SP 500 and NDX Futures Daily Charts

As fraudulent enterprises go, the US markets were relatively calm today in the face of uncertainty in Europe and a rather weak Jobs Report.

Perhaps the disconnected nature of the nation's money, its profound alienation from the real economy, is the key to the market's increasingly erratic behaviour, and the remarkable silence of the lambs.

"Resplendent and unfading is wisdom,
and she is readily perceived by those who love her,
and found by those who seek her.
She hastens to make herself known in anticipation of their desire;
Whoever watches for her at dawn shall not be disappointed,
for he shall find her sitting by his gate.
For taking thought of wisdom is the perfection of prudence,
and whoever for her sake keeps vigil
shall quickly be free from care;
because she makes her own rounds, seeking those worthy of her,
and graciously appears to them in the ways,
and meets them with all solicitude."

Wisdom 6:12-16

CFTC Update on the Investigation Into Manipulation of the Silver Market In Progress Since 2008

The CFTC released a long awaited update on their investigation into the manipulation of the silver market, thereby meeting a key deadline to the public.

November 4, 2011

CFTC Statement Regarding Enforcement Investigation of the Silver Markets

Washington, DC – The Commodity Futures Trading Commission today issued the following statement:

“In September of 2008, the Commission announced the existence of an enforcement investigation into the possibility of unlawful acts in silver markets. Since that time, the staff has analyzed over 100,000 documents and interviewed dozens of witnesses and obtained expert advice. It has been a long, detailed, and thorough investigation, and it continues in an appropriate and considered manner.”

You can read the entire statement here.  Except that WAS the entire statement.

For questions or comments, call 1-800-EAT-CAKE.

Independent Interview with King World News by Bart Chilton, CFTC Commissioner

MF Global: $658 Million in Missing Customer Funds Found in Account at JP Morgan - Maybe

Government Of the People, By the People, and For the People

According to Bloomberg, $658.8 Million in what could be the 'missing customer funds' were 'found' today in an account at JP Morgan.

I know how it is.  Sometimes you forget to check your coat pockets and miscellaneous bank statements too. Sloppy bookkeeping. Tsk tsk. Oh well, just an honest mistake, right?

JP Morgan is one of the largest holders and agents of MF Global debt.

Jefferies Group underwrote MF's bond offering late this year.

MF Global’s commodity customer funds are reported to have a shortfall of $633 million, or about 11.6 percent, out of a segregated fund requirement of about $5.4 billion, according to the CFTC.

The CME is forcing the transfer of customer accounts to other brokers who are demanding double margin and issuing margin calls and forcing liquidation of positions, sometimes at widely fluctuating prices, according to some reports.

And in related news: SEC Investigates Insider Trading of MF Bonds

Hey, now that he has resigned from MF Global, perhaps Jon Corzine will consider taking Tired Timmy's place as Treasury Secretary. He is ex-Goldman you know.

Once you pass through the glass ceiling it becomes a glass floor.

Update:   JPM is now said by some news outlets to be denying that it is holding any MF Global customer money.  "It's MY milkshake. And I'm going to drink it all up!"  slurp slurp grnnfef.

When the going get tough, the weird turn pro.
  

The Disappointing Non Farm Payrolls Number: An Early Christmas 'Goose' Stuffed with Baloney

The Birth-Death Model was out of normal to the high side enough to raise a comment. This is shown in the first slide. Lately the BLS statisticians had not resorted to this and had actually been running at estimates a little more to what one might expect in a business slump.

The headline number without the Birth Death model, deseasonalized, showed negative growth.

So the truth is probably that jobs growth was flat to negative. But even that nugget of truth is liable to be lost in future revisions. I wonder if the desire to show growth will skew the statistics even further as we go forward.

Typical games are to play with the chain deflator in GDP to make it look better, and to play with seasonality, birth-death model, and rolling revisions in the payrolls numbers. And of course the tinkering with CPI is apparent to anyone not carrying an agenda who has looked into the mechanics of the changes in the past ten years.

But I suppose since Obama is speaking this morning at the G20, and telling Europe how to solve its banking and debt problems as the US has done, a passable grade on jobs growth was de rigueur pour le charlatan.

Next up, blame the slump on Europe after allowing your hedge funds, banks, and talking heads of the financial demimonde to drag them down, and then implement QE3 as a rescue plan.  Anything, rather than admit to the corruption in the system and then have to engage in meaningful reform. 

This is the nature of a credibility trap in the aftermath of the deep capture of politicians and their apparatus by the monied interests in a crony kleptocracy, teetering on the edge of general discovery.

If Obama is Hoover, which may be a somewhat flattering comparison to both,  then where on the political horizon is Roosevelt?  So far all that is offered to the voters is a choice amongst a freak show of corporate goons, imperious ideologues, and mini-Mussoliniani.