Replies to post #58036 on Zeev's Turnips Patch-No Politics (ZEEV)

[Captain_Jack]

basserdan-- Even the FEDs dumped the old Civil Service Retirement Plan (CSRS) in about '84. Those 'grandfathered' will not collect Soc Sec unless they have the required qtrs from other jobs also (they paid higher rates to CSRS and not into SS),, then the Soc Sec is greatly reduced. The new plan had many federal workers happy until the decline in the mkt and now some look to work until death. Not much the fed workers could do as they cannot strike as industry does.

[mlsoft]

Dan...

Good article - thanks for the post.

Pensions funds have been hugely manipulated and used to distort true earnings for years. Just another reason to be short GM in my opinion. Like the fictions of "pro-forma earnings", the mythical earnings in each earnings report purported to be from pensions are pure garbage and nothing but air.

A solution for all of this would be for the companies to have to pay their taxes based on what is reported to the public as earnings - if they want to use "pro-forma" or "EBITDA" earnings to convince shareholders that they are doing well, then pay taxes on that figure rather than the true earnings. It would not take long for the fraudulent ones to go out of business.

mlsoft

[mlsoft]

Dan...

I saw the COTs report (gold) from Friday and the commercials added to their short positions. My take on that is that they were fighting the trend, trying to knock the POG back down. That means they are now even more hooked than they were last week, and the squeeze is still on. It is important to note that Friday's action was not reflected in that report, and Friday was another day where they sold heavily to drive gold down, so the actual short position is even higher than on the report.

It will be a contest to see which side has the staying power to enforce their will, and my money is on the longs. I believe they will get it done this time, unless the Fed steps in to bail out JPM, BAC, C and GS.

mlsoft