Links for Tuesday, 2 April

"I intend to do what little one man can do to awaken the public conscience, and in the meantime I am not frightened by your menaces. I am not a giant physically; I shrink from pain and filth and vermin and foul air, like any other man of refinement; also, I freely admit, when I see a line of a hundred policeman with drawn revolvers flung across a street to keep anyone from coming onto private property to hear my feeble voice, I am somewhat disturbed in my nerves.

But I have a conscience and a religious faith, and I know that our liberties were not won without suffering, and may be lost again through our cowardice. I intend to do my duty to my country."

Upton Sinclair, Letter to the Los Angeles Chief of Police, 17 May 1923

You may check back on occasion as I sometimes add things during the day. I will put those additions at the top of the list.

I am pleased to report that the "Links List" function in Google's Blogger is now repaired.  I will return to using that format tomorrow.

Links for Today

Danger In Bank Accounts - Macleod

Walmart Customers Complain of Empty Shelves

Unemployment In Eurozone Reaches Record High

The Great Disconnect Between Paper and Physical Silver

Cyprus May Be Model For Future Bailouts - Der Spiegel

Cypriot Banks Write Off Loans to Politicians

Minimum Wage Should Be Substantially Raised, Not Cut in UK

Cypriots Feel Betrayed By European Union

Top Court In India Denies Novartis Patent

Global Drug Companies Will Try to Punish India - Baker

Why Was Paul Krugman So Wrong? - Nation

Shut Up Savers! - Surowiecki (disgraceful arrogance)

Bank of England Given Power to Regulate the City

Chris Hedges On the Power of the Modern Media and Fox News

“He who dictates and formulates the words and phrases we use, he who is master of the press and radio, is master of the mind. Repeat mechanically your assumptions and suggestions, diminish the opportunity for communicating dissent and opposition. This is the formula for political conditioning of the masses.

The big lie and monotonously repeated nonsense have more emotional appeal in a cold war than logic and reason.

The continual intrusion into our minds of the hammering noises of arguments and propaganda can lead to two kinds of reactions. It may lead to apathy and indifference, the I-dont-care reaction, or to a more intensified desire to study and to understand. Unfortunately, the first reaction is the more popular one...Confusing a targeted audience is one of the necessary ingredients for effective mind control.

The eternal demagogue will arise anew. He will accuse others of conspiracy in order to prove his own importance. He will try to intimidate those who are neither so iron-fisted nor so hotheaded as he, and temporarily he will drag some people into the web of his delusions. Perhaps he will even wear a mantle of martyrdom to arouse the tears of the weak-hearted. With his emotionalism and suspicion, he will shatter the trust of citizens in one another."

Joost Meerloo M.D., The Rape of the Mind

Hedges specifically discusses Fox News, and deservedly so,  because it has set the tone for the modern news programs. There were never more ironic words than their slogan, 'fair and balanced.'  But he could have included a few other corporate copycat channels as well, including the financial channels which have become little more than infomercials for Wall Street and the one percent.

Most 'news shows' in the states have become extended op-ed's where paid professional hucksters and 'strategists' spout slogans and sound bytes at one another, with a fairly cavalier attitude towards an intelligent exposition of the facts. 

Emotions are more powerful than facts in the modern mass media. Frighten the people, anger them, give them an object for their fear and anger, and in their rage you can move them in whatever direction you wish.

And you can look to the repeal of the Fairness Doctrine, the weakening of the FCC, the proliferation of cable channels with hours of programming to fill, and the concentration of the media in the hands of a few corporations, or perhaps more correctly global conglomerates, for the cause of this terrible decline in what is lightly these days called journalism. And in the destruction of a literate news media, thereby lies the deterioration in public and political discourse.

This is not about right versus left.  It is about politicians, financiers, and intellectuals of a predator class who think they can strike a Faustian bargain, and unleash the will to power, and control it for their own ends.

But the madness serves none but itself.

Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts - Goldman's Risky Business - Memento Mori

I see where Goldman has registered a dodgy credit fund as a publicly traded company.  It is nice to see that it is so easy for Goldman to dodge the Volker Rule and play the risky debt markets while being succored on the breast of the Federal Reserve's subsidies for depository institutions.  And they are also protected by the JOBS act as well.

Coutts Bank has warned its toney customers of the risk of the global debt markets.

I remember, about thirty years ago, sitting with a gentleman banker, who was wearing formal dress with tails, as we discussed an account at Coutts. I had been recommended by a man named Jonathan Solomon who is no longer with us, God rest his gentle soul.  He was my friend.  It occurred to me today that when he passed on he was younger than I am now.  Getting older, with its sweep of memories and experiences of places and past events, is like traveling through time.  Just slowly.

The primary advantage of an account at the Queen's bank was that one never had any difficulty writing a cheque at any of the antiquarian bookshops, or theaters, and so forth, certainly anywhere in the UK and much of Europe, which was quite handy if they did not happen to accept American Express.  

Like the old antiquarian bookshops, which are still there but somewhat paling beside the all reaching internet, genteel London bankers are becoming a thing of the past, in favor of the artful dodgers of Canary Wharf. The days we knew and loved are gone, forever.

I would take this as further evidence that the smarter money is heading towards higher ground and firmer assets.

And on the brighter side, Winter Is Coming.

Well at least that is the meme from The Game of Thrones which kicked off its third series, or season, in the US last night. It is the most widely pirated program on television these days as sci-fantasy fans seek out the product from overseas.

Apparently the HBO to Go servers bogged down and crash in the first hour that the series premiere was available last night. Or at least the young man at University has informed me so.

I introduced him to the series after having read all the books by George R. R. Martin. Like so many I am faithfully waiting for Mr. Martin to complete the next to last book in the series.  This co-watching of the series with my son, and having read the books along with him, reminds me of how I watched him 'grow up' along with Harry Potter.  Children help us to relive the things which we have forgotten, and to experience the joy of learning all over again.

At least GOT gives us something more diverting to talk about than Digital Signal Processing and imaginary numbers of the non-economic variety. Although his advanced maths skills helped me explore the more arcane mysteries of Bitcoin. He is my joy and my consolation. Happy 21st pal.

If you like the series, try the books.  They are definitely good airplane and hotel reading.

Non Farm Payrolls on Friday. Consensus is 192k but the whisper is 210+.

ISM was weak this morning taking down stocks.

Silver had a couple of sucker punches intra-day from the metal shorts. Gold did slightly better.

Have a pleasant evening. 

S’io credesse che mia risposta fosse
A persona che mai tornasse al mondo,
Questa fiamma staria senza piu scosse.
Ma perciocche giammai di questo fondo
Non torno vivo alcun, s’i’odo il vero,
Senza tema d’infamia ti rispondo.