This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.
Global Markets Plunge As Both Koreas Put On War Readiness
In case you have missed the (primary) reason why the world is imploding this morning, and futures are collapsing, from Reuters: "North Korea puts military on combat readiness. North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has ordered his military to be on a combat footing, South Korea's Yonhap news agency said on Tuesday. It quoted a local group of North Korea watchers as saying their sources there had told them Kim's command had been broadcast by a top military official. Tensions have risen sharply on the peninsula after the South inmposed sanctions on its neighbour, which it accuses of sinking a naval ship in March, killing 46 sailors." The Korean Won, and global futures, are plunging on the news.
And more from Bloomberg here.
»
- 5116 reads
- Printer-friendly version
- Send to friend
- advertisements -
Hope you traders out there are locked and loaded. Imagine, a market reacting negatively to bad news. Is it possible that reality could actually shake out all these manipulations?
I think possibility for a war right now is ZERO%. When there is no economic benefit from a war it never happens. Why on earth would they invade N. Korea? They even have Nukes. Nice excuse for the market plunge, even worse as an excuse than the fat finger.
Can a loon http://outofthegarden.files.wordpress.com/2006/05/SeneyLoon81305.JPG be a black swan?http://www.lateralthinking.biz/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/blackswan.jpg
Perhaps North will invade South and not vice versa.
Was I dreaming, or did I read that NK sank the SK ship in retaliation for SK killing some NK sailor(s)?
I agree no war. Kim Jong il did not like being ignored by the global community any longer and misses his status of actual being considered a threat to the U.S.
This is him crying out for attention. He will not escalate and will go back to playing with his Tonka trucks most likely. America will do nothing aside from more finger wagging. China will finally agree to some NoKo sanctions and Russia may throw a monkey wrench into the system by making a strong statement of support for North Korea and may even promise military aid. Why?
Because the know the U.S. is considerably weak because of the oil volcano, money printing, internal political fighting, overextended with 2 wars and the President won the peace prize. They can assert some real pressure here and increase their global status.
Be weary of overestimating the extent of Kim jong Ils grip of power and underestimating the power struggle in the domestic politics. They just had a massive currency policy failure, his health is failing and his son is a loser. Stronger tyrants have been overthrown for less.
If Kim believes he may keep the war at a stalemate while at the same time utilizing it to cleanse the officer stab of rebellious individual, then the possibility of escalation is very much present.
These are dangerous times
Don't forget KIm is only part of the power structure of that (words fail) country. This event...how do you see it? Through an Eastern or Western filtered world-view???
Bob says hi.
I agree, No way anybody is going to get crazy right now..It must of been that alt rock music sk is playing to load that kim doesnt like.The dude just wants attention and he see's that we have to many Irons on the fire..China is going to talk to him on Friday...I will say that everybody gathering around that maritime border isnt great news..Were running drills with sk and nk is running drills in the same area..Like two birds showing each other there pretty feathers..Nothing happens..
+1
"US and China pledge economic cooperation"
If NK is the odd man out, then of course they are going to rattle their sabers. Maybe it is about time for regime change in NK.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/US-China-pledge-economic-apf-252487375.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=2&asset=&ccode=
With Bernanke & Geithner in China pleading with them to strengthen their Yuan to save the American "recovery" I would not be surprised if Ben loads up the B-52's full of cash for a raid of North Korea to ease tensions.
We must reflate the bubble if it takes every nickel and lintball of the american savers.
http://www.militaryphotos.net/forums/showthread.php?160396-Israeli-Subma...
And almost immediately denied.:
http://www.haaretz.com/news/egypt-denies-israeli-sub-sailed-suez-canal-1...
Kinda makes you wonder where that sucker was when that South Korean ship sank!
Now that the UN is asking for a look at the evidence for the sinking, the US is admitting the torpedo debris from the sinking comes from a GERMAN torpedo, but we are supposed to somehow assume that a German torpedo still points the finger of blame at North Korea.
Pop Quiz, students; what nation gets their submarines (for free) from Germany and has a long history of using false flag dirty tricks to trick other nations into wars?
Hint: Think "USS Liberty", "Lavon Affair", and the Bombing of Libya!
HISTORICAL NOTES ON HOW TO START WARS WITH SINKING SHIPS.
President McKinley told the American people that the USS Maine had been sunk in Havana Harbor by a Spanish mine. The American people, outraged by this apparent unprovoked attack, supported the Spanish American War. The Captain of the USS Maine had insisted the ship was sunk by a coal bin explosion, investigations after the war proved that such had indeed been the case. There had been no mine.
FDR claimed Pearl Harbor was a surprise
attack. It wasn't.
The United States saw war with Japan as the means to get into war with Germany, which Americans opposed. So Roosevelt needed Japan to appear to strike first. Following an 8-step plan devised by the Office of Naval Intelligence, Roosevelt intentionally provoked Japan into the attack. Contrary to the official story, the fleet did not maintain radio silence, but sent messages intercepted and decoded by US intercept stations. Tricked by the lie
of a surprise attack, Americans marched off to war.
