Downtown New York Office Vacancy Rate Spikes To 9/11 Levels

Surely this must be worth a strong buy upgrade of the REIT sector by someone (too bad most banks already have these in the "conviction buy to the grave" category). Bloomberg TV reports that the office vacancy rate in downtown NY has dropped to September 11th levels, and is about to pass 14%. In other words short reality, long hopium and office REITs, and presto - 100% P&L overnight. Who needs such boring things as cash flows when you have record vacancies and guaranteed, undipsuted bailouts.

Whither CNY Revaluation

Earlier we presented one side of the possible consequences of branding China a currency manipulator. In the realm of pundits nowhere is the China debate more pronounced than between Nobel (or is it Oscar) winner Paul Krugman and Morgan Stanley Asia Chairman Stephen Roach, in which the latter has proposed some amusing applied sporting goods suggestions vis-a-vis the former. Last night, the Morgan Stanley strategist made his case even clearer in an Op-Ed in the FT, titled "Blaming China will not solve America's problems." As we are fairly confident that the last thing America needs at this point is to antagonize its primary lender (sorry Ron Insana, the whole "if you owe a bank one trillion, you own the bank" is the most stupid thing one can say in this particular relationship), we would tend to agree that scapegoating at the national level, while easy to do (just ask Bill Lockyer and G-Pap), only shows the market that one is hopeless to actually fix the underlying problems and instead seeks to distract from the matter at hand. Roach's argument, by the way, is spot on: America is deflecting from the savings problem (which incidentally, after yesterday's PCE once again outpacing Consumer Incomes, slipped to 3.1% or the lowest levels since 2008). At this rate we will soon be back to negative savings, and the anger at China will be greater than ever. Why look to ourselves to fix a problem that so easily can be scapegoated onto others. And if it means purchasing a few more MaxiPads, pardon iPads, so much the better (out of curiosity, we wonder just where the components for the iPad are made, and just where it is assembled...).

Former SEC Staffer Blasts The Regulator's Short Selling Ban Lunacy, Calls Decision Purely Motivated By Politics

As if anyone needed more proof that the corrupt, biased, inefficient, and outright worthless SEC should be disbanded right now, this instant, here is former SEC staffer Erik Sirri, who ran
the SEC’s division of trading and markets, confirming that all the SEC does is supervise Wall Street's stealth transfer of wealth from the middle class to the Wall Street kleptocrats (as in, "you have only stolen enough to buy just one G-V?"), and does so with a political bias at that. As Bloomberg reports "The U.S. Securities and Exchange
Commission’s decision to restrict short selling was a political
decision rather than one based on evidence, according to a
former agency official who says it may set a precedent for
future decisions." And what politics was involved pray tell? Why, the type that would make the new president incredibly unpopular even before he was sworn in. It becoming increasingly clear with each passing day that this country's equity market is nothing but a sham and a teleprompter-friendly mirror before which Obama can act glum, even as the very regulators allow the market to be manipulated in a way that encourages risk taking, and thus delay and inevitable and terminal crash. But to Obama a crash in the future is worth a hundred rallies in the present. Just as a bankrupt America in five years is worth(less) a mid-term election won (by the narrowest of margins) in November. Not only is the fiscal and monetary policy of this country doomed to an eventual debt repudiation outcome, so, we are now certain, the markets will hit 36,000, wiping out all the shorts on the way, only to be followed by a surgical collapse straight to zero. You will have only the current and past administrations to thank for that, together with all their crony, corrupt, and incompetent regulatory agencies, with the SEC (and CFTC) at the very top of that list. In the meantime, and borrowing from a very prescient French (wo)man in the ending days of that particular civilization, After This Administration, The Deluge.

Todd Harrison Refuses To Drink The Kool-Aid With "Ten Reasons Why This Is Not A Bull Market"

Minyanville's Todd Harrison is the latest to jump on the bandwagon for whom a "sideways or slightly down market" is not a victory for the bulls. In fact, Todd is outright bearish, and harkens to his prophetic call from September 2008 (oddly, a time when CNBC programming was far more balanced yet when everyone still thought the worst was behind us and Dick Bove had just issued a buy rating on Lehman, not to mention that every phone call from David Einhorn was being tapped under the guidance of the powers that be). Harrison prefaces: "Kevin Cassidy, a senior credit analyst at Moody’s, recently referenced the $700 billion in risky high-yield corporate debt on the horizon and offered, “An avalanche is brewing in 2012 and beyond if companies don’t get out in front of this.” Minyanville offered a similar assessment entering September 2008 as $871 billion of corporate debt was set to mature into year-end. We opined there were two plausible scenarios; a credit cancer that would chew through the financial body, or a car crash that would crack the system under the weight of an indebted world." Todd was spot on back then. Will he be right again?

Ireland Stunned To Uncover "Truly Shocking" Information By Its Banks, Institutes Austerity

Below is the Central Bank Of Ireland's take on dealing with what it has just uncovered to be a busted banking system and imminent austerity measures. The PIIGS have just been rebranded to PIIIGS. Don't take our word for it: here is what the Irish Finance Minister just said:

IRISH FINMIN: INFORMATION REVEALED BY BANKS 'TRULY SHOCKING'
IRISH FINMIN: WE MUST STABILISE BANKING SYSTEM NOW
IRISH FINMIN: BANKS MUST REPAY DEBT BY FACILITATING RECOVERY
IRISH FINMIN: ECB TRICHET BACKS AUSTERITY MEASURES

As disclosed, Ireland has instituted a "Bad Bank" concept to acquire 1,200 loans, or €81 billion worth, at a 47% discount. Sounds about right. Of course, the US financial system still carries most of its loans at about par: you see we have a printer and they don't, so we can do whatever we want.

Bill Lockyer, Furious That California Is Riskier Than Kazakhstan, Sends Angry Letters To Goldman et al About State CDS Trades; (Or The Greek CDS...

Do you see what happens Larry when you sell CDS on California? You get a Greek-style scapegoating campaign. Cali's State Treasurer Bill Lockyer, exasperated at his impotence to sell $2 billion in GO bonds, has resorted to the last option: sending angry missives and trying to make a media circus out of it. It is now all Goldman's fault that California is bankrupt, just because it dares to make a market in Cali CDS. Ring a bell? It worked miracles for Greece, whose bonds are now tumbling a day after everyone said Greek issues were resolved. Also, we can't wait to uncover, just like in the Greek case, that the biggest buyer of Cali CDS is PIMCO, CalPERS, TCW, Western, Oaktree, or some other California-based fund. Now that would be even funnier than Cali considered a more worthless "asset" than Kazakhstan. At least their potassium deposits are best in region.