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Thanks Roque. I hear you. The film is a wonderful movie.
Isfahan was just hit by another explosion...
wonder why not carried by media.....
Pants, very lovely photo.
the following for you.Wood is most excellent imo. An excerpt.
Today’s total market cap is some $50 trillion and QE 2 was valued at $600 billion, which is a mere 1.2 percent of the estimated total market cap of all stocks worldwide. So, if they do come out with a QE 3 it'll amount to no more than peeing on a forest fire. Again, the manipulation will not matter and once the proper setup is in place the bear will have his way with the Phase II decline.
I have begun doing free market commentary that is available at www.cyclesman.net. The specifics on Dow theory, my statistics, model expectations, and timing are available through a subscription to Cycles News & Views and the short-term updates. I have gone back to the inception of the Dow Jones Industrial Average in 1896 and identified the common traits associated with all major market tops. Thus, I know with a high degree of probability what this bear market rally top will look like and how to identify it. These details are covered in the monthly research letters as it unfolds. I also provide important turning point analysis using the unique Cycle Turn Indicator on the stock market, the dollar, bonds, gold, silver, oil, gasoline, the XAU and more. A subscription includes access to the monthly issues of Cycles News & Views covering the Dow theory, and very detailed statistical-based analysis plus updates 3 times a week.
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About the Author
Tim W Wood CPA
Author at Cycles News & Views
Primary Tel: 504.208.9781
1545 Gulf Shores Pkwy PMB 251 Gulf Shores AL 36542 USA
tim @ cyclesman.com
http://www.cyclesman.net/
Dear Zab, My thoughts are with you .
Please keeps us informed as to your condition and
your thoinking on everything. Think I am sub consciously
thinking of boinking...oh, well. Get well soon.
sally
Thanks Pants--Criminy.
I hope you are wrong on this.
A distraction from the financial meltdown..?
Arab sanctions find Syria's 7 neighbors on alert. Russian missiles for Assad
DEBKAfile Special Report November 27, 2011, 6:44 PM (GMT+02:00) Tags: Syria Bashar Assad Arab League sanctions Israel Turkey Russia
Russian Yakhont blockade breaker
Twenty-four hours before the Arab League Sunday, Nov. 27, clamped down sanctions on the Assad regime, the first ever against a member state, the armies of Syria's seven neighbors were already scrambling into position on standby on its borders for acts of retaliation. Military suspense mounted after the Arab League vote to cut off transactions with Syria's central bank, withdraw Arab funding from projects and other painful sanctions over Bashar Assad's refusal to halt his crackdown on protest.
DEBKAfile's military sources report Israeli armored brigades pushed forward up to the Lebanese and Syrian borders; Ankara placed three armored brigades, its air force and navy in astate of preparedness, likewise Hizballah and the Lebanese and Jordanian armed forces, while the US and Russia are in the midst of a naval buildup opposite Syrian shores.
Military sources in the Gulf report that 150 Iranian Revolutionary Guards specialists had landed at a military airport south of Damascus on their way to Lebanon to join Hizballah which began bringing its rockets out of their hideouts.
Ahead of the Arab League vote, Qatar and Turkey were reported to be airlifting "volunteers" from Libya to fight alongside the rebel Free Syrian Army, some also transporting weapons, whereas Russia has begun another airlift to deliver top-notch missiles for Assad's forces.
Our sources report the two key items are advanced Pantsir-1 (SA-22 Greyhound) anti-air missiles for breaking a no-fly zone against most types of aircraft should one be imposed and supersonic Yakhont (SS-26) missiles for targeting vessels blockading Syria's shores at a distance of 300 kilometers.
On Nov. 25, DEBKAfile reported:
Israeli and Jordanian armed forces declared a state of preparedness Friday, Nov. 25, after the Syrian General Command accused an "armed terrorist" group of an ambush killing 10 airmen including 6 elite pilots on the Homs-Palmyra road Thursday, "with the involvement of foreign parties, the foremost of which is Israel."
DEBKAfile's military and intelligence sources report the ambush was another of the major operations against Assad regime's most sensitive targets executed by the Free Syrian Army this week.
It took place at a point on the highway east of Palmyra on the fringe of the Syrian Desert and close to the Syrian Air Force base at Tiyas.
The official statement aired on Syrian state TV said the attack claimed the lives of six elite pilots, one technical officer and three technical sub-officers of the airbase.
Our sources add that the rebel army must have penetrated the highest levels of Syria's military intelligence command for the attack and was clearly receiving targeting data from inside the armed forces.
The attack took place two days after the Free Syrian Army using rocket grenade launchers and heavy machine guns smashed into the Air Force Intelligence base of Harasta near Damascus, killing at least 10 Syrian troops. The ruling Baath party headquarters in Damascus was also attacked on Thursday.
The official statement broadcast Friday described the pilots as "qualitatively trained in piloting modern military aircraft" and "prepared to carry out "the sacred duty of liberating the land and restoring the usurped rights."
It went on to say: "The General Command… considers that the beneficiaries of this terrorist act are the enemies of the homeland and the nation, foremost being Israel."
The Syrian military vowed "to cut every evil hand that targets Syrian blood, and decisively confront all who threaten the homeland's security and stability."
The 24-hour lapse between the attack and the official statement indicated the level of dismay and confusion in Damascus over the sudden assault on the most stalwart buttress of the Assad dynasty in the nine-month crisis and a body blow to his regime.
Bashar Assad cannot afford to avoid retaliating. If he does, it will be an admission that the backbone of his armed forces is falling apart and out of control.
Since there is no knowing what form his revenge will take, Israel, Jordan and most likely Turkey too were braced Friday for trouble.
