Transparency

"Barack Obama's not a stupid man, okay?" Gruber notes, adding that those pushing the bill took part in an "exploitation of the lack of economic understanding of the American voter," taking advantage of voters' "stupidity" to create a law that would ultimately be good for them. "If you made it explicit that healthy people pay in and sick people get money, it would not have passed, OK?"

As expected, the stench in market rigging, be it Libor, FX, gold or anything else, goes to the very top...

Overall, CPI’s are used to index payments on over $10 trillion in liabilities. Any underestimation of  CPI benefits the federal government at the expense of the taxpayer and amounts to a backdoor default on its financial obligations. Please understand this could be deliberate or the result of dubious econometric methods. Using a bad model is like using a random number generator as a compass.  To get an idea of the sums of money involved, for every 1% of CPI underestimation the federal government saves $8.4 billion on social security payments alone.  The lack of transparency regarding quality adjustments (and their perceived complexity) provides a perfect smoke-screen for covert debt management through CPI under-reporting.

Having exposed the arrogance and self-admitted deception that was used to get the healthcare law past the "stupidity of American voters," it seems ObamaCare architect Jonathan Gruber regrets his comments... As The Daily Caller reports, during an interview with MSNBC, Gruber explained he "was speaking off the cuff and basically spoke inappropriately," adding, "I regret having made those comments." We suspect what he means is "I regret being caught saying those comments."

Caught on tape: “Lack of transparency is a huge political advantage,” Gruber said. “And basically, call it the stupidity of the American voter or whatever, but basically that was really, really critical for the thing to pass.” The arrogance and destructiveness of this man knows no bounds. Look at how excited he gets, flailing his hands all over the place as he discusses the gigantic deception that is ObamaCare.

In 2013; a chain of events led to what was (at the time) the greatest stampede into gold in human history. It began with the Cyprus Steal, the West’s first “bail-in”. This led to the realization (by the Smart Money) that no paper assets were safe any longer, within any Western financial institution or market.

"An open Internet is essential to the American economy, and increasingly to our very way of life," begins the President as he explains why the FCC should regulate the internet for Americans' own good:

*OBAMA CALLS FOR REGULATING INTERNET LIKE PHONE COMPANIES
*OBAMA ASKS FOR 'STRONGEST POSSIBLE RULES' FOR OPEN INTERNET

"The Internet has been one of the greatest gifts our economy — and our society — has ever known," and that's why Obama feels the need to regulate it to "protect an open, accessible, and free Internet."

 If the GOP takes the senate, the days of the Fed doing whatever it wants will have ended. This may well in fact be what pops the US stock market bubble. The GOP hasn't controlled the Senate at any point since the Crisis hit in 2008. If the GOP controls both the House and the Senate, the Fed will be in for SERIOUS problems. 

With the Swiss gold stored at the Bank of Canada, now having been transferred out of the Bank of Canada’s Ottawa vault to an unknown location, the Swiss public would be wise to question the SNB on this move. The Swiss gold stored at the Bank of England in London seemingly being ‘actively managed’ one of the world’s largest centres for unallocated gold trading, the Swiss public would also be wise to enquire on this issue. And with significant historical quantities of Swiss gold that were stored with the US Federal Reserve Bank in New York no longer there after the SNB seemingly brought their US vaulted gold holdings to zero, the Swiss public need to question why these particular holdings were targeted for sales from 2000-2005 and not domestically held gold.

Over the last 2 days, more than two dozen Russian military aircraft, in four groups, were tracked and intercepted conducting aerial maneuvers around Europe, according to NATO. As The Wall Street Journal reports, this activity is on a scale seldom seen since the end of the Cold War, prompting NATO jets to scramble in another sign of how raw East-West relations have grown. "There is a troubling trend... of sabre rattling" warned The White House, noting that NATO has intercepted over 100 incursions by Russia year-to-date to which the US Army chief of staff ominously warned, this is "Russian aggression," and "we have to reassure our allies."

The recent spike in global political-financial volatility that was temporarily soothed by ECB covered bond buying reveals another crack in the six-year-old throw-money-at-the-banks strategies of politicians and central bankers. The very fact - that without excessive artificial stimulation or the promise of it - more hell breaks loose - is one that government heads neither admit, nor appear to discuss. But the truth is that the global financial system has already failed. The political system that stumbles to sustain the illusion that economies can be built on rampant financial instability, has also failed us. Past presidents talked of a square deal, a new deal and a fair deal. It’s high time for a stability deal that prioritizes the real financial health of individuals over the false one of financial institutions.

Darth Alekseyevich Vader, a former electrician and official candidate in Ukraine's parliamentary elections, has promised to turn Ukraine into a "galactic empire." However, it appears the dream of galactic uberlordship is ending as a Kiev polling station has denied his ability to cote after he refused to remove his mask. As The Telegraph reports, he left the polling station unable to vote but promising that it did not mean his "empire will not win."

As was leaked on Friday, when the market surged on news that some 25 banks would fail the ECB's third stress test (because in the New Normal more bank failures means more bailouts, means the richer get richest, means more wealth inequality), so moments ago the ECB reported that, indeed, some 25 banks failed the European Central Bank's third attempt at collective confidence building and redrawing of a reality in which there is about €1 trillion in European NPLs, also known as the stress test.

"Amidst this volatility and performance dispersion, we struggle with our instinct that it is a good time to short stocks with the reality of the past few years of short-selling carnage. We were intrigued by investment legend Julian Robertson’s recent comments that, “we had a field day before anyone knew anything about shorting. It was almost a license to steal. Nowadays it’s a license to get hosed.” There is no doubt that the complexities around single name short selling have increased massively following 2008 – partly as a function of government regulation and intervention, partly due to negative rebates being the norm – but we have slowly been getting back in to the shallow end of the pool." - Dan Loeb

• Total CEO de Margerie killed in Moscow as jet hits snow plough (Reuters)
• China GDP Growth Rate Is Slowest in Five Years (WSJ)
• Oil at $80 a Barrel Muffles Forecasts for U.S. Shale Boom (BBG)
• Carney Faces Scrutiny on Worst Payments Outage Since 2007 (BBG)
• Ebola crisis turns a corner as U.S. issues new treatment protocols (Reuters)
• Gold Buying Rebounds in India on Diwali Jewelry Sales (BBG)
• China-backed hackers may have infiltrated Apple's iCloud (Reuters)
• Greece Said to Seek Recycling of Bank Funds for Exit (BBG)