Cohen

• MSM discovers window dressing: Fund Managers Lift Results With Timely Trading Sprees (WSJ)
• White House Unyielding on Debt Limit (WSJ)
• Obama, Boehner talk; Geithner prepared to go off "cliff" (Reuters)
• Republicans urged to resist tax rises (FT)
• China looms large over Japanese poll (FT)
• As predicted here two months ago, Greek Bond Buyback Leads S&P to Cut to Selective Default (BBG)
• Japan opposition LDP set to win solid election majority – polls (BBG), but...
• Japan Opposition LDP’s Main Ally Cautions Abe on BOJ Pressure (BBG)
• U.S. and Europe Tackle Russia Trade (WSJ)
• King Seen Maintaining QE as Osborne Extends Fiscal Squeeze (BBG)
• Syria pound fall suggests currency crisis (FT)
• Irish budget seeks extra €3.5bn (FT)
• U.K. Extends Cuts Due to Poor Outlook (WSJ)
• ECB Seen Refraining From Rate Cuts as Yields Sink on Bond Plan (BBG)

If the beginning of the end started two years ago as we predicted, is this end of the end?

• CITIGROUP PRIVATE BANK SAID TO PUT SAC CAPITAL ON `WATCH' LIST
• CITIGROUP SAID TO ADVISE CLIENTS AGAINST ADDING MONEY TO SAC
• CITIGROUP PRIVATE BANK ALLOCATES CLIENT MONEY TO HEDGE FUNDS

Next up: all other private wealth groups halt capital allocations to SAC? Redemptions of all non-employee funds and liquidations? FBI raids, but only after orderly winddowns? It sure gets interesting...

And without Stevie Cohen running stops 24/7 in ES and every other stock that is still widely traded, what then? Will GETCO run the entire market?

Got me thinking about hedge fund cheaters and too-good-to-be-true results.

• As this has been priced in since September 13, it should come as no surprise to anyone: Fed Stimulus Likely in 2013 (Hilsenrath)
• Bowles Says Fiscal Cliff Deal Unlikely by End of Year (Bloomberg)
• Argentina debt repayment order frozen (FT)
• Obama Is Flexible on Highest Tax Rates (WSJ)... not really
• Geithner deployed for fiscal cliff talks (FT)
• Audit firms Deloitte and KPMG sued in HP's Autonomy acquisition (Reuters)
• Euro-Zone Budget Proposal Is Unveiled (WSJ)
• EU Nations Clash on Thresholds for Direct ECB Oversight (Bloomberg)
• LDP leader Abe: BOJ must ease until inflation hits 3 percent (Reuters)
• SNB’s Jordan Says High Swiss Franc Burdens Many Companies (Bloomberg)
• EU to launch free trade negotiations with Japan: EU officials (Reuters)

It turns out the topic of today's much expected conference call originating at 72 Cummings Point Road Stamford, is what many already knew yesterday, namely that the SEC has warned SAC that after years and years of pursuits, the enforcer is finally getting close in for the kill, and has sent a Wells Notice, usually a first step before civil charges are filed.

• SAC SAID TO TELL CLIENTS IT GOT WELLS NOTICE FROM SEC LAST WEEK

The notice will be filed against the holdco, implying Cohen himself will be implicated, instead of just the CR Intrinsic OpCo where Martoma worker. Usually the SEC does not file Wells Notices without sufficient backing, so this may finally get interesting. But we are not holding our breath. One needs to simply recall how the SEC bungled its CDS insider trading case vs Millennium and Deutsche to see how the endgame here could well be another epic humiliation for the soon to be Schapro-less regulator.

Curious why stocks suddenly took on extra water in the past few minutes? This:

• SAC CAPITAL SAID TO PLAN INVESTOR CONFERENCE CALL TOMORROW - BBG
  

As a reminder, SAC is and has been for the past 10 years arguably the largest buyside market maker, and the firm which now that it has no more Expert Networks to lead to "excess alpha" is forced to slam stops in the market, primarily to the upside, and crush all shorts during times of peak shorting. Should SAC be forced to scale its operations lower, one thing is certain: the farce formerly known as the market will look very different than it does now.

• Boehner comments show tough road ahead for "fiscal cliff" talks (Reuters)
• Argentina angry at hedge fund court win (FT)
• EU Spars Over Budget as Chiefs See Possible Deadlock (Bloomberg)
• Merkel doubts budget deal possible this week, more talks needed (Reuters)
• Greek deal hopes lift market mood (FT)
• Greek Rescue Deal Faltering Cut in Rescue-Loan Rate (Bloomberg)
• Japan's Abe Pushes Stimulus (WSJ) - Unpossible: a Keynesian in Japan demanding stimulus? Say it isn't so. 
• Authorities Tried to Flip Trader in Insider Case (WSJ)

• Rough start for fiscal cliff talks (Politico)
• Europe Fails to Seal Greek Debt-Cut Deal in IMF Clash (Bloomberg)
• Japan’s Exports Reach Three-Year Low as Recession Looms (BBG)
• Beggars can be angry: Greek leaders round on aid delay (FT)
• More financial blogs launching soon: Financial Times Deutschland closing (Spiegel)
• China's backroom powerbrokers block reform candidates (Reuters)
• BOE Voted 8-1 to Halt Bond Purchases as QE Impact Questioned (Bloomberg). In the US the vote is 1-11
• UK heads for EU budget showdown (FT)
• Eurodollars - another epic scam: How gaming Libor became business as usual (Reuters)
• Clinton Shuttles in Mideast in Bid for Gaza Cease-Fire (Bloomberg)
• Fed Still Trying to Push Down Rates (Hilsenrath)