Assad no doubt took into account that bombing Free Syrian Army training bases across the border in Turkey would bring forth a Turkish military strike. So for now, he decided to point the finger at Israel, a reliable standby when the regime has its back to the wall. Jordan, through which large arms supplies reach the Syrian opposition, may seem to Damascus to be easy prey for the bombardment or raid of bases hosting Syrian rebels.
In the heat of the crisis, the Syrian ruler allowed the deadline set by the Arab League of his acceptance of hundreds of monitors go by Friday without an answer. "It is a last chance, a new chance for Syria,” Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told reporters in Istanbul at a joint news conference with his Jordanian counterpart Nasser Judeh. By missing the deadline, Damascus faces possible economic sanctions spearheaded by the Arab League, which earlier this month suspended Syrian membership, amid growing international isolation.
new home sales... you being tongue n cheek?
europe is toast as in banks etc
my opinion is that if one doesn't agree with Pants and his recession ..one would be betting against the house and more. Timing..perhaps after the long recession manufacturing will return to america..
Thats a ways off . S&P 666 probably is correct or near. 2012...??? Into 2013... very frightening.
Having the S&P rally isn't out of the question either.I think Pants makes a strong and believable point.
If anyone needs to hassle me, I take it as entertainment.
Zab, take a look at WEAT.
Pants, can you give me 'your' price for silver short term...
thanks
Pants, 666 on what....?
thanks
the french revolution didn't teach us anything... HELLO.
let them eat cake doesn't go over.
JESSE'S CAFÉ AMÉRICAIN
19 NOVEMBER 2011
Update on MF Global: Interview with James Koutoulas of he Commodity Customer Coalition
"When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle."
Edmund Burke
James Koutoulas is CEO of Typhon Capital Management and recently founded the Commodity Customer Coalition (CCC), comprised of over 7000 customers of MF Global. As an attorney and spokesperson for the CCC, Koutoulas has an inside persective on the legal maelstrom that has erupted in the wake of the MF Global bankruptcy scandal -- he's leading the charge for the commodities trading community. We asked him for an update on the case.
You can listen to the Benzina radio interview here.
What is the latest from the proceedings?
I think JP Morgan realizes we made some really good points in our objection to their motion, and they are stalling the hearing on this as much as they can. As of Tuesday, they had continued that hearing from the 15th to the 22nd. They've gone ahead and continued that again, so our objection has been pushed back to the 30th.
It's our guess that they are probably going to throw $20 million at lawyers to figure out a way to beat our little grassroots coalition on it.
They are allowing MF Global Holdings to continue to use this $8 million, but they haven't gotten the "super-priority" liens that they have sought. From our perspective, let them stall as long as they want and let them throw $20 million worth of lawyers at us. It's our goal to have this situation resolved in two weeks.
Can they get the money back?
If they commingled funds with their own money, then customers would have clawback rights, similar to the Madoff case. So, that would be a fraudulent conveyance.
Customers, in my opinion, would have rights of recovery from the $1.2 billion in excess equity that sits in the holding company, which is why we are fighting to get on the creditor's committee, so we have a say in protecting recoveries on the holding company assets.
Moreover, if there was a crime committed, that opens up Corzine, MF Global directors, the $200 million directors and officers insurance policy--that opens all of that up to potential customer recoveries, and we will aggressively be going after all of those sources so that customers are made whole.
This seems like the kind of thing that could be dragged out for years.
It is a mess, and I think it definitely had that potential before we got involved, but I think the world has never seen an organization like ours, that has been put together so quickly--over 7,000 people in under two weeks, with some very experienced lawyers who are actually motivated by helping customers instead of collecting $891 an hour in legal fees.
We've gone in there and stopped the train for the moment on the JP Morgan cash collateral use. We've gotten the judge to realize the timeliness of the situation, and the judge is an honorable man. He is putting the pressure on the trustees to speed up the process.
I also think we've put a lot of pressure on CME. I've reached out to the CME. I told them, "Look, there are cases where you could (1) be liable for this," due to the way that they have advertised the sanctity of seg [related] funds in order to drive business through their exchange. I've said, "Look, your stock is down something like $2.5 billion in market cap this week, which makes the $600 million look like a drop in the bucket."
The CME could take this major problem that they are having and turn it into an opportunity for goodwill by going out and just putting up the rest of the shortfall. The customers get their money, everybody feels safe, they restore confidence to the futures market, and they get volume going through their exchange again.
I've offered to the CME vice chairman that I will go to court and recommend that the judge grant a lien to the CME on the holding company assets should they put up a temporary fund to cover the shortfall. That way, the CME would be pretty well-protected there. Essentially, they'd be putting up a loan rather than just giving away $600 million.
What is your reaction to Ann Barnhardt's widely circulated letter to her clients at BCM announcing that she was shuttering the firm as a result of the MF Global fallout?
I agree 100 percent with her [on the point that] I think the way everyone handled it initially was terrible, and it made matters worse. As for [her second point about moral obligation to cease facilitation of access to futures markets], I honestly think that is taking the easy way out.
I think we've been courageous; we've stood in the face of all of these guys who have done things wrong and who have tried to screw over the customers. Sure, that's a hard thing to do, but I think that it's important for America to have futures markets.
It's important for the farmers who go and hedge their risk, or Southwest Airlines, which has been able to maintain high profitability for three years of high oil prices because of their futures hedging program.
I think it's important that we use this situation as an opportunity to fix what is wrong with the system. If we make enough noise, these people have to listen to us. We've come out with a message that, while there is some anger there--and with good reason--it's been a focused message and it's been solutions-oriented.
Thus far, the honorable judge Glenn has been receptive to what we have had to say; he's been reasonable. The trustee has sped up this recovery process. The CME has gone part of the way there with their $300 million guarantee.
