SPY

• Threatening snowstorm may be early test for N.Y. Mayor de Blasio (Reuters), U.S. Northeast Threatened With Blizzard, Travel Delays (BBG)
• Scarred U.S. consumers a hard sell for traditional retail (Reuters)
• Edward Snowden, Whistle-Blower (NYT)
• A Few Brave Investors Scored Huge, Market-Beating Wins (WSJ)
• Fiat gets full control of Chrysler for $4.35 billion (Reuters)
• Billions Vanish in Kazakh Banking Scandal (WSJ)
• SAC’s Cohen Focus of Trial as Martoma Rebuffs U.S. (BBG)
• World's first state-licensed marijuana retailers open doors in Colorado (Reuters)
• Hyundai, Kia face fading growth as currency tides buoy Japan rivals (Reuters)
• Bond investors braced for new year shock (FT)
• Putin vows total destruction of 'terrorists' after bombings (AFP)

Following up on the latest stunning revelations released yesterday by German Spiegel which exposed the spy agency's 50 page catalog of "backdoor penetration techniques", today during a speech given by Jacob Applebaum (@ioerror) at the 30th Chaos Communication Congress, a new bombshell emerged: specifically the complete and detailed description of how the NSA bugs, remotely, your iPhone. The way the NSA accomplishes this is using software known as Dropout Jeep, which it describes as follows: "DROPOUT JEEP is a software implant for the Apple iPhone that utilizes modular mission applications to provide specific SIGINT functionality. This functionality includes the ability to remotely push/pull files from the device. SMS retrieval, contact list retrieval, voicemail, geolocation, hot mic, camera capture, cell tower location, etc. Command, control and data exfiltration can occur over SMS messaging or a GPRS data connection. All communications with the implant will be covert and encrypted."

"I can give you a guarantee to protect the Winter Olympics in the city of Sochi on the Black Sea next year. The Chechen groups that threaten the security of the games are controlled by us... " - Saudi Arabia's Bandar bin Sultan to Vladimir Putin, spoken in hope of Russia selling out the Syrian regime, summer 2013.

Even Before 9/11, NSA Knew In Real-Time Which Countries Both Parties to Phone Calls Were In

In September 1939, six days after the United Kingdom declared war on Germany, Charlie Chaplin began filming one of his most epic films ever... and the first “talkie” for the silent film star. It was a courageous project - the ‘Great Dictator’ directly poked fun at Adolf Hitler. At the end of the movie, Chaplin looked into the camera and gave a stirring speech about timeless principles– peace, mutual respect, freedom from evil men who aspire to lead nations. This did not win Chaplin any friends in Washington who were keen to maintain official neutrality. And he paid dearly for it; the Great Dictator was the beginning of an entire decade of turbulent trouble between Chaplin and the US government. His rousing speech at the end of the Great Dictator calls for a world free of violence, intimidation, and government control. Unfortunately, we don’t get to live in that world. This our reality. The world is beautiful. Life is beautiful. But the leaders of humankind surely make it all damned hard to appreciate sometimes.

Wondering what a 'market' looks like up, close, and personal in the seconds before, during, and after this week's "most important FOMC meeting ever." From SPY's 50-second lead on the news release to VIX's gap, and from crossed markets to e-mini futures leading the premature charge, Nanex's charts are a smorgasbord of SEC-inspiration...

Last time it was trading faster than the speed of light in gold and stocks. This time, 50 seconds before the FOMC statement was officially released to the great unwashed, Nanex notes that the market exploded with activity reaching levels higher than during the actual FOMC news release. As they show in the charts below, approximately $106 Million of SPY and 3,700 eMini Futures contracts traded in 1 second. Gold - while less voluminous - was just as berserko in the minutes and seconds leading up the news release. What is going on here?

The key level on the $VIX to watch is at 14.64.

