Comcast

• 'Pussy Riot' band members found guilty (Al Jazeera)
• Merkel Says Germany Backs Draghi’s ECB Aid Conditionality (Bloomberg)
• Now, the reverse psychology: Hilsenrath: Fed 'Hawks' Weigh In Against More Action (WSJ)
• London Firings Seen Surging As Finance Firms Add NY Jobs (Bloomberg)
• Facebook Second-Worst IPO Performer After Share Lock-Up (Bloomberg)
• Kocherlakota Says FOMC Goes Too Far With 2014 Rate Pledge (Bloomberg)
• China Said to Order Action by Banks as Developer Loans Sour (Bloomberg)
• Australian Treasury Dismisses AUD Intervention Calls (Dow Jones)
• Brevan Howard Loses Third Founder As Rokos Said To Leave (Bloomberg)
• Japan eyes end to decades long deflation (Reuters)... for 30 years now
• Ex-Morgan Stanley Executive Gets Nine Months in China Case (Bloomberg)

• Must be those evil speculators' fault: Oil price inflates as speculators bet on stimulus (Reuters)
• Need moar stimulus: UK Coalition plans housebuilding stimulus (FT)
• Paul Ryan brings fundraising prowess to Romney presidential bid (Reuters)
• Chinese serial killer shot dead after massive manhunt (Reuters)
• Silver Hoard Near Record As Hedge-Fund Bulls Recoil (Bloomberg)
• World powers eye emergency food meeting; action doubted (Reuters)
• Clegg Said to Have Role in Picking King Successor as BOE Chief (Bloomberg)
• Standard Chartered CEO takes charge of Iran probe talks (Reuters)
• Risks must not hide positive China trends (FT)
• BOJ should not rule out any policy options: July minutes (Reuters)
• India Says Growth Sacrifice Needed in Inflation Fight (Bloomberg)

• Oil hits 3-month high above $114 on supply concern (Reuters)
• G20 plans response to rising food prices (FT)
• First centrally planned FX, now real estate - SNB Seen Targeting Bank Capital to Curb Property Boom (Bloomberg)
• EU hedge funds face pay threat (FT)
• Euro-Area Crisis Has ‘No Obvious End in Sight,’ BOE’s King Says (Bloomberg)
• King urged to widen recovery measures (FT)
• All threats "dwarfed" by Iran nuclear work: Israel PM (Reuters)
• Obama campaign attacks Romney’s pick (FT)
• Romney, Ryan hit the road in an energized campaign (Reuters)
• Yellen Must Show How 12 Fed Opinions Become One Policy (Bloomberg)

• EU talks up Spanish banks package, markets skeptical (Reuters)
• China’s Import Growth Misses Estimates For June (Bloomberg)
• The monkeyhammering continues: Paulson Disadvantage Minus Fund down 7.9% in June, down 16% in 2012 (Bloomberg)
• Draghi pledges further action if needed (FT)
• JPMorgan Silence on Risk Model Spurs Calls for Disclosure (Bloomberg)
• Norway's Statoil to restart production after govt stops strike (Reuters)
• Top Fed officials set table for more easing (Reuters)
• Euro-Split Case Drives Danish Krone Appeal in Binary Bet (Bloomberg)
• Obama Intensifies Tax Fight (WSJ)
• Europe Automakers Brace for No Recovery From Crisis (Bloomberg)
• Boeing’s Air-Show Revival Leaves Airbus Nursing Neo Hangover (Bloomberg)
• Libor Woes Threaten to Turn Companies Off Syndicated Loans (Bloomberg)

Netflix stocks surged more than 21% in one week primarily due to an upbeat Facebook update from the company's CEO.

In the past 24 hours, some readers have been surprised to learn that as Jeff Reeves of InvestorPlace states, total Q2 CNBC viewership as calculated by Nielsen, has tumbled to to the lowest it has been since Q3 2005. This merely confirms that the trendline in our periodic observations of CNBC traffic was more than merely seasonal or VIX-related: it has been one long secular decline, peaking in the quarter of Lehman's demise and down hill ever since.

• Greek Banks Under Pressure (WSJ)
• France Seeks Eurozone Stability Package (FT)
• Germany Dashes Eurozone Expectations (FT)
• Geithner Says European Leaders Know They Must Do More (Bloomberg)
• In Athens, Party Aims to Delay Austerity (WSJ)
• Rajoy Battles ECB for Loans; Monti Appeals for EU Action (Bloomberg)
• Nokia Slashes 10,000 Jobs, Cuts Outlook (WSJ)
• H-1B Visas Hit the Cap, Sending Companies to Plan B (Businessweek)
• Swiss National Bank Vows to Defend Currency Floor (WSJ)
• Euro Crisis Deeper With Moody’s Downgrading Spain, Cyprus (Bloomberg)
• When all else fails... Truckers As Leading Indicator Show Stable U.S. Economic Growth (Bloomberg)

The financial elite - using academe for intellectual cover - want you to believe that markets are efficient, as defined by the Efficient Market Theory (EMT). Neoliberal economic philosophy is based on the belief that neoclassical economic theory is correct. That is, that “markets are efficient”. Wall Street touts markets as trustworthy and infallible, but that faith is misplaced. Gullible US politicians believe that markets are efficient and defer to them. Therefore, US politicians abdicate their responsibility to manage the overall economy, and happily for them, receive Wall Street money. Mistakenly, the primary focus during the 2008 credit crisis is on fixing the financial markets (Wall Street banks) and not the “real economy.” The financial elite are using this “cover-up and pray” policy—hoping that rekindled “animal spirits” will bring the economy back in time to save the status quo. This is impossible because the trust is gone. The same sociopaths control the economy. A Federal Reserve zero interest rate policy (ZIRP), causing malinvestment, and monetizing the national debt with quantitative easing by the Fed, and austerity for the 99% to repay bad bank loans has not worked—and doing more of the same will not work—and defines insanity.

