Crack Cocaine

• BIS lays out "simple" plan for how to handle bank failures (Reuters) - Are we still holding our breath on Basel III?
• Deficit Deal Even Less Likely - Improving U.S. Fiscal Health Eases Pressure for a 'Grand Bargain' Amid Gridlock (WSJ)
• IRS Faulted on Conference Spending (WSJ)
• Deadly MERS-CoV virus spreads to Italy (CNN)
• Turkish PM Erdogan calls for calm after days of protests (Reuters)
• Financial system ‘waiting for next crisis’ (FT)
• Russia to send nuclear submarines to southern seas (Reuters)
• China Nuclear Stockpile Grows as India Matches Pakistan Rise (BBG)

• Record unemployment, low inflation underline Europe's pain (Reuters)
• The ponzi gets bigger and bigger: Spanish banks up sovereign bond holdings by more than 10% (FT)
• California Lawmakers Turn Down Moratorium on Fracking (BBG)
• China’s Growing Ranks of Elderly Beset by Depression, Study Says (BBG)
• Tokyo Prepares for a Once-in-200-Year Flood to Top Sandy (BBG)
• Morgan Stanley Cutting Correlation Unit Added $50 Billion (BBG)
• IMF warns over yen weakness (FT)
• Rising radioactive spills leave Fukushima fishermen floundering (Reuters)
• India records slowest growth in a decade (FT)

• Japan’s Stocks Correction Raises Stakes for Abe’s Growth Plan (BBG)
• China Failure to Grow With $1 Trillion Is Warning to Li (BBG)
• Blankfein Leads Bank CEO Pay With $26 Million Deemed Overpaid (BBG)
• IMF says ‘no evidence yet’ of Abenomics hurting other economies (FT)
• Europe Seeks CFTC Delay in Imposing Swaps Rules on Banks (BBG)
• Fed's Rosengren: 'Modest' QE3 cut may make sense in a few months (Reuters)
• Who’s who of Obama lobbyists pushes Keystone pipeline (FT)
• China to Study Joining U.S.-Led Trade Accord After Japan Added (BBG)

• South China Sea tension mounts near Filipino shipwreck (Reuters)
• OECD cuts economic forecasts as eurozone drags on growth (FT)
• Switzerland frees banks to settle U.S. tax evasion cases (Reuters)
• U.S. Says Firm Laundered Billions (WSJ)... no, it's not HSBC, also: Free Corzine!
• Ardent conservative Bachmann to not seek re-election to Congress (Reuters)
• Russia faults U.S. over 'odious' Syria rights resolution (Reuters)

• The deeper agenda behind "Abenomics" (Reuters)
• BoJ governor Haruhiko Kuroda promises to stabilise bond market (FT)
• Obama Sees Sunset on Sept. 11 War Powers in Drone Limits (BBG)
• Lower CPMs for everyone: FTC Begins Probe of Google's Display-Ad Business (WSJ)
• Apple’s Tax Magic Leaves Irish Bondholders Unmoved (BBG)
• Asia Goes on a Debt Binge as Much of World Sobers Up (WSJ)
• All hail Gazpromia: UK gas supply six hours from running out in March (FT)
• Spain’s banks face €10bn more provisions (FT) ... and then more, and more, and more
• Truck strike may have caused Washington state bridge collapse, officials says (Reuters)
• P&G Says A.G. Lafley Rejoins as Chairman, CEO (BBG)
• Five Key Things About the SAC Insider Case (BBG)

