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hey wick and all... hope all is going well... critical time here in the market... barely holding at support. Silver is still a good look.
Hi sherri
Was wondering are you still doing 4x? who are u using as a platform? what are you using for indicators?? hows it worked??
TPHM CEO "Management of Thomas Pharmaceuticals is actively seeking a potential merger or acquisition candidate"
Go TPHM !!
JMHO
GLTA
rgs
The people are trying desperately to send a message....
The Bluest State in this Union just elected the first Republican Senator since 1972....maybe there is hope... maybe they will operate with a little more transparency.
Will still have a long way to go.....
Happy New Year Dog and other Pound Members!
Fannie, Freddie proving too big to shrink
Taxpayer tab for Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac likely to rise after Treasury's Christmas Eve pledge
ap
*
Companies:
o Fannie Mae
o Freddie Mac
By Alan Zibel, AP Real Estate Writer , On Wednesday December 30, 2009, 8:08 pm EST
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The government's Christmas Eve pledge of unlimited financial aid to mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is aimed at making sure the housing market doesn't take another turn for the worse and cause the economic recovery to unravel.
This insurance policy taken out by the Treasury Department will help keep mortgage rates low, and may wind up being a gift of sorts to struggling homeowners and banks. But there's a catch: the housing crisis is now likely to cost taxpayers much more.
The Obama administration's latest lifeline to Fannie and Freddie will cover unlimited losses through 2012, lifting an earlier cap of $400 billion. It also eases restrictions on the size of the companies' investment portfolios. That's a reversal of the Bush administration's September 2008 plan to shrink the size of the companies' holdings of mortgage-backed securities.
The action, which didn't need the approval of Congress, could position Fannie and Freddie to get more aggressive in dealing with the housing crisis, perhaps taking troubled mortgage investments off banks' books.
"They've cleared the decks to use Fannie and Freddie as a vessel for whatever they want," says Edward Pinto, a housing consultant who served as Fannie's chief credit officer in the late 1980s.
Treasury could also lean harder on Fannie and Freddie to help troubled homeowners avoid foreclosures -- and by extension the banks and other investors who own their mortgages. Many economists and housing experts say an existing $75 billion government program to prevent foreclosures isn't working fast enough, threatening the emerging signs of home price stability in many cities across the nation.
Boosting the firepower of Fannie and Freddie, which finance three quarters of all new mortgages, also should help keep rates on home loans low just as the Federal Reserve starts dialing back its separate $1.25 trillion program aimed at doing just that.
That's good news for the banking industry, which has benefited this year from homeowners refinancing their mortgages, says Jason O'Donnell, senior research analyst at Boenning & Scattergood Inc. "This is an initiative that spreads far beyond just Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac," he says.
But the trade-off is that the Treasury will have to cover much more than the $111 billion in losses at Fannie and Freddie it already has funded. Barclays Capital predicts the losses will range from $230 billion to $300 billion.
Both companies provide vital funding for home loans, buying mortgages from lenders, pooling them into bonds and selling them to investors with a guarantee against default. While they traditionally backed loans to relatively safe buyers, they dramatically lowered their standards during the housing boom, and those loans are now defaulting in higher numbers.
If the administration does lean on Fannie and Freddie to expand its foreclosure-prevention program, it would be pricey. If Fannie and Freddie were, hypothetically, to start forgiving a quarter of borrowers' mortgage debt, that would cost another $125 billion to help around 2.5 to 3 million borrowers, estimates Barclays analyst Ajay Rajadhyaksha.
The Treasury Department says its only motivation is to make sure investors remain confident that Fannie and Freddie can keep doing their jobs of buying the bulk of mortgages made in the U.S. and turning them into investments.
"These measures bring broad benefits to American homeowners and our economy," says Andrew Williams, a Treasury spokesman.
Fannie and Freddie must convince everyone from the Chinese central bank to hedge funds to individual investors that it is still safe to buy their debt securities, which they sell partly through weekly auctions. The two companies have sold $2.7 trillion in debt this year, according to Credit Suisse calculations.
Still, by making the change before year-end, Treasury sidestepped the need for an OK from a bailout-weary Congress, infuriating Republicans on Capitol Hill.