I think, within a couple of days, the CME is going to be forced to step up and make customers whole. Once that happens, we can talk about things like class actions to get people the damages back from forced liquidation, and all of that.
We can talk about tweaking the regulations to eliminate the ability of firms to invest in repos. I think there are some changes that we could make. Maybe the CME takes a little portion of their exchange fees--they're already the highest-paid party in most trades--take one penny per trade and put it toward an insurance fund going forward.
Let me make it clear, I in no way think that other futures customers should have to pay for this particular situation. I think it's the JP Morgans, it's the holding company assets, it's Corzine and the other directors personally that should have to pay for this particular mess.
But look, Ann, don't quit. It's an easy thing to quit. Stand up and fight. Make your voice heard and advocate on behalf of your customers, like what we are doing. We would be welcome to have her join our side if she were so inclined.
It seems like the CME is one of the parties with the most at stake here.
I think that is 100 percent accurate. Look, if I'm the CME, I don't look at this as a morality play. They are a publicly-traded company. It's good business to make customers whole as fast as possible, and it's not like they are going to cut a check they are never going to get back.
They could go in and get liens on holding company assets, pay people out, and get them trading ASAP. It's a great business decision.
The CME board is a big board. There is a lot of old-school people there, so I think it takes some time to form a consensus, but I think within a couple of days they are going to have to cave and step up to the plate here for the full amount.
That makes our job easier, it makes the customer's job easier, it deprives the trustee of being able to hold this thing up for three years. It makes them have to get the money out now, and everybody except the trustee and probably JP Morgan and Bank of America win. Guess what? I'm OK with that.
Is the CME big enough to win out over entities like JP Morgan?
"Honestly, it doesn't matter who is big enough if you have people on your side who know the law. The law favors the customers. The problem that normally happens is the customers don't have the quality legal representation they need to fight the big guys.
We're working with Barnes and Thornburg as co-councel and they've assigned some brilliant partners, both on the litigation side and on the bankruptcy side. We have Sam Tenenbaum, head of Northwestern Investor Protection Clinic, who has been litigating for 35 years. He has gone toe-to-toe with Goldman Sachs and won several times.
And you've got me, who truly understands the futures business, but is also an attorney, an organizer, and a good spokesman. And I think that legal team poses a challenge that these high-priced bank lawyers have never seen before."
What's going to happen next?
"I honestly think the CME is going to step up and make customers whole. If they don't do that, we're going to proceed with our plans. Yesterday we met with the Trustee at the judge's orders and we proposed a plan for distribution of partial customer assets that would move about 6-12 months faster than the Trustee's plan.
At this point, we're still open to working with the Trustee; I offered to work with them to implement this. They thus far have not been receptive to that, so unless there is a change of heart there, we're going to come forward and put our plan in front of a judge on Tuesday.
We're also going to continue our efforts to have the Commodity Customer Coalition represented on the creditors' committee in the holdings companies case to protect customers against [Bank of America, JP Morgan, and others] who, in addition to being on the committee, are trying to set up vulture funds where they can buy customers' claims for pennies on the dollar and then get paid out once this whole thing is resolved - which I think is a conflict of interest.
We're going to support Tim Butler's motion on Tuesday. Attorney Butler has filed on behalf of his brother to push for the release of 85 percent of funds now, since the stated shortfall is only 11.6 percent.
We also want to see Corzine in court, under oath, and we want to hear his answer to where he thinks the money is and give him the option to be honorable and forthright, or to be a coward and take the Fifth.
I want to show the American people that no matter how connected you are, no matter if you were the Governor of New Jersey, no matter if you were a senator, if you break the law you should go to jail. And quite frankly, I think it's a disgrace that no one went to jail over the crisis in 2008.
All the people who gave triple-A credit ratings to essentially junk securities, none of them went to jail, none of the people who sold those went to jail, none of the people who committed mortgage fraud went to jail - I think it's ridiculous. If [Corzine] did commit a crime, I want to see him behind bars."
POSTED BY JESSE AT 3:11 PM
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JESSE'S CAFÉ AMÉRICAIN
"THEN HE WILL SAY TO THOSE ON HIS LEFT, 'DEPART, YOU WHO ARE CURSED INTO THE DARKNESS PREPARED FOR SATAN AND HIS ANGELS. FOR I WAS HUNGRY AND YOU GAVE ME NOTHING TO EAT, I WAS THIRSTY AND YOU GAVE ME NOTHING TO DRINK, I WAS A STRANGER AND YOU DID NOT WELCOME ME, I WAS NAKED AND YOU DID NOT CLOTHE ME, I WAS SICK AND YOU DID NOT CARE FOR ME.' THEY REPLIED, 'LORD WHEN DID WE SEE YOU?' AND THE LORD SAID, 'WHATEVER YOU DID NOT DO FOR THE LEAST OF THESE, YOU DID NOT DO FOR ME.'" MT 25:41-45
19 NOVEMBER 2011
Update on MF Global: Interview with James Koutoulas of he Commodity Customer Coalition
"When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle."
Edmund Burke
James Koutoulas is CEO of Typhon Capital Management and recently founded the Commodity Customer Coalition (CCC), comprised of over 7000 customers of MF Global. As an attorney and spokesperson for the CCC, Koutoulas has an inside persective on the legal maelstrom that has erupted in the wake of the MF Global bankruptcy scandal -- he's leading the charge for the commodities trading community. We asked him for an update on the case.
You can listen to the Benzina radio interview here.
What is the latest from the proceedings?
I think JP Morgan realizes we made some really good points in our objection to their motion, and they are stalling the hearing on this as much as they can. As of Tuesday, they had continued that hearing from the 15th to the 22nd. They've gone ahead and continued that again, so our objection has been pushed back to the 30th.
