The Market Price of Corruption: Real Rates, the Real Yield Curve, and the GDP Gap

"Gentlemen! I too have been a close observer of the doings of the Bank of the United States. I have had men watching you for a long time, and am convinced that you have used the funds of the bank to speculate in the breadstuffs of the country.

When you won, you divided the profits amongst you, and when you lost, you charged it to the bank...You are a den of vipers and thieves. I have determined to rout you out, and by the Eternal, (bringing his fist down on the table) I will rout you out."

Andrew Jackson, Andrew Jackson and the Bank of the United States (1928) by Stan V. Henkels

What is the market price of policy error, careerism, and corruption?

The charts are simple, but the implications are profound.

seign·ior·age  

/ˈsānyərij/

Noun Profit made by a government by issuing currency A thing claimed by a sovereign or feudal superior as a prerogative.

Hugo Chavez Is Dead

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has died after a two-year battle with cancer, ending the socialist leader's 14-year rule of the South American country, Vice President Nicolas Maduro said in a televised speech on Tuesday.

The flamboyant 58-year-old leader had undergone four operations in Cuba for a cancer that was first detected in his pelvic region in mid-2011. His last surgery was on December 11 and he had not been seen in public since.

"It's a moment of deep pain," Maduro, accompanied by senior ministers, said, his voice choking.

Chavez easily won a new six-year term at an election in October and his death will devastate millions of supporters who adored his charismatic style, anti-U.S. rhetoric and oil-financed policies that brought subsidized food and free health clinics to long-neglected slums.

Detractors, however, saw his one-man style, gleeful nationalizations and often harsh treatment of opponents as traits of an egotistical dictator whose misplaced statist economics wasted a historic bonanza of oil revenues.

Chavez's death opens the way for a new election that will test whether his socialist "revolution" can live on without his dominant personality at the helm...

Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts - We're In the Money - Trickle Down

The central banks have created a new era of permanent prosperity.

All you have to do is believe. And everyone can be rich. Your turn will be coming soon.

One might feel better about the corporate profits and new highs in stocks, and the abundance of bank reserves, most of which is driven by policy and the Fed, if it was not such a transparent attempt to once again approach severe economic problems by using a 'trickle down' approach.

This is going to fail, and the consequences may be quite severe.

SP 500 and NDX Futures Daily Charts - New High On Dow Industrials - Blue Skies

Hair of the dog.

No worries mate.

You can stick a fork in Europe, China may be in a bubble, your neighbors may all be unemployed, but Ben has your back.