Atlas Shrugged, Indeed

For those who are blind-sided by what comes next, it's only because they are fully bought in to the status quo and otherwise can't fathom that it could all end at a moment's notice.

They never stop to question whether or not the hundreds of millions of sweatshop factory slaves who keep the globalized Ponzi functioning, will continue to show up for work on time...

What Greed Wants

Everything. 
Careful what you wish for...

Silent Rage

The most bewildering aspect of this age of overwhelming greed is the fact that the people at the top have no fear or trepidation about deriding the people at the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder. I just read this article describing the latest report from the Fraser Institute based in Vancouver. It's a right-wing/libertarian think-tank. The article raises the alarm that fewer and fewer Canadians are paying taxes - a trend that is similar to what they say is occurring in the U.S. Maybe they didn't get the memo, but this was one of the issues that caused Mitt Romney to lose the election, mostly because it's complete and unadulterated bullshit...

Just Another Wall Street Greedfest

The sole goal of Monetary Policy these past four years was to levitate asset markets until the real economy resumed organic growth. Of course, due to the number of jobs shed after 2008, that was never going to happen. Here we are, four years later, still applying record amounts of fiscal and monetary stimulus, while the vacuous morons in leadership scratch their heads as to why there are no jobs...

Fools And Their Money Are Soon Parted

This Cyprus bailout with attendant deposit confiscation for certain depositors appears to be stirring an awakening across the slumbering masses. I am basing that observation merely upon anecdotal evidence at this early juncture. Some here in the U.S. have pointed out that zero percent interest rates for four years straight has been its own form of confiscation, by favouring borrowers over savers. I have made the same point. However, the other major risk arising from zero percent interest rates, is not just underfunded pensions, it's the fact that it has turned many savers into speculators...

Waiting For Minsky

In the past two years the entire global financial system has been in turn held hostage by Spain, Greece and now Cyprus. Soon a Seven-Eleven going tits up will require ECB intervention:

The Globalization Virus

Globalization was on the verge of collapsing in 2008 when world leaders stepped in and rescued it from the dumpster of history. In their infinite wisdom in order to save it, they used the exact same policies that led to the 2008 collapse  - namely,  debt accumulation sponsored by easy Central Bank policy - and they amplified those policies 10 fold. That’s how all problems get "solved" in the Idiocracy.

Regardless, globalization has already failed the majority on this planet and it’s failing more and more people with each and every passing day. Granted, the ever-dwindling number of apologists for this catastrophe happen to be the loudest gas bags in society, so they are still able to drown out the simmering rage of the silent majority. However, like all viruses, the relentless globalization virus can’t be controlled, so it must burn itself out.  Which means that the host will have to die first...

Fool Me Three Times, Shame On Me...

The ECB just gave Cyprus until Monday to agree to the terms of the Eurozone bank bailout plan or face a liquidity "cutoff". Bank depositors are queuing up at ATMs around the country...

Neither side can be seen to capitulate, but nor can they risk a full fledged bank run. Once again, the world economy held at the brink by banks that profited from risky loans that should have never been made in the first place. None of these banking buffoons learned a fucking thing from 2008. What more proof do we need? Meanwhile, the Eurocrats in charge of resolving this fiasco have no clue as to the overall level of macro risk that has been piling up while they were away at Davos...

The Only Chart That Matters

Zero percent interest rates and perpetual money printing makes the dollar a favourite funding currency for the global carry trades. Which means that if the dollar rises, the carry trades need to be reversed - quickly - before something breaks. What's the dollar doing? Rising (below). Which gets back to the theme "Nothing Matters Until It Matters". So far, this is just one more risk being ignored, however, when the dollar hits escape velocity, underwear will once again be stained on Wall Street...

Extend and Pretend: The High Cost of Delusion

I admit to being somewhat inconsistent on reporting the ongoing costs of "Extend and Pretend". I am referring of course to all of the costs incurred since the 2008 bailout to keep this shit show levitated. Sometimes I only count the U.S. costs, other times I add in the trillions printed by other global central banks. That said, at least I make the attempt. The conventional wisdom at large is that the 2008 bailout is a thing of the past. This delusion, that somehow 2008 was an isolated event, systematically ignores the key costs and risks that have grown unchecked in the meantime...

