Archive - Jul 13, 2015

But... but... they just provide liquidity.

One of the preconditions imposed on Greece for a deal is that it signs into law European rules that would put euro zone authorities at the ECB and in Brussels, rather than Athens, in charge of identifying and closing or breaking up sick banks. This in turn could lead to a shake-up of the sector that could see some banks close, with losses pushed onto bondholders and possibly even large depositors. In such circumstances, there would be little that Athens could do to prevent this.

Spain has shown that it is fully on board with the Brussels authoritarian direction of ending democracy. Those in power have simply convinced themselves that the people do not understand what is good for them so they must impose their will upon the people but raw force. How does this differ in any what from the justification of imposing communism? This is the death of all freedom and it is upon our doorstep.

The debt-fueled prosperity that so many of us take for granted is about to come to a screeching halt, and we are about to enter the hardest times that any of us have ever known.  And we are not just talking about economics either.  Based on all of the intel and information that we have gathered, we are about to enter a “perfect storm” that is going to shake this country in just about every possible way that it can be shaken.  So we hope that you will truly savor this summer – days like this will not come around again any time soon.

The Simpsons was right all along...

Fragmenting ammunition does a lot more damage and thus has more "stopping power" than full metal jacket ammo, so one might reasonably suspect that the Army’s goal in giving every soldier a magazine full of hollow points is simply to increase the kill rate. Not so, says the Army - it’s all about preventing collateral damage.

Trump has been playing the media with his supposed presidential ambitions for years, but it was clear then that it was just The Donald doing what he does best – promoting himself. And so the question jumps out at us: Why now? Although we have no concrete proof of the theory, there’s plenty of circumstantial evidence. His ties to the Clintons, his past pronouncements which are in such blatant contradiction to his current fulminations, and the cries of joy from the Clintonian gallery and the media (or do I repeat myself) all point to a single conclusion: the Trump campaign is a Democratic wrecking operation aimed straight at the GOP’s base. Donald Trump is a false-flag candidate.

The UK has frozen the bank account of Russia's Rossiya Segodnya news agency without any explanation. "To close the account of one of the world’s leading news agencies is censorship, the direct obstruction of journalists’ work," Dmitry Kiselyov, head of the news agency, exclaimed, asking "what kind of press freedom and democracy can Britain claim to have if it prevents one of the world's largest news agencies from working in the country?" As RT reports, while no official justification for the move has been offered, RT reports a source in the banking sector told the agency the Exchequer has put Dmitry Kiselyov on an anti-Russian sanctions list. With David Cameron in full tyrannical 1984-mode, this latest move is perhaps not entirely surprising (though we await the boomerang from Putin).

"This has caused me a lot of heartache. It will take some time to recover," exclaims one disgruntled (and self-admitted greedy) Chinese investor who lost it all in the recent equity market demise. "It is forever a planned market, a planned economy," which as one China policy professor noted, means "the massive state intervention, especially preventing major shareholders from selling shares and going after short sellers, has damaged financial sector reform in profound and permanent ways." Having fallen over 4.5% from its highs into the close yesterday, the CSI-300 index and FTSE China A50 are both opening weaker as nearly 30% of securities remain halted and margin debt rises for the 2nd day in a row.

"There’s been a colossal misjudgment of future demand. That long boom made it especially difficult for people to expect anything otherwise. Many bought the big story about urbanization, instead of thinking how things could go bad."

"Sorry, but there is no way you are leaving this room"...

When last we checked in with Rep. Jeb Hensarling, the Chairman of the House Committee on Financial Services, he was in the process of learning a frustrating lesson about central bankers in the post-crisis world. Namely, that whatever pretension of accountability the position of Fed chair retained in the lead up to the crisis disappeared entirely when Ben Bernanke 'saved the world' from financial armageddon in 2008.

"Sources" say this is how it all went down...

A 30-40% decline in indices and still it appears the average Chinese person thinks "making money trading stocks is easier than farmwork." As the following chart shows, a thundering herd of margin calls, panicing policy makers, and media frenzy has done nothing to dampen renewed gambling fever in what is now the most speculative nation in the world as margin-financing as a percent of trading volumes has exploded once again in the last few days...

"Mr. Varoufakis, who kept reminding everyone that he is a professor of game theory, believed that the European leaders would prefer to make concessions now rather than manage the disruption of a Greek default. He must not be familiar with the Tyler Durden school of negotiation: the first rule of using game theory is you do not talk about using game theory. What’s more obvious is that Syriza didn’t understand what the game is."