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2011 Greatest Hits: Presenting The Most Popular Posts Of The Past Year

Tyler Durden's picture




 

Continuing our tradition of listing what according to Zero Hedge readers were the key news events of the year for the third year in a row (2009 and 2010 can be found here and here), we present, as is now customary, the most popular posts of the year as determined by the number of page views, or said otherwise - by the readers themselves. So without further ado, here are this year's top 20.

  • In 20th place, with 70,324 reads, and confirming that in addition to all the vast changes in the financial arena (recall that the downgrade of the US was the straw that broke the camel's back and literally broke the market as well), 2011 was a year of vast geopolitical tensions, fears and overhauls, we have "Aircraft Carrier CVN-77 Parks Next Door To Syria Just As US Urges Americans To Leave Country "Immediately"." Needless to say, Syria will most likely be the unofficial conduit to a military escalation involving Iran. Unless of course the foreplay is skipped and the US military industrial complex skips right to the main course.
  • In 19th place, with over 71,000 reads, we brought to our readers' attention that in addition to being the year of outright denial, there were glimmers of acceptance that the status quo is failing and no matter what, a new regime will be needed... but only after a "global financial apocalypse takes place" - behold: "Step Aside BBC "Trader": Head Of UniCredit Securities Predicts Imminent End Of The Eurozone And A Global Financial Apocalypse."
  • If there was one person of the year award, it likely would have to go to Kyle Bass, who at 18th place with 72.5k reads have our readers "Some words of advice." It is not that Bass discovered something huge or ground-shattering in 2011 - to the contrary - he continued his slow, steadfast unraveling of the broken system, and unlike other flip-floppers stuck to his story. He was proven right in many ways in 2011. Will he be proven even more right in 2012, with a collapse of Japan to follow that of Europe? Stay tuned and find out.
  • The 17th most popular post, with over 73,000 reads came from an unsuspecting source, the BBC, which continued the theme of unexpected confessions from the strangest of sources, when an IMF advisors said that "In The Absence Of A Credible Plan We Will Have A Global Financial Meltdown In Two To Three Weeks." No credible plan was found, and the meltdown was delayed yet again, courtesy of last minute global bailout measures by the Fed, although the half lives of such interventions are getting shorter and shorter. How long will the next such bailout persist? Or that one after?
  • The hacker group anonymous achieved its fair share of notoriety in 2011, as the 16th most popular post of 2011 indicates, with just under 74,000 reads, most recently by hacking the server of Stratfor and exposing the personal information of all of its tens of thousands of clients. However, it first came to the scene earlier in the year, when it released a clip threatening it would "Brings Peaceful Revolution To America: Will Engage In Civil Disobedience Until Bernanke Steps Down." Bernanke did not step down, nor was civil disobedience unleashed, and many of the bombastic calls fell well short, although for Anonymous to truly make an impression on the public it likely will have to step up its game in 2012. Surely a hacked FRBNY email account or two would bring the group new heights in notoriety.
  • At 15th place we get another appearance by Kyle Bass, even if indirect this time, whose suggestion that The University of Texas take delivery of $1 billion in physical gold, was followed through, and resulted in a post with 74,500 reads. Oddly enough, Bass' advice reverberated in Latin America, where Venezuela's Hugo Chavez did the same by demanding the country's physical gold be shipped back to the country from the London cartel. It begs the question - just how much unrehypothecated gold is out there?
  • In 14th place, the always colorful, unabashed and very much outspoken Euroskeptic Nigel Farrage, and Herman van Rompuy nemesis generated 80,000 reads and came one step closer to being proven correct when months ahead of the Euro's 10 year anniversary, he basically confirmed that the Euro is a dead currency. Judging by the record number of EUR shorts in the last week of 2011, at least the speculators out there agree with him.
  • In number 13, with 83,500 reads, the broad population proved it was starved for fair and objective coverage of the first truly important event in the Arab Spring when the Egyptian system was toppling, as the dominoes of discontent, with or without the boots on the ground, were starting to drop, first in Tunisia, then Egypt, then Libya. Is Syria next? And if so, what about Iran? One thing is certain - the geopolitical space will be quite hot in 2012 as well, the main question remains: when will the Arab Spring become a European season?
  • Number 12 reminded us that while one of the main events of 2010, the BP oil spill in the GOM, may have been plugged, the fears remain after it was reported that "Possible New Oil Spill 100 By 10 Miles Reported in Gulf Of Mexico." That nearly 85,000 people were concerned enough to click on this post confirms that when it comes to offshore drilling in the US, nothing has been resolved.
  • At number 11 Jim Rogers proved his predictive acumen, when the former Soros partner warned the public days before siver hit $50 per ounce when he commented "On Triple Digit Silver And Issues Warning: "Parabolic Moves Always Collapse." Hopefully the 83,300 people who read the post took heed and booked profits. On the other hand, with central banks only starting to really loosen monetary policy and print in the end of 2011 (the ECB along expanding its balance sheet in 6 months more than the Fed did in all of QE1), it is guaranteed that Rogers' warning will be repeated at least once again in 2012.
  • Number 10 showed us two things: that things are never what they seem on the surface, and that the conventional media is a joke and a conflicted farce, better suited for comedy than distributing the news when "Former CIA Analyst Tells Truth About Libya Intervention On CNN, Hilarity Ensues." Nearly 87,000 readers took great delight to watch the unmasking of the Mainstream Media's stupidity and bias.
