iTulip.com http://www.itulip.com/forums Stock Market Day Trading, Web Position Gold, Money Market Accounts, Independent Financial Advisor, Currency Online Trading, Commodity Online Trading, FOREX, Oil, Gold, Ression, Down Turn en Fri, 20 Nov 2009 23:52:14 GMT vBulletin 60 http://itulip.com/forums/images/misc/rss.jpg iTulip.com http://www.itulip.com/forums Ive been thinking http://www.itulip.com/forums/showthread.php?t=13063&goto=newpost Fri, 20 Nov 2009 22:57:02 GMT If I've Lost My Mind Just Now Forum is for threads posted by otherwise perfectly sane members who's brains are taking a holiday from reality, then I have been thinking! (Pun Intended)

I have been questioned by my American friends if I could do anything to change the current mess the USA finds its self experiencing and If I had the power to implement those changes - What would I do ?

Well for what its worth, I'll give it a shot.

Parameters -
Actions must provide "bang for your buck"
Actions must be targeted at main weakness
Actions must be long lasting and effective.

I am seeking sensible input.

My action would be to change the mental attitude that US citizens find themselves adopting. How would I do it - Free Marketing through advertising.

I would get and print off some "Bumper stickers" with captions such as-

"I Refuse to engage in a Recession"
"I lost my job and found myself"
"Lower prices are what we need - Warren Buffet"
"I work for a hard ass Boss - ME"
"Recession is Fun - I now work for me"
"I maybe engaged to Recession but Im only using her"
"This is America - We don't tolerate Recession -we Kill em"
"My Neighbor lost his job and gained a personality"
"Being Unemployed gives time - Use it for good works"

The above are my own intellectual verse worked up in 10 mins

Distribution would be free in Bagging at Walmart- Home depot and all working class stores.
Electronic bill boards to be hired as well.
I think it would help lift spirts

You guys are the spin kings - spin yourself a grassroot recovery

From Kelly's Heros - oddlot - "too many negative vibes man" ]]> thunderdownunder http://www.itulip.com/forums/showthread.php?t=13063 <![CDATA[Ohio sues ratings agencies for gilding Wall Street's lilies]]> http://www.itulip.com/forums/showthread.php?t=13062&goto=newpost Fri, 20 Nov 2009 22:48:09 GMT Go git 'em, boys!

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/21/bu...1&ref=business

Quote:
The attorney general of Ohio sued the country’s largest credit rating agencies on Friday, alleging that they had cost state retirement and funds some $457 million by approving high-risk Wall Street securities that went bust in the financial collapse. The case could test whether the agencies’ ratings are constitutionally protected as a form of free speech.

The lawsuit asserts that Moody’s, Standard & Poor’s and Fitch were in league with the banks and other issuers, helping to design an assortment of exotic financial instruments that led to a disastrous bubble in the housing market.

“We believe that the credit rating agencies, in exchange for fees, departed from their objective, neutral role as arbiters,” the attorney general, Richard Cordray, said at a news conference. “At minimum, they were aiding and abetting misconduct by issuers.”


He accused the companies of selling their integrity to the highest bidder.
]]> News Chomsky http://www.itulip.com/forums/showthread.php?t=13062 Why gold can make you poor http://www.itulip.com/forums/showthread.php?t=13061&goto=newpost Fri, 20 Nov 2009 22:39:26 GMT I'd be interested to get some input on this article - isn't it all dependent on when you cash out?

Quote:
Why gold can make you poor

Ian McGugan, Financial Post Published: Friday, November 20, 2009

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Getty Images If you had bought gold for, say, US$350 an ounce in the early 1980s, you would have made no money on it for close to 20 years. Factor in inflation during that time and you would have lost close to ...

