Showing posts with label Other People's Money. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Other People's Money. Show all posts

23 June 2022

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Dancing on a Volcano - Metals Option Expiration

 

"I am willing to believe that history is for the most part inaccurate and biased, but what is peculiar to our own age is the abandonment of the idea that history could be truthfully written.  In the past people deliberately lied, or they unconsciously coloured what they wrote, or they struggled after the truth, well knowing that they must make many mistakes; but in each case they believed that ‘the facts’ existed and were more or less discoverable.

In Spain, for the first time, I saw newspaper reports which did not bear any relation to the facts, not even the relationship which is implied in an ordinary lie.  I saw great battles reported where there had been no fighting, and complete silence where hundreds of men had been killed.  I saw troops who had fought bravely denounced as cowards and traitors, and others who had never seen a shot fired hailed as the heroes of imaginary victories, and I saw newspapers in London retailing these lies and eager intellectuals building emotional superstructures over events that had never happened.  I saw, in fact, history being written not in terms of what happened but of what ought to have happened according to various ‘party lines’."

George Orwell, Looking Back On the Spanish War and Other Essays


"The whole town and all its inhabitants are quite drowned in carnival din, masks and confetti. And on top of that the news of the Reichstag fire. 

Dancing on a volcano."

Alban Berg, Letter from Berlin, September 1, 1933


"The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.”

Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism


"Never relinquish your ability to love, to love others and to love the truth, whether it be from fatigue, or confusion, careerism or expediency.  For in that simple act of the will to love we maintain a critical linkage to our humanity.  

The real capitulation of a people to the will to power occurs, not in the mob as one might think, for by then it is an almost forgone conclusion.  The guardians of the public conscience are in the professional class, for they are the enablers of a moral voice and caution.  They possess a platform and provide an example, and therefore bear a heavier than normal responsibility for speaking for the truth."

Jesse, The Great Temptation and the Rise of the Will to Power, January 1, 2017

 Stocks managed to rally despite some weaker economic news early on.

The bulloney boys were cheery today, managing to turn that frown upside down, and the market strategists were out hawking their (be)wares.

The recession was a topic of interest, with the general line being that stocks have already discounted it and now is nearly the time to start putting that cash to work.

I would say that a recession, as concerning as it may be,  is among the least of our more serious concerns. 

Keep an eye on Europe, and also on the Asian Pacific rim.

Contagion is a very serious concern given the shoddy and poorly regulated nature of our financial system.

But not to worry, after the close the Fed says that all the banks have passed their stress tests.  LOL

Time to head for higher ground.

The Dollar was higher, and gold and especially silver were lower.

There will be a Futures options expiration for the metals on Monday the 29th.

Never has so much self-serving baloney been fed to so many by so few.

And they seem to be getting better at it.   Bernays would be pleased. 

Tell us lies, tell us sweet little lies.

This is going to be a memorable year.

Have a pleasant evening.

10 October 2009

Mutual Funds Are at Cash Levels Not Seen Since the 2007 Market Top


Trend following beta monkeys (TFBM) using Other People's Money (OPM).

They'll never learn.

Because they don't care after they have collected their fees and bonuses.

Herd behaviour does not begin to describe this phenomenon.

The US financial system is designed to maximize financial management returns and encourage the mispricing of risk, and ultimately the distribution of wealth from the many to the few through fraud, fiduciary recklessness, and Ponzi schemes.

The root cause of the US's problems are with the distorted monetary policies of the Federal Reserve, and the regulatory failure of a government corrupted by its financial sector.



02 March 2009

The Next Bailout: Pension Funds Imploding


It is in times like these that Pension Fund Managers, and the Other People's Money crowd in general, are showing how they earned their pay, or didn't.

Aren't you glad the Bush Administration did not achieve its objective of putting the Social Security Trust Fund into the stock market?

Although its not clear how much difference that is going to make in the long run.

We are still in the calculated and deliberate 'general looting of the country' phase and the tide has not yet turned. The financiers are still in control.


Chicago Business News
Pension bombs going off

By: Paul Merrion
March 02, 2009

Exploding pension fund shortfalls are blowing billion-dollar holes in the balance sheets of some of the Chicago area's biggest companies, forcing them to make huge contributions to retirement plans at a time when cash flow and credit are already under stress.

Boeing Co.'s shareholder equity is now $1.2 billion in the hole thanks to an $8.4-billion gap between its pension assets and the projected cost of its obligations for 2008. At the end of 2007, Boeing had a $4.7-billion pension surplus. If its investments don't turn around, the Chicago-based aerospace giant will have to quadruple annual contributions to its plan to about $2 billion by 2011.

Stock market losses also pounded pension funds at Abbott Laboratories Inc., Caterpillar Inc. and Exelon Corp., with others sure to emerge as companies file their annual financial reports with the Securities and Exchange Commission in coming weeks.

The pension gaps underscore a growing conundrum. Unfunded pension liabilities have to be subtracted from shareholder equity, weakening balance sheets at a time when it's already tough to borrow money. Barring a reprieve from Congress, companies may be forced to make more layoffs or curb capital investments to divert cash to shore up pensions....

The Chicago companies are symptomatic of nationwide woes. Last year, the 100 largest corporate pension funds in the U.S. saw their net assets decline by 21%, while liabilities increased 1.2%. Applying those averages to any of the region's top funds puts almost all of them into the red by at least $1 billion....