Nothing Matters Until it Matters

[Updated: March 19th, 2013]
Global Confidence Hanging By a Thread
The Cyprus bank holiday is now extended until Thursday while Eurocrats figure out how to pull their head out of their own ass. Meanwhile, we are told that the "damage" is done, because this entire fiasco impairs global confidence in "deposit insurance". Apparently, Cyprus is the only thing standing between us and our trust in the global banking system. Suffice to say that if the fate of the global financial system now hinges upon the whims of a country smaller than a million people whose island is a safe haven for Russian mob money, then the globalized Ponzi is already fucked company. All we are doing now is waiting for Wall Street and the Idiocracy to shit its pants again - and then take notice. Even as I write, the Cypriot Parliament rejected the Eurozone's bank bailout offer, so they are not exhibiting what one would describe as a constructive approach. Last year, around this time, the fate of the world economic system hinged on the troubles of Greece, a nation of 11 million people. At this rate, soon a single bounced check at a payday loan store will collapse the global economy...

Done Like Dinner

It's over. Just a matter of waiting for Wall Street to get its nose out of Bernankenstein's ass.

The signs of overwhelming social decay are ubiquitous, however the Idiocracy slept through history class and therefore can't recognize the point of recognition...

Sudden Death. Overtime.

The divergence between the market and the VIX (options fear gauge), has never been wider, as Wall Street remains heads down in the Central Bank feed bag and Main Street remains head shoved up its own ass. What could go wrong?  

Market Masturbation

U.S. Markets Are Partying Alone At New All Time Highs...

The Dow of course gets all of the headlines since it has now eclipsed its 2007 all time high. The S&P 500 is a few points away from its all time high from that same year. So U.S. bulls are once again getting themselves all lubed up. Unfortunately, the rest of the world never joined the party, so this is all just one more big con job for the Idiocratic masses. As we see, most other world markets are nowhere near their all time highs...

Redemption (Song)

All I Ever Have...

Plausible Deniability: Opiate of the Masses

There is a fine line between objectivity and lack of judgement. I don't even attempt to walk that line. As a blogger who scorns the general lack of objectivity in the financial press, I am a hypocrite, because I am not the least bit objective. I consider this blog as a public service announcement from someone who has no vested financial interest in the direction of the market. Do I bet on the market, sure. But I can bet any way I want. I don't make money by telling other people what they should with theirs...

Yet Another Extinct Species: Realists

Today we learned that the Investor's Intelligence Survey shows the number of bears at a two year low. Central Banks have systematically hunted bears into extinction, even as macro risks have grown continuously in the background. It took three months of near straight up action, but now even the most reluctant money managers are finally capitulating. So don't be surprised that everyone is cheerleading the markets at this juncture, because there are few prognosticators who are not bought in...

Red line below is bearish percentage...

[Source: schaeffersresearch.com]

The Only Inflation is in Pure Bullshit

Nine out of ten financial pundits today are still worried about inflation.  They assume that the money supply will grow indefinitely until it leads to out-of-control hyperinflation. They ignore the fact that their own greed-addled brethren already outsourced the middle class and that all of the additional money is made available only to speculators to inflate asset prices. None of it makes its way into the real economy. You would think that after four years of zero interest rates, they would have figured that out by now, which only reveals the callous and fatal depth of their disconnect from economic reality...

Assumptions

All societies live and die by their assumptions. This one will be no different. The default assumption of this current Ponzi economic model is that the human population can continue growing and wasting egregious amounts of natural resources, with no dire consequence to the human race. Unfortunately, below we see just the latest overwhelming proof that this is wishful thinking of the highest order. So while I am sickened to realize the extent to which the human race has desecrated this planet, I console myself with knowing that the consumption-oriented lifestyle driving this dramatic increase in pollution (including carbon), is itself premised upon false and unsustainable assumptions...

Greed and Kapitalism

Why is it that when the market was at its low after Lehman in March 2009, no one wanted to own stocks. Yet, now four years later, no one can think of a reason not to own them, even though today's rumour was that North Korea is now preparing for war with the South...The Dow was up 67 points on the news - yet another all time high (yes, we also got news of fewer jobs outsourced this month than last month...). 

Pure blinding greed, that's all. Nothing more, nothing less. So if people are not acting particularly rationally at this juncture, we have to take into account the fact that they are guzzling the Kool-Aid by the barrel full...

