The Payoff: Why Wall Street Always Wins - Capture, Careerism, and Corruption

The reason why no major Wall Street executives are being investigated and indicted, and why the manipulation of markets continues on, is part credibility trap and the rest capture, careerism, and corruption.

The Banks must be restrained, and the financial system reformed, with balance restored to the economy, before there can be any sustainable recovery.




Jeff Connaughton was Senator Ted Kaufman's chief of staff in January 2009.  After Ted's Senate term ended on November 14, 2010, he retired from politics, and now lives and writes in Savannah, GA, and speaks out about the failures to address the financial crisis.

In 2000 he had co-founded a lobbying firm specializing in university research for The Science Foundation, Quinn Gillespie & Associates LLC.  This helped to broaden his understanding of the political process as it had been evolving.

Prior to that he served in the White House as Special Assistant to the Counsel to the President in 1994-95, where he worked on a variety of legislative, regulatory and constitutional issues.

He previously served from 1988 to 1991 on the staff of then Chairman Joseph R. Biden, Jr., of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts - Upping the Chances for Inflation

Intraday commentary on money and the metals and Bernanke's Hammer here.

And now the Swiss are asking, "Wo Ist Das Gold?"

"Muss die Schweiz ihr Gold aus dem Ausland heimholen? Der SVP-Initiative, die das fordert, fehlen nur noch 10'000 Unterschriften. Die SNB könnte in Teufels Küche kommen."

SP 500 and NDX Futures Daily Charts - Divergence Compliments of Apple

There was a big divergence today between Tech and the SP compliments of Apple.

After the bell AT&T missed earnings, and Microsoft missed revenues. Starbucks was in line.

Intraday commentary in which I discuss the policy errors of the Fed in relation to consciously funneling monetary stimulus through financial firms and assets, bubble-wise.

I think the market is greatly overbought and would see a correction, but VIX remains extraordinarily low, so it would be shallow or at most a 'wash and rinse.'

It will take a macro event to break this ramping, and it might not take all that much given the thin volumes.