It's our guess that they are probably going to throw $20 million at lawyers to figure out a way to beat our little grassroots coalition on it.
They are allowing MF Global Holdings to continue to use this $8 million, but they haven't gotten the "super-priority" liens that they have sought. From our perspective, let them stall as long as they want and let them throw $20 million worth of lawyers at us. It's our goal to have this situation resolved in two weeks.
Can they get the money back?
If they commingled funds with their own money, then customers would have clawback rights, similar to the Madoff case. So, that would be a fraudulent conveyance.
Customers, in my opinion, would have rights of recovery from the $1.2 billion in excess equity that sits in the holding company, which is why we are fighting to get on the creditor's committee, so we have a say in protecting recoveries on the holding company assets.
Moreover, if there was a crime committed, that opens up Corzine, MF Global directors, the $200 million directors and officers insurance policy--that opens all of that up to potential customer recoveries, and we will aggressively be going after all of those sources so that customers are made whole.
This seems like the kind of thing that could be dragged out for years.
It is a mess, and I think it definitely had that potential before we got involved, but I think the world has never seen an organization like ours, that has been put together so quickly--over 7,000 people in under two weeks, with some very experienced lawyers who are actually motivated by helping customers instead of collecting $891 an hour in legal fees.
We've gone in there and stopped the train for the moment on the JP Morgan cash collateral use. We've gotten the judge to realize the timeliness of the situation, and the judge is an honorable man. He is putting the pressure on the trustees to speed up the process.
I also think we've put a lot of pressure on CME. I've reached out to the CME. I told them, "Look, there are cases where you could (1) be liable for this," due to the way that they have advertised the sanctity of seg [related] funds in order to drive business through their exchange. I've said, "Look, your stock is down something like $2.5 billion in market cap this week, which makes the $600 million look like a drop in the bucket."
The CME could take this major problem that they are having and turn it into an opportunity for goodwill by going out and just putting up the rest of the shortfall. The customers get their money, everybody feels safe, they restore confidence to the futures market, and they get volume going through their exchange again.
I've offered to the CME vice chairman that I will go to court and recommend that the judge grant a lien to the CME on the holding company assets should they put up a temporary fund to cover the shortfall. That way, the CME would be pretty well-protected there. Essentially, they'd be putting up a loan rather than just giving away $600 million.
What is your reaction to Ann Barnhardt's widely circulated letter to her clients at BCM announcing that she was shuttering the firm as a result of the MF Global fallout?
I agree 100 percent with her [on the point that] I think the way everyone handled it initially was terrible, and it made matters worse. As for [her second point about moral obligation to cease facilitation of access to futures markets], I honestly think that is taking the easy way out.
I think we've been courageous; we've stood in the face of all of these guys who have done things wrong and who have tried to screw over the customers. Sure, that's a hard thing to do, but I think that it's important for America to have futures markets.
It's important for the farmers who go and hedge their risk, or Southwest Airlines, which has been able to maintain high profitability for three years of high oil prices because of their futures hedging program.
I think it's important that we use this situation as an opportunity to fix what is wrong with the system. If we make enough noise, these people have to listen to us. We've come out with a message that, while there is some anger there--and with good reason--it's been a focused message and it's been solutions-oriented.
Thus far, the honorable judge Glenn has been receptive to what we have had to say; he's been reasonable. The trustee has sped up this recovery process. The CME has gone part of the way there with their $300 million guarantee.
I think, within a couple of days, the CME is going to be forced to step up and make customers whole. Once that happens, we can talk about things like class actions to get people the damages back from forced liquidation, and all of that.
We can talk about tweaking the regulations to eliminate the ability of firms to invest in repos. I think there are some changes that we could make. Maybe the CME takes a little portion of their exchange fees--they're already the highest-paid party in most trades--take one penny per trade and put it toward an insurance fund going forward.
Let me make it clear, I in no way think that other futures customers should have to pay for this particular situation. I think it's the JP Morgans, it's the holding company assets, it's Corzine and the other directors personally that should have to pay for this particular mess.
But look, Ann, don't quit. It's an easy thing to quit. Stand up and fight. Make your voice heard and advocate on behalf of your customers, like what we are doing. We would be welcome to have her join our side if she were so inclined.
It seems like the CME is one of the parties with the most at stake here.
I think that is 100 percent accurate. Look, if I'm the CME, I don't look at this as a morality play. They are a publicly-traded company. It's good business to make customers whole as fast as possible, and it's not like they are going to cut a check they are never going to get back.
They could go in and get liens on holding company assets, pay people out, and get them trading ASAP. It's a great business decision.
The CME board is a big board. There is a lot of old-school people there, so I think it takes some time to form a consensus, but I think within a couple of days they are going to have to cave and step up to the plate here for the full amount.
That makes our job easier, it makes the customer's job easier, it deprives the trustee of being able to hold this thing up for three years. It makes them have to get the money out now, and everybody except the trustee and probably JP Morgan and Bank of America win. Guess what? I'm OK with that.
Is the CME big enough to win out over entities like JP Morgan?
"Honestly, it doesn't matter who is big enough if you have people on your side who know the law. The law favors the customers. The problem that normally happens is the customers don't have the quality legal representation they need to fight the big guys.
We're working with Barnes and Thornburg as co-councel and they've assigned some brilliant partners, both on the litigation side and on the bankruptcy side. We have Sam Tenenbaum, head of Northwestern Investor Protection Clinic, who has been litigating for 35 years. He has gone toe-to-toe with Goldman Sachs and won several times.