Treasury gave Fannie and Freddie a bigger lifeline "without any involvement, notice (or) dialogue with Congress," says Rep. Scott Garrett, R-N.J., a member of the House Financial Services committee, who called Wednesday for an investigation into the Treasury Department's actions.
Fannie Mae was created in 1938 in the aftermath of the Great Depression. It was privatized 30 years later to limit budget deficits during the Vietnam War. In 1970, the government formed its sibling and competitor, Freddie Mac.
After the housing market started to unravel in 2006, mortgage defaults soared, and the companies' losses mounted. By summer 2008, the companies weren't able to raise money, and their shares plunged. The Bush administration's hand was forced. It wound up taking over the pair a week before the collapse of investment bank Lehman Brothers. The government now has a 79.9 percent stake in each company, the maximum amount possible to still keep the companies off the federal budget.
Bush administration officials envisioned that Fannie and Freddie would ultimately be able to scale back their mortgage holdings by 10 percent a year, starting next year.
But the housing market remains shaky, with 11 out of 20 major cities showing price declines in October. Private investors remain wary of American mortgage investments. So Obama officials decided last week to give Fannie and Freddie more leeway, effectively allowing them to build up their portfolios next year, and then start cutting back in 2011.
Without this change, Fannie and Freddie would be forced to start selling mortgages from its portfolio early next year -- just as the Federal Reserve begins to retreat from that market. That would push up mortgage rates, and threaten the housing recovery.
Now they will be able to hold a combined $1.62 trillion in mortgage investments by the end of next year, compared with $1.36 trillion under the old rules. The result: Fannie and Freddie will have an additional $260 billion to invest next year, Credit Suisse calculates.
"They didn't want Fannie and Freddie to be out there selling mortgages when the future of housing is uncertain," says Credit Suisse mortgage strategist Mahesh Swaminathan.
AP Business Writer Sara Lepro contributed to this report from New York.
Getting ready for a short on the next crash.... I'll revamp the IBOX for some interesting short plays... I really feel the Bradley chart will pan out... crash is coming... justification for a second stimulus, Fed will then tighten rates... depression for most of next year.... sorry to be so glum, but the Bradley has played out to a T.
10,000 + means time to short IMO....
Ten Big Companies That Are Veering Toward Bankruptcy
Posted Sep 18, 2009 12:21pm EDT by Vincent Fernando and Joe Weisenthal in Investing, Media, Products and Trends, Recession
Related: AMD, LVS, S, M, GT, MYL, HTZ
From The Business Insider, Sept. 18, 2009:
Despite a few green shoots in the economy and a rocketing stock market, many large companies are still struggling to avoid bankruptcy.
A new report by Audit Integrity identifies some high-profile names "that have the highest probability of declaring bankruptcy among publicly traded firms."
Which companies appear the worst off? We took the list and removed any company with a market cap under $3 billion. We then ranked the remaining names by a simple measure of the market's perceived bankruptcy risk - Market Cap (MC) divided by Enterprise Value (EV). The less MC vs. EV, the less residual shareholders' value (above what debt holders can claim) the market is pricing-in for the company. Thus a lower MC/EV means the market thinks the company is more likely to go bankrupt.
1. Hertz
When you have tons of debt financing your fleet of cars, falling rental demand really hurts.
While the company raised new capital in May for some breathing room, Fitch and Moody’s actually cut their ratings for the company in July.
Ignoring the downgrade, shares kept rallying and are now at over five times the March $2 low. Best of luck.
Market Cap (MC)/Enterprise Value (EV) = 32%
2. Textron
What a tough time to be selling business jets.
Textron wrote down $2.3 in its backlog this year after it cancelled a new jet design, and demand for its other aircraft-related offerings has plummeted.
Shareholders may be heartened by the company’s ability to push back some debt maturities lately, but deteriorating credit quality at the company’s leasing arm makes the outlook uncertain at best.
MC/EV=39%
3. Sprint Nextel
Sprint Nextel is bleeding customers, and could lose as many as 4.4 million net post-paid subscribers this year.
This is a huge problem when you have large amounts of maturing debt over the next few years.