Rolfe Winkler of Reuters has an interesting piece about gold in which he thoughtfully explores the case for a boom in the metal's price and comes to the conclusion that gold won't make you rich, but it may protect you from becoming poor.
Here's why I think he's wrong.
Let's imagine that you had bought gold at its peak in 1980, when it was trading near US$850 an ounce. You would have lost most of your money as gold prices slid back to around US$350 and stayed at depressed levels for the next two decades. Twenty years after the 1980 peak your investment would be worth less than half of what you paid.
So, with all due respect to Winkler, gold can make you poor.
While this may be an extreme case, the point holds up even if you take a less dramatic starting point. If you had bought gold for, say, US$350 an ounce in the early 1980s, you would have made no money on it for close to 20 years. Factor in inflation during that time and you would have lost close to half your purchasing power.
Again: gold can make you poor.
This is the point where gold bugs usually start muttering about gold's 5,000-year history as a store of value. "Gold may be volatile," Winkler writes, "but at least it maintains its real value."
Problem is, Winkler also reproduces a chart that shows seven-and-a-half centuries of real gold prices. At least to my eyeballs, it appears that if you had bought gold between 1415 and 1765 or so, you would have to wait until around the mid-1960s to be back to even in terms of purchasing power.
Call me crazy, but I like my investments to pay off in a century or less.
Freelance business journalist Ian McGugan blogs for the Financial Post.
]]> News abexman http://www.itulip.com/forums/showthread.php?t=13061 Obese Americans No Problemo http://www.itulip.com/forums/showthread.php?t=13060&goto=newpost Fri, 20 Nov 2009 20:04:50 GMT Need to be wanted after all the bad press? Schedule a rendering down South America way ;) LIMA, Peru... Need to be wanted after all the bad press? Schedule a rendering down South America way ;)

LIMA, Peru (AP) — A gang in the remote Peruvian jungle has been killing people for their fat, the police said Thursday, accusing the gang’s members of draining fat from bodies and selling it on the black market for use in cosmetics.

Three suspects have confessed to killing five people for their fat, said Col. Jorge Mejía, chief of Peru’s anti-kidnapping police. He said the suspects, two of whom were arrested carrying bottles of liquid fat, told the police it was worth $60,000 a gallon.
Colonel Mejía said the suspects had told the police that the fat had been sold to intermediaries in Lima, the capital. While police officials suspect that the fat was sold to cosmetic companies in Europe, he said he could not confirm any sales.


Six members of the gang remain at large, he said, adding that in addition to the five killings to which the suspects had confessed, the gang might have been involved in dozens of others. Mr. Castillejos told the police that the band’s fugitive leader, Hilario Cudena, had been killing people to extract fat for more than three decades.
At least 60 people are listed as missing this year in Huanuco Province, where the gang is believed to have operated.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/20/wo...l?ref=americas ]]> News don http://www.itulip.com/forums/showthread.php?t=13060 Effects Unknown http://www.itulip.com/forums/showthread.php?t=13059&goto=newpost Fri, 20 Nov 2009 19:43:49 GMT With the Earth's Plausibility Membrane stretched and now broken, what effect further rendering might bring is unknown. A possible chain reaction of multiple bullshit novas has not been ruled out by several scientists, who choose at this time to remain anonymous.

“It was kind of crazy we could get this big a loan,” said Mr. Rowland, 27. “If a government official came out here, I would slap him a high-five.”

SAN FRANCISCO — In January, Mike Rowland was so broke that he had to raid his retirement savings to move here from Boston.
A week ago, he and a couple of buddies bought a two-unit apartment building for nearly a million dollars. They had only a little cash to bring to the table but, with the federal government insuring the transaction, a large down payment was not necessary.


In 2007, the government did not insure a single mortgage in this city, one of the most expensive in the country. Buyers here, as well as in Manhattan, Santa Monica and every other wealthy area, were presumed to be able to handle the steep prices and correspondingly hefty down payments on their own.
Now the government is guaranteeing an average of six mortgages a week here. Real estate agents say the insurance is such a good deal that there will soon be many more.