  • At number 9 was the news following the aftermath of the MF Global debacle, that instead of making liquidity more valuable, the CME decided to double down, and allow the same form of liquidity largesse that took down Corzine's house of rehypothecated cards, to be burden-shared by its own clients who had to endure the lowering of initial margins on all trades. That the CME left some first year clerk to draft the press release which simply said that that Initial and Maintenance margin would be the same, only to have to re-issue a PR the next day when it became completely unclear just what the CME's goals were- capital preservation or taking even more systemic risk -was just the cherry on top. This is what 93,000 readers discovered when they read "CME Goes To Collateral DefCon 1: Makes Maintenance Margin Equal To Initial For... Everything!?"
  • Wikileaks proved to be a bust in 2011, when it released virtually nothing actionable, although those who sifted through its archives, including the 94,000 or so others who joined in when the discovery went viral, found some pearls such as this one which disclosed "The Reason(s) Behind China's Shadow Gold Buying Spree" It was also the 8th most read item on Zero Hedge in 2011.
  • Next, we are reminded that more than anything, the biggest ongoing event of 2011 was the slow, methodological and relentless collapse of Europe. Only instead of the usual bullshit headlines and rumors, the reason why "Europe According To..." was the 7th most popular post, is that it took the same bias and prejudice that will never allow Europe to be the same integrated NWO globalist dream that the US melting pot has become, and flipped it on its head, exposing the sheer humor at the stupidity of it all.
  • If there is anything unique about 2011 (and as everyone knows by now, from market terms it is as if 2011 never happened), it is that it ushered some very unwitting people on the stage of global opinion, such as Ann Barnhardt of Barnhardt Capital Management. The 6th most read post of the year with over 101k reads was Ann Barnhardt, quite a colorful character on a normal day, saying that "The Entire System Has Been Utterly Destroyed By The MF Global Collapse." And while some may have taken her admonition for nothing more than a extremist joke, Banrhardt's warning that all modern capital markets are a scam is absolutely valid. Expect many more MF Global-type collapses in the future to merely validate her argument which caused Barnhardt to close down her own brokerage.
  • In 5th spot, we once again go back to Europe, this time by way of UBS, which took the art of Mutual Assured Destruction to a whole new level "Bring Out Your Dead - UBS Quantifies Costs Of Euro Break Up, Warns Of Collapse Of Banking System And Civil War." While the final outcome of Europe is certain, what UBS did is squarely put a bulls eye on its own back, confirming that should the MF Global trade, namely betting the ranch on global moral hazard, fail, and a Eurozone break ups follows, UBS will likely be the first bank to be shorted to death by the global vigilante squad which forgives any central bank insanity, but never forgets.
  • In 4th place was the resurgence of the topic of shadow banking, aka the $20+ trillion unregulated funding system, read synthetic uncollateralized leverage, which as we have been warning for two years, is the true cause of fear at the heart of modern capital markets. MF Global's unwind exposed two things: the rampant use of off-balance sheet vehicles known as repos (entirely unregulated), and the fact that any bank which wishes to commit fraud would simply go to the UK and do anything and everything perfectly legally courtesy of absolutely no oversight, until everything collapses in a smoldering heap. Zero Hedge also brought to the vernacular two other terms: rehypothecation, and its bigger bother, hyper rehypothecation. To find out why shadow banking will likely be the financial topic of 2012 read, together with 105,000 others, "Why The UK Trail Of The MF Global Collapse May Have "Apocalyptic" Consequences For The Eurozone, Canadian Banks, Jefferies And Everyone Else"
  • Third place goes to "China Proposes To Cut Two Thirds Of Its $3 Trillion In USD Holdings" which with 109,000 reads, shows that when it comes to the Nash Equilibrium between China and the US, the balance is always very tenuous. Whether or not China will indeed proceed and dump US paper, knowing full well it would likely be committing an act of self-destruction in the process, is unclear. We do know that China recently did in fact dump US Treasurys, and we also know that as Zero Hedge reported, in the past month foreigners sold a record amount of US paper. And without incremental demand for US paper from abroad, it only leaves the US, i.e., the Federal Reserve-Primary Dealer system left to monetize America's debt. Certainly QE X will be a topic of great debate and discussion in the coming year, if for no other reason than the US needs to fund another $1.2 trillion in deficit spending. And if there is nobody else willing to buy 10 Year US paper at 1.84%, Ben Bernanke will have no choice but to step in.
  • The first runner up for most popular post of 2011, with 140,000 reads, was the announcement that "Trading Of Over The Counter Gold And Silver To Be Illegal Beginning July 15" - while the argument given by the official entities was that this is to protect investors from predator brokers, many saw into this yet another attempt of capital controls, and a further limitation of how, where and why one can trade their precious metals. And while executive order 6102: "the return" it was not, at least not yet, once the year end hedge fund liquidation phase ends, and PMs resume their surge ever higher, we would certainy not put it beyond our leaders to be forced to eventually confiscate all the freely held gold and silver in circulation. It has been done before; it will be done again.
  • And our most popular post of the year, with 148,000 reads, was "BBC Speechless As Trader Tells Truth: "The Collapse Is Coming...And Goldman Rules The World" in which Zero Hedge brought FX trader, who contrary to attempts of discrediting, was not a member of some comedy troupe, Alessio Rastani 15 minutes of fame for no other reason than, in a few short paragraphs, daring to explain all the ways in which the system is broken, where it is headed, and who stands to profit from it all.

