Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Rotten to the Core - Second Largest Bank Failure

 

"But perhaps the most stunning piece of news we're getting in the wake of the MF Global collapse is in the clients of the firm who managed to get away scot-free, with no freezing of accounts or capital -- particularly the accounts of the mega-cap independent oil company Koch Industries, run by the politically active Koch brothers.

A recent report in Reuters has described the billions of dollars of client accounts that were withdrawn from MF Global in the last few weeks before their collapse, including 8 accounts from Koch industries engaged in oil trade that were transferred to Mizuho Securities after years of a steady and profitable relationship with MF.

Both the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange were charged with overseeing MF Global, their clearing member.  If we are to believe them, they had no idea of any difficulties within the firm before customer accounts went missing just a few days before the collapse. 

But someone clearly knew of the cratering positions and imminent collapse of MF Global, as billions of dollars of accounts were "coincidentally" withdrawn.  And what do the Koch brothers say was the reason for these withdrawals?  There's been no comment."

Daniel Dicker, MF Global and the Koch Brothers: Friends to the End, Huffington Post, Nov. 11, 2011


"There are numerous vested interests on Wall Street, in Washington, and in the corporate conglomerates who see nothing wrong in distorting information, 'spinning the news,' and sometimes even outright lying, when it comes to reporting on the economic situation. They are promoting a story, and often an agenda. They hide behind the safe harbor provisions of the law, and the subjective aspects of economics. They use euphemisms such as 'talking your book' to describe calculated deception.

The financial media accepts it, condones it, and does it themselves.  As one financial news anchor, said shortly after the tech stock bubble collapsed in 2002, 'Of course market strategists and analysts lie. Everyone knows that. But no one made people buy those stocks.'

Straight news reporting is less seen in the mainstream media these days, since solid investigative journalism is considered too costly to the corporate management.  Much cheaper to allow paid shills to take scripted shots at one another, in the manner of professional wrestling.  This is how the voters are informed, and how public policy is shaped. And when it comes to economics, the establishment is firmly in control of the message.  The selection of guests is carefully scripted to support a point of view."

Jesse, 9 July 2010

JPM announced the 'rescue' of First Republic Bank this morning, in a takeover subsidized by the FDIC.

This is the second largest bank failure.   Three of the four largest bank failures in U.S. history have taken place over the last two months.

The better than expected ISM Manufacturing numbers this morning helped throw the markets into a sharp reversal.

Gold and silver managed a fairly impressive intraday wash and rinse.

The Dollar shifted into rally mode.

Stocks had another ranging day but managed to finished mostly unchanged. 

This may be a data driven week, with the Fed's latest rate decision on Wednesday afternoon, and the Non-Farm Payrolls report on Friday.

The corruption at the Supreme Court is almost on a par with the financial corruption and insider trading at the Fed. 

And its performance falls about as historically short of intentions.

The oligarchy is audacious.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Take It to the Limit

 

"Few things are more destructive to Christians than anger.  Anger causes us to lose our self-control and to say and do things we would otherwise never consider.  Anger, if allowed to remain, turns into bitterness that eats away at our hearts.  Scripture consistently commands believers to put away anger and lists it as one of the sins of the flesh.

At times, we try to defend our anger by citing that Jesus cleansed the temple in righteous indignation. Jesus was capable of being angry without sinning.  We must be careful not to justify our anger with Scripture. Ephesians 4:31 commands us to put away all anger.  That does not mean that we cease to have strong convictions or lose our desire for justice.  It does mean we refuse to allow the sins of others to cause us to sin.  Anger does not bring about God’s redemptive work; far more often it hinders what God is working to accomplish.

If you feel that you have a righteous anger because of something that has happened, see if you are holding anger in your heart without sin.  Is your anger turning into bitterness?  Is your anger causing you to speak in an unchristian manner to someone or to gossip about them?  Is your anger causing you to make excuses for your own ungodly behavior?  Is your anger preventing you from acting in a loving, redemptive, and Christlike way toward someone?  You must examine any anger within you and allow God to remove any sinful attitudes that your anger may have produced."

