Ron Paul

That's right folks - MORE FREE MONEY! This is just what Egypt needs, I guess. Europe too

There's no comparison between the Land of the Free and Egypt ... or is there?

I am not an economist, but as a strategist I believe there is a case for a multi-year period of weak growth in the US, which could be magnified by an EM slowdown as the EM bloc diverges policy to deal with its own domestic positive output gaps, domestic inflation problems and domestic asset bubbles. The obvious problem is that the US has an excess debt problem and a central bank that seeks to solve asset bubbles that burst by creating new asset bubbles. This policy has been proved a failure. Remember that debt does not equal wealth, that asset bubbles do not equal wealth, that more liquidity does not equal money but instead equals more debt, and that liquidity does not equal capital.

GATA has compiled what is probably one of the best and most comprehensive reports on the history of the gold market, the "special" place gold holds in the central bankers' world, the interaction between the physical and gold paper markets, and the documented historic evidence and definitive proof that the gold price has long been the most manipulated concept in the history of modern capital markets. Must read for all interested in the dynamics behind the price of gold.

Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke, in an attempt to soothe global markets in the midst of a breakdown of uncivil society in Egypt, where strongman Hosni Mubarak is struggling to extend decades of control through iron-fisted use of security forces, scheduled a hasty Washington D.C. press conference at eight thirty EST Friday morning.

My generation is coming into its own and we don’t buy the bull shit of our parents’ generation. We don’t believe in Democrat or Republican. We don’t believe in the system itself. We will be the ones making the decisions going forward. We will default on the astronomic promises our parents made to themselves. We will create an entirely new monetary and financial system. Real free-market capitalism will flourish, not this socialism for the rich garbage Obama loves so much. We will focus on doing good while doing well. Not because the government forces us to, rather because we are witness to and victims of this sick, twisted creation of our parents generation that celebrates total greed without the slightest concern of the consequences to others. - Mike Krieger

If there is one thing that the one-time GAO audit of the Fed disclosed, is how woefully insufficient the extremely superficial data discovery was. Another thing uncovered was just how needed this disclosure was: it provided extended material into how the Fed subsidizes banks (both domestic and international) on an ongoing basis, not to mention substantial number crunching for the blogosphere. Either way, if Bernanke was hoping that the Frank-Dodd bill would take care of the Fed opacity, pardon, transparency issue in perpetuity, he may be disappointed: Ron's son, Rand, has just announced he is introducing legislation to, well, Audit The Fed, precisely along the lines of what his father did previously and generated massive support from everyone in Congress. Once again Ben Bernanke is about to become a major thorn on the side of the political puppetry.

Precisely a year ago, in advance of the then farcical renomination of the genocidal maniac for his n^th term at the printer's, Zero Hedge nominated John Taylor of Stanford for Fed Chairman. Of course, in the subsequent theater in which the purchased cretinous zombies with Wall Street bank indulgence accounts known as Congressmen, it was a given that the Chaircreature would be appointed for his subsequent (and last) term. Yet in the intervening one year, Taylor's role in monetary affairs has only gotten stronger, to the point where BusinessWeek has just released an article titled: "John Taylor: The Republicans' Shadow Fed Chairman." Author Scott Lanman writes: "He doesn't have a vote in Congress. He doesn't sit on the powerful
Federal Open Market Committee. He isn't a member of President Barack
Obama's Council of Economic Advisers. Nonetheless, Stanford University's
John B. Taylor is considered one of the most influential economic
voices in Washington. Taylor's followers include the new GOP House leadership, the chairmen of
key House committees, Presidential hopefuls, conservative thinkers, and
others suspicious of Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's
stimulative monetary policy and perceived alliances with Obama
Administration officials...Representative Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), who chairs the
House Budget Committee and speaks to Taylor every two to three weeks,
says he "is probably the leading voice with the highest level of
credibility in proposing an alternative view to the Fed's." We are delighted that as Bernanke's career is about to go down in flames for terminally destroying this once great country, there is a natural successor, who in our humble belief is worthy. Do we smell a mutiny in the Eccles?

I’ve been pouring through the Fed Reserve’s recent release of circa 2005 FOMC meeting transcripts. The most striking observation that one can make is that the consumer - the very lifeblood that determines whether our economy will live or die - has been discarded...The solution is simple, we are broke since we take in with taxes and borrowing less then we owe. Our deficit alone ensures default or Quantitative Easing from now until the wheels come entirely off. It is time we reissue the currency, tie it temporarily and loosely to gold, get our manufacturing jobs back and move on.