Unfortunately the trend from 2009 to 2010 and now, to 2011, is quite obvious: the world is getting ever more insolvent, only this time instead of banks, entire countries are or will soon file for bankruptcy. Which means that taxpayers of the other solvent countries will be on the hook to bail out the transgressors, until finally only one country is left standing. In the meantime any and all diversion tactics will be used to redirect attention from where it deserves to be: the increasingly more disastrous condition of the Welfare State/Banker Oligarchy status quo, and the inevitable warfare to follow: first currency, then trade, then all out.

While we will not predict what happens to the market in 2012 one thing is certain: the main topics discussed in the past three years will continue to dominate the airwaves and things will get far worse before they get better. As a result, five things that we believe will happen almost without a shadow of a doubt: volatility in 2012 will break all records, retail investors will continue to leave markets in droves, correlations will remain at all time highs, politicians will suckle more than ever at the Wall Street teat knowing well the party is soon ending, and lastly, central planning will hit unseen levels. Everything else is noise and soundbites.

It is on this rather grim background that we wish all our readers the best of luck and success in 2012. The final prediction for the new year we will make with 100% certainty is that Zero Hedge will be there each and every day helping readers expose the fallacies, fiction and fraud that the system is reduced to (ab)using each and every day just to kick the can down the road for a few more hours.

 

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Sat, 12/31/2011 - 21:59 | 2024201 bugs_
bugs_'s picture

Happy New Year and wishing an even better year for ZeroHedge in 2012.

Sat, 12/31/2011 - 22:27 | 2024219 Tuco Benedicto ...
Tuco Benedicto Pacifico Juan Maria Ramirez's picture

Without further "adieu" thank you T. D. 

I predict 2012 will be the last chance for today's tyrants to come over to the good side.  Please U. S. military and police follow your oaths.  We don't want to have to try you for treason a little later in this decade.

I, Tuco Benedicto Pacifico Juan Maria Ramirez, do solemnly swear  that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God.

 "All laws repugnant to the Constitution are null and void."   Marbury v. Madison   1803

 

Sat, 12/31/2011 - 22:50 | 2024239 JR
JR's picture

As 2012 tolls the bell for internal war against the American people by America’s Zionist-dominated government, it is time for Americans to realize that a gun isn’t necessarily for killing, but mostly for keeping a rogue government from killing you. An armed citizenry may be the only thing standing between you and freedom – or eternity. There is nothing on earth or under heaven that justifies killing Americans or the Iranian people; 1.46 million innocent Iraqis are dead to satisfy Israel and still, it is not enough.   

Editorial: TSA spreading its wings beyond airports: Anti-terror teams target bus, train depots, cruise ships. Have your papers ready. | Orange County Register | 12.28.11

Weren't airport pat downs enough? The Transportation Security Administration is expanding its reach of checkpoints and control far beyond protecting airports.

"TSA teams are increasingly conducting searches and screenings at train stations, subways, ferry terminals and other mass-transit locations around the country," the Los Angeles Times reported. Ray Dineen, the air marshal in charge of the TSA office in Charlotte, N.C., told the paper, "We are not the Airport Security Administration. We take that transportation part seriously."

The TSA has established a new operation, with another of those unwieldy government names: Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response. These VIPR teams, according to the Times, "have run more than 9,300 unannounced checkpoints and other search operations in the last year. Department of Homeland Security officials have asked Congress for funding to add 12 more teams next year." The DHS is the TSA's parent department. Both were founded in the rush to "do something, anything" following 9/11, even if the result damaged sacred American liberties.

http://www.ocregister.com/opinion/tsa-333360-vipr-something.html

Sat, 12/31/2011 - 22:59 | 2024247 Tuco Benedicto ...
Tuco Benedicto Pacifico Juan Maria Ramirez's picture

Good points.  Fact is that you are more likely to be killed by a "popping cork" from a champagne bottle than from a terrorist attack in these troubled times.  Look for false flags in the new year.  They are desparate as their days of tyranny are numbered!

Sat, 12/31/2011 - 23:10 | 2024253 xcehn
xcehn's picture

Here's something to consider for those that have a foreboding sense about 2012:

"Unrelenting Global Economic Crisis: A Doomsday View of 2012:  The economic, political and social outlook for 2012 is profoundly negative"

http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=28349

Here's a chaser:

http://blogs.wsj.com/marketbeat/2011/12/27/sp-500-falling-below-600-this...

Sun, 01/01/2012 - 04:31 | 2024423 Sam Clemons
Sam Clemons's picture

What does support and defend the Constitution actually mean? 

Sun, 01/01/2012 - 11:56 | 2024586 Uncle Remus
Uncle Remus's picture

It's possible we just might find out.

CPQA

Sat, 12/31/2011 - 22:25 | 2024217 Yen Cross
Yen Cross's picture

 " YEARS are just", SWERVES in the curve!        " LONG LIVE , { ZERO HEDGE}! ~

 

                   Yen Cross

Sat, 12/31/2011 - 23:41 | 2024225 Yen Cross
Yen Cross's picture

 The / auto bailout?   LMAO!     Hey, Toyoda  has a grasp on that /  90 yen Break even?  His worthless ponzi ( fukushima) squeeze line.  Pathetic, at best!  Recalls and all?          

                                                                              Happy New (screwed), Year!

Sat, 12/31/2011 - 22:31 | 2024226 iLoveMisesToPieces
iLoveMisesToPieces's picture

Cheers to one of the most important websites on the internet.  We live in interesting times my friends, make the most of it.

Sat, 12/31/2011 - 22:41 | 2024232 dogbreath
dogbreath's picture

Happy new year everyone. 

Sat, 12/31/2011 - 22:45 | 2024235 NoClueSneaker
NoClueSneaker's picture

  Thank you all ...