President Johnson lied about the
Gulf of Tonkin to send Americans off to fight in Vietnam.
There were no torpedoes in the water in the Gulf. LBJ took advantage of an inexperienced sonar man's report to goad Congress into escalating the Vietnam War.
Israel has a long history of sinking other peoples' boats and then denying it happened.
Sorry to burst your bubble, but Germany has been exporting subs and torpedoes for decades. The chance that torpedoes and even subs may have eventually been sold second- or third-hand to North Korea is approximately 100%.
That said, there is a much simpler explanation here. Every country involved in these crises - North Korea, South Korea, the US, Iran, etc. - is facing significant domestic unrest. Oligarchies and dictatorships usually try to quell unrest and divert attention by kicking off a foreign adventure.
Simple alternative: the US made a 5 minute call to Kim Jong Illin', and they agreed that the next South Korean ship to cross the line was fish food. Why complicate matters with Israeli subs and other such voodoo?
Goldman is short. The spice must flow.
You could have at least given a h/t to WRH, since this is a cut/paste of Mr. Rivero's comment yesterday.
WRH has a whole lot of other articles ...dats y ..it makes for easy reading to paste this way
1. Every crisis leads to panic buying of crude. I think this is the first time I see crude lower on a geopolitical crisis.
2. Gold actually fell overnight,and only recovered in early AM NY time. Gold should be shooting through the roof on a geopolitical crisis - it is still about flat for the day. JP Morgan better hope it closes below 1200, or they'll be covering all those written calls all the way up to 1250. I'd love to see it around 1199, and a Paulson decides to exercise his calls just to force them into a short squeeze.
Take the next step in your thought process.
This is NOT a geopolitical crisis. The N.Korea war threat is nothing but smoke & mirrors. That's why oil & gold didn't react.
The markets are waking up to the fact that sovereigns are hell bent in sinking the world in a deflationary depression with their continued failed efforts to plug the banking black hole insolvency.
The final collapse is a question of when, not if.
I have this picture in my head of people watching a building burn down and in the background some dudes in tuxedos are yelling with bull-horns to come check out their flea circus..
On another note, funny how North Korea started up right after it was revealed that nearly half of all US naval power is heading towards the Persian Gulf in the next 2 months, and a good chunk of auxiliary ships (Navy and Coast Guard) are tied up with the oil spill.
That is the geopolitical version of a short squeeze.
A message was sent in South Korea, hard to tell who sent it without looking at the debris. If it was a new German torpedo, it changes things.
I find it rather funny that Brazil and Turkey think that diplomacy would actually work with the US involved. Those little countries are so cute when they try to play world order politics. (edit: RE: Iran)
We will invade, set up bases and control the oil and natural gas.
It's the American way.
winner, winner, chicken dinner.
got nukes bitches?
The media has certainly jumped on the Kim Jong story but those statements were made last week so what's with the delayed reaction? Futures, FTSE and DAX down almost 3% on old news, I doubt it. Much like the pathetic explanations for the Flash Crash this seems to be a feeble attempt to cover for a broken global economy. Watch Libor and VIX and not CNBS.
LIBOR-OIS bumps to over 30 bps at around 6AM eastern.
WTF are they doing with a German torpedo?
So, on the one hand, the US pays $48b to bail out its worthless banksters, and on the other we seem to be obligated to foot the bill to defend an ally against a madman they're arming?
Did we even get a reacharound?
Screw them all, let it burn. Let it burn to the ground.
Yeeeeaaaahhh. Just because it is german doesn't mean the Germans sold it to them. German torpedoes are like AKs, they are everywhere.
Ze Germanz love zeir torpedoes.
Every crisis end with a war. I for one would welcome a little DUKE NUKE'EM. I do hope we get a heads up, because that would be the time to start investing in Army Lego companies :)
Let me guess, you live in a town of 400 people in the arctic cicrle so a little Duke Nuke'em would just be a firework show to you since you are not a target?
The place to be after the big fireworks show is south of the equator. Very nice atmospheric partition at the equator...
If I'm lucky I'll make it to Australia where it's already a homestead mentality in many areas and people watch out for themselves and their neighbors.
Another war America will find a way to get involved in instead of minding its own business.
But of course! That's how we always get out of depressions, especially when a Democrat is in the WH.
THE GREATEST SHORT EVER:
http://williambanzai7.blogspot.com/2010/05/greatest-short-ever.html
Ah, Lil Kim Jong Il...everyone's favorite international angry panhandler.
High time we flattened this stupid fuck...I'm willing to bet the Chinese would let us take them out so they can exploit the broken window fallacy and help their deflating bubble.
Like kids playing with sticks...everybody has fun until someone gets poked in the eye.
At which point it becomes truly hilarious.
And now for some deeply cynical humor about war to cheer everyone up:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDkhzHQO7jY
"Im soooo ronely.....ohh soo ronely."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xh_9QhRzJEs
Team America, FUCK YEA!