Much like our President who earlier announced he had quit smoking, with the exception of inhaling the occasional pack every time the mortgage spread passes 100 bps or gold gets close to $1,000. Deep thoughts from the SPARC-tamer himself. Oddly absent is a discussion of stochastic processes involving the massive loss of capital for LPs caught on the wrong end of a huge high-beta short squeeze.

It was only three months ago when people assumed that the turnaround in BLS' metric for mass layoff events meant an end to something or another. Nope. For the third straight month both mass layoff events and initial claimants for insurance picked up. There is nothing even remotely optimistic about this data... Which probably explains why unlike March when CNBC filled an entire day discussing this brand new datapoint that none of the anchors had heard before, today one would not hear a peep out of them on it. Next month: the 6 month MA gets surpassed on both indications.

It was only three months ago when people assumed that the turnaround in BLS' metric for mass layoff events meant an end to something or another. Nope. For the third straight month both mass layoff events and initial claimants for insurance picked up. There is nothing even remotely optimistic about this data... Which probably explains why unlike March when CNBC filled an entire day discussing this brand new datapoint that none of the anchors had heard before, today one would not hear a peep out of them on it. Next month: the 6 month MA gets surpassed on both indications.

Market tests are useful as they best indicate just what is the real value of hundreds of billions of distressed securities stripped away from any unwarranted optimism and green shoot propaganda. Today's Visteon CDS Auction was just one such test.

Market tests are useful as they best indicate just what is the real value of hundreds of billions of distressed securities stripped away from any unwarranted optimism and green shoot propaganda. Today's Visteon CDS Auction was just one such test.

Finally someone is sticking against the taxpayer rape going on behind the scenes each and every day in bankruptcy court (even if it is paradoxically the government itself), in which taxpayers directly pay Wall Street's investment banks who pretend to facilitate Obama's pet UAW-placating and merely liquidation-delaying projects.

The money shot from the US Trustee's objection below:

In what is surely a shocking turn for the Mainstream Media, today's horrendous Johnson Redbook Index numbers were curiously not noted anywhere. As Zero Hedge believes in not depriving its audience of data points, especially those lacking a green steroid shot, the charts below indicate just much of a lack to the US budget deficit, upcoming consumer subsidies will be for President Obama (and taxpayers).

By way of background:

In what is surely a shocking turn for the Mainstream Media, today's horrendous Johnson Redbook Index numbers were curiously not noted anywhere. As Zero Hedge believes in not depriving its audience of data points, especially those lacking a green steroid shot, the charts below indicate just much of a lack to the US budget deficit, upcoming consumer subsidies will be for President Obama (and taxpayers).

By way of background:

In its Chart of the Day, Bloomberg finally picks up on a topic that Zero Hedge readers are all too familiar with - California CDS.

No commentary necessary.

No commentary necessary.

As Obama speaks and investors recall what it was like to short the market at every TV appearance of the president, the dollar is getting pillaged: the DXY just dropped below the 80 support level after Europe has said it will start tightening soon.

As Obama speaks and investors recall what it was like to short the market at every TV appearance of the president, the dollar is getting pillaged: the DXY just dropped below the 80 support level after Europe has said it will start tightening soon.

From yesterday's hearing before the U.S. Senate on Over The Counter Derivatives.

Commercial satellite-launch services provider Sea Launch, which is 40% owned by 787 on time manufacturer extraordinaire, Boeing, filed for bankruptcy last night in Delaware (09-12513). The Long Beach company which has used the Kazakhstan Baikonur Space Center for rocket launches in the past, has listed liabilities of over $1 billion.