ZH is a simple comfort for me - I'm not prepared for anything, and I gave up long time ago. However, the daily truths about this world which became pretty ugly in the last 30 yrs. do good, after all the monstruosities of stupid and arrogant lying of Embedded Psychopat Lamass Media.

I simply can't turn on the TV set or radio, I can't read the papers. Stupid, permanent spinoffs r making vegetable out of me. ZH is an island, there are not a lot of them in this ocean of shit.

I wish everybody a good luck, and may everything what u started become an succes. Joy and happyness, if possible.

Happy New Year ... and thx again for all I've learned from you, and for some nice words on my not so smart comments.

 

Sat, 12/31/2011 - 23:06 | 2024250 samsara
samsara's picture

Duo

Sat, 12/31/2011 - 23:05 | 2024251 samsara
samsara's picture

Thank you ZH. And thank you for your humor
Best site on the web

Sat, 12/31/2011 - 23:08 | 2024252 Yen Cross
Yen Cross's picture

 A " New Years " , joke from 1947?  What is the whole ( 9 ), yards?

 

 

Sun, 01/01/2012 - 00:22 | 2024319 TheFourthStooge-ing
TheFourthStooge-ing's picture

Yen Cross riddled us this:

A " New Years " , joke from 1947?  What is the whole ( 9 ), yards?

An answer from 2012: the height of a stack of $100 bills representing the per capita share of the US national debt.

 

Sun, 01/01/2012 - 00:49 | 2024338 JR
JR's picture

And counting... a telling definition for 2012; Yen Cross is always ahead of the curve. I found this as to its more humble beginnings…

“Of all the feedback that The Phrase Finder site gets this is the phrase (the whole nine yards) that is asked about the most often. At the outset it should be said that no one is sure of the origin.”

Earliest citations in print

The earliest known example of the phrase in print that I know of is a short story by Robert E. Wegner, “Man on the Thresh-Hold,”in Michigan's Voices: A Literary Quarterly Magazine, Fall:

Marjorie's fault, and if all this howling and yelling up and down through the furnace pipes didn't stop soon they'd have the kids awake and then we can all take positions at one of the vents and bellow at each other – great sport, real civilized living in the modern urban home – then the dog would catch on and go ki-yi-yi-ing from one to the other of the shouting pyjama clad participants mad, mad, mad, the consequence of house, home, kids, respectability, status as a college professor and the whole nine yards, as a brush salesman who came by the house was fond of saying, the whole damn nine yards and Marjorie with her credulous countenance which allowed him to tell her with perfectly straight face – and she would believe him, not knowing the difference, not seeing the point, not recognizing the irony and it was this dimensional lack that hurt, her inability to see more than two converging or conflicting planes at a time – tell her it was a left-handed screwdriver he needed.

 

Sun, 01/01/2012 - 00:52 | 2024339 Yen Cross
Yen Cross's picture

Every B-17 gunner that fired a round,. Parabellums!

Sun, 01/01/2012 - 01:25 | 2024360 JR
JR's picture

Fitting! If you wish for peace, prepare for war.

I earnestly hope it works for the Iranians, facing globalist central bankers using fiat money not as currency, but as a weapon for sanctions and war, and the Middle East’s most dangerous man, B. Netanyahu, resembling a caged animal who has at his finger tips 600 nuclear-tipped missiles at a minimum (per J. Raimondo) and B. Obama, an Israeli puppet masquerading as U.S. president, and Commander in Chief of a superpower arsenal of 5,113 warheads. God help us!

Peace...and there shall be none.

Sun, 01/01/2012 - 11:12 | 2024547 NoClueSneaker
NoClueSneaker's picture

Don't be angry. I gave up. Barrack Obama sits on every corner - and that's an tragedy.

Lot of little Obamas strike with their elbows pretty much everywhere.

Would you take their places ?

The fact that you're here says an "no".

  Peace is an place in our hearts where we are still the human beings.

B.O. is not of that kind. He made his choices, and he doesn't belong to mankind anymore. He has to live with that what he has done.

He has to live with that, not you, not me, nor anyone on this site.

 ZH, Ron Paul, DN!, antiwar.com - we don't own the machine, but there are a decent people, pretty much all over the world. Dumb tyrants r more and more laughable. Their menaces don't count anymore. All of them are ugly jokes.

  I'm overdone, but we will see the liars running and begging - 15 or 20 years ago I was not sure about it.

So, have a Happy  New Year, and don't think much about some forfeited men. They are irrelevant. ZH will give us a reports and documentation of the "change" in front of us .....

  Terror is dumb :-P

 

Sat, 12/31/2011 - 23:13 | 2024255 Petrolia
Petrolia's picture

Huge thanks to Zerohedge & Tyler whoever you are. (And to contributors enlightened & otherwise)

I hardly post here but am an avid reader, most often several times a day.

You know a few days ago I tried to donate and opened a Paypal account specifically to do that and bloody Paypal wouldn't let me send you my $100 !  I will try again some other way.  You're worth it and much much more.

 

Happy New Year !!!

Sat, 12/31/2011 - 23:25 | 2024265 Petrolia
Petrolia's picture

Huge thanks to Zerohedge & Tyler whoever you are. (And to contributors enlightened & otherwise)

I hardly post here but am an avid reader, most often several times a day.

You know a few days ago I tried to donate and opened a Paypal account specifically to do that and bloody Paypal wouldn't let me send you my $100 !  I will try again some other way.  You're worth it and much much more.

