Frontrunning: April 7

• Criticism against the lame duck stupidity mounts - The Dodd bill: bailouts forever (WSJ)
• Volcker pushing for Value Added Tax (Post)
• Greece may find lukewarm U.S. response to dollar bond (Bloomberg)
• Greenspan's delusions get worse with age (Bloomberg)
• EU Commission: No knowledge of changes to changes in Greece deal terms (MNI)
• So long capitalism... and then some (IBD)
• Back from the brink of a US-China trade war (Cumberland)
• Europe economy unexpectedly stalled in fourth quarter (Bloomberg)
• Geithner to meet with the Chinese vice premier (NYT)
• Lyondell leaves Kalamazoo poisoned as bankruptcies mar cleanups (Bloomberg)
• Ten observations on risk of rising inflation (Minyanville)
• What to do when the Fed puts up a fight (MarketWatch)
• Zale stake sale finalists are said to include TPG, Golden Gate (Bloomberg)
• Thomas Friedman chimes in - Who's up for building bridges (NYT)

Comments

[Cognitive Dissonance]

"Europe economy unexpectedly stalled in fourth quarter"

I call bullshit.

With this many eyes watching everything that moves in the economic universe, the only way anything can be termed "unexpectedly stalled" is if people aren't deliberately looking and/or financial/political self interest blinds people to the obvious.

I believe these statements ("Europe economy unexpectedly stalled in fourth quarter") as much as I believe someone who tells me the deal he's pitching that sounds too good to be real IS real and I'm just being a silly billy. Don't worry, be happy.

[docj]

Amen.  None are more blind than those who are so willfully.

P.S.: Looks like someone just dropped a turd in the pool - AU/AG are going parabolic, again. Let's see how long this ramp-up goes (probably only about 15-minutes, but it's fun to watch regardless).

[Popo]

This is like the equally hilarious "no one could have seen the housing bust coming".  When 1000's of journalists and pundits were screaming about it's existence for years, and being marginalized by the journalistic cabal of mainstream media.  

Even borderline mainstream publications like The Economist ran several cover stories years in advance, calling it the biggest bubble in history -- only to find that even they could be marginalized.

The end result is that the most sophisticated and dynamic minds in the financial world are completely ignore the mainstream media and spend their days on a few dozen sites like Zero Hedge.   The mainstream media is like children's programming. It's not for you.  It's for the unsophisticated, (dare I say uneducated?) members of the global viewing audience.

I look at it the same way I look at religion.  It's not for me.  If someone lacks the intellectual wherewithal to think critically, then fine -- let them have their god.  But calling "bullshit" on religion is just a waste of time.  Yes, of course it's bullshit.  And of course the mainstream media is too.   It serves a purpose though, and that purpose is to control the minds of those who cannot think or see for themselves.  

But it is important to read/watch nonetheless.  One must know what the sheep think if one wishes to know which way the herd will run.

[Gordon_Gekko]

Just like the US Economy is about to "unexpectedly" go into the shitter (although some may rightly argue that it is already there).

[Cognitive Dissonance]

GG

I suspect they're already crafting plausible reasons to explain away the surprise double dip in the US economy.

"Everything was going fine until printing press #666 broke down and we couldn't get it back on line for a week. You know, when you only have 1000 printing presses, if one goes down for an extended period of time, you have serious problems. We missed it by THAT much"

Yeah, that's the ticket.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPwrodxghrw&feature=related

[doublethink]

Summers Over?

Yes, Larry Summers is Leaving

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2010/04/yes-larry-summers-is...

[Shameful]

VAT, awesome.  So how long after it's in place before it shoots to a 20% national VAT?  Good thing the Bush tax cuts are going to be repealed, and of course the estates are upping the ante.  This is going to get "fun".

[ZackAttack]

Hey, the Fair Tax guys got their wish! Well, half of it anyway.

[Truth]

Good article that addresses not only the above mentioned front-running but also where things may be heading (...emphasis on engineered crash to bring down 10-yr yields for ailing housing market....)

http://financialsense.com/fsu/editorials/willie/2010/0406.html

[Gordon_Gekko]

Mr. Volcker has lost his mind.

[Shameful]

Mr. Volker has always played ball. You don't get to be Fed Chairman if you don't play ball.  He knows they they are going to use the rep he built.

[DaveyJones]

Kick Ball  (down the road & while their down)

[hedgeless_horseman]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/apr/07/kyrgyzstan-protests-17-killed

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304505204575169273901877794.html

BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan—Protesters stormed government buildings and ransacked official media television stations in this strategically important Central Asian nation Wednesday, as demonstrations spread throughout the country against an increasingly repressive regime that hosts a major U.S. air base.

At least 17 people were killed and more than 180 injured, many of them when a crowd of several thousand protesters tried to overwhelm the presidential palace, which police defended with gunfire, eyewitnesses said. State-run television stations were off the air in the capital.

Kyrgyzstan's prime minister declared a state of emergency in response to the protests, while the president, Kurmanbek Bakiyev, has remained mostly out of sight. Mr. Bakiyev's interior minister was beaten to death in a provincial city, according to a local news report, and another top official was taken hostage.

"Thankfully, this could never happen in America.  Right? " asks Ken Salazar.

[mark456]

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