SP 500 and NDX Futures Daily Charts - VIX Higher On Greek Deal Jitters

All eyes on Europe.

See you Sunday evening.

US Dollar Very Long Term Chart

As I have said previously, the US Dollar DX index may be less useful now because of its almost quaint concentration in the Euro, Yen and Pound, and lack of representation in the currencies of the high growth countries of the emerging markets, particularly India, Brazil, Russia and China.

The Anglo-American banking cartel would like to keep it that way as well. Encouraging the western central banks to inflate their currencies will maintain the appearance of stability while monetization and even devaluations can occur.

Still it is nice to have some historical context.

The Wall Street Conspiracy: Ascent of the Psychopaths and the Culture of Death

"The privileged have regularly invited their own destruction with their greed."

John Kenneth Galbraith, The Age of Uncertainty


"Psychopaths have a grandiose self-structure which demands a scornful and detached devaluation of others, in order to ward off their envy toward the good perceived in other people."

“He will choose you, disarm you with his words, and control you with his presence. He will delight you with his wit and his plans. He will show you a good time but you will always get the bill. He will smile and deceive you, and he will scare you with his eyes.

And when he is through with you, and he will be through with you, he will desert you and take with him your innocence and your pride. You will be left much sadder but not a lot wiser, and for a long time you will wonder what happened and what you did wrong.

And if another of his kind comes knocking on your door, will you open it?"

Robert D. Hare, Without Conscience

The Wall Street Conspiracy




You can also watch the full documentary 'Fishead' here.

I thought the section focusing specifically on Prozac was a bit overdone, as if it was somehow a cause rather than a symptom. At the height of its use, the largest per capita use of Valium was in Japan, probably due to the high tension caused by their close living conditions and a strict cultural system of obligations tied to personal worth.

The point of the film to me is that psychopaths require no such drugs, and if they come to power they order the system to suit their needs. Psychopathic cultures foster extraordinary actions amongst ordinary and feeling people to cope and compete.

High tension cultures live on abusing drugs, whether they be alcohol, cocaine, marijuana, amphetamines, prescription drugs, nicotine, or even sex, sports, or obsessive collecting. People can 'lose themselves' in many ways, including apathy, hatred and ignorance. There was a story just today that says the latest craze on Wall Street is testosterone therapy.

Let's just say that anything can be abused, used for inappropriate purposes, but that does not mean that it is 'bad.' What is more questionable is the set of values and the culture that drives people to such extremes, and their inability to otherwise regulate and restrain themselves that makes a mockery of such idylls as the efficient markets hypothesis.

What has changed in the States over the last thirty years, as best as I can determine based on conversations I have had with a number of people older than myself and extensive reading, is the notion of the 'social norm.' What is considered acceptable, and even desirable, has changed dramatically. "Greed is good" was more than just a line in a movie. And the decline in what was once considered abhorrent, but is now acceptable or even necessary, has been gradually progressing, year by year, slowly and almost imperceptibly. Until over time a people can become hard, almost heartless, even cruel.

"Dort wo man Bücher verbrennt, verbrennt man auch am Ende Menschen."
Where they have burned books, they will end in burning people.

Heinrich Heine

Always there is a progression of evil. As you may have gathered, MF Global represents an important event, a watershed, a mark along the progression of society which I have been watching. If the US continues along this path, at some point the next milestone will be reached, and the die may be cast. You cannot believe it now, but it can happen. And your grandchildren will curse you for their shame.

This film may be especially fitting and useful perhaps, given that it is an election year and the choice is between two well-groomed corporate brands, with messages cynically tailored to appeal to different aspects of their audiences, but with little actual difference between them.

"Lying, deceiving, and manipulation are natural talents for psychopaths...When caught in a lie or challenged with the truth, they are seldom perplexed or embarrassed -- they simply change their stories or attempt to rework the facts so that they appear to be consistent with the lie. The results are a series of contradictory statements and a thoroughly confused listener."

Robert Hare, Without Conscience

MF Global: Trail Growing Cold - 'No One to Blame"'

I did predict something like this would happen in about the second week of the scandal, didn't I?

Did you ever imagine that in America a major brokerage firm would brazenly steal over a billion dollars in customer funds and assets, and that no one would even be prosecuted?

And that the financiers would use the courts to just keep the money, and basically tell the broker's customers to eat shit? 

The money?  Oh no, that's just vaporized.  Just a freak accident, practically  an act of God.   Very mysterious, but could not happen again.  Protection?  Sorry don't know anything about that.

No one knows anything.  Except that the financial system can't be trusted, and that nothing in it is safe.  But they are afraid to admit it.

Reuters Africa
ANALYSIS-Criminal probe trail going cold at MF Global
Thu Feb 9, 2012 10:54pm GMT

Feb 9 (Reuters) - When commodities brokerage MF Global imploded, the FBI and federal prosecutors were quick to launch an investigation to pursue what seemed obvious to outspoken regulators and lawmakers: laws were broken and crimes were committed.

More than three months later, it is far from clear that anyone will face criminal charges over the disappearance of more than $600 million in customer money as MF Global spiraled towards bankruptcy in the brokerage's final, frantic days in the last week of October.

So far, the MF Global investigation is not tracking the early progress of other high-profile financial scandals such as RefCo, where former Chairman Phil Bennett was arrested within days of the disclosure that the futures firm had been hiding losses for years.

Lawyers and people familiar with the MF Global investigation of the firm that was run by former Goldman Sachs head Jon Corzine say that even though the hunt is still on to find out whether or not officials at MF Global intended to pilfer customer money in a desperate bid to keep the brokerage from failing, the trail at this point is growing cold.

To date, scant evidence of criminal intent has emerged in company emails, no former or current employees have sought to cut a deal to provide testimony about potential wrongdoing and seasoned defense lawyers say they are not seeing the tell-tale signs of a hot criminal investigation.

A source familiar with the work of Louis Freeh, trustee for the MF Global holding company that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, says investigators have yet to find evidence of fraud in the multi-faceted and complex investigation.  (Perhaps stealing and then passing on stolen goods as your own does not qualify as fraud? And what is the MF Global trustee, Lous Freeh, who invokes attorney client privilege with MFG, doing running the investigation? - Jesse)

The source, who declined to be identified because Freeh's office is still conducting its inquiry, says there was plenty of "chaos" at MF Global in its waning days, but "no evidence of fraud." Freeh is a former Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation...

Read the rest here.

Drei Groschen Oper - Die Moritat von Mackie Messer  English translation.

Yes We Can!