And you've got me, who truly understands the futures business, but is also an attorney, an organizer, and a good spokesman. And I think that legal team poses a challenge that these high-priced bank lawyers have never seen before."
What's going to happen next?
"I honestly think the CME is going to step up and make customers whole. If they don't do that, we're going to proceed with our plans. Yesterday we met with the Trustee at the judge's orders and we proposed a plan for distribution of partial customer assets that would move about 6-12 months faster than the Trustee's plan.
At this point, we're still open to working with the Trustee; I offered to work with them to implement this. They thus far have not been receptive to that, so unless there is a change of heart there, we're going to come forward and put our plan in front of a judge on Tuesday.
We're also going to continue our efforts to have the Commodity Customer Coalition represented on the creditors' committee in the holdings companies case to protect customers against [Bank of America, JP Morgan, and others] who, in addition to being on the committee, are trying to set up vulture funds where they can buy customers' claims for pennies on the dollar and then get paid out once this whole thing is resolved - which I think is a conflict of interest.
We're going to support Tim Butler's motion on Tuesday. Attorney Butler has filed on behalf of his brother to push for the release of 85 percent of funds now, since the stated shortfall is only 11.6 percent.
We also want to see Corzine in court, under oath, and we want to hear his answer to where he thinks the money is and give him the option to be honorable and forthright, or to be a coward and take the Fifth.
I want to show the American people that no matter how connected you are, no matter if you were the Governor of New Jersey, no matter if you were a senator, if you break the law you should go to jail. And quite frankly, I think it's a disgrace that no one went to jail over the crisis in 2008.
All the people who gave triple-A credit ratings to essentially junk securities, none of them went to jail, none of the people who sold those went to jail, none of the people who committed mortgage fraud went to jail - I think it's ridiculous. If [Corzine] did commit a crime, I want to see him behind bars."
POSTED BY JESSE AT 3:11 PM
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Great for silver & gold Zab.....look at GPL and SVM.
easy to fing the gold and silver buried. metal detector.
Newly, what thread?? I'd love to know.
sally
Guest Post: MF Global: Was It A Hit?
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 11/18/2011 - 14:48
Ben Bernanke Ben Bernanke Fail Federal Reserve Guest Post MF Global Sovereign Debt
Imagine you are Ben Bernanke, or on the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve. The time frame is July and August of 2011 and the price of gold is on a tear. Commodities inflation has been persistent and is breaking out everywhere. Your prediction that inflation “is contained” and is a “temporary phenomena” are beginning to look absurd. What do you do? Simple. Hint that QE3, the primary drive of inflation, is coming and then fail to deliver at the September FOMC meeting. That takes care of the price of gold and the gold stocks. Ah, but those pesky commodities speculators keep making money and trading against what you want the markets to do. So what is to be done there? Hey Jon Corzine, how about you tank the largest broker for the small commodities punters in the world, and we let them twist in the wind? That will serve them right. Teach them to bet against the government approved scenario.
Not very much is settled yet in MFG. The SIPC is pretty trust worthy so far.Corzine may have lost Obama the election. Corzine is a marked man.Hes made many enemies.
Wait till the dust settles.
Back then Zab, we didn't have the same fundamentals as now. China, the other Asians, Brazil, India.
We didn't have a global house of cards CDS & debt time clock going down by the hour.
Not forgetting all the piles of fiat currencies.
Why are all the central banks buying up gold? Why are the banks pushing gold & silver down.........?
Different altogether. The mining stocks are on sale. Maybe a deeper sale next week.. Though I am not sure.One thing I know its the most lucrative place to be invested.
Open to discussion anyone?
With stocks plunging on renewed fears of Europe being a systemic risk to the global banking system, today King World News interviewed internationally followed John Mauldin, President of Millennium Wave Securities. Mauldin spoke candidly with KWN about the crisis, “Well, we’re watching it come down to the eighth inning. The question has always been, can they run it into extra innings or is the game going to be over? It is the end game, it’s a bang moment. All of these crises tend to have something where we look up and say, ‘Wow.’”
John Mauldin continues:
“For instance we look at the credit crisis and we say, ‘Lehman, we had our Lehman moment.’ Well, no, we had a credit crisis and Lehman triggered the final waterfall. The crisis was there and the problems were there all along. The problems are there in Europe. They’ve got too much sovereign debt, their banks have too much of that sovereign debt and are basically functionally bankrupt.
The Germans, if they want to keep the Union together, will have to allow the European Central Bank to print. That means they are going to want massive concessions from the other countries if they do that. It’s hard to get all of that done in the next two weeks.
For them it’s going to be a real problem. If you are Greece you are going to be in a depression and you just get to choose the form of the depression. Do you want to stay in the euro and have a depression or do you want to go to the drachma and have a quicker, faster depression that you can dig out of?
But from the standpoint of the rest of the world, we just want them to keep their banks from imploding....
Continue reading the John Mauldin interview below...
Advertisement
To hear legendary company builder Rob McEwen, original Founder of
Goldcorp discuss which company he invested $60 million
of his own money in and why click on the logo:
“If they keep their banks from imploding, then we will have repercussions, but it shouldn’t throw us into a 2008 credit crisis where, ‘Oh my God it’s the end of the world.’ And the secretary of the treasury has to get down on one his knees and beg some Congressman to bail banks out. It shouldn’t get to that level.
If they allow their banks to implode, then the technical term that we use in economics is, we’re all screwed.”
When asked about gold and the US dollar, Mauldin stated, “The dollar could rally in this type of atmosphere. So you would see gold, in dollar terms, maybe go flat to sideways or it could even go down. As I always tell you, I hope gold goes down because I buy some every month and that means when I buy gold it’s cheaper and I get more.”
