Treasury Department

CBO estimates that U.S. may be able to push the debt ceiling deadline to as late as June of next year, but OECD is already freaking out about the prospect of a U.S. debt ceiling bind....

The stock below is up 1200% year-to-date. The company in question is insolvent by any and all measures and has a "parent" under great pressure to take whatever gains it can get (as opposed to leave anything for shareholders). The company is exposed to the worst of the worst in the housing market. The smart money (as they are called) is piling in. The company is, of course, Fannie Mae (or Freddie Mac - same discussion). This chart, like none other, reflects the "investment" thesis in America today, as Grenwood's Walter Todd notes, “Either you’re going to make a lot of money or you’re going to lose everything you put into it."

• What can possibly go wrong: Tepco Successfully Removes First Nuclear Fuel Rods at Fukushima (BBG)
• Japan's Banks Find It Hard to Lend Easy Money (WSJ)
• U.S. Military Eyes Cut to Pay, Benefits (WSJ)
• Airbus to Boeing Cash In on Desert Outpost Made Field of Dreams (BBG); Dubai Air Show: Boeing leads order books race (BBG)
• Sony sells 1 million PlayStation 4 units in first 24 hours (Reuters)
• Russian Tycoon Prokhorov to Buy Kerimov's Uralkali Stake (WSJ)
• Google Opening Showrooms to Show Off Gadgets for Holidays (BBG)
• Need. Moar. Prop. Trading: Federal Reserve considering a delay to Volcker rule (FT)
• Raghuram Rajan plans ‘dramatic remaking’ of India’s banking system (FT)
• SAC Capital's Steinberg faces insider trading trial (Reuters)

• Desperate Philippine typhoon survivors loot, dig up water pipes (Reuters)
• Fading Japanese market momentum frustrates investors (FT)
• China's meager aid to the Philippines could dent its image (Reuters)
• Headline du jour: Granted 'decisive' role, Chinese markets decide to slide (Reuters)
• Central Banks Risk Asset Bubbles in Battle With Deflation Danger (BBG)
• Navy Ship Plan Faces Pentagon Budget Cutters (WSJ)
• Investors pitch to take over much of Fannie and Freddie (FT)
• To expand Khamenei’s grip on the economy, Iran stretched its laws (Reuters)
• Short sellers bet that gunmaker shares are no long shot (FT)
• Deflation threat in Europe may prompt investment rethink (Reuters)

It's official - goodbye Gary Gensler, we hardly knew you... as a commodities regulator that is, although Bart Chilton (who is finally also stepping down due to being too burdened by lack of funding to actually do anything) was kind enough to provide much needed perspective on how the CFTC truly works. In place of the former Goldmanite, today Obama will announce that going forward America's top derivative regulator and CFTC head will be Timothy Massad, the Treasury Department official responsible for overseeing the U.S. rescue of banks and automakers after the credit crisis.

Bloomberg may be in hot water for scuttling an article that "might anger China" as exposed over the weekend, but that was only after winning investigative prizes for its series of reports exposing the epic wealth of China top ruling families in 2012: a topic that has received prominence at a time when the forced wealth redistribution plans of developed and developing nations, usually originated by these same uber-wealthy families, is all the rage. Another country, whose oligarchic wealth had largely escaped press scrutiny, was Iran. At least until today, when in a six month investigation culminating in a three-part report on the assets of the Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Reuters exposed Setad, an Iranian company that manages and sells property on order from the Imam. In a nutshell, the company has built up its wealth by seizing thousands of properties from Iranian citizens. According to the investigation, Setad’s assets are worth $95 billion – 40 percent more than Iran’s total 2012 oil exports. It is this confiscated "wealth" that has allowed the Iranian clergy, and especially the Ayatollah, to preserve their power over the years.

Ben Bernanke is participating in an IMF panel with Larry Summers, Ken Rogoff, and fromer Bank of Israel chief Stan Fischer... Full speech below...

After a blistering October for stocks, drunk on yet another month of record liquidity by the cental planners, November's first overnight trading session has been quiet so far, with the highlight being the release of both official and HSBC China PMI data. The official manufacturing PMI rose to 51.4 in October from 51.1 in September. It managed to beat expectations of 51.2 and was also the highest reading in 18 months - since April 2012. October’s PMIs are historically lower than those for September, so the MoM uptick is considered a bit more impressive. The uptrend in October was also confirmed by the final HSBC manufacturing PMI which printed at 50.9 which is higher than the preliminary reading of 50.7 and September’s reading of 50.9. The Chinese data has helped put a floor on Asian equities overnight and S&P 500 futures are nudging higher (+0.15%). The key laggard are Japanese equities where the TOPIX (-1.1%) is weaker pressured by a number of industrials, ahead of a three day weekend. Electronics-maker Sony is down 12% after surprising the market with a profit downgrade with this impacting sentiment in Japanese equities.

The two leading economic of the developed world are now engaged in an open pissing contest. Will anyone win, or will everyone lose? And will Germany offer Edward Snowden asylum as a result? Can US foreign policy be even more screwed up? Find out inside.

Do you remember the $700 billion bailout of the financial system in 2008? It seems these days that most investors do not. People are partying like it’s 1929… as if all the issues and challenges that plagued the banking sector just a few years ago have miraculously vanished. This thinking is absurd, and even a casual glance at the balance sheets of so many banks in the West shows objectively that the entire system is still precariously leveraged, undercapitalized, and illiquid. In the wake of the bailout, Congress created a special position to oversee how the funds were spent. Like anything else in government, they used an unnecessarily long name followed by a catchy acronym – Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or SIGTARP. SIGTARP just released its quarterly report to Congress… and it’s scatching, suggesting that “the toxic corporate culture that led up to the crisis and TARP has not sufficiently changed.”

As if the technological problems facing Obamacare were not enough, a potentially major "legal glitch" could cause the healthcare law to unravel in 36 states. As the LA Times reports, The Affordable Care Act proposes to make health insurance affordable to millions of low-income Americans by offering them tax credits to help cover the cost. To receive the credit, the law twice says they must buy insurance "through an exchange established by the state." But 36 states have decided against opening exchanges for now. Critics of the law have seized on the glitch. They have filed four lawsuits that urge judges to rule the Obama administration must abide by the strict wording of the law, even if doing so dismantles it in nearly two-thirds of the states. And the Obama administration has no hope of repairing the glitch by legislation as long as the Republicans control the House..."This has the potential to sink Obamacare. It could make the current website problems seem minor by comparison," noted on policy expert.

If Obama’s budget projections prove accurate, the National Debt will top $20 trillion in 2016, the final year of his second term. That would mean the National Debt increased by 87%, or $9.34 trillion, during his two terms.

The Spying Has Been Going On For DECADES

The only problem is that this entire “crisis” was a lie. The US actually hit its debt ceiling back in May 2013, a full five months ago.At that time neither the Treasury Department, nor the White House, nor Congress talked about this.

Last night, after more than two weeks of utterly embarrassing theater, the government in the Land of the Free inked a deal to kick the can down the road a few more months. And in doing so, they set a very dangerous precedent. As part of the bargain codified in HR 2775 (which President Obama signed into law), the Treasury Department is authorized to SUSPEND the debt ceiling. In other words, for all intents and purposes, there is now NO LIMIT government borrowing. This limitless borrowing authority will expire on February 7, 2014. But it sets the precedent that dismissing the debt ceiling is a perfectly viable course of action. Congress has effectively removed their handcuffs… so you can almost assuredly bet down the road that this provision will be extended, and ultimately become permanent.