Today, just after the TIC data was released, there was a major sell off in the 10 Year. While some attribute the move to the disclosure which Zero Hedge pointed out first that China had sold $11 billion in Treasurys in November, this should not come as a surprise: we have been claiming for months now that the primary goal of QE 2 is just as much to push stocks higher as it is to replace China as a marginal buyer of Treasurys (although China could easily be buying bonds through the UK - truth is until Ron Paul asks Tim Geithner we won't know). And while this could certainly be a factor, the latest rumor is that there was in fact a Tradeweb fat finger, with some novice (and now recently unemployed) trader putting in a sell order for $6 billion instead of $6 million. The result is presented below. Of course, if we were a sellside advisory we would say nevermind the facts, the reality, and the market manipulation, and just buy the dip. Nevermind that market liquidity across every asset class today is non-existent, and as Citi results demonstrated there has been a complete and utter collapse in trading in the last quarter. Alas, ongoing manipulation whose sole purpose is to fool the greater fools back into the market, is failing, meaning the close loop will continue a little longer... until Chaos theory confirms that not even Ben Bernanke can hold an infinitely multivariable equation together.

When bipartisanship breaks out in Washington DC, check to make sure your wallet is still in your pocket. Every time you fill up your car this winter you are participating in the biggest taxpayer swindle in history. Forcing consumers to use domestically produced ethanol is one of the single biggest boondoggles ever committed by the corrupt brainless twits in Washington DC. Ethanol prices have soared 30% in the last year as the supplies of corn have plunged. Only a policy created in Washington DC could drive up the prices of gasoline and food, with the added benefits of costing the American taxpayer billions in tax subsidies and killing people in 3rd world countries.

The vast majority of Americans, including many of those who believe that they are "educated" about the Federal Reserve, do not really understand how the Federal Reserve really makes money for the international banking elite. Many of those opposed to the Federal Reserve will point to the record $80.9 billion in profits that the Federal Reserve made last year as evidence that they are robbing the American people blind. But then those defending the Federal Reserve will point out that the Fed returned $78.4 billion to the U.S. Treasury. As a result, the Fed only made a couple billion dollars last year. Pretty harmless, eh? Well, actually no. You see, the money that the Federal Reserve directly makes is not the issue. Rather, the "magic" of the Federal Reserve system is that it took the power of money creation away from the U.S. government and gave it to the bankers. Now, the only way that the U.S. government can inject more money into the economy is by going into more debt. But when new government debt is created, the amount of money to pay the interest on that debt is not also created. In this way, it was intended by the international bankers that U.S. government debt would expand indefinitely and the U.S. money supply would also expand indefinitely. In the process, the international bankers would become insanely wealthy by lending money to the U.S. government.

Since the New York Fed's 20-some year olds who are in charge of the Open Market Operation desk have made it clear it is everyone's patriotic duty to frontrun the Fed, courtesy of their "complex" algorithms, below we present the full frontrunning cheat sheet for today's last for the current schedule $7-9 billion POMO focusing on bond due 2016-2017. Those who wish to take no risk whatsoever should merely buy the 10 Cheapest bonds as predicted by Morgan Stanley's treasury spline. Note that the November CUSIP is now cheapest to deliver and should therefore be on the Exclusions list. Also, not surprisingly the December 7 year auction is sufficiently underwater on a relative cheapness to sector basis, that if any PDs actually offer it for sale, then we know for a fact that the spreads on the bid/ask offered by the Fed are so large they more than offset capital losses on actual exit trades and should be sufficient for Ron Paul to demand a congressional inquiry into just how much the Fed pays the PDs in commission spreads in each and every POMO.

For all those with a penchant for crunching manipulated numbers and wish to make a change by taking on the Fed (ironically, making some fiat in the process), this may be your chance: Ron Paul, chairman of the Domestic Monetary Policy subcommittee, and his chief of staff Jeff Diest are seeking to hire a young economist, “thoroughly Austrian, and preferably with an advanced degree. The candidate needs strong knowledge of the Fed and monetary policy generally, and must be an effective writer. He or she will be responsible for organizing hearings; summarizing data and Fed actions for Dr. Paul; writing statements; dealing with Financial Services committee staff; and various other tasks.” Sorry Joe LaVorgna, despite your ubercreative "weather worker" adjustment, you are on the exclusion list.

Behold your Wall Street marionettes at work: instead of focusing on what is actually important for the survival of the middle class, what has a chance of actually reducing the now $14+ trillion in debt, and has a chance of actually passing, the Congressional pissing match is back, and while guaranteed to have absolutely no impact, will result in a lot of sound and fury signifying not only nothing, but just what a posse of jokers represent this country's wealthiest social strata, if nobody else. Because who cares that, as Ron Paul made all too clear, America is now beyond bankrupt: let's spend a few weeks debating a moot point, all the while Rome burns, the violins on the Titanic deck hit a crescendo, Wall Street accrues another record bonus year, and the politicos collect indulgences from their Fed subsidiary masters.