A recent Deutsche Telekom acquisition rumor offered some hope, but that appears to have faded. Facing a difficult road ahead on its own, the company better keep its lawyers on speed-dial.
MC/EV=41%
4. Macy's
Does anyone even shop at department stores anymore?
Same store sales will likely keep falling at Macy’s right through 2009. With $2.4 billion of maturing debt over the next five years, the company is trying to cut costs, and has already reduced its dividend.
Hopefully the US consumer will bounce back soon, and actually want to shop at Macy's.
MC/EV=47%
5. Mylan
In a classic case of management empire building, Mylan overpaid big time when it bought Merck’s generic business back in 2007 and is now stuck with $5 billion of long-term debt as a result.
From 2007 – 2008, the company lost over $1.3 billion very much due to goodwill write-downs.
While the company could earn $300 million this year, they’ll have to earn far more than that in the future to make their debt manageable.
MC/EV=51%
6. Goodyear
Demand for Goodyear tires has sunk, and the company is saddled with massive debt and pension obligations.
It doesn’t help that The United Steelworkers union prevents the company from proper cost control by forcing factories to stay open.
Shareholders have to wonder how much value will be left of the company after bondholders and the union members have their way.
MC/EV=53%
7. CBS
Weak advertising and falling license fees have sent CBS's earnings off a cliff in 2009.
If they remain depressed for too long, the company could have trouble refinancing $3.2 billion of debt coming due over the next five years.
It will really come down to whether or not CBS’s earnings collapse is merely cyclical, or the result of structural trend whereby traditional TV is dying.
As a business blog, we can't help but feel partly guilty here.
MC/EV=55%
8. Advanced Micro Devices
When will AMD actually make money again? The question is becoming more important by the day since it carries over $5 billion in long-term debt.
After losing almost $3 billion from 2007 – 2008, analysts expect the company to lose more money in 2009 and 2010.
While the shares rallied from their February $2 low, they still appear stuck in a long-term down trend from $40 highs way back in 2006.
MC/EV=55%
9. Las Vegas Sands
Las Vegas Sands over-expanded and over-levered in the last few years and now has over $10 billion in debt to deal with.
Despite jumping 13 times from their March low, Las Vegas Sands shares still face an uphill battle.
Conditions in Las Vegas are horrible, Asian expansion isn’t enough, and if this lasts too long then LVS will end up in bankruptcy court looking like it bit off more than it can chew.
MC/EV=60%
10. Interpublic Group
As one of the largest advertising and marketing companies in the world, IPG was slammed by the global recession.
As the company’s CEO said during recent second quarter results, the downturn “is proving steeper and more lasting than expected”.
Revenues have fallen double digits and the company’s exposure to General Motors as its largest client hasn’t helped.
MC/EV=80%
Audit: Gov't could lose millions in gas royalties
Audit: Gov't could millions of dollars in gas royalties from not correcting shortfalls
* On Monday September 14, 2009, 3:15 pm EDT
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The federal government risks losing millions of dollars in royalties from natural gas production because it does not promptly determine and collect when it gets shortchanged, according to congressional auditors.
The Government Accountability Office said in a report Monday that the Minerals Management Service, which manages oil and gas production on public lands, does not have the tools or staff necessary to check that companies are paying the government what it is owed in royalties.
The report specifically looks at royalty-in-kind. Under this program, companies producing gas on federal lands and offshore pay the government with gas rather than cash. The government then sells the gas.
The agency estimates that it is owed $21 million, but the figure could be larger. That's because the government is not verifying how much gas companies produce and it does not include interest, because MMS has not determined when interest should accrue on unpaid royalties.
The government collected more than $12 billion in royalties last year from oil and gas production offshore and on federal lands. About $2.4 billion came from natural gas royalty-in-kind payments.
The report is the latest to expose shortcomings in the government's management of oil and gas revenue. Earlier reports found problems with the oil royalty-in-kind program and highlighted how the U.S. government receives much less percentage-wise than what other countries collect from their oil and gas production.
