Archive - Jul 21, 2015 - Story

In what may be the biggest story of the year, if confirmed, Greek newspaper To Vima reports that Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has asked Russian President Vladimir Putin for 10 billion dollars in order to print drachmas. But the real shocker: on the night of the referendum, word came from Russia that Putin did not want to support Greece’s return to the drachma. After that, Tsipras had no choice left but to “surrender” to German Chancellor.

Justice in America is not all it’s cracked up to be. On paper, you may be innocent until proven guilty, but in actuality, you’ve already been tried, found guilty and convicted by police officers, prosecutors and judges long before you ever appear in a courtroom. Chronic injustice has turned the American dream into a nightmare.

After a modesly positive open, Chinese stocks have pushed back into the red after Chinese business sentiment collapsed in July. The MNI China Business Indicator fell a straggering 8.8pts to 48.8 in July (below 50 signifying pessimism) - the lowest since January 2009. It appears the encouraging bounce after the massive creduit injections into June has been eviscerated and future expectations also dropped 6.4 to 54.1 in July (below the long-run average). While bad news is good news for much of the rest of the world, for China, as it continues to try to project a strong underlying economy to sustain its still extremely rich stock market, bad news is bad news.

"They are going to be toast. It will be one of our first levels of shorting the moment we start to see cracks, because it’s ripe with retail, emotional investors."

57% of Americans see the US economy "getting worse," according to Gallup's latest survey, sending 'hope' to its lowest since September. Overall economic confidence slipped once again, despite the Greek deal, now at its lowest since October. It appears rising gas prices trump the rising stock prices when it comes to the average joe in America.

The latest confirmation that the Trump "nightmare" is causing not only sleepless nights but also panic attacks for a GOP that is scrambling to respond to the Donald's juggernaut is not only open attempts at caricature, which however merely feed Trump's ego and push him to troll his accusers even more, but to use the influential Des Moines Register, Iowa's largest newspaper and a critical voice when it comes to endorsing, or panning, presidential candidates in this first caucus state, to call on Donald Trump to drop out of the 2016 presidential race.

The action in gold in 2013 was a warning about the “dollar”, a warning that went completely unheeded yet has been largely fulfilled. Again, 2013 provides a guide as to why gold prices may be declining in sharp moves, especially right at the open or in weaker trading hours, and it has very little to do with interest rates apart from fixed income suggesting the same factors about the “dollar.” Whether it is growing unease about the global economic picture or the “sudden” recurrence of financial irregularity almost wherever you wish to gaze, the “dollar” is once more wreaking havoc. This isn’t controversial at all, but somehow economists can miss that gold is global and universal collateral and when the eurodollar system is stressed it becomes activated in that manner.

In what is being called "the first of its kind," Wired.com reports that hackers, using just a laptop and mobile phone, accessed a Jeep Cherokee's on-board systems (via its wireless internet connection), took control and crashed the car into a ditch from 10 miles away sitting on their sofa. As The Telegraph details, the breach was revealed by security researchers Charlie Miller, a former staffer at the NSA, and Chris Valasek, who warned that more than 470,000 cars made by Fiat Chrysler could be at risk of being attacked by similar means. Coming just weeks after the FBI claimed a US hacker took control of a passenger jet he was on in the first known such incident of its kind, the incident shows just how vulnerable we are to modern technology.

What if Syriza were not just a particularly fluffy breed of miniature Europoodle but actual honest-to-goodness revolutionaries, ready to do whatever it takes? How would they act differently? And what would be the result? Given that the price is so high, perhaps it would be better after all if we just sat quietly, allowed the rich get richer as the poor get poorer, watched listlessly as the environment got completely destroyed by capitalist industrialists in blind pursuit of profit, and eventually curled up, kissed our sweet asses good-bye and died? Good luck selling that idea to young radicalized hotheads who have nothing to lose - except maybe you, if you happen to stand in their way as they change the world!

For all the back-patting exuberance over manipulated record high stock prices and record periods of illusory job gains, it appears the administration and its Obamanomics forgot one important thing - the children! As USA Today reports, a higher percentage of children live in poverty now than did during the Great Recession, according to a new report from the Annie E. Casey Foundation released Tuesday.

When Janet Yellen speaks, investors buy stocks (whether she tells you stock valuations are 'substantialy stretched' or not). When Warren Buffett speaks, investors listen... so when his favorite indicator is flashing a huge "sell signal" trading 80% 'expensive' to its long-term average, perhaps, as BofAML suggests, it is time to listen.

George Clooney has just released to promote his new non-profit, entitled THE SENTRY - an initiative that "seeks to disrupt and ultimately dismantle the networks of perpetrators, facilitators, and enablers who fund and profit from America’s deadliest conflicts." Eliminating genocide sounds like an incredibly noble cause; however, in order to do so, Mr. Clooney’s aim is break down financial privacy. The road to tyranny is always paved with the stones of good intentions. Because no matter how many financial regulations get passed, and no matter how far the dictators are chased by Mr. Clooney on his white horse, the fact remains that bad people will always find the resources to do bad things. And in the meantime, the crusade to save the world only serves to make everyone else less free.

The company which was carrying the fate of not only the Dow Jones and the S&P 500 on its shoulders had taken the stairs up, and just took the elevator down.

"I held in my hand the Holy Grail for the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. The most influential economic mind of the twentieth century provided the CME with the intellectual foundation upon which to build its financial superstructure."

Unleash the talking head spin...