SP 500 and NDX Futures Daily Charts - Walk Don't Run

They are doing a great job of inflating this asset bubble in equities.

It can keep going higher on light volumes and printed money.

But if it breaks, there isn't much beneath it, so get out of its way.

It just cracks me up that the same old voices are back again talking up another bubble ginned up by the Banks.

Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts - Picture of the Housing Bubble Collapse

As the banking regulator and monetary authority, the Fed was particularly culpable and responsible for the housing asset bubble, the collapse of which is shown in the last chart.

Their 'job' is to take away the punch bowl when the party starts getting out of hand. Instead, first Greenspan and then Bernanke fed and at times even promoted through the stifling of dissent the malinvestment and large scale banking fraud that almost brought the global economy to the brink, and the coming derivatives crisis which almost certainly will if something radical is not done about it.

They have done worse with their handling of the TBTF banks, but the impact of that remains largely in the future. And they operated under a cloak of secrecy and sometimes deception, greatly influencing economic thought through their growing bureaucracy.

The shame is that the craven Congress gave them even more power in the aftermath.

SP 500 and NDX Futures Daily Charts - "C'est pas la chute qui fait mal, c'est l'atterissage."

Stocks hit Dow 13,000 and then pulled back.

I did not see anything approaching serious selling. The markets are zombie like.

Why Inequality Matters: Saving Capitalist Society from Obsessive Greed and Lawlessness

I think this is about as good a statement of the problem facing the US economic system today.

The 'checks and balances' and 'equal protection under the law' of the Constitution has been trampled upon by the monied interests. The obsessions of the few will not permit them to relent on their quest for all the marbles, even to a Pyrrhic victory.

In addition to the massive mortgage and foreclosure frauds, I can think of no better recent example than the looting of the customer accounts at MF Global, the manipulation of justice, and the subsequent cover up, because it is so senseless.

And if it destroys the futures markets in the process, as the members of the Futures Association fear, then so what?

We won, didn't we?

Why can't the Bank give back the customer money which they accepted in the last week of business?  A billion dollars is small change, especially as they are sitting on a pile of unearned loot taken by fraud from the public already, and the price to be paid in the long run for it may be great. 

Why don't serial killers ever quit?  Because it is a matter of principle to them, the principle of pride, the pride of all those masters of the universe who consider themselves to be above all the rest, supra-human, the best.  To give it back would be to admit that they are equal after all, merely human, and subject to the laws of the people.   And the will to power that fills the hole in their being will not allow it.  They need, and that need must be fulfilled, no matter what.  What I must forego diminishes me. And to bend my knee to anything or anyone is a blasphemy against my self.

"Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law."

Aleister Crowley

Have we not proved we were smarter, better, different from all the rest, these creatures whom we use and despise? And if these sub-humans prove to be troublesome, we will disparage them, silence them, beat them, corral them, and even burn them.

We are the gods of this age, the great angel of the morning, sitting on a wreckage of devices, gaping in the light.

ND2.0
Why Inequality Matters: The Housing Crisis, The Justice System & Capitalism
By Bruce Judson
February 20th, 2012

Extreme economic inequality is among the most destructive forces in a society. As inequality grows, it undermines the effective functioning of the economy, the basic tenets of capitalism, and the foundations of democracy.

Unfortunately, the housing crisis and now the housing settlement increasingly look like an example of how this mechanism works.

One of the central characteristics of highly unequal societies is that two sets of laws develop: One set for the rich and powerful and one set for everyone else. The more unequal societies become, the more easily they accept the unacceptable, and with each unrebuked violation, the powerful actors at the top of the society gain an ever greater sense of entitlement and an ever greater sense that the laws that govern everyone else don’t apply to them. As a result, their behavior becomes increasingly egregious.

In contrast, sustainable capitalism requires that all participants in a contract or bargain believe their interests will be enforced equally by the courts: Capitalism requires that Lady Justice wear a blindfold. When powerful players are permitted to alter established rules at will, capitalism ultimately collapses. Contracts and the idea of a fair bargain become meaningless as less powerful parties to an agreement know their rights will not be enforced.

Over time, citizens lose faith in government and their own ability to thrive in what becomes a corrupt economy. This uncertainty leads the small businesses, which are so often cited as important to our economy, to shy away from new activities that might put them at the risk of unequal treatment...

Read the rest here.