Fail

The worst "economic expansion" in history was even worse than previously expected.

In GMO’s latest quarterly missive, Jeremy Grantham is back with another dose of inconvenient truthiness, this time in the form of "ten quick topics to ruin your summer"...

The bear market in bullion is an artificial creation. This artificial, indeed fraudulent, increase in the supply of paper bullion contracts drives down the price in the futures market despite high demand for bullion in the physical market and constrained supply. 

Grant: "I am very bullish indeed". ”Recent fall in prices “terrifically vexing but a wonderful opportunity”; the reasons for owning gold have not gone away.

In what appears like a coordinated USDJPY-driven intervention, the Panic Plunge Protection Team has swung into action not once but twice tonight so far. After China opened down between 5% and 7%, and initial momentum bounce from USDJPY failed onlyt to be followed by a bigger more energentic push to get Shaghai Composite back to unchanged... but Chinese stocks are once again losing momentum...

In a stunning ruling, US safety regulators have mandated that Fiat Chrysler must offer to buy back from customers more than 500,000 Ram pickup trucks and other vehicles as part of a costly deal with safety regulators to settle legal problems in about two dozen recalls. As WTOP reports, this is the biggest such action in US history, and is in addition to a $105 million civil fine and owners of more than a million older Jeeps with vulnerable rear-mounted gas tanks will be able to trade them in or be paid by Chrysler to have the vehicles repaired. Think the punishment is harsh, consider that at least 75 people have died in crash-related fires, although Fiat Chrysler maintains they are as safe as comparable vehicles from the same era.

Over the last five-plus years in regard to today’s financial markets, the most revered memes that are recited in unison whether it’s in the form of a silent prayer or, it’s done in a near backwoods revival fashion from the televised financial shows “pulpit” in a “Can I get an …. !!!” stylized homily are: “It’s different this time!” followed with “The Fed’s got you’re back.” However, what they mean today may find those that put all their “faith” into such dogma finding that faith severely tested. For as of today July, 26, 2015 It truly is – different this time. And what else is different is: the Fed. may indeed have one’s back. Only problem this time is – that back may no longer be “yours.”

Overnight, the Telegraph's Ambrose-Pritchard reported that "Mr Varoufakis told the Telegraph that the quotes were accurate but some reports in the Greek press had been twisted, making it look as if he had been plotting a return to the drachma from the start.  "The context of all this is that they want to present me as a rogue finance minister, and have me indicted for treason. It is all part of an attempt to annul the first five months of this government and put it in the dustbin of history," he said. It remains to be seen if treason charges are forthcoming but Varoufakis isn't wasting time, and after giving unofficial on the record comments to the Telegraph, moments ago he issued the following public statement on his blog.

Before the crisis that started in 2007, both of us believed that the financial system was fragile and unsustainable, contrary to the near ubiquitous analyses at the time. Now, there is something vastly riskier facing us, with risks that entail the survival of the global ecosystem - not the financial system. The G.M.O. experiment, carried out in real time and with our entire food and ecological system as its laboratory, is perhaps the greatest case of human hubris ever. It creates yet another systemic, “too big too fail” enterprise - but one for which no bailouts will be possible when it fails.

If Trump took up a Third-Party, it might be the biggest shot we have at saving the country insofar as it would at least turn Capitol Hill into a new playing field. It really would not matter who the Third-Party candidate would be, Washington needs to be shaken and stirred vigorously to let these people know being a “representative” is supposed to be OF THE PEOPLE, not of yourself, the Party, and government.

The biggest shocker in COF's earnings release was something found between COF's top and bottom line: a surge in provisions for credit losses: at $1.1 billion this was a jump of 21% from Q1 and up a whopping 60% from the year prior. It was also the biggest credit loss provision the credit card company has taken since Q2 2012.

There could be trouble ahead....

"Public statements, media reports and market data reveal that Beijing unleashed 5 trillion yuan in funds - equivalent to nearly 10 percent of China's GDP in 2014 and greater than the 4 trillion yuan it committed in response to the global financial crisis - to calm a savage share sell-off. Beijing has thus produced the equivalent of around 1 index point gain for every $1 billion committed," Reuters reports.

On Wednesday evening, Greece took another step toward transforming itself into a vassal state of Brussels when lawmakers passed a second set of prior actions ahead of formal discussions around a third program. As Deutsche Bank noted earlier this week, there’s something quite absurd about the adoption of the new bailout terms being left to a government whose leader openly opposes the deal. And Deutsche Bank isn’t alone in their skepticism. JP Morgan has more on why no one "should put the odds of Greece staying in the euro above 50%".

In consequence-less America, the stigma of defaulting on one's personal responsibilities is a badge of honor for a risk-seeking public. No matter what, the government has your back if you want to buy a fridge, boat, or car - serial defaulter or not. However, hot on the heels of their proclamation that "malicious selling" of stocks is illegal, the Chinese government has extended its punitive measures against defaulting citizens, who are now banned from traveling on high-speed trains.