 

Happy New Year !!!

Sat, 12/31/2011 - 23:35 | 2024273 Temporalist
Temporalist's picture
US President Barack Obama signs controversial NDAA into law

"President Barack Obama signed the controversial National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) into law earlier today in Hawaii."

http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/317046

 

HAPPY DETAINED NEW YEAR!

Sat, 12/31/2011 - 23:36 | 2024274 Ralph Spoilsport
Ralph Spoilsport's picture

why consider a pledge, to zero hedge

does the wall street corruption
cause an eruption
and make your blood boil

can you sleep at night
staying out of the fight
whilst tracking the price of oil

while gold and silver are stacked
and the shotguns are racked
take a pause for the cause
and the paws that refreshes
rip your own ounce of fleshes

donate to zero hedge

Sat, 12/31/2011 - 23:41 | 2024280 jomama
jomama's picture

ZH is teh greatest.

thanks guys for all the work you do - for all of us.

Sat, 12/31/2011 - 23:46 | 2024284 Schmuck Raker
Schmuck Raker's picture

So here we go...

Obama Signs Defense Spending Law, With Notes

Welcome to 2012 everyone....Drink up.... the only PERSONS to have protection from indefinite detention in THESE United States of America are corporations.

Sat, 12/31/2011 - 23:52 | 2024289 Ralph Spoilsport
Ralph Spoilsport's picture

Sad but true.

 

"Moving forward, my administration will interpret and implement the provisions described below in a manner that best preserves the flexibility on which our safety depends and upholds the values on which this country was founded," Obama said in the signing statement. WTF?

 

Sat, 12/31/2011 - 23:50 | 2024291 Yen Cross
Yen Cross's picture

 Jr . Ya think that ( SNB ), threat has any ( guts(?     I think the SNB is going stop shopping.>   I have better trades to look at.

  Annie mentioned that usd/cad trade? I like it.

Sun, 01/01/2012 - 01:34 | 2024369 JR
JR's picture

It’s a mad, mad, mad, mad world, YC.  I agree. Annie's the expert...  sure to be more sobered thoughts come morning…

Sat, 12/31/2011 - 23:55 | 2024301 Marley
Marley's picture

Happy New Year to all, even those that I have offended.

Cheeky Bastard, where the fuck are you? Hope your enjoying your profits.  :)

Sun, 01/01/2012 - 00:07 | 2024310 Yen Cross
Yen Cross's picture

    Ahhhh! Divergence. <>

Sun, 01/01/2012 - 00:32 | 2024323 Platypi4Lyfe
Platypi4Lyfe's picture

Happy nu fiat Bitchez

Sun, 01/01/2012 - 00:37 | 2024327 natty light
natty light's picture

Get ready for "S--t just got real" . Happy 2012 to all.

Sun, 01/01/2012 - 00:43 | 2024333 Always Positive
Always Positive's picture

It's a bit after 3.30pm on the 1st here.

The sun is shining, people are out & about - happy, laughing, relaxed. It's gonna be a great year, the best ever!

Governments will continue to strive to do what's right for the people. I can speak of our own Ms Gillard who is an honourable person with incredibly high values, standards & morality. She wants us all to prosper under benign, sharing & caring Fabian Socialism, and what's wrong with that? Give a little, take a little. No man is an island; we're all in this together; 'tis better to give than to receive; help your fellow Man when & where you can..you get the drift.

And take your your Mr. Obama - he's doing a very tough job under pressure - but I'm sure feels for every one of you if you have difficulties, like losing your home or job. Sure, even great leaders make mistakes, but they're only human like us and don't we all screw up from time to time? Cut a little slack, guys.

Even the much maligned Mr. Bernanke also means well, he's just largely misunderstood, and certainly doesn't deserve the negativity & abuse that comes from many of youse. His heart's in the right place and that's the main thing. He'll do the right thing, I'm positive, always.

I like to read ZH to get the other side of the picture and see what the mad, crazy people are thinking.  Most ZH Doomers are a weird lot, but that's OK, it takes all types & I don't mind observing so long as youse are all a long, long way away (or I'd get real nervous). Just watch the foul language, OK? It really isn't necessary. Remember, three strikes....

So ZH-ers, things are not as black as you think. 2012 will be bonza, despite your doubts & fears. Do what I do and try to be Always Positive.

 

 

 

 

Sun, 01/01/2012 - 01:21 | 2024356 Jim in MN
Jim in MN's picture

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlBiLNN1NhQ

 'Always Look on the Bright Side of Life'

All the best in 2012.  Bonza.

Sun, 01/01/2012 - 01:51 | 2024376 TheFourthStooge-ing
TheFourthStooge-ing's picture

All the best in 2012. Bonzo.

'Busted'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIl8c-q0LII

 

Sun, 01/01/2012 - 11:19 | 2024551 Boxed Merlot
Boxed Merlot's picture

It's gonna be a great year, the best ever!...

 

Another reason to enjoy ZH.  Positive thinking only amounts to sarcasmic drivel to those who actually have lost their homes, dignity and livlihoods to those well meaning pressurized leaders being forced to perform voluntary service on behalf of the people of their respective nations.

 

Our beloved My Obaoma asked for the office and was granted the temporary privilege of helping direct the future course of the nation at our request.  Even though he recognizes it is against the DNA of the US people to adapt to socialist idealogy, he seems bound and determined to force this narcotic of hopium on us.

 

Ripping the IV of government debt / interest paying societal servitude from the arm of the American people will produce a far greater positive attitude towards our fellow man than suffering from the "benign, sharing and caring" cancer frn usage continues to plague us with.  imo.

