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Weekend Reading: Weighed, Measured And Found Wanting
Submitted by Lance Roberts via STA Wealth Management,
One of my favorite movies to watch with my son was "A Knights Tale" starring Heath Ledger. A rag to riches story about a boy given by his father to a Knight as a squire. However, after the Knight dies, the boy takes his place and fights his way to nobility.
During his adventure the villain, Adhemar, discovers William's secret identity and has him imprisoned for impersonating a knight. As William awaits his fate, Adhemar visits him in his cell.
As I discussed yesterday, the "Fed Is Screwed"in their efforts to hike interest rates. With deflationary pressures on the rise, economic growth deteriorating and financial markets in turmoil the ability to tighten monetary policy has now passed.
This weekend's reading list is a compilation of views on the economy, the markets, and the Fed. Like William, it is becoming more apparent that they have each been "weighed, measured and found wanting."
THE LIST
1) 5 Reasons Americans Are Unhappy by Quentin Fottrell via MarketWatch
“One reason for all the unhappiness could be that wages are stagnant, and many people are still struggling to recover from the Great Recession.
'Money is a little like health, you don't want to talk about it with your friends because there's a little bit of shame around it,' says Andrew Meadows, a San Francisco-based producer of 'Broken Eggs,' a documentary about retirement, and vice president of brand and culture at Ubiquity Retirement + Savings.
Two recent studies carried out by independent pollsters say that more than 60% of adults have no emergency savings or less than $1,000 in their savings account. And among those who had savings prior to 2008, 57% said they'd used some or all of it in the Great Recession, according to a U.S. Federal Reserve survey of over 4,000 adults released last year. Some people think you need to have tens of thousands of dollars to start saving and investing, so rather than save or invest a little, they do nothing, Meadows says. 'They ask if there's going to be another crash.'"
Read Also: American's Feeling Glum About Economy by Ronald Brownstein via The Atlantic
2) Deflation = Debt + Demographics + Disruption by Tyler Durden via Zero Hedge
“Disruption: Technological innovation and disruption are driving many goods & service sector prices lower (rent & health care are two important exceptions); extending human life and the propensity to save; fostering wage and job insecurity.
Demographics: The size of the working population of the developed world peaked in 2011 and will fall from 833 million to 799 million by 2025, putting downward pressure on potential growth and inflation (Chart 3). And by 2050, the world's 'Silver Generation' will increase by 885 million people, many of whom will save more in anticipation of old age.
Record Debt: 'Minimal deleveraging since the GFC and a large debt overhang remain impediments to nominal growth; global debt as a % of GDP actually rose from 162% in 2001 to 211% in 2013, an all-time high.'"
Read Also: Brainard Drops A Policy Bomb by Tim Duy via FedWatch
3) The Fed & Government Setting Up Next Crisis by Stephen Moore via Washington Times
“Here's the latest story line: bailouts, trillions of dollars of government spending and debt, easy money, and re-regulation of Wall Street ended the 2008 Great Recession. The myth took on new life last week when Ben Bernanke took a bow in The Wall Street Journal for in his mind saving the economy with his $3 trillion of quantitative easing and zero interest rate policy. No, actually this is what created the crisis. Don't be surprised if Mr. Bernanke receives a Nobel Peace Prize.
As Peter Wallison of the American Enterprise Institute and other scholars have thoroughly documented, the crash of 2008 was caused by the Federal Reserve's easy money policies for nearly a decade, government housing policies that led to preposterous mortgage loans being issued, and massive overleverage of government, companies, and households.
Why does any of this history matter? Since Washington doesn't understand what went wrong in 2007 and 2008, so the Fed, the White House and Congress are recreating the very same conditions for another financial bubble. If it pops, we could replay the same devastating effects as occurred during the first bubble in 1999 and 2000.”
Read Also: Bernanke's Incomplete Crisis Theory by Robert Samuelson via Real Clear Markets
But Also Read: What If The Future Is Better Than We Think? by Ben Carlson via Wealth Of Common Sense
4) Debt Ceiling Fight Could Get Ugly by Gary Halbert via Advisor Perspectives
"Last week's scare over a possible government shutdown may have been just the warm-up act for a much bigger threat that could cause the Treasury to default on trillions of dollars of debt. The latest shutdown scare was narrowly averted by a last minute deal in Congress that angered its most conservative members, and some believe prompted House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) to step down. His presumptive replacement, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R- CA), abruptly announced Thursday that he would not seek the job for reasons that are still uncertain.
Now, amid the House leadership vacuum, Congress remains paralyzed over a long list of contentious issues, from budget battles to a sweeping new trade deal. But unless Congress acts in the next few weeks to raise the government's legal borrowing limit, the Treasury will be forced to stop borrowing and paying its bills – potentially including interest on government bonds that have already been sold to investors."