Government Accountability Office: http://www.gao.gov
Exactly.... the ETF's are considered to be "contributing to the instability of the market". Silver is the best example.... it's the road towards the destruction of Capitalism... all derivative assets will no longer considered assets... when the delisting happen... the financial institutions will no longer have to cover... and JP Morgan Chase who hold 90% of the silver shorts in the ETF market will not have to cover... wala ... instant derived capital. I'm trying to determine who holds the biggest short on UNG... check the chart... it was massively shorted down... now they want to pull the plug. Someone close to the government has everything to gain here. Criminals run the show.... I have been following that principal for the past year... it's worked well.
why would they get rid of etfs? thats kinda going on a witch hunt no?
OK - I'd heard that one in particular was going to be delisted because it has stopped tracking natty as it should and the price was too low....
Along with all other ETFs... the argument is that they "contribute to market instability". uggh... this gubment is way out of control...
You have heard they will likely be delisted, right?
MetaTrader4....you can get free demos by asking the broker and they will tell you how to download it. It's the platform rather than using whatever the broker specifically created. That way, if you decide to go shopping for a new broker, you don't necessarily have to change your setup, and there are TONS of free indicators and auto traders to play with.
Whats mt4? specialized tools and predictors?
Everybody has their own favorites, but I definately prefer the more specialized platforms like MT4. Heck, if there is no additional charge from your broker, why not?
Boardmarked the 4x board sherri..... going to start practicing again.. what tools are being used? BB bands? Moving averages? RSI?
yeah im good, been gone a long time, but soon ill be able to trade in the morning till 11:00 11:30 ish.... so figured its a good idea to pop by, hope everyone learned how to make millions out of the market while I've been gone so uall can teach me now... lol
Just waiting for the next shoe to fall.... I'll update the IBOX with some gems here pretty quick... hope all is well.
I take it you been trading the FAZ... 3times financials... I really like those 3x and doubles like DXO and FAZ know anymore of em???
I've tried calling you a few times, but I never seem to reach you
Just preppin for the FAZ plunge..... hope all is well with you, Wick and Sherri.
cool, before I start trading again I should pick your brain a bit Im sure youve learned a ton of new things over the past year or so.. Cya later sherri
Doing good - and still trading a bit. I have been almost exclusively in Forex and working on programming auto traders. I'm dabbling a bit with the stocks, but not too much.
Ive been good how about you sherri? still trading? you could probably teach me a thing or two. 4x or stock? Hope all has been well
Hey hey Wickster! Hope you have been well....
Hi Dog Was just in toronto last weekend on a little vacation, Should have come down to MI say hi... Hope its going good for you playing 4x? thinking about getting back into things here soon, maybe.... Laterz
Let em keep propping up the financials.... $15 - $20 is a loader on the FAZ IMO. They are gonna tank it at DJI 10,500.... commercial real estate is going to blow up. IMO Financials going down!
FAZ going up... especially once this info becomes more public... then again, we knew this all along.
Harry Markopolos: CDS Fraud Will Make Madoff Look "Small-Time"
Lawrence Delevingne|Aug. 12, 2009, 2:01 PM|comment38
Harry Markopolos MadoffMemo to regulators: be forewarned about frauds in the credit-default swap market. They'll make Bernie Madoff's $65 billion fraud "look like small-time."
That's what Harry Markopolos -- Madoff's whistleblower ignored by federal investigators -- is saying, anyway.
New York Post: [Markopolos] says there are evildoers out there who will make the Ponzi scum "look like small-time." Markopolos gave a speech to 400 of the faithful at the Greek Orthodox Church in Southampton and predicted major scandals will soon be revealed about the unregulated, $600 trillion, credit-default swap market. "To put it in simple terms, it is like buying fire insurance policies from five different insurance companies on your neighbor's house and then burning down the house," he said.
It's not clear if there are frauds that he knows of, specifically, that he's not disclosing publicly, or if it's just his how the market works -- in which case, he's basically just parroting what a lot of people who hate "naked" CDS have been saying. Either way, we suggest Mary Schapiro or the CFTC pay him a call and get a clarification.
FAZ... FAZ... FAZ... financials dying again by September IMO. This chart is ready to explode.
ahh... GM puts.... hope y'all get paid.
gm puts.... wow. Getting ready for more shorts. Lows will be tested again.