Sun, 01/01/2012 - 11:35 | 2024564 NoClueSneaker
NoClueSneaker's picture

There is nothing in your comment what could cheer me up for a second.

It's just sad.

Positive thinking in this world of shit, bailing out the monsters like BO ? Give me a break.

I've seen it 30 yrs. ago. Decent ppl. sticking their heads in the sand, shaking their shoulders.

Result: 500.000 dead, 4 million innerly displaced, in ther middle of the "Civilised Continent".

There was a thing called

Socialist Federative Republic Of Yougoslavia.

  Look and feel today ? Nothing that I haven't seen in my cristal ball in september 1980.

Shall we extrapolate ?

  Don't hurt me, I've never ever done anything what I should be ashamed of.

ZHedgers r not the doomers. The truth is a basis of our nacked existance. 

You r making strange conclusions.

I assure you that this year is going to be ugly for the most of ppl. who gave up their concience, trying to do their job under the given circumstances - BUT:

ZHedgers prove every fuckin' day that the circumstancers r fraud, deceit, massacre, torture, lies, devastation, perversion, mindfuck, humiliation, destructivity and madness ...

I don't do drugs. Optimism is because "inspite" ...

Pandora's box.

The world has never ever been so ugly, never before.

 

You made me sad. Srry. Have a Happy New Year, and please, open your eyes, please, don't lie ....

 

 

 

 

Sun, 01/01/2012 - 01:02 | 2024345 Yen Cross
Yen Cross's picture

 Thanks for the Holiday Wishes J.R.    I think that JPY trade looks good from 2010. May and go away.  hotfx@ymail.com

 Two years that trade took.

Sun, 01/01/2012 - 01:12 | 2024350 Yen Cross
Yen Cross's picture

 I see, : " ORANGE" . this 2012 morning<.>

Sun, 01/01/2012 - 01:19 | 2024354 Slipmeanother
Slipmeanother's picture

I do love to read that zero hedge

Prevents me from going out on the ledge

Of fraud, malfeasence and bankers lies

I prepare my own methods for flies

The hedge prepares the way

To ensure for me OK

So fuck you all dumb shills

Im off with gold for thrills

Sun, 01/01/2012 - 01:28 | 2024364 Yen Cross
Yen Cross's picture

 Thank God, I stayed in Tonight. 

Sun, 01/01/2012 - 02:10 | 2024386 papaswamp
papaswamp's picture

7.0 hits izu Japan.

 

Date-Time Location 31.416°N, 138.155°E Depth 348.5 km (216.6 miles) Region IZU ISLANDS, JAPAN REGION Distances 242 km (150 miles) SW of Hachijo-jima, Izu Islands, Japan
365 km (226 miles) S of Hamamatsu, Honshu, Japan
393 km (244 miles) S of Shizuoka, Honshu, Japan
495 km (307 miles) SSW of TOKYO, Japan

No tsunami expected...

000 WEHW42 PHEB 010538 TIBHWX HIZ001>003-005>009-012>014-016>021-023>026-010738- TSUNAMI INFORMATION STATEMENT NUMBER 1 NWS PACIFIC TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER EWA BEACH HI 738 PM HST SAT DEC 31 2011 TO - CIVIL DEFENSE IN THE STATE OF HAWAII SUBJECT - TSUNAMI INFORMATION STATEMENT THIS STATEMENT IS FOR INFORMATION ONLY. NO ACTION REQUIRED. AN EARTHQUAKE HAS OCCURRED WITH THESE PRELIMINARY PARAMETERS ORIGIN TIME - 0728 PM HST 31 DEC 2011 COORDINATES - 31.4 NORTH 138.6 EAST LOCATION - SOUTHEAST OF HONSHU JAPAN MAGNITUDE - 7.0 MOMENT EVALUATION BASED ON ALL AVAILABLE DATA A DESTRUCTIVE PACIFIC-WIDE TSUNAMI IS NOT EXPECTED AND THERE IS NO TSUNAMI THREAT TO HAWAII. REPEAT. A DESTRUCTIVE PACIFIC-WIDE TSUNAMI IS NOT EXPECTED AND THERE IS NO TSUNAMI THREAT TO HAWAII. THIS WILL BE THE ONLY STATEMENT ISSUED FOR THIS EVENT UNLESS ADDITIONAL DATA ARE RECEIVED.

Sun, 01/01/2012 - 02:27 | 2024390 monopoly
monopoly's picture

Excellent article. I liked the last paragraph the best. See you next year Zero Hedge. Thanks for all you do for us.

Sun, 01/01/2012 - 02:32 | 2024391 Ralph Spoilsport
Ralph Spoilsport's picture

Red-lighted sky slated to appear in east.
Sonic booms scare minority groups in Sector B.
And there's hamburger all over the highway in Mystic, Connecticut

Sun, 01/01/2012 - 02:32 | 2024392 Yen Cross
Yen Cross's picture

PaPa you are " well read"!   Thank You.

Sun, 01/01/2012 - 02:42 | 2024393 collon88
collon88's picture

So number 1 got 148,000 reads.  To my mind, the story of the century, released 12/12, got over 400,000 reads.  You can read it here: http://divinecosmos.com/start-here/davids-blog/995-lawsuit-end-tyranny.  I sent it to Tyler several weeks ago but he never posted it. 