For decades, most F.H.A. loans were in low-cost states like Texas and Michigan. Under the agency’s loan limits, houses along the coasts were usually too expensive to qualify. In 2007, fewer than 4,400 F.H.A. loans were made in California, according to the research firm MDA DataQuick, and none were in San Francisco.
The Economic Stimulus Act of 2008 helped change that by temporarily doubling the maximum loan the F.H.A. insured, to $729,750. A two-unit property like the one bought by Mr. Rowland and his friends can be insured for up to $934,200.
“F.H.A. financing was a lost language in San Francisco, the real estate equivalent of Aramaic,” said Michael Ackerman, the agent who represented Mr. Rowland and his friends. “Once the limits were raised, smart buyers started calling.”



“It sure has helped us put a lot of deals together,” said Guarantee’s chief sales officer, Bob Siefert. He predicts that a quarter of Guarantee’s deals will soon be guaranteed by the F.H.A.


Some F.H.A. borrowers here say they have the cash for a full down payment but would rather invest it in the stock market or use it for remodeling. Others, like Mr. Rowland and his friends, simply do not have the money required by private lenders — which would have been nearly $200,000, in their case.
“We were resigned to waiting another year,” said a second partner, Michael Bedar, 31. “Then we read about the F.H.A. I had never heard of it before, and couldn’t quite believe it. But it was the answer to our problems.”
They put down about $33,000, split among the three of them.

The F.H.A. commissioner, David H. Stevens, said recently that its loans were relatively safe because the buyer was required to live in the property. They “are for shelter. They aren’t speculative-type investments,” Mr. Stevens said.







The Internal Revenue Service is giving tax rebates to first-time buyers, and soon to move-up buyers, in a program beset by accusations of fraud. And the government agency that issues mortgage insurance, the Federal Housing Administration, is underwriting loans at quadruple the rate of three years ago even as its reserves to cover defaults are dwindling.



“We’re banking on real estate,” said Mr. Kurland, 24. “Everyone expects prices to keep going up.”





On Thursday, the Mortgage Bankers Association said more than one in six F.H.A. borrowers was behind on payments.

A few weeks ago, Congress extended the higher lending limits for another year. Representative Barney Frank, the Massachusetts Democrat who is chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, said in an interview that he planned to introduce legislation next year raising the maximum F.H.A. loan by $100,000, to $839,750.


His bill would make the new limits permanent.





http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/20/bu...ef=todayspaper ]]> News don http://www.itulip.com/forums/showthread.php?t=13059 <![CDATA[ICE Cancels DXY Trades After "Impossible" Action Moves Index 9% Higher]]> http://www.itulip.com/forums/showthread.php?t=13058&goto=newpost Fri, 20 Nov 2009 18:23:50 GMT Zerohedge has a tendency to run a piece about some big ramp in markets and call it a conspiracy about every other day. None the less I think that... Zerohedge has a tendency to run a piece about some big ramp in markets and call it a conspiracy about every other day. None the less I think that something big is about to happen and the interesting thing for me was the direction of the alleged moment. Crisis in Europe = dollar UP. Not "dollar flat, euro up, Hryvnia down".


http://www.zerohedge.com/article/ice...orcement-team-

I'm still looking for a huge spike in the euro as money flees the dollar. ]]> News globaleconomicollaps http://www.itulip.com/forums/showthread.php?t=13058 Something MEGA should know http://www.itulip.com/forums/showthread.php?t=13057&goto=newpost Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:49:34 GMT *Devoted husband who strangled wife in his sleep walks free from court* Prosecution drops... Devoted husband who strangled wife in his sleep walks free from court

Prosecution drops case against chronic sleep disorder sufferer who killed wife during bad dream on holiday


A "decent and devoted" husband who strangled his wife while he dreamt she was a intruder has been cleared of murder after the Crown Prosecution Service accepted he had not been in control of his actions but was not a danger to anyone else.

