ilene's blog

The economic problem is not caused by sovereign debt but by bad bank loans, deceptive financial practice and neoliberal bank deregulation...

The real problem with having $1Tn worth of US ETFs out there (and who knows how many foreign ETFs are holding US equities?) is that, as happened in 2008, should investors begin cashing out, they will create waves of indiscriminate selling – just as we currently have waves of indiscriminate buying.

If I just read the WSJ, I find no reason to be bearish at all.

You can blame inflation or POMO or tax cuts or commodity speculation for throwing off our forecast but that doesn't matter - we have to be ready to go with the flow, even if we don't agree with the direction of the flow at the moment.

Obviously, I am fairly convinced that Global "leaders" are making all sorts of policy mistakes handling the economy and I do believe it will all end in disaster but that does NOT mean I am market bearish.

Now consider that the real price of oil, when measured as global output vs. global demand on a historic basis should be closer to $60 a barrel than $90 and you have a TRILLION DOLLAR annual scam going on and our joke of a government does NOTHING to prevent it. Oh wait, I'm sorry, they do something...

The administration's support for Bernanke's "weak dollar" policy is evident in the way that Obama keeps reiterating his promise to double exports in 5 years. This simply can't be done without ripping the dollar to shreds, which appears to be Obama's intention.

Fortunately they straightened me out and we now know that clearly there is no manipulation in the energy markets – can I have my Grandma back now?).

When $100Bills are being printed faster than rolls of Charmin are being made, your currency is probably on it's way to a crisis. You reach a certain point at which it's cheaper to just wipe your butt with dollar bills than to go to the store and buy toilet paper...

That’s STAGflation, as in stagnant economy, not the more benign INflation, as in the stuff the US pretends doesn’t exist.

Speaking of China AND job growth, one industry that's booming in China is: Day Trading! That's right, as many as 10,000 people in China are doing speculative day trading of American stocks, according to the NY Times. They have been hired (ie. outsourced) by our own Banksters to mess with our markets from 9:30 pm to 4 am China time.

When you are running the World's largest fiat currency system, trust is pretty much all you do have going for you - unless you plan to resort to force, of course.

If the shade of Adam Smith were to reappear today, he would be equally disturbed by the failure of the Bowles-Simpson commission to address the issue of war debts dealt.

We are approaching 2008 pre-crash market highs with many stock trading higher than they were then on LESS revenues than they had at the time. Meanwhile, 10% of our population is unemployed, consumer credit is down by over $1,000,000,000 (15%), household wealth is down 20% and income is down while the CPI, even by BS Government measures, is up 5% since then, effectively giving those people who still have jobs 5% less to spend anyway.

FINRA oversees the broker dealers, and 70% are calling for increased transparency. FINRA blew them off. Those 70% represent America more than the large banks located on Wall Street. What truly amazes me is how little attention is being paid to this outfit.