Sun, 01/01/2012 - 02:45 | 2024394 collon88
collon88's picture

Oops.  Sorry about the bad link for the story of the century.  Here it is: http://divinecosmos.com/start-here/davids-blog/995-lawsuit-end-tyranny. Disregard this one,( I don't know how to delete it).  I was able to edit my previous comment.

Sun, 01/01/2012 - 03:54 | 2024415 chindit13
chindit13's picture

Reality is an acquired taste.

Sun, 01/01/2012 - 02:43 | 2024395 Yen Cross
Yen Cross's picture

 And so we set our  { SL} ... Like the [ old ],   DAY's.       GIRLY/ Boys?

Sun, 01/01/2012 - 02:46 | 2024397 Ralph Spoilsport
Ralph Spoilsport's picture

There's a holdup in the Bronx
Brooklyn's broken out in fights
There's a traffic jam in Harlem
That's backed up to Jackson Heights
There's a scout troop short a child
Khruschev's due at Idlewild
Car 54 where are yoooouuuuuu?

http://timstvshowcase.com/car54.jpg

Sun, 01/01/2012 - 02:51 | 2024398 Yen Cross
Yen Cross's picture

 J.R.    You called the " yen" , bottom.   Need I say more? Nice work.

 

   I thought you were ' Crazy"!       Well Done.

Sun, 01/01/2012 - 03:10 | 2024403 lizzy36
lizzy36's picture

Another year older and have ZH to thank (or to blame) for making me wiser. 

Seems like just yesterday there were merely 50 of us on blogspot.

Cheers to making a difference in the life of everyone who has every hung around this virtual joint.

May 2012 be your best year yet!

Sun, 01/01/2012 - 03:41 | 2024409 caerus
caerus's picture

happy new year guys!

Sun, 01/01/2012 - 03:53 | 2024414 alchemystic
alchemystic's picture

Happy New Year, and thanks

Sun, 01/01/2012 - 04:03 | 2024419 theMAXILOPEZpsycho
theMAXILOPEZpsycho's picture

My vote goes to MillionDollarBonus!!!!!

Sun, 01/01/2012 - 04:56 | 2024427 jonjon831983
jonjon831983's picture

Nice re-cap.  I'm sure the top ranked articles have increased views quite a bit after this.

I wonder though - can ZeroHedge make a ranking based on the number of comments and then cross reference with this list of readings?

I'm sure it could be useful in some ways... most actively engaged hot topic or what not.

Also, interesting to think of how data mining can be done based on the subjects.

 

I've been reading ZeroHedge for less than a year, but now I check ZH everyday (and "hit F5" every few hours when I can) to see what is likely REALLY going on behind the scenes.  I can't pretend to understand everything, but from most of what I read... we are getting to be SOL.  We'll see what happens.

 

Merci beaucoup!

Sun, 01/01/2012 - 05:31 | 2024436 caerus
caerus's picture

SHORT BIDU!!!!

Sun, 01/01/2012 - 06:58 | 2024459 caerus
caerus's picture

Felix Sit Annus Novus!

 

Sun, 01/01/2012 - 07:21 | 2024464 Postkey
Postkey's picture

"The good news is my new Panic Indicator has just flashed only its ninth buy signal in 37 years. It predicts the total return on global equities will be 27% in one year and 43% in two years."

http://www.investmentweek.co.uk/investment-week/opinion/2133381/dewhirst-fear-greed-panic#ixzz1iCkIsgpf

Sun, 01/01/2012 - 07:38 | 2024467 N57Mike
N57Mike's picture

Thank you Tyler... you all are a lighthouse of hope.

Sun, 01/01/2012 - 07:50 | 2024468 loftgroovv
loftgroovv's picture

I predict major rioting in France, UK, Italy, USA and other western countries at some point during 2012.

 

The Bill that Obama just signed would put the shits up me if I were an American. Give it six months and anyone who holds physical gold and silver will probably be deemed a "terrorist".

 

If Cameron tries to push through something similar, I'm off to Switzerland.

Sun, 01/01/2012 - 09:22 | 2024491 Dubaibanker
Dubaibanker's picture

Firstly, Happy & even more Successful & Prosperous New Year to all of us.

Secondly, most people may be unhappy about border point checks in the US, but has anyone realised, that there has been not a single attack in the US, post 9/11...

I would like to give some points to the DHS and to all concerned while providing safety and protecting every single US citizen without any bias, unlike pretty much most nations around the world....at least inside the US....

Just saying...

Sun, 01/01/2012 - 11:41 | 2024567 Uncle Remus
Uncle Remus's picture

STFU

Sun, 01/01/2012 - 12:50 | 2024663 Tuco Benedicto ...
Tuco Benedicto Pacifico Juan Maria Ramirez's picture

There has not been a significant terrorist attack in the U. S. because the U. S. Government has not yet carried another one out!

Sun, 01/01/2012 - 09:55 | 2024504 Wakanda
Wakanda's picture

Zero Hedge Fucking Rocks

Happy 2012 Fishes!

Sun, 01/01/2012 - 11:34 | 2024557 Raging Debate
Raging Debate's picture

Welcome to 2012, the Year of the Dragon: http://www.stanssewingsupplies.com/catalogs/store.asp?pid=254835 . Much joy to you Chinese  people! Allow me to provide a gift of laughter that I wrote in 2008. The binary physics/prophecy joke: http://seekingalpha.com/article/90023-opportunities-in-the-real-crisis-water 

The joke of the devil is never on just one nation for long!

 So all of us citizens from every nation must not be duped joining armies that will destroy trade. Particular attitudes come and go but good trade is eternal.