Thomas, a retired steelworker from Neath in south Wales, will be advised to seek treatment for his condition. Friends and family said he was devastated by the loss of his beloved wife of almost 40 years. In court he was described as a "broken man" who might try to harm himself. Since he was a child Thomas had been prone to sleepwalking and other sleep disorders. At home he and his wife slept in separate bedrooms but shared a double bed when they went away in their campervan.

At the start of the trial the prosecution said it was a "unique" case. It accepted Thomas should be found not guilty but initially called for a special verdict of not guilty due to insanity, which would have meant he could have been held in a secure psychiatric hospital. The law dictates that this is a verdict that cannot be determined by anyone other than a jury, which is why the case had to go to court.

But in the end the CPS decided to offer no more evidence and the jury returned a straightforward verdict of not guilty.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/no...angler-tragedy ]]> News don http://www.itulip.com/forums/showthread.php?t=13057 <![CDATA[Britain's Lost Decade: For Whom?]]> http://www.itulip.com/forums/showthread.php?t=13056&goto=newpost Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:41:05 GMT Fears of ‘Lost Decade’ Grow for British Economy...]]> There lies the rub....

November 21, 2009

Fears of ‘Lost Decade’ Grow for British Economy

By LANDON THOMAS Jr.

 LONDON — Britain may be emerging from recession, but that is little solace for those who suggest that the economy here might follow in the steps of Japan’s lost decade in the 1990s unless the twin threats of burgeoning national debt and ruined banks are adequately addressed.

The parallels are easy to see: Like Japan, Britain enjoyed a decade of booming growth, fueled by aggressive bank lending and real estate investments. Haunted by the comparison, policy makers have been extra aggressive in using fiscal and monetary levers to prevent the type of sustained period of stagnation and banking stasis that plagued Japan for so long.

Some economic indicators this past week have been positive: an uptick in retail sales, fewer jobs being lost and an export revival. Yet analysts say they may well turn out to be tease, cloaking deeper, more structural flaws in the economy. On top of rising debt, the tax base is collapsing and the crippled banking sector has yet to show it can generate profits by lending to corporations.

“We expect 1 percent growth next year and 0.7 percent in 2011,” said Douglas McWilliams of the Center for Economic and Business Research in London. “Technically it’s a recovery — but it’s a very weak economy indeed.”

Comparisons with Japan have been made in the United States as well, but some believe that the more appropriate analogy is Britain, given the more pronounced contribution that the banking sector has on the economy here.
The prospect of a period of Japan-like outcome in Britain was publicly aired last month by a senior member of the Bank of England’s monetary policy committee, Adam S. Posen, who was just appointed in June.

An American and a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington, Mr. Posen was speaking as an outside expert on Japan’s lost decade. He noted his views were his alone and not those of the bank.

But they also carry the weight of one of the decision makers on the bank’s strategy of buying of government bonds, known as gilts, as a means to inject liquidity into the economy, a policy called quantitative easing.

“The United Kingdom has an uncomfortable parallel with the Japanese financial system when the Japanese economy began to recover in the mid-1990s and was unable to sustain it,” he said in his speech. “The closer one looks, the more worrisome this specific parallel becomes, given the concentration of the UK banking system in few major, mostly still troubled banks, and the relative underdevelopment of alternative non-bank channels for getting capital to non-financial businesses in the U.K.”

While defending the quantitative easing as necessary and non-inflationary, Mr. Posen also pointed out that the Bank of England’s massive purchase of gilts — the bank now owns 30 percent of those outstanding — is in itself a consequence of the British financial system inadequacy in providing credit to businesses through the issuing of corporate bonds.

Like Japan, the capitalization of Britain’s private sector bond market as a proportion of gross domestic product is very low — 0.16 percent, the smallest among G7 economies and significantly behind the U.S. figure of 1.2 percent.

For a financial system heralded to be one of the world’s most sophisticated, this is an eye-opening statistic and it raises the possibility that credit starved corporations, dependent as they are on Britain’s still-wobbly banks, may not get the capital they need, all of which might bring about a double-dip recession or even a Japan-like slump.

