AIG

The last time the stock market reached a fevered peak and began to wobble unexpectedly was August 2007. Markets were most definitely not in the classic “price discovery” business. Instead, the stock market had discovered the “goldilocks economy." But what is profoundly different this time is that the Fed is out of dry powder. Its can’t slash the discount rate as Bernanke did in August 2007 or continuously reduce it federal funds target on a trip from 6% all the way down to zero. Nor can it resort to massive balance sheet expansion. That card has been played and a replay would only spook the market even more. So this time is different.  The gamblers are scampering around the casino fixing to buy the dip as soon as white smoke wafts from the Eccles Building.  But none is coming. For the first time in 25- years, the Wall Street gamblers are home alone.

Long-Time Zero Hedge Readers Have Known This Forever ... But Those Who Get Their News from the MSM Would Be Shocked, Shocked I Say ...

AAL, ABB, ABX, ACI, ADI, AES, AG, AGCO, AIG, ALGT, ALK, ALU, AMID, ANR, ANV, ANV, AON, APA, APC, ARMH, ARP, ATEN, ATH CN, ATVI, AUY, AVP, BBEP, BHI, BHP, BMS, BTE, BTE CN, CAJ, CAM, CAT, CCE, CFX, CHK, CLF, CLR, CMC, CMRE, CNQ, CNQ CN, CNW, CNX, COG, COP, COS CN, COSWF, CPG, CPG CN, CR, CTCM,  CVE, CVE CN, CVX, CX, CXO, CYOU, DAL, DDS, DE, DOV, DRQ, DVN, EC, ECA, EMES, EOG, EPE, ERF, ERF CN, ESL, ESV, EVEP, F, FLR, FLS, FM CN, FMC, FR CN, FST, FTI, FWM, GG, GM, GOLD, GSK, GSS, GT, GWR, HAL, HAYN, HBM, HCLP, HES, HP, HSE CN, HSIC, HUN, IAG, IGM CN , IMG CN, INT, ITT, JCP, KEX, KGC, LGCY, LIF, LLTC, LOPE, LPI, LPX, LRE, MAN, MCEP, MDCO, MG, MGA, MMLP, MON, MT, NBR, NE, NEM, NGD, NGD CN, NLSN, NOV, NWSA, OAS, OXY, PAAS, PBCT, PCLN, PD CN, PGF CN, PGH, PPG, PTEN, PWE, PXD, QRE, RDS/A, ROK, ROSE, RPM, RPT, RTI, SAP, SAVE, SCCO, SCHN, SDRL, SLB, SLCA, SLW, SSW, STO, SU, SU CN, TAL, TCK, TCK/B CN, TCS, TEN, TGI, TLM CN, TLP, TMK, TOO, TXT, UBS, UNM, URI, UTX, VET, VET CN, VIP, VNO, VNR, VSH, WDR, WFT, WLK, WLL, WLT, WMMVY and ZNGA.

First a secret "Doomsday book", and now this?

• Five U.S. airports to screen for fever (Reuters)
• Danger, central banks trading with each other: Bipolar U.S. Stocks See Biggest Mood Swing in Three Years  (BBG)
• Draghi Policies Blunted in Berlin as German Protests Grow (BBG)
• White policeman kills black teen in St Louis, triggering fresh protests (Reuters)
• Au Revoir to France’s Welfare Model as Socialists Cut Spending (BBG)
• Here comes Roberto Cavalski (Reuters)
• There are 49 U.S. venture-capital-backed companies with a valuation of $1 billion or more—the highest number on record (WSJ)
• Pressure mounts on Hong Kong leader over payout amid crisis (Reuters)

If anyone's bucket list includes hearing, and seeing, the unholy trinity of Bernanke, Paulson and Geithner whose actions have pretty much doomed America, today is your lucky day, because as part of the lawsuit brought on by former AIG CEO Hank Greenberg, the three legendary statists will field questions from prominent, and very flamboyant, lawyer David Boies. As has been reported previously, Maurice “Hank” Greenberg is challenging the terms of the 2008 bailout for the company he built into a global financial-services powerhouse before being pushed out in 2005. He is not challenging the bailout which prevented AIG from liquidating as a result of selling billions of default protection on worthless companies, and which avoided the all out, and much needed, purge of trillions in bad debt and just as worthless equity.