Sun, 01/01/2012 - 13:08 | 2024563 Smiddywesson
Smiddywesson's picture

Honestly, I never understood why everyone thought article #10, concerning Chinese gold purchases, was so important.  By September, we all already knew the dollar was dead as a reserve currency and that that Chinese were the most likely to try to replace it.  We already knew the Chinese were moving their massive reserves out of the USD and were buying gold like crazy.  Their lies about previous gold purchases were already an established fact.

So, everybody goes ga ga because Wikileaks releases a cable written by an analyst in China QUOTING A NEWSPAPER EDITORIAL?  Why not just quote the newspaper, it's already public information.  

Coming trough an embassy cable or Wikileaks doesn't make it any more significant.  

The funny thing was the cable quoted another newspaper article that foreshadowed the most significant development of the year, Japan and China coming together to do business in the Chinese currency.  Now that was a good call.

Link to embassy cable.  take a look at the first point: http://cables.mrkva.eu/cable.php?id=204405  

Sun, 01/01/2012 - 11:46 | 2024573 Shibumi2
Shibumi2's picture

The question we need to be asking ourselves is:

 

"Is our children learning?" gEoRgE BuSh

Sun, 01/01/2012 - 13:13 | 2024689 Uncle Remus
Uncle Remus's picture

Depends on what the definition of "is" is.

Sun, 01/01/2012 - 11:48 | 2024574 Shibumi2
Shibumi2's picture

The question we need to be asking ourselves is:

 

"Is our children learning?" gEoRgE BuSh

Sun, 01/01/2012 - 12:10 | 2024610 split4to1
split4to1's picture

loved this , thank you for the awesome recap ! 

Sun, 01/01/2012 - 12:47 | 2024641 mh505
mh505's picture

# bigkahuna (Sat, 12/31/2011 - 16:01 | 2023931)

(on the question where the German gold resides and why)

From what can be surmised this goes back to the 50s & 60s, when Germany was a veritable export machine (with annual growth rates that would put today's China to shame).  So there were tremendous surpluses with their trading partners, which partly were balanced in gold.  And - so the official story goes - this gold was left where it was (i.e. the NY Fed), simply changing ownership.

Sun, 01/01/2012 - 12:57 | 2024674 Raging Debate
Raging Debate's picture

Merry New Year! A funny blast from the past I wrote in August, 2008:

Opportunities in the Real Crisis: Water [View article]

I am building a teleporter for the next mode of human transporation. It runs on air.

According to GS, air is the next crisis. CNBC recently reported that there is plenty of air, just not enough air that contains the molecule to safely transport people to China to build more teleporters.

18% of all Chinese workers live outside of the particulariam molecule as well and could not teleport necessary coal to power the teleporter.

The New York Times reports that Washington is concerned about the migrating pidgeon flock that makes it's home in NYC skyscapers and Senator CheatAlot claims "that the potential impact on markets and the environment must be carefully studied."

Republican President Ron Paul has visited the teleporter facility and claimed that this was the wave of the future for transportation but the Los Angeles Times claimed that the economy could not provide for the build-out of the technology citing estimates it would take 10 M years and would soak the productive business environment of California of necessary capatilization.

Aug 9 07:04 AM | Likes |Report Abuse |Link to Comment
Sun, 01/01/2012 - 15:26 | 2024958 HungrySeagull
HungrySeagull's picture

ZH is where everything is picked to the bones.

Good riddiance 2011 and hello 12. Burning pyres of paper on one side of the world and glowing star shine from a meltdown on the other side of the world.

 

Should be enough light and warmth to go around.

Sun, 01/01/2012 - 16:01 | 2025039 TradingTroll
TradingTroll's picture

ZH has been fun for 2 years, but the top 20 articles are now too mainstream for my liking. Only a couple of other posters out of the current 18k views mention Fukushima.

Fukushima is 1000 Hiroshimas, 2,000,000 Chernobyls. Daily it spews 10 trl bqs of isotopes into the global atmosphere. Every day. 50 bqs in one kilo of human tissue causes lesions.

NE Japan is uninhabitable, they would have evacuated Tokyo if it was only 1m people. The world is overpopulated.Due to burning of Fuku waste all over Japan and dumping Fuku waste in Tokyo Bay not only will all of Japan become unhabitable in 3yrs, the Pacific will be toxic and dead in 5yrs and in 10yrs there will be such a concentration of hot particles that last for millions of years, it will burn your skin off.

Japan is 3rd largest economy on planet. It led the world into the current low interest rate economy and will lead again in radiation sickness. Illnesses that took 3yrs to develop in Chernobyl are showing up in 6mos in Tokyo.

There is no escape, Fuku radiation is being detected in S. Hemisphere.

This is the Fibonacci retracement of the human race. We will not see 8bn people, we will see 5bn first.

Sun, 01/01/2012 - 19:18 | 2025360 Zero Govt
Zero Govt's picture

Zero Hedge will be there each and every day helping readers expose the fallacies, fiction and fraud that the system is reduced to (ab)using each and every day just to kick the can down the road for a few more hours.

Certainly hope so ...indeed i hope as we speak ZH is working on a Plan B...  a website hosted in a global safe spot to avoid the US Govts totalitarian 'kill switch' 

well if US readers get cut off by the US States Nazis (socialist-fascist scum) us European readers will keep the place alive in the interim while US readers round up some rope and pitchforks and sort their problems out

Mon, 01/02/2012 - 23:58 | 2027778 covert
covert's picture

americans are doomed or close to it.

http://covert.mypressonline.com

 

Do NOT follow this link or you will be banned from the site!