Read Also: Another Look At The Total Return Rollercoaster by Doug Short via Advisor Perspectives
5) We Are Entering A Recession, But Not Really by Myles Udland via Business Insider
""'We are experiencing a profit recession without an economic recession,' Sløk wrote in an email on Thursday.
'Lower energy prices and a higher dollar are hurting certain parts of corporate America at the moment, but with the China shock fading and the dollar and energy prices stabilizing it is becoming clearer that we are not about to enter an economic recession because the service sector — which makes up 85% of the US economy — is doing just fine.
Or put differently, to generate an economic recession we need a much more broad-based slowdown across companies and that is not what we are seeing and hearing in the anecdotes during this earnings season.'"
Read Also: It's Time To Start Talking About A Recession by Bob Byran via Business Insider
Read Also: Revenue Recession Getting Worse by Stephanie Yang via CNBC
Other Reading
- Bernanke's Balderdash by David Stockman via Stockman's Contra Corner
- When Market Trends Break by Bill Hester via Hussman Funds
- The Collected Wisdom Of Seth Klarman via Scribd
- The Mother Of All Feedback Loops? by Izabella Kaminska via Financial Times
- Fed Hasn't Printed Money In Decades by Jeffrey Snider via Alhambra Partners
- The Trouble With Economics by Clive Crook via Bloomberg
- The Inequality Generation Of QE by David Keohane via Financial Times
- The Contagion That Caused The Great Recession by Rob Garver via The Fiscal Times
“Wall Street is a gambling house peopled with dealers, croupiers and touts on one side, and winners and suckers on the other” – Nicholas Darvas
Have a great weekend.
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Why are we still pretending that TPTB don't know what they are doing? They know perfectly well, and while I do not subscribe to the "Ziomatrix NWO Illuminati reptilian cabal wants us all to die" theories so popular around here, I can just as easily subscribe their actions to them not having any actual choice to TARP, QE, NIRP, bail-out, bail-in, and all the rest for the very simple and transparent reason that if they had not done all those things in extremity then in 2008 their (and our) entire way of life would have simply burst into flames on the spot.
It's reeeeeealy just that simple folks. It was either what-they-did, or instant death of the entire system. And they were not and are not now ready for instant death of their system.
Not while there is even one thin dime left to pilfer, that is. Whoever gets the last dime turns off the lights. But until then, no way.
The problem is that they should have learned their lesson and started pointing us towards a different direction. Instead, we get balls to the wall globalization, because they cannot conceive of anything else. Business as usual is unsustainable, and their unwillingness to do anything other than MOAR of what led to the various bubbles is going to fuck us all. Fuck the paper pushing ponzi cocksuckers.
Because they cannot conceive of anything else but globalization being nearly as lucrative.
All the signs of short-term thinking.
Globalization is truly a carbon copy of the EU only on a much more massive scale.
How do you like your Darwinian World so far? GOD
Because in their minds we the nurses, tradesmen, artists, assembly line workers and the rest are just chattle and get far more than we deserve. We are just scum to them and the lifestyle difference between us and them stretches to infinity.
Truly the love of money is the root of all evil.
But The Pope's on Obie's Side this time.
(Have you never noticed that the Reptiles have been in charge for as long as man cannot remember?)
The beast took a wound to the head (in 1798 I think) and has risen up to everyones amazement.
See Walter Veith and the Spanish video on You Tube: Pope Francis' brother.
< Greed and incompetence
< By design to serve TPTB
So Cougar votes "Greed and incompetence"... I'll take "By design to serve TPTB".
< false dichotomy
Not really... the defining issue is unintentional incompetence vs. intent
Yet they can be incompetent and have the intent at the same time. It's out in the open. You have companies like Citibank literally writing the regulations that they are going to follow or not follow because they can afford to follow or not follow them, but a small startup bank can neither afford to follow them nor can they afford to not follow them. Or you have companies like Monsanto that are clearly giving it the good'ole college try when it comes to controlling the global food supply. The problem is that modern banking is a pyramid scheme mathematically certain to collapse and Monsanto is finding that quite a few weeds themselves are becoming roundup ready. The same is going to happen with bugs and their BT corn - bugs will become BT resistant. Their methods are not sustainable, but the laws sure allow them to sue the shit out of people who save seed that has their genes in them, regardless of whether it was intentional or if that genetic material blew in from the neighbor's field.
The world is too complex for them to control for long, but that's not going to stop them from trying. We have long since reached the point in diminishing returns in complexity, yet the cocksuckers want to add more complexity (in the form of globalization, think BS like the TPP) so that they can control more. Even the oligarchs are reaching above their pay grade now.
Great interview with a GMO research scientist on the Corbett Report...
Apparently the Bt bacteria produces a protein toxin that creates holes in the stomachs of the insects that eat the corn. There has been absolutely NO research done on what else the proteins might do or if it is even safe for human to eat even though sterility has been a well documented side effect in numerous rat and pig studies.
Since politicians and bankers share over 90% of the same genes with rats and pigs someone needs to do a major study on them.