• IMF Tells Central Europe to Spend More (WSJ)
• Tornadoes Blast Oklahoma (WSJ)
• Frenetic search for survivors as 91 feared dead in tornado-hit Oklahoma (Reuters)
• JPMorgan investors on edge over vote on Dimon; what if they win? (Reuters)
• Wealthy bank depositors to suffer losses in EU law (Reuters)
• Yen Slips as Amari Backtracks (BBG)
• Japan Ready for More Yen Weakness Despite Recent Comments (WSJ)
• IRS officials back on Capitol Hill hot seat over targeting (Reuters)
• Li Keqiang pledges China boost to India trade (FT)
• Europe's Recession Sparks Grass-Roots Political Push (WSJ)
• Obama and Xi to meet in effort to calm growing US-China rivalry (FT)
• Berlin plans to streamline EU but avoid wholesale treaty change (FT)
• France must reform or face punitive measures - EU's Oettinger (Reuters)

While the stance of monetary policy around the world has, on any conceivable measure, been extreme, the question of whether such a policy is indeed sensible and rational has not been asked much of late. By rational we simply mean the following: Is this policy likely to deliver what it is supposed to deliver? And if it does fall short of its official aim, then can we at least state with some certainty that whatever it delivers in benefits is not outweighed by its costs? We think that these are straightforward questions and that any policy that is advertised as being in ‘the interest of the general public’ should pass this test. As we will argue in the following, the present stance of monetary policy only has a negligible chance, at best, of ever fulfilling its stated aim. Furthermore, its benefits are almost certainly outweighed by its costs if we list all negative effects of this policy and do not confine ourselves, as the present mainstream does, to just one obvious cost: official consumer price inflation, which thus far remains contained. Thus, in our view, there is no escaping the fact that this policy is not rational. It should be abandoned as soon as possible. This will end badly...

There was a time when student loans, now almost entirely funded by the US government, and thus a general obligation of all US taxpayers who however have no recourse to ever collect on any collateral, were spent on such trivial things as, well, higher education. Sadly, it appears that that is increasingly no longer the case. To wit: "feds accuse Newport man of using school loans on drugs, motorcyles, games and tattoos." At least no iPhone 3, 3S, 4, 4S or 5 was purchased using private and taxpayer cash.... in this case.

As we reported earlier, Camden may be broke, the local police may now be history, unemployment may be 50%, it may be nothing more than one big crack cocaine depot and driving through downtown at less than 88 mph may be hazardous to your health, but that wasn't always the case. In fact, back in 2009 the city had enough money to afford billboards. Such as this one on the intersection of Dr Charless Brimm Blvd and S. Broadway, courtesy of Google StreetView (sorry iPhone 5 users: you can't see this). Brought to you by www.joncorzine09.com

Just over three short years ago, as equity markets were re-surging on a wave of taxpayer-funded bailout euphoria, we wrote "There is nothing that can be done at this point to prevent the administration from leeching every last dollar out of its taxpayers to benefit the terminally addicted and zombied bank system". We, in the imagined words of Ryan Lochte on Saturday, "Nailed It" as we see a market now so bereft of any human-based reaction to reality and merely a product of a drug-peddling central bank that appears to have become self-aware in its omnipotence. To wit, the present day; as we are teased and tickled day after day with the promise of more CB crack if we are just good boys and BTFD, the sad nay terrible fact is that even the most 'say hello to my little friend' of drug-dealers - those of the Brazilian Favelas - have decided to refuse to sell their 'crack' to their own people since it "also brought destruction in [the] community". Maybe, just maybe, the Fed will up its level of conscience this week to that of Brazilian drug-dealers.

Three years of anti-Goldman bashing and exposing the company's legal and illegal dirty laundry have clearly had an impact on society:

*COHN SAYS SUMMER PROGRAM APPLICATION POOL WAS BIGGEST EVER

The Borg zombification shall continue until everyone wants to work solely at "The Goldman Sachs"

I don’t have a problem with Obama — or anyone else — smoking dope. As far as I am concerned, consenting adults have the liberty to do whatever they like so long as they don’t hurt others, or take their liberty or property. I don’t have a problem with Obama — or anyone else — defining themselves by smoking dope.

I have a problem with hypocrisy.

You just have to admire Ron Paul for his non-flip-flopping tenacity.

Or like Smokey the Bear handing out matches ...