• Is Insider Trading Part of the Fabric on Wall Street? (NYT) ... uhm, next question
• Nasdaq Says Glitches Affected Millions of Shares; IPO System to Be Redesigned (WSJ)... it's all the robot's fault... And the weather... And Bush
• Special Report: The algorithmic arms race (Reuters)
• Barclays to Sell Entire BlackRock Stake (WSJ) ... but they don't need the money... and it's not a market top.
• BoE's Posen: some European banks need more capital (Reuters)... some?
• Limbo on Bankia Undermines Confidence in Spain's Handling of Crisis (WSJ)
• JPMorgan CIO Risk Chief Said to Have Trading-Loss History (Bloomberg)... a guy called Goldman, blowing up JPM... the irony
• Pentagon's tone softens on Chinese military growth (China Daily)
• EU summit to raise pressure on Merkel (FT)
• Romney Super PAC raises less, still tops Democrats (Reuters)
• JPMorgan’s Home-Loan Debt in Europe Increases Anxiety: Mortgages (Bloomberg)

Sometime around March 31 the market was soaring, and there were still those naive, clueless ones, who thought that 2012 would not be a carbon copy of 2011. Rumors of more QE were becoming quieter and quieter as the S&P was on a rampage, the economy was humming along (courtesy of the reacord warm winter as ZH predicted in January, but this would not be widely accepted for at least 2-3 more weeks), Europe was "fixed" and the world was a lovely place. It is right there that everyone's favorite "baller to the waller" David Tepper went all in and bought anything that moves, or doesn't, in financials and tech. As the chart below shows, after having a mere $764 million in equity AUM at the end of December 31, Appaloosa went on an epic liftathon, and increased its AUM to a whopping $4.1 billion in the span of 3 months.

Something funny happened when last August CNBC hired access journalist extraordinaire Andrew Sorkin to spiff up its 6-9 am block also known as Squawk Box: nothing. At least, nothing from a secular viewership basis, because while the block saw a brief pick up in viewership driven by the concurrent (first of many) US debt ceiling crisis and rating downgrade, it has been a downhill slide ever since. In fact, as the chart below shows, the Nielsen rating for the show's core 25-54 demo just slid to multi-year lows. And as NY Daily News, the seemingly ceaseless slide has forced CNBC to start panicking: "CNBC insiders tell us executives at the cable business channel are “freaking out” because viewership levels are down essentially across-the-board, particularly with its marquee shows, “Squawk Box” and “Closing Bell." “Their biggest attractions have become their biggest losers,” says one TV industry insider familiar with the cable channel’s numbers. According to Nielsen ratings obtained by Gatecrasher, from April 2011 to April 2012, “Squawk Box” is down 16 percent in total viewers and 29 percent in the important 25-54 demographic bracket that advertisers buy." Yet is it really fair to blame the slide of the morning block's show on just one man?

• Merkel Seeks to Reassure China (FT)
• German-IMF Rift Stalls Greece Deal (WSJ)
• Survey of Banks Shows a Sharp Cut in Lending in Europe (NYT)
• Bernanke to testify on economy and deficit (AP)
• House votes to freeze congressional, federal pay (WaPo)

We have heard more than enough about both the "resiliency" of holiday spending and the resurgence of the US consumer as shopping supposedly surprised in the past several months (on nothing else than as Bridgewater's Prince indicated was merely the exhaustion of consumer savings). Now we get the confirmation that this was nothing but a prelude to a tsunami of retail returns as "shoppers" push to complete the other side of the transaction, whereby retailers part with the just received cash, leaving them with even greater inventories, and even thinner margins. As Reuters reports, "With a Christmas season that has seen record e-commerce sales coming to a close, returns should hit an all-time high on Tuesday for United Parcel Service." It is only fair that one record nets off another record. And with it goes away the myth that US consumers had found some mysterious and mystical money growing tree. Until Ben boards Commanche One and starts jettisoning the money sacks, this simply won't happen.

In a sad twist of fate for Comcast, its recent business channel acquisition, which numerous independent reports have alleged has become nothing but a prattling brown-nosing drone for the administration, spewing forth an endless barrage of mindnumbing propaganda, is seeing an ever increasing plunge in its viewership (which arguably validates said independent reports) which in November dropped to 47 in the demo, a 36% slide from a year earlier. Nowhere is this more obvious than in what's left of the audience of the original CNBC icon: Maria Bartiromo. The once jet-setting, and now merely setting money honey, whose Closing Bell slot starts at 4PM, has stooped to having the dubious reputation of being in possession of the weakest 25-54 demo among all of CNBC's November viewership, at just 41K per Nielsen's, a massive 51% drop from November 2009, and a 11% drop from October, it seems CNBC's ever sparser viewers have decided that even icons have a useful shelf life. But that's ok: we are confident that once the next round of CNBC "business rationalizations" takes place shortly once the NBC Universal transaction formally closes, the $ Honey will be able to fall back on the proceeds from her latest bestseller: "The Weekend That Changed Wall Street: An Eyewitness Account", which since publication on September 7, has blitzed almost to top of the charts and currently languishes in the much coveted spot #10,655 of bestsellers.