Over two years ago, on November 5, 2010, weeks before news broke out that the SEC had caught hedge funds in a massive insider trading scheme involving expert networks, and before the phrase expert network was even mentioned in places away from hedge funds, we wrote an article, titled "Is The SEC's Insider Trading Case Implicating FrontPoint A Sting Operation Aimed At S.A.C. Capital?" that predicted everything that has transpired with SAC since then: we said expert networks would be exposed as the root of virtually all "information arbitrage" alpha by Steve Cohen, more importantly, we exposed various biotech stock trading patterns, where the informational benefits from easily bribable doctors would result in immediate profits courtesy of advance knowledge of Phase 2, 3 and NDA results. Today, we discover not just how deep the SAC insider trading schemes went, but that the profit from such information abuse amounted to hundreds of millions in standalone cases. Adding these together and one can see why Steve Cohen - whose knowledge of these epic inside trading scheme is of course never implied by us: after all, that's what the DOJ, the SEC and the various DA offices are for - was generating 20% returns year after year and able to pocket 3% and 50%.

A ground invasion, and a reoccupation of Gaza by the IDF could be the first step toward engaging Iran. It would allow for Israel to dislodge Hamas, and create a buffer between Israel and Egypt, and the forces of the Muslim Brotherhood. The Morsi government in Egypt has pledged to support the Palestinians — but is this a bluff? Does Egypt have the capability or the desire to really oppose Israel? Does Iran really have the capability or the desire to oppose Israel in a more active way? Ultimately, Iran may have no choice, as Netanyahu is certain that they are on the nuclear threshold. The world is in motion. Israel is playing its cards. The intent? To create facts on the ground that cement Israel’s position as the dominant power in the middle east for the next century. Now, Iran’s move.

Just before the US election, we laid out the details and implications of the 'other' major 'election' occurring in the world - that of China's Supreme Leader of Awesomeness. Last night the details were announced of the makeup of the new Politburo Standing Committee. As Bloomberg notes, the panel - the most powerful decision-making body in China - was reduced from nine to seven members and will be led (unsurprisingly) by Xi Jinping. Perhaps, in a lesson for our own politicians, the 'new' committee is 'bipartisan' with five members from Xi Jinping's own Jiang Zemin faction and two members from Hu Jintao's faction (more a balance of reformers and reactionaries). But, in a similar vein to the US, as The Diplomat's David Cohen notes,"If Xi is to achieve even the economic policy goals that already appear to enjoy consensus support in Beijing, he will need to find ways of overcoming some of the largest entrenched interest groups in contemporary China.  To do so, he may have to set about creating new entrenched interest groups."

Given Sandy's status as 'worse than the worst case', it is perhaps not surprising that our estimate of the total cost being in the $50-100 billion range is not totally off mark given the discussions that ensued. By comparison Katrina's total loss/damage cost was $108bn. BofAML is a little more hopeful with estimates in the $10-20bn range - which seems optimistic to us, and further note that while it is a big hit to wealth, once the offsetting effects (Keynesian broken windows?) are taken into account, it will likely have a very small impact on economic growth.  Sandy is still in the Top 5 in terms of economic damage among modern hurricanes, and as BofAML adds, ironically, Sandy may even contribute further to the policy bickering in Washington. With so much of our central-banker-in-chief's efforts focused on raising our wealth perception, we wonder if this will have greater implications than merely the physical damage.

Spoiler Alert: They’re mostly still in office  (so much for building suspense).

On October 3, 2008, 338 elected officials (263 House reps, 74 Senators and 1 President) took it upon themselves to save America from certain financial doom by passing the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, completely ignoring the will of the American people,  opting instead to fulfill a Thomas Jefferson prophesy:

“The end of democracy and the defeat of the American Revolution will occur when government falls into the hands of lending institutions and moneyed incorporations.” 
~ Thomas Jefferson

Slowly, the fund that made "information arbitrage" a household name, and almost singlehandedly created the expert network industry (first exposed on Zero Hedge in 2009 before the broader public had ever heard of them up on Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 and all of which was summarized in Are Expert Networks About To Be Exposed As The Ringleader In The Biggest Insider Trading Bust In History?) only to watch it go up in insider trading flames (as we warned years prior), and which no regulator had dared to touch for decades, is coming unwound. The latest details in a story which once again began on the pages of Zero Hedge in 2010 come from Bloomberg, where we learn what everyone already knew, namely that when working for Stevie Cohen "it was “understood” that those assigned to give their best trading ideas to founder Steven A. Cohen would provide him with insider information." Because one doesn't generate 10-20% 'Alpha' (a term which no longer has any meaning in a market exposed to have been driven exclusively by insider trading in the pre-New Normal, and entirely by central planning in the post-New Normal era) year after year and charge 3 and 50 for being just smarter. Being first apparently counts too, but cheating beats all.

• China carrier a show of force as Japan tension festers (Reuters)
• Draghi Rally Lets Skeptics Dump Spain for Bunds (Bloomberg)
• China’s Central Bank Injects Record Funds to Ease Cash Crunch (Bloomberg)
• Obama warns Iran on nuclear bid, containment 'no option' (Reuters)
• When Would Bernanke’s Successor Raise Rates? (WSJ) that's easy - never
• Italy's Monti Downplays Sovereignty Risk (WSJ)
• Portugal swaps pay cuts for tax rises (FT)
• Madrid faces regional funding backlash (FT)
• Berlin Seeks to Push Back New Euro-Crisis Aid Requests (WSJ)
• Race Focuses on Foreign Policy (WSJ)
• China Speeds Up Approvals of Foreigners’ Stock Investment (Bloomberg)