• How you know it is all a lie: Pelosi Presses Obama to Talk Up Stronger U.S. Economy (BBG)
• Secret Goldman Sachs Tapes Put Pressure on New York Fed (NYT), Uh, no they don't
• Clashes Break Out at Hong Kong Protest Site (WSJ)
• N.Y. Fed Lawyer Says AIG Got Billions Without Paperwork (BBG)
• Ebola’s Disease Detectives Race to Track Others Exposed (BBG)
• UPS, FedEx Want Retailers to Get Real on Holiday Shipping (WSJ)
• No more mailman at the door under U.S. Postal Service plan (Reuters)

• This is why the locals are furious at the US: U.S-led raids hit grain silos in Syria, kill workers (Reuters) explaining this
• Billions Fly Out the Door at Pimco: About $10 Billion Is Withdrawn After Departure of Gross (WSJ)
• Pimco’s Ivascyn Takes on Gross With Unconstrained Fund (BBG)
• Revealed - the Troika threats to bankrupt Ireland (The Independent)
• Private Bad Debt Build-Up Casts Shadow on Greek Rebound (BBG)
• Fed Questions Bank Maneuver to Reduce Hedge Funds' Dividend Taxes (WSJ)
• Yuan-Euro Direct Trading Begins Tomorrow as China Promotes Usage (BBG)
• Geneva Report warns record debt and slow growth point to crisis (FT)
• Greenberg Team to Grill Bernanke, Geithner on AIG Bailout (BBG)... sadly only metaphorically

• A Month of Bombs Dropped in One Night of Strikes on Syria (BBG)
• Air strikes in Syria hit Islamic State-held areas near Turkey (Reuters)
• Pimco ETF Draws Probe by SEC (WSJ)
• Shadowy al Qaeda cell, hit by U.S. in Syria, seen as 'imminent' threat (Reuters)
• Yellen Warns on Market Calm Before ‘Considerable Time’ Up (BBG)
• Dudley Says Fed Needs U.S. Economy to Run ‘A Little Hot' (BBG)
• Websites Are Wary of Facebook Tracking Software (WSJ)
• Just a joke now: Barclays Fined Twice in One Day for Compliance Failures (BBG)
• Fired UPS worker kills two supervisors, self, in Alabama shooting (Reuters)

The Fed consistently managed the Fed Funds rates to keep oil prices steady, even when it required mid-teens interest rates and back-to-back recessions in 1980-1982. Since US Fed Funds rates were managed to preserve US creditors’ and oil exporters’ purchasing power in oil terms, the system proved acceptable to most nations. While the Petrodollar arrangement worked well for nearly thirty years, the arrangement began to wobble beginning around 2002-04...

What if it had gone differently? What if, six years ago, in the throes of the financial crisis, the political leaders in D.C. had decided that enough was enough, and they were going to seize the opportunity to make real and meaningful positive changes?

• Snow is coming: OECD Cuts Economic Growth Forecasts (WSJ)
• World waits for white smoke from U.S. Fed (Reuters) - Understandable error: they meant "green"
• Scots Breakaway at 45% Odds as Economists Warn of Capital Flight (BBG)
• Ukraine President Poroshenko Faces Backlash Over EU Trade Deal Delay (WSJ)
• German Anti-Euro Party Advances in Merkel Homeland Voting (BBG)
• Clinton Hints at 2016 Run as Super-PAC Packs Iowa Steak Fry (BBG)
• Air France, Lufthansa Hit by Strikes in Fight for Future (BBG)
• U.S. sees Middle East help fighting IS, Britain cautious after beheading (Reuters)
• Ex-Billionaire Charged by Brazil With Financial Crimes (BBG)

• Scotland split jitters send sterling to 10-month low (Reuters)
• S&P 500 Beating World Most Since 1969 Doesn’t Spark Flows (BBG)
• Happy ending guaranteed: Vietnam building deterrent against China in disputed seas with submarines (Reuters)
• China Posts Record Surplus as Exports-Imports Diverge (Bloomberg)
• Russia, U.S. to hold talks on 1987 arms accord (Reuters)
• Halcon’s Wilson Drills More Debt Than Oil in Shale Bet (BBG)
• Deadly Disappointment Awaits at Ebola Clinics Due to Lack of Space (WSJ)
• Latinos furious at Obama on immigration delay, vow more pressure (Reuters)
• Japan GDP Shrinks at Fastest Pace in More Than Five Years (WSJ)

The US may be closed on Monday, but after a summer lull that has seen trading volumes plunge to CYNKian lows, activity is set to come back with a bang (if only for the sake of banks' flow desk revenue) with both a key ECB decision due later this week, as well as the August Nonfarm Payrolls print set for Friday. Among the other events, in the US we have the ISM manufacturing on Tuesday, with markets expecting a broadly unchanged reading of 57.0 for August although prices paid are expecting to decline modestly. Then it is ADP on Thursday (a day later than usual) ahead of Payrolls Friday. The Payrolls print is again one of those "most important ever" number since it comes ahead of the the September 16-17 FOMC meeting and on the heels of the moderation of several key data series (retail sales, personal consumption, inflation). Consensus expects a +225K number and this time it is unclear if a big miss will be great news for stocks or finally bad, as 5 years into ZIRP the US economy should be roaring on all cylinders and not sputtering every other month invoking "hopes" of even more central bank intervention.