Credit Card Defaults Spike In March (COF)
Joe Weisenthal | Apr. 15, 2009, 7:30 AM| 4
You know, it's kind of ridiculous to talk about the urgent need to extend more credit to US consumers, when
they can't even manage their current bills.
But we digress... Capitol One (COF), the big credit card issuer, said
in a regulatory filing that credit card defaults jumped in March, hitting
an annualized rate of 9.33%. That compares to just 8.06 in
February, notes Reuters.
Between this and the big increase in foreclosures in March, it's
harder and harder to see how yesterday's retail can seriously be
considered a "surprise."
ROFLMAO - I have calls for fun in my demo account
watching the faz...... gonna make some money.... hehe
Short Sellers Squeezed All Around
by Tom McGinty and Jenny Strasburg
Tuesday, April 7, 2009provided byWSJ
SEC Closes Loopholes as Some Firms Limit Stock Lending to Traders
Securities regulators and some financial firms are making it more difficult for investors to pile on when stocks are falling and further drive down prices.
The Securities and Exchange Commission, facing years of criticism, has begun to crimp the ability of traders who bet against stocks to depress prices by selling millions of shares they don't possess, known as naked short selling. And some financial firms have cut back on lending to traders who want to bet against stocks.
The result: The number of stocks in which big chunks of shares haven't properly been delivered to investors has plummeted, to a daily average of 79 in the three months ending in March from 529 in the first nine months of 2008, according to an analysis of trading data from major stock exchanges.
At issue are short sellers, traders who sell borrowed shares, betting they can replace them later with shares bought at a lower price.
Critics say short sellers, with the aid of brokerage firms, cause these delivery failures by shorting stocks without first borrowing shares, as required by securities law. Such activity drives down stocks by adding to the selling pressure.
The moves come as the SEC meets Wednesday to discuss further potential restrictions on short sellers. These include reinstating the "uptick rule," which until 2007 had required short sellers to wait for a rise, or uptick, in a stock's price before placing their bet that it would go down.
Critics say such trading by short sellers roiled stocks last year by swamping the market with sales that characterized the 2008 market volatility. Amid that turmoil, the SEC closed loopholes that had allowed sold shares to go undelivered.
The developments come at a critical time. Stock prices have surged roughly 20% within weeks, despite Monday's decline. Traditionally, short sellers have been an important cog in helping alert investors to warning signs at companies ranging from Enron Corp. to Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. Some say short-sales restrictions have helped fuel the recent rally.
Despite the reductions in delivery failures, critics say the SEC took too long to act forcefully and still hasn't gone far enough because failures still occur.
"The majority of these failures-to-deliver are not the result of honest mistakes or bad processing," former SEC commissioner Roel Campos wrote in a letter posted on the SEC's Web site. "Rather, these companies are instead targets of illegal and manipulative trading, with intentional failures-to-deliver used by traders to extract profits as the share price plummets."
An SEC spokesman said in an email: "Reducing long-standing failures to deliver has been central to commission actions in this area."
The SEC first attempted to address the problem in 2005, with the implementation of Regulation SHO, which mandated "threshold securities" lists, daily compilations by exchanges of stocks that had suffered at least five consecutive days of delivery failures totaling at least 10,000 shares and at least a half a percent of their outstanding shares each day.
Once a stock hit the threshold lists, traders were required to close out failed deliveries by the 13th day after the trade. But there were loopholes in the regulation, and there was no requirement to close out delivery failures of securities that weren't on the lists.
The threshold lists averaged about 300 securities a day in the first two years after Regulation SHO was instituted. In 2007, the daily average climbed to 414. In the first nine months of 2008, as the markets and banks crumbled, the lists averaged 529 securities.
Last summer and fall, the SEC issued emergency orders restricting the short sales of certain financial firms and tightening the requirements for deliveries.
Most important, observers say, was a new rule requiring short sellers to close out any delivery failure by the open of trading on the fourth day after the trade. The number of securities on the threshold lists has since plummeted.
Pension funds and other institutional investors have curtailed lending stock to short sellers, which also might have contributed to the decline in delivery failures.