When asked about the US situation, Mauldin replied, “If we don’t get our deficit under control, we become Greece and that’s a threat to the economic body. I think the government is giving them (citizens) good reason to be frightened.
I was with Senator Portman yesterday, who, as you know is on the Super Committee. We met privately for an hour going over the issues and quite frankly I didn’t come out of that meeting really encouraged about the future of those negotiations.
The dream that I had when I was 22 is not going to be the same dream that kids have today. I think it is unrealistic that in 20 years the world is going to look even close to what it is today. It’s changing that much.”
This was John Mauldin’s most powerful interview on King World News. John discussed the crisis in Europe, the US and around the world and much more. The extraordinary KWN interview with John Mauldin will be available shortly and you can listen to it by CLICKING HERE.
excerpt-- the golden truth( apologies that its from a gold bug)
One of these days the market is going to blow up in JP Morgan's face because they won't have enough physical supply of silver to meet delivery demands and we'll be reading about JP Morgan the same way we are reading about MF Global, only it will be many multiples more severe. It will potentially be catastrophic to the U.S. dollar and any remaining faith thereof. You want to make sure you have as much of your paper money moved into gold and silver because when the market does blow up like that, the end-game will be near and gold and silver will undergo a breathtaking move higher. I would suggest that behavior like we are seeing by JP Morgan this week indicates that the "blow up" event is getting closer.
POSTED BY DAVE IN DENVER AT 10:00 AM
YES, Cap
I can't paste.. go to Zero Hedge and read Ilene. top right.
SSRI on sale.......
FROM Harvey Organ dec 15
The two ETF's that I follow are the GLD and SLV. You must be very careful in trading these vehicles as these funds do not have any beneficial gold or silver behind them. They probably have only paper claims and when the dust settles, on a collapse, there will be countless class action lawsuits trying to recover your lost investment.
There is now evidence that the GLD and SLV are paper settling on the comex.
Thus a default at either of the LBMA, or Comex will trigger a catastrophic event.
many cops are not very bright.
Lee, I believe we are fascist already. And the outlook doesn't look better.They
must control. There is panic beginning. Newly mentions in my view the most profound political aphorism of the past , what, 70 years.....? The Lutheran minister at the end of War in Germany.
Look it up, you will agree.
You are correct and who would not agree with you. We all want protection.Most unfortunately the
lines are growing indistinct... A next terror "attack".. arranged by who..???? To what end.For whose intention.
We are compromised,as decent law abiding folk we are challenged. To be decent and brave.
Goldman Sachs International Advisor Mario Monti Is Italy's New Prime Minister
Cap, my currency is silver & gold.
reality from The Daily Bell.
excerpt:
The top Greeks – the ones that will compose the unity government – basically intend to ram through a restructuring of Greece's entire society. It's already begun with the raising of taxes, spying on people and throwing them in jail if they don't pay up – while putting more and more people out of work in both the private and public sector.
When the state controls money, the state controls much of what life is about, certainly economic life. This is the idea behind all this. The elites that seek one-world government are using the crisis to continue to consolidate power. Consolidate, consolidate. And use the good, gray men to do it. The bankers.
Lewrockwell.com is carrying a short article pointing out that Papademos is not alone in his banking credentials. Mario Draghi, president of the European Central Bank as of November 1, was vice chairman and managing director of Goldman Sachs Int. Mario Monti who may well succeed Silvio Berlusconi as prime minister of Italy, is European Chairman of the Trilateral Commission and a member of the Bilderberg Group. Here's some more from the article excerpted above:
But Papademos assured Greeks and anxious Europeans elsewhere that he would push through the austerity measures that are a condition of the $177 billion bailout plan announced at the end of October. The country is weeks away from running out of money, officials have said. Greece's "problems will be solved with unity, understanding and prudence," Papademos told reporters after his selection was announced. He called Greece's membership in the euro zone "a guarantee for monetary stability."
As governor of the Bank of Greece from 1992 to 2002, Papademos helped usher Greece into Europe's currency union, an achievement that the country's financial crisis has threatened ... Papademos's aversion to corrupt dealmaking could be a good thing amid the highly charged process of making painful cuts, although some Greek commentators said the incoming prime minister's cautious nature would not necessarily inspire the country in a time of crisis.
Certainly it's obvious that President Kennedy knew that the Federal Reserve Notes being circulated as "legal currency" were contrary to the Constitution of the United States, which calls for issuance of "United States Notes" as interest-free and debt-free currency backed by silver reserves in the U.S. Treasury. Comparing a "Federal Reserve Note" issued from the private central bank of the United States (i.e., the Federal Reserve Bank a/k/a Federal Reserve System), with a "United States Note" from the U.S. Treasury (as issued by President Kennedy's Executive Order), the two almost look alike, except one says "Federal Reserve Note" on the top while the other says "United States Note". In addition, the Federal Reserve Note has a green seal and serial number while the United States Note has a red seal and serial number. Following President Kennedy's assassination on November 22, 1963, the United States Notes he had issued were immediately taken out of circulation, and Federal Reserve Notes continued to serve as the "legal currency" of the nation.
Kennedy knew that if the silver-backed United States Notes were widely circulated, they would eliminated the demand for Federal Reserve Notes. This is a simple matter of economics. USNs were backed by silver and FRNs were (still are) backed by nothing of intrinsic value. As a result of Executive Order 11110, the national debt would have prevented from reaching its current level (almost all of the $9 trillion in federal debt has been created since 1963). Executive Order 11110 also granted the U.S. Government the power to repay past debt without further borrowing from the privately owned Federal Reserve which charged both principle and interest and all new "money" it "created." Finally, Executive Order 11110 gave the U.S.A. the ability to create its own money backed by silver, again giving money real value.