2013 was a year when Europe tried to reallign its primary source of natgas energy, from Gazpromia to Qatar, and failed. More importantly, it was a year in which Russia's Vladimir Putin undisputedly won every foreign relations conflict that involved Russian national interests, to the sheer humiliation of both John Kerry and Francois Hollande. However, it seems the former KGB spy had a Plan B in case things escalated out of control, one that fits with what we wrote a few days ago when we reported that "Russia casually announces it will use nukes if attacked." Namely, as Bloomberg reports citing Bild, Russia quietly stationed a double-digit number of SS-26 Stone, aka Iskander, tactical, nuclear-capable short-range missiles near the Polish border in a dramatic escalation to merely verbal threats issued as recently as a year ago.

All of the Chairs of the 9/11 Commission and the Congressional Investigation Into 9/11 Say It’s “Implausible” that the 9/11 Hijackers Acted Without GOVERNMENT Backing

• Presidential Task Force Recommends Overhaul of NSA Surveillance Tactics (WSJ)
• Monte Paschi's Largest Shareholder Says It Will Vote Against $4.1 Billion Capital Increase (WSJ)
• SAC Reconsiders Industry Relationships—and Its Name (WSJ)
• Icahn’s Apple Push Criticized by Calpers as ‘Johnny Come Lately’  (BBG)
• In Yemen, al Qaeda gains sympathy amid U.S. drone strikes (Reuters)
• Missing American in Iran was on unapproved mission (AP)
• In China, Western Companies Cut Jobs as Growth Ebbs (WSJ)
• U.S. lays out steps to smooth Obamacare coverage for January (Reuters)
• Las Vegas Sands Said to Drop $35 Billion Spanish Casino Proposal (BBG)
• Twitter Reverts Changes To Blocking Functionality After Strong Negative User Feedback (TechCrunch)

In the 1st installment of this article – May the Odds Ever Be in Your Favor – The Reaping, we addressed how wealth inequality created by men rigging the system and utilizing media propaganda ultimately leads to rebellion. In Part 2, we will show how hope and defiance can ignite the flame of liberty in the minds of men. Edward Snowden has ignited that flame.  A Lot of Hope is Dangerous... Linear thinking old timers are likely to scoff at the notion that some trilogy of novels for teenagers could capture the mood of the time in a way that explains how the people of this country will respond to the current worsening Crisis. History is cyclical and we’ve returned to a time where leaders will step forward to lead and brave heroes step forward to fight. The future of the country hangs in the balance.

A recent report released by U.S. computer security firm FireEye revealed that Chinese hackers had accessed computers at the foreign ministries of five European countries.  The report concluded that these “seemingly unrelated cyberattacks” could actually be “part of a broader offensive fueled by shared development and logistics infrastructure.” The laundry list of hacking targets mirrors the recent avalanche of accusations leveled at the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA). As we move further into the 21st century, the U.S. and China will be the major rule-makers for the new global order. As such, the U.S. and China will together help define what is acceptable behavior in the cyberspace. There have already been calls for the U.S. and China to discuss limits on hacking activities and to define clear “rules of the road” for cyberspace. Unfortunately, it seems that (though neither would admit it) the U.S. and China have very similar ideas on cyberspace — anything goes.

While some may think trading these manipulated capital markets has become a leading cause of premature death over the past year, that is not the case. At least not yet. Instead, the leading causes of early death are shown on the chart below compiled by Wired. It maps "the global cost of early mortality - some 1.7 billion years of potential human life forefited annually - sorted by cause of death."

With November in the books, a month in which the S&P rose 2.85%, and a centrally-planned 27% year to date, it is time to check how the most prominent US hedge funds are doing heading into the home stretch. As usual - it is not pretty. And yes, while hedge funds don't benchmark to the S&P, after 5 years of underperformance, their LPs sure start asking themselves why do they pay 2 and 20 at a time when one can buy the SPY for free and thanks to CIO Bernanke, outperform 98% of all hedge funds?