Henry Blackaby, Christian Anger

"Do you not know that to whom you give yourselves as servants, their servants you become, whether of a corruption unto death, or of a righteousness unto life?"

Rom 6:16

"Stop spreading lies and tell the truth.  For we are not acting alone, but are intimately related to others on the way.   If you are angry, be sure that it is not out of wounded pride or bad temper.  Never go to bed angry, and give the devil that foothold.   If you had been a thief you must not only give up stealing, but you must learn to make an honest living, and give to those in need.

Let there be no more profanity, but instead use words suitable for the occasion, which God can use to help others.  Never sin against the Holy Spirit, as He is the pledge of your redemption.  Let there be no more resentment, no more anger, no more violent self-assertiveness, no more slander and provocative remarks.  Be kind to one another, and understanding.  Be as ready to forgive others as God has forgiven you."

Ephesians 4:25-32


Stocks managed to gain a footing and continue their move higher today.

VIX fell to a multi-year low.

Gold and silver chopped sideways with silver gaining a bit at the close.

The Dollar ended nearly flat after the usual technical volatility of a manipulated commodity.

Have a pleasant weekend.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - The Madness Serves None But Itself

 

“The never ending alarms, the never ending phrases, the never ending hanging out of flags, now in triumph, now in mourning—it all produces apathy.  And everyone feels helpless, and everyone knows he is being lied to, and everyone is told what he has to believe.   The dominant feeling is that this reign of terror can hardly last long, but that its fall will bury us.”

Victor Klemperer, I Will Bear Witness 1933-41

"When humanity, subjugated by the terror of crime, has been driven mad by fear and horror, and when chaos has become the supreme law, then the time for the empire of lawlessness will have come."

Friedrich Rudolf Klein-Rogge, Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse

"As observers of totalitarianism such as Victor Klemperer noticed, truth dies in four modes, all of which we have just witnessed.   The first mode is the open hostility to verifiable reality, which takes the form of presenting inventions and lies as if they were facts.  Demeaning the world as it is begins the creation of a fictional counterworld.

You submit to tyranny when you renounce the difference between what you want to hear and what is actually the case.  What is truth?   Sometimes people ask this question because they wish to do nothing.  Generic cynicism makes us feel hip and alternative even as we slip along with our fellow citizens into a morass of indifference.   It is your ability to discern facts that makes you an individual, and our collective trust in common knowledge that makes us a society.

Believe in truth.  To abandon facts is to abandon freedom.  If nothing is true, then no one can criticize power, because there is no basis upon which to do so.  If nothing is true, then all is spectacle.  The biggest wallet pays for the most blinding lights.”

Timothy Snyder, On Tyranny

"The impulse to evil is not the domain of any particular people or time, but a recurrent problem that must be confronted by each generation, and each individual person, in their own way and calling.   There is always the temptation to look upon injustice as insurmountable, and to simply turn away and to wash our hands with the thought that there is no use of trying.

That is the fate of those who have given themselves over to self-absorption, addictions, or despair, who are dying inside, and who when the time comes will make beasts of themselves, to escape the painful fragility of their own insubstantial being."

Jesse, The Age of Spectacle, 8 November 2012


There is a growing class of politicians and journalists who are at heart insincere performers,  cynically seeking wealth and power as magnets for hysterical nincompoops.

As old as Babylon, and evil as sin.

Rally follows selloff as wash follows rinse. 

A lackluster set of economic data this morning cheered the markets that the Fed will soon be done with their interest rate increases.

And the hopes that corporate America at least will muddle through somehhow and continue to provide the one percent with outsized, largely unproductive, gains.

The Dollar chopped sideways.

Gold and silver were hit early and then recovered to flat.

Looks like some post-option expiration 'technical trading.' 

Have a pleasant evening.