Perhaps President Kennedy's assassination was a warning to future presidents not to interfere with the private Federal Reserve's control over the creation of money. For, with true courage, JFK had boldly challenged the two most successful vehicles that have ever been used to drive up debt: 1) war (i.e., the Vietnam war); and, 2) the creation of money by a privately owned central bank. His efforts to have all U.S. troops out of Vietnam by 1965 combined with Executive Order 11110 would have destroyed the profits and control of the private Federal Reserve Bank.
Executive Order 11110, the AMENDMENT of EXECUTIVE ORDER No. 10289, as amended RELATING to the PERFORMANCE of CERTAIN FUNCTIONS AFFECTING the DEPARTMENT of the TREASURY:
By virtue of the authority vested in me by section 301 of Title 3 of the United States Code, it is ordered as follows:
SECTION 1. Executive Order No. 10289 of September 19, 1951, as amended, is hereby further amended (a) By adding at the end of paragraph 1 thereof the following subparagraph (j): "(j) The authority vested in the President by paragraph (b) of section 43 of the Act of May 12, 1933, as amended (31 U.S.C. 821 (b)), to issue silver certificates against any silver bullion, silver, or standard silver dollars in the Treasury not then held for redemption of any outstanding silver certificates, to prescribe the denominations of such silver certificates, and to coin standard silver dollars and subsidiary silver currency for their redemption," and (b) By revoking subparagraphs (b) and (c) of paragraph 2 thereof.
SECTION 2. The amendment made by this Order shall not affect any act done, or any right accruing or accrued or any suit or proceeding had or commenced in any civil or criminal cause prior to the date of this Order but all such liabilities shall continue and may be enforced as if said amendments had not been made.
JOHN F. KENNEDY
THE WHITE HOUSE,
June 4, 1963
there actually is an evil twin who the chinese set up. He wants to nuke Tibet.
Zab, I am very sorry to hear that.
sally
that is the question..............
From Zero Hedge today
Treasury Borrowing Advisory Committee
The Supercommittee That Really Runs America - Presenting The November 1 TBAC Minutes
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 11/02/2011 09:26 -0400
Bank of New York Blackrock Borrowing Costs Debt Ceiling Department of the Treasury Federal Reserve Federal Reserve Bank Federal Reserve Bank of New York fixed Goldman Sachs goldman sachs Gross Domestic Product KIM Medicare Paul Tudor Jones Real estate recovery REITs Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association Supplemental Financing Program Tim Geithner Treasury Borrowing Advisory Committee
With Tim Geithner having proven repeatedly and beyond a reasonable doubt he has insurmountable intellectual challenges, many have wondered just who it is that makes the real decisions at the US Treasury? The answer is, The Treasury Borrowing Advisory Committee, or the TBAC in short, chaired by JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs, which meets every quarter, and in which the richest people in America (here is its composition) set the fate of the US for the next 3 months in the form of a very much irrelevant report to TurboTax (link). What is of huge importance, however, are the minutes, which unlike the FOMC, are released immediately following the meeting. Below are the full minutes from the latest TBAC meeting held yesterday, just released by the US Treasury (and yes, the issuance of FRN Treasurys, corporate cash hoarding as well as the resumption of the SFP program are both discussed - like we said: these guys run the world) as well as the critical associated powerpoint.
just bought WDOFF on discount. well managed gold co w. dividend.
Evil abounds.
From TFmetals.
MFing Global
Tuesday, November 1, 2011 at 3:36 pm
Man, this last 36 hours has been no fun at all. But, at least I don't work for MFing Global. I feel awful for the good employees from the former Lind-Waldock. Sucks. It just plain sucks.
Sucks for me, too. In order to buy some out-of-the-money, 2012 gold and silver calls, I just sent them a check last week. My bank informed me this morning that they can't stop payment because the check has already cleared. Shit. That money is either gone for good or, at a minimum, tied up for a long time to come. For all of you who are clients of MFing Global because you had heard such good things about Lind through this website, I am truly sorry. Of course, none of us could have seen this coming but I feel terrible, nonetheless. I'll be doing some research on this end and, when I decide upon another futures/options broker, I'll be sure to let you know.
That is, IF I decide on another broker. Someone posted this on the previous thread. It's an email sent last night from a commodity broker named Ann Barnhardt and everyone here should take the time to read it:
"From commodities broker Ann Barnhardt:
Nutshelling the MF Global Collapse
Posted by Ann Barnhardt - October 31, AD 2011 11:14 AM MST
Yes, I called it late last week and strongly urged MF customers to make a hasty exit stage right, but I absolutely did not see what happened this morning coming. This is utterly unprecedented. The Chicago Mercantile Exchange issued an email circular this morning (I received mine at 8:39 am MDT) stating that all MF Global positions were limited to LIQUIDATION ONLY and all MF employees and brokers and traders were banned from the floor of the exchange.
1. As I mentioned last week, MF Global came to its present form back in 2005 when the then-biggest clearing firm, Refco, imploded and was bought by EDF Man. The new, huge firm was then renamed MF Global. When Refco imploded in 2005, NOTHING like this happened. It was a relatively smooth transition, trading was not interrupted, and most of the Refco employees were absorbed into the new company. There was absolutely NO interruption of customer access to positions.
2. Shutting off access of customers to their floor brokers and limiting them to liquidation-only is UNPRECEDENTED. If a big account did not have multiple clearing relationships, the risk exposure this morning for those firms is terrifying to ponder. I did not see this coming. The whole industry is pretty much in shock.
