in the interests of the profits of the few big banks and the dollar’s exchange value, which is the basis of US power. It is just as amazing that Americans and Europeans are so trapped in The Matrix that they have no inkling that their future has been destroyed.

The "average" American isn't doomed to die from a heart attack. According to a recent study by the CDC looking at the most distinctive deaths by state, by which they mean which type of death is abnormally represented relative to the national mean, Americans have a veritable cornucopia of ways in which they "pass" depending on which state they call home.

While we patiently await Wall Street's weathermen, formerly known as economists, to blame the next swoon in US GDP on California's relentless drought, now in its fourth year, we wonder how many double seasonally-adjusted, pro-forma, non-GAAP GDP points India's blistering heatwave will bring. Because if California thinks it has it bad, India has it far worse. According to AccuWeather,  the severe weather "could have a significant impact on lives and property for more than a billion people in Asia during the summer of 2015." It is so hot, in fact, that the read is literally melting...

Presidents have always exercised emergency powers, but now thanks to dozens of new laws, regulations, court decisions and executive orders, Barack Obama is the most powerful president in all of U.S. history. Of course the U.S. Constitution does not actually give the president any special powers during a time of national emergency, but over time presidents have decided that they should be able to exercise such powers and the courts have generally agreed with them.

Having recently cut its estimate of US trend productivity growth to 1.5%, in a shocking move earlier today, Goldman admitted US trend growth is far less than previously speculated and lowered its long-term potential GDP. The bank says: "after adjusting for a drag from government sector productivity and incorporating an updated assessment of trend labor force growth, we now see long-run potential GDP growth at 1¾%, half a percentage point below our prior estimate." This is a huge deal as Goldman just recalibrated every single economic (i.e., inflation, employment) and financial (i.e., bond rates, leverage) equation by more than 20%, not to mention the amount of implied residual slack in the economy. In short, an absolutely massive amount!

History has not been kind to major trade blunders. Just as the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930 sparked a global trade war that may well have put the “great” in the Great Depression, Congressional enactment of enforceable currency rules today could spark retaliatory actions that might devastate the free flow of trade that a sluggish global economy desperately needs.

“When you’re borrowing money for pensions, you’re getting a new credit card to pay off the old one, and you still haven’t paid off the old one.”

“We expect today’s financial system to fall apart in a terrible crash and depression. But we’re looking forward to it.” Simply put, it is the only way to 'correct' the corrupt system... because after all, that’s what government was designed for: to allow one group to rob another. If the elite could take no advantage from it, why would they bother with government at all?

When we first brought the world's attention to the 330ET daily ramp in US equity markets, we were shrugged off as conspiracy wonks once again, but 2 years later - as trading activity has become increasingly focused in smaller and smaller windows during the trading day, so the mainstream media has finally been forced to admit that the US equity market has become nothing but Ebay - where everyone waits til the last second.

Obama-style immigration reform could be dead in the water as the DoJ's decision not to seek a Supreme Court end-around on the President's stalled executive order presents a number of possibly insurmountable problems.

"...with each passing session the casino is getting more dangerous, but the lemmings have no clue and the narrative gets ever more specious."