But stricter SEC delivery requirements may have instilled a new discipline in market participants. In the past, hedge-fund and bank executives said, brokers were quick to tell clients not to worry about finding borrowed shares to sell short, even if there was some risk that they wouldn't be able to find and deliver the stock.
Most delivery failures result from honest mistakes by brokers, not intentional misconduct by short sellers, says James Chanos, the short seller who runs Kynikos Associates LP, a New York hedge fund.
Mr. Chanos says the view that the SEC is cracking down on short sellers may have boosted investor confidence and helped fuel the current rally.
Peter Chepucavage, a former counsel at the SEC who helped draft Regulation SHO, said the initial weakness of the rule and the years it took the SEC to stiffen it can be traced to the lobbying efforts of hedge funds and Wall Street.
Brokerage firms "have made huge amounts of money" facilitating short selling, said Mr. Chepucavage, general counsel for Plexus Consulting Group, a Washington firm that advises nonprofit firms and broker-dealers. "They want and have argued strenuously for flexibility."
Interesting: AAPL weekly chart crossed over 50 DMA
http://stockcharts.com/h-sc/ui?c=AAPL,uu[h,a]waclyyay[pb40!f][vc60][iue6,12,9!lj[$spx]]
I wonder if conficker virus will spur more MAC sales. The virus does not apply to MAC computers
Definition of Fascism
As an economic system, fascism is socialism with a capitalist veneer. The word derives from fasces, the Roman symbol of collectivism and power: a tied bundle of rods with a protruding ax (see the back of U.S. Mercury head dime). In its day (the 1920s and 1930s), fascism was seen as the happy medium between boom-and-bust-prone liberal capitalism, with its alleged class conflict, wasteful competition, and profit-oriented egoism, and revolutionary Marxism, with its violent and socially divisive persecution of the bourgeoisie. Fascism substituted the particularity of nationalism and racialism—“blood and soil”—for the internationalism of both classical liberalism and Marxism.
Where socialism sought totalitarian control of a society’s economic processes through direct state operation of the means of production, fascism sought that control indirectly, through domination of nominally private owners. Where socialism nationalized property explicitly, fascism did so implicitly, by requiring owners to use their property in the “national interest”—that is, as the autocratic authority conceived it. (Nevertheless, a few industries were operated by the state.) Where socialism abolished all market relations outright, fascism left the appearance of market relations while planning all economic activities. Where socialism abolished money and prices, fascism controlled the monetary system and set all prices and wages politically. In doing all this, fascism denatured the marketplace. Entrepreneurship was abolished. State ministries, rather than consumers, determined what was produced and under what conditions.
Fascism is to be distinguished from interventionism, or the mixed economy. Interventionism seeks to guide the market process, not eliminate it, as fascism did. Minimum-wage and antitrust laws, though they regulate the free market, are a far cry from multiyear plans from the Ministry of Economics.
Under fascism, the state, through official cartels, controlled all aspects of manufacturing, commerce, finance, and agriculture. Planning boards set product lines, production levels, prices, wages, working conditions, and the size of firms. Licensing was ubiquitous; no economic activity could be undertaken without government permission. Levels of consumption were dictated by the state, and “excess” incomes had to be surrendered as taxes or “loans.” The consequent burdening of manufacturers gave advantages to foreign firms wishing to export. But since government policy aimed at autarky, or national self-sufficiency, protectionism was necessary: imports were barred or strictly controlled, leaving foreign conquest as the only avenue for access to resources unavailable domestically. Fascism was thus incompatible with peace and the international division of labor—hallmarks of liberalism.
Fascism embodied corporatism, in which political representation was based on trade and industry rather than on geography. In this, fascism revealed its roots in syndicalism, a form of socialism originating on the left. The government cartelized firms of the same industry, with representatives of labor and management serving on myriad local, regional, and national boards—subject always to the final authority of the dictator’s economic plan. Corporatism was intended to avert unsettling divisions within the nation, such as lockouts and union strikes. The price of such forced “harmony” was the loss of the ability to bargain and move about freely.