3. Let's not forget that a whole lot of people have just lost their jobs. All of the MF clerks, back office staff, everyone who worked for MF on Friday is now unemployed this morning. Those people matter. John Corzine views them as meaningless economic units who exist only to serve him and advance his power and increase his personal wealth, but John Corzine is an evil sociopath who should be permanently removed from society and imprisoned for the rest of his life so that he can do no more damage. Fricking jackal.
4. Speaking of Corzine, more info is coming out in the bankruptcy filings. First, Corzine stands to reap a $12.1 million severance package / golden parachute per the bankruptcy filing. But that isn't the worst. Corzine was hired by MF less than two years ago. He promptly went about loading the company up on European bonds. That in and of itself is damning enough. Remember, Corzine is Goldman Sachs. He knew EXACTLY what was going on in Europe and he knew that European paper was junk. But guess which European countries he loaded up on? Greece, Portugal, Italy and Ireland. The four little PIIGs. Corzine intentionally drove MF into the ground so that someone, and my money is on Goldman Sachs, could come in and buy the remains for 30 cents on the dollar or less. Watch the news. Watch and see who ends up buying the remnants of MF. If it isn't Goldman outright, I'll bet it is a "holding company" that is tied to Goldman. As an astute commenter over at ZeroHedge.com said last night, it looks like Corzine never really stopped working for Goldman. He just moved his office into MF Global's suite.
5. And now, ONE MORE TIME regarding the financial industry regulators in this country. Guys, they are evil, corrupt and incompetent. The regulatory bodies are run by evil, evil people at the top who are complicit in these goings-on. There is NO POSSIBLE WAY that MF Global could have passed any honest audit with the amount of exposure it was carrying in the European bond market. By the way, MF Global's audit would have fallen under the jurisdiction and oversight of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange itself AND the Commodity Futures Trading Commission on the Federal level. It is just impossible that the CME and the CFTC didn't know MF's position and risk exposure all along. The second tier in these regulatory agencies are a combination of evil, greedy and incompetent bureaucrats who could very well be classified as "useful idiots" who will do anything, say anything, or overlook anything just so long as their salary check clears the bank every month. The third tier are full-blown useful idiots - and by that I mean totally, completely and astoundingly unqualified and incompetent "foot soldiers", many of whom are affirmative action hires. When things like this happen (and there are other examples of massive ponzi schemes being ignored in recent history, like the Sentinel Management Group fiasco) what these regulatory bodies do is lay the blame for "missing" the red flags at the foot of the affirmative action hires who are the on-site auditors and who are made to sign off on the audits. Do you see this? Do you see the evil we are dealing with here?
6. And now here is a paragraph that everyone in the financial industry, but most particularly the futures industry, should send viral. Every Introducing Broker and Futures Commission Merchant in the world is being targeted for extinction by the megabanks. They want you GONE. Goldman, Citi, JP Morgan, etc. They are working with and through the financial regulatory bodies and with the Federal Government via such legislation as Dodd-Frank to force out of business every FCM and fold all of that business into the megabanks. IBs like me are also a target, but we IBs are meaningless guppies compared to whale-sized FCMs.
Corzine was SENT into MF Global with the objective of collapsing it and rolling the remains into Goldman (presumably). And he was paid eight figures to do it, AND promised SEC TREAS after Geithner. If you had said six months ago that the largest FCM in the U.S. would be taken down, everyone would have laughed in your face, but here we sit. The only question is, who is next? How long will an FCM like ADM last before looking at Dodd-Frank and saying, "Screw this. We're selling our clearing operations and we'll just go back to straight-up product merchandizing." Why shouldn't they? If the FCM profit center is made impossible by the government and the corrupt regulatory bodies, why would they continue to operate an FCM? Why not sell to Goldman or one of the other megabank entites and then do their exchange-traded hedge business through them as a customer? When will the old Chicago boutique firms be similarly forced out, either through regulation that makes their business impossible, or through outright sabotage as with Corzine and MF? None of you FCMs are safe. THEY WILL COME AFTER YOU AT SOME POINT. You have been targeted for extermination. Either you wake up to this fact and expose these regulatory bodies, megabanks and the Federal Government and fight them, or you are going to end up like MF, being bought by Goldman or one of the other fascist government-connected megabanks for pennies on the dollar. You have been warned.
7. This MF Global collapse is a small-scale (yes, that's right, SMALL-SCALE) foretaste of what is going to happen to the entire system. When I say get your money out of the market, out of paper instruments, and turn it into something real that is physically located on your property, that you can then stand in front of with an assault rifle and physically defend, I'M NOT KIDDING.
**Just for the sake of clarity, I clear exclusively through Penson right now. I have previously cleared RCG, and worked in an RJO branch office which RJO purchased from LFG in 2000, before starting my IB in 2006. That is the extent of my FCM relationship history."
Yikes. This is some bad shit and it's a long way from over. If you are attempting to trade, first of all, you're nuts. Way, way, way too much uncertainty at the current time. However, if you are giving it a go, please be very careful. I would be quite reluctant to trade aggressively and I would not hold anything overnight. It's just not worth it. That said, below are two charts that are somewhat encouraging. We spent over a month observing the price action in the metals below the resistance area I labeled "Max Q". Once the metals finally broke higher through Max Q, a rally looked to be forthcoming. It still may be. Up or down, one thing that invariably happens when something breaks out of a sideways range is a re-test of that range. Remember, what was resistance becomes support and vice versa. Specifically in this case, gold had resistance from 1680-1705. It broke out last week and is now testing that level as support this week. So far, so good. Gold tried and failed to hold the top end at 1705 but today's waterfall selloff climaxed at 1681 and now we're back to 1717. Again, so far all is well. In silver, the old resistance was 32.35 - 33.60 and we bottomed today at 32.11 and have rebounded to 33.15.
Whats HOB ? Grace was /is a small band around VT.