All of them.
https://www.corbettreport.com/interview-1096-jonathan-latham-on-gmo-conc...
Probably. I just think the "design" has more to do with predictable human nature than any shadowy star chamber of alien immortals who intend to enslave all life.
Though that would make an interesting movie. Like I have time to write another screenplay.
WTF is with this "star chamber of alien immortals who intend to enslave all life" B.S.?
It always has been the Globalist bankers and their evil minions that have been at war with humanity. With a side helping of the occulted powers that is.
It's all a giant SCAM, completely terrestrial in origin and it is by design Coug.
www.corbettreport.com and www.redefininggod.com will help you make sense of it all should you ever want to really find out WTF is going on.
Just trying to be helpful and save you some time in getting to the truth and find out what will be happening in the future.
Plus it wouldn't hurt you to step outide of your informational comfort zone every now and then. (The RDG site will blow your mind)
Have a nice weekend! ;)
I think cougar was using hyperbole on that one. And I do think that he is right on their short sightedness. The track that we are going down is going to get rid of their comforts that come from industrialized society.
Not at all El Vaq... the plan has been thought through thoroughly by some of the smartest people on the planet who also the possess the unlimited resources necessary to get what they want. There is NO short sightedness but their hubris may cause them some unexpected problems.
If you get a chance please check out the two aforementioned sites... it will be well worth your time.
Start here > http://redefininggod.com/george-soros-and-the-china-fronted-nwo/
Except there is no such thing as unlimited resources. Especially if half the planet gets irradited by WWIII.
There are a lot of people like "Cougar." Naive.
Or maybe I just have a healthy and vibrant relationship with Reality?
Which would normally be impossible for you to decide, from where you sit, but I bet that won't stop you. And here in the Real World that is what we call being deranged.
Check out www.redefininggod.com for yourself Coug.
You will thank me for it later.
Here's a good starting point... > http://redefininggod.com/understanding-the-nwo-strategy/
You overlook something important; the surreal world is merely the shadow of the substance, which is unseen. It isn't over until God determines it to be over. Mankind has at least 1007 years left before the final wrap up. Unless you are regenerated, then I understand that may make absolutely no sense.
Have a great weekend and enjoy the chem-trails in the sky and the changing leaves.
Forever just told me I should write and tell you to mind your own business.
Whatever that was supposed to mean.
Scary bitch.
Agreed they know what they do. They have no choice without the FED the US cannot fund their global wars.
"I didn't see any of that coming until it happened."
~ Janet Yellen
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-08-14/janet-yellen-financial-crisis-i...
Tyler on disruption: interesting that healthcare and housing are two businesses which arent benefiting from technology. you might say what about biotechs and robotic limbs and all sorts of new medical drugs and devices, which are neither available nor affordable. hence these things have the most inflation for the average user.
the nuclear reverse repo in september amounts to shadow QE, more money for banks nothing for main street. moar of the same. the fed has kicked the can again, deferred on the topic of economic growth, while abandoning the unemployment metric, and switching its gaze to foreign markets (where the sovereigns are dumping UST, and yeah Janet is nervous, so the nuclear RR was an innoculation just in case the sterilization of hot money by her predecssor said to prevent backflow out of the EM and into the water supply begins to contaminate. do not muddy the water, you may have to drink it soon... Coplas)
Congress is just waiting for December, the month where they pass the bills they never read that impoverish and further destroy the nation. The sinister monsters for of dead-men bones and their throat is an open grave and the poison of snakes is on their lips.
The market cannot go downward because the next crash is the final crash. So it will gyrate until they cannot hold it together and that is obviously going to be at least through the "corporate bonus" season.
Yeah, "corporate bonus season": the Santa Claus rally is sacrosanct.
Yeah, "corporate bonus season": the Santa Claus rally is sacrosanct.
String them all up and find out later if they were wanting.
Wait, we are talking about WS, right?
Washington damn well understands what went wrong in 2007-2008. They'd just rather turn a blind eye to it all for the sake of their jobs. Fortunately the American people, thanks to ZH, know exactly what happened.
I guess I'm still the only one who really knows what happened to the "economy, the markets, and the Fed."
In 1972 Hubbert's "peak oil" theory proved to be accurate in the US and its military became aware and alarmed about the eventual exhaustion of crude oil on the planet in 100 years or less.
Greenspan was asked to cause a worldwide depression to suppress the consumption of oil and he devised the 'subprime mortgage bubble'. It was successful as we are aware.
In 2009 the world entered the era of the endless recession. The demand for oil collapsed the price of a barrel to under $50.
The Fed's job was to 'keep the kettle boiling' which we all have to admit they have done beautifully.
Eventually the US military will have to fight Russia and China for the last few drops of oil. Russia has its natural gas, crude oil and natural resources, while China is one of the few nations with loads of liquid assets.
This is where we are today.
Now you know what happened.