To maintain high employment and minimize popular discontent, fascist governments also undertook massive public-works projects financed by steep taxes, borrowing, and fiat money creation. While many of these projects were domestic—roads, buildings, stadiums—the largest project of all was militarism, with huge armies and arms production.
The fascist leaders’ antagonism to communism has been misinterpreted as an affinity for capitalism. In fact, fascists’ anticommunism was motivated by a belief that in the collectivist milieu of early-twentieth-century Europe, communism was its closest rival for people’s allegiance. As with communism, under fascism, every citizen was regarded as an employee and tenant of the totalitarian, party-dominated state. Consequently, it was the state’s prerogative to use force, or the threat of it, to suppress even peaceful opposition.
If a formal architect of fascism can be identified, it is Benito Mussolini, the onetime Marxist editor who, caught up in nationalist fervor, broke with the left as World War I approached and became Italy’s leader in 1922. Mussolini distinguished fascism from liberal capitalism in his 1928 autobiography:
The citizen in the Fascist State is no longer a selfish individual who has the anti-social right of rebelling against any law of the Collectivity. The Fascist State with its corporative conception puts men and their possibilities into productive work and interprets for them the duties they have to fulfill. (p. 280)
Before his foray into imperialism in 1935, Mussolini was often praised by prominent Americans and Britons, including Winston Churchill, for his economic program.
Similarly, Adolf Hitler, whose National Socialist (Nazi) Party adapted fascism to Germany beginning in 1933, said:
The state should retain supervision and each property owner should consider himself appointed by the state. It is his duty not to use his property against the interests of others among his own people. This is the crucial matter. The Third Reich will always retain its right to control the owners of property. (Barkai 1990, pp. 26–27)
Both nations exhibited elaborate planning schemes for their economies in order to carry out the state’s objectives. Mussolini’s corporate state “consider[ed] private initiative in production the most effective instrument to protect national interests” (Basch 1937, p. 97). But the meaning of “initiative” differed significantly from its meaning in a market economy. Labor and management were organized into twenty-two industry and trade “corporations,” each with Fascist Party members as senior participants. The corporations were consolidated into a National Council of Corporations; however, the real decisions were made by state agencies such as the Instituto per la Ricosstruzione Industriale, which held shares in industrial, agricultural, and real estate enterprises, and the Instituto Mobiliare, which controlled the nation’s credit.
Hitler’s regime eliminated small corporations and made membership in cartels mandatory.1 The Reich Economic Chamber was at the top of a complicated bureaucracy comprising nearly two hundred organizations organized along industry, commercial, and craft lines, as well as several national councils. The Labor Front, an extension of the Nazi Party, directed all labor matters, including wages and assignment of workers to particular jobs. Labor conscription was inaugurated in 1938. Two years earlier, Hitler had imposed a four-year plan to shift the nation’s economy to a war footing. In Europe during this era, Spain, Portugal, and Greece also instituted fascist economies.
In the United States, beginning in 1933, the constellation of government interventions known as the New Deal had features suggestive of the corporate state. The National Industrial Recovery Act created code authorities and codes of practice that governed all aspects of manufacturing and commerce. The National Labor Relations Act made the federal government the final arbiter in labor issues. The Agricultural Adjustment Act introduced central planning to farming. The object was to reduce competition and output in order to keep prices and incomes of particular groups from falling during the Great Depression.
It is a matter of controversy whether President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal was directly influenced by fascist economic policies. Mussolini praised the New Deal as “boldly . . . interventionist in the field of economics,” and Roosevelt complimented Mussolini for his “honest purpose of restoring Italy” and acknowledged that he kept “in fairly close touch with that admirable Italian gentleman.” Also, Hugh Johnson, head of the National Recovery Administration, was known to carry a copy of Raffaello Viglione’s pro-Mussolini book, The Corporate State, with him, presented a copy to Labor Secretary Frances Perkins, and, on retirement, paid tribute to the Italian dictator.