Vertical Takeoff and "Landing"

People reading this blog think "this guy writes the same fucking thing every day!".  That's right - global policy-makers propagate the same asinine policies every day, and then I point out how ludicrous they are, every day. The beatings will continue until morale improves...

Just today we learned that North Korea threatened the U.S. with a pre-emptive nuclear attack. The Dow reached a new all time high on the news...

Something Wicked This Way Comes

No surprise, Obama's election, re-election, the "economy", and latent calls for gun control are all factors that have been a boon for "militia" group recruitment. Some take exception with the criteria by which these "clubs" are branded as militias. That's not the point, the point is that there is a clear rallying cry for these groups to galvanize around, and unless the definition of a "militia" has changed in the meantime, the current set of circumstances is having a major impact on affiliation i.e. a 10x increase since 2008. Apparently when Bush was in power, the militia-inclined deemed their country to be safe, even though they were being sold into slavery the entire time...(I don't know where they got that picture of Freddy Krueger with an M1 carbine).  Full article here...

Lord of the Flies

This society is Lord of the Flies writ large. The adults left the building a long time ago and their infantile descendants have taken over the planet. We need not wonder why the developed nations turned their backs on the abject poor in the rest of the world, when they don't even take care of their own...

The Silence of the Lambs

Yesterday we learned that there are more billionaires than ever - 10x as many as 1987. The gap between the ultra-wealthy and working poor has never been wider in the U.S. The "Atlas-like" CEOs of Ayn Rand lore take home a mere 244 times what the average American makes in a year - by far the biggest CEO pay gap in U.S. history. And today, not coincidentally, the Dow just hit a new all time high, eclipsing its last peak from 2007. All it took was $9 trillion in global Central Bank dopium, and $7 trillion in U.S. debt, to get the market back to a level that it first attained six years ago. As ZH points out, in the meantime a near doubling in the number of people on foodstamps, an 80% increase in the national debt, 5 million fewer jobs, none of which apparently matters when the Dow is at new highs..

Peak Greed

Robbed By a Bank
No surprise, following the hold-up of the middle class known as the bailout of 2008, subsequently, the middle class has become ever-more marginalized by the very same people they bailed out; meanwhile, the wealth of the ultra-rich has never been higher. Just today we learned that the number of global billionaires hit a new all time high...

The Band Played On...

Everything we are told now is pure propaganda, strictly to maintain appearances. The geriatric set have a death grip on the U.S. political system and the last thing they want is change. They are fully aware that the ship is keeled over and heading for the bottom, but they have convinced themselves that since they are on the upper decks, that the water line won't get to them, in their lifetime...

Bernankenstein's Boomerang

Don't Try Buy This At Home...
The mother of all ultra-bearish rising wedges, with an overthrow above the top trendline to get the bulls lathered up. As we see, the market is keenly aware of that upper trend line which it tested earlier this week. If you read the linked description of a rising wedge, this one meets all of the listed criteria. The most wicked aspect of a rising wedge, is that it gives the appearance of an uptrend, even though the upper trend line is not keeping pace with the lower trend line, requiring bulls to defend the same price levels over and over again, exhausting buying power on the way up, as evidenced by the declining volume. Compare the rally from 2003-2007 to this one. That one was a smooth uptrend with relatively little overlap between uptrend segments. This rally by contrast has been a lurching affair, as the market junky halted periodically to vomit all over itself, waiting for its next hit of monetary dopium. The HFT bots will see to it that Bernankenstein gets his boomerang back sooner than expected...

Wilshire 5000 (U.S.) Total Market Index

Extreme Event Risk

The amount of complacency at this juncture, is staggering. The Idiocracy at large have literally been stewed in their own juices. Whereas the "fiscal cliff" debacle just 8 weeks ago was cause for non-stop angst and hand wringing, including a week long market sell-off leading up to the event, today, the fiscal "sequester" went into effect, which includes an automatic reduction in U.S. government spending equating to apparently .6% of the economy. Yet, it was completely ignored even though fourth quarter GDP growth was a mere .1% (recently revised from negative .1%). And on top of the sequester cuts, the impact of the recent tax increases resulting from the fiscal cliff clusterfuck-o-rama have yet to be factored into GDP...