Dog - did you get my voice mail(s)? Just checking....
cvcamper - you still around? Haven't seen you on Facebook in a while - wondering if you are trading or had a bad round and gave it up (again)
lONG THE faz WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
Well, the toilet is swirling... and what do you buy? What do you short to bankruptcy? Here's the situation formed by the Socialist garbage financial policies that Carter started with the Reinvestment Act, only made worse by Clinton in 1995. Fannie and Freddie were the final nails in the coffin. Here we are today after that massive "redistribution of wealth" to create artificial home ownership for millions of Americans that you wouldn't trust to balance a checkbook...... we bought loads of unnecessary garbage with money we didn't have (i.e. credit), and now we collapse. That was done with fictitious paper... now made real with our tax dollars as our Government bails out their bank buddies with our financial futures. Next... here comes Obama with his "spread the wealth" Socialism, and plans to tax any success you may have... killing the economy and all jobs with business taxes and wicked increases in capital gains. Hello STAGFLATION. So what do you do?
Learn from history in my opinion. Depression is the destination if the tax increases are put in place. That's what caused our first Depression after the great stock market crash, the Government increased taxes then as well.
Our Treasury has printed TRILLIONS of dollars... and yet the dollar gains strength only because we caused a global slowdown and titanic losses overseas. We stopped consuming the cheap stuff they make for us... and we threw them back into the Stone Age. China now chooses to put it's cash towards it's own infrastructure... and that can only lead to them bailing our T-bills. Then the dollar dies... and commodities spike.
The theory and plan that I will explore is an attempt to profit exponentially in one of the worst financial periods in human history. In times of great loss... fortunes can be made. So put together the few pennies you have left and try to find some bargains in the "2008 End of Year Tank", as anyone with profits left in their portfolio bails before Obama raises the capital gains tax.
Getting there... one step at a time.
DISCLAIMOR - This board is opinion only. It should be considered as such. The participants here are not professional brokers and do not recommend that anyone buy, hold, or sell any registered securities. Trade at your own risk. No risk , no reward.
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"Marxism sucks. Get paid."
HRB - Tax prep services... and yes, a BANK... with crappy management and huge credit exposure... gonna tank IMO. My bet is bankruptcy is pending. Ride it down to the ground....
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C - Exposed... no bailout... gonna tank IMO. It did.. and shorts worked well.
X - Steel...nice up and down. Was at $4 during the first Depression.... then went to $200. May get to the teens... then stall. May start nibbling then.
GS - One of the Feds chosen banks... but now below it's 1999 IPO price. Not near the bottom IMO.
USB - May be one of the first to emerge on the other side. $15 target.
TOL - One year away from any real sales IMO.... gonna get eaten alive by the taxes they have to pay on their dead properties. Near 52-week high... keep on watch. Short worked well.
FRE - Play the privatization tank? Yup, yup. Likely dead in the diluted water.
UNG - Dollar will tank with FRE bailouts. Look for a turn IMO. Flight to commodities will start again. Loading near in the money calls for late 2009. Near bottom IMO...
UUP - The dollar index. IT WILL TANK SOON IMO.
FCX - Gold and copper. This one will fly soon... and pass it's previous highs IMO. Below $15 cannot be ignored. 2 years from now it will be amazing. Hope y'all got some near $15.
USO - Oil index.... great options action. Just like UNG... looks good for 6 month out calls under $40 IMO. Whipturn coming with hyperinflation?
DIG - This one will get sick by 2010. Getting stupid cheap here.
KALU - Aluminum giant... it'll be back. Under $10?
POT - The agriculture play... $50 target is a LOADER IMO. People still need to eat and they have contracts locked in at higher prices.
PAL - Palladium may recover... this one is cheap.
IPI - American Potash giant IPO with 30 million shares. Nice. A steal below $10 IMO.
COF - Dead man walking? He doesn't even know it yet IMO (9/11 - $45 PPS call). Puts a long ways out may be nice gamble play for a tank.... it's got primarily UNSECURED DEBT. Not good. I bet she goes belly up.
HP - Flies with increase in oil. Loading zone at $15 or less?
VIX - Volatility index... keep an eye on this. Puts may be good after the dust settles.
SILVER!!!! Yes, silver.... 1oz. physical rounds on hand are a great hedge for the inflation to come IMO. Get the cheapest silver rounds or bars you can get. 90% junk silver is good too... may be our future currency once the dollar demonetizes. IMO
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