Mr. McWilliams of the Center for Economic and Business Research forecast that bank lending to corporations will decrease over the next two years.

Mr. Posen would argue that the Bank of England’s buying of gilts is unavoidable, especially in light of the fact that sufficient liquidity does not exist in the private bond market.

But a growing number of bearish analysts see the bank’s buying spree as dangerously distortive, in that interest rates have been kept at a low level that does not reflect the dire state of Britain’s public finances.

The severity of the problem was underlined this week, when the government released an £11 billion borrowing figure for the month of October, which brought the half-year tally to £86.9 billion, the highest since public records began in 1946. That makes it almost certain that the government’s forecast of £175 billion of borrowing for next year would be exceeded. And it would produce a budget deficit of about 13 percent of G.D.P., or nearly twice the average in the euro zone.

Simon White, a partner at Variant Perception, a London-based research house that caters to hedge funds and wealthy individuals takes an especially dire view.

There is a caveat: Variant Perception, which is run by former traders, is noted for its contrarian perspectives on certain markets. A few months ago it put out a controversial note on Spain’s real estate troubles titled “The Hole in Europe’s Balance Sheet.”

Still, its negative view on British gilts and sterling is one that is becoming more and more mainstream.

In a note sent out to clients this week, Variant broaches the prospect of a debt and/or currency crisis as Britain’s collapsing tax base — too dependent on real estate, financial firms and the already highly taxed rich — results in declining revenues.

Taken together with the already high levels of spending, the result is a deficit that grows even beyond 13 percent of GDP, further harming the country’s fragile creditworthiness. (Both Fitch and Standard & Poor’s view Britain’s economy as the most vulnerable to a downgrade of the 20 or so countries that carry a AAA rating.)

Once the Bank of England, which has already spent about £200 billion buying British bonds (or about 14 percent of annual G.D.P.) stops, rates are expected to immediately push up. That could prompt already skittish foreign investors, who hold more than 30 percent of government paper, to become sellers.

To be sure, such a scenario presumes that British politicians will be like their counterparts in Japan in the 1990s and not have the political will to tackle these economic problems — a bold assumption given that the Conservative Party, which is far ahead in polling for a spring election, has staked its legitimacy on bringing down the country’s debt.

Still, until more such conviction is shown, worries about a period of stagnation, or a more devastating shock, are expected to continue.
“The likelihood of a debt and sterling crisis is just not factored in,” Mr. White said, noting that, on average, these types of crises have occurred every 15 years since 1947, with the last occurring in 1992. “If this gets out of control it will flip very quickly.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/21/bu...1pound.html?hp ]]> News don http://www.itulip.com/forums/showthread.php?t=13056 Revisions to Regs on Proven Reserves http://www.itulip.com/forums/showthread.php?t=13054&goto=newpost Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:19:37 GMT Just starting to read this so a bit pre-mature to post but strikes me as significant and comes very highly recommended by an analyst I respect.... Just starting to read this so a bit pre-mature to post but strikes me as significant and comes very highly recommended by an analyst I respect. Here's the intro:

My purpose is to alert you to revision of SEC Regulation S-K and Regulation S-X effective January 1, 2010. Concealed in a handful of benign new regs is a financial truck bomb that's going to blow away "proved reserves" as a meaningful metric of oil company assets.

Old definition: Proved Reserves are those quantities which can be estimated with reasonable certainty to be commercially recoverable from known reservoirs under defined economic conditions. Proved quantities arelimited by the lowest known hydrocarbon as seen in a well penetration unless otherwise indicated by definitive geoscience, engineering, or performance data. Seismic data alone is not sufficient to define fluid contacts. Undeveloped locations may be classified as Proved in undrilled areas of a reservoir that can be judged with reasonable certainty to be commercially productive.

New definition: Industry is no longer constrained by the criterion of certainty. An operator can book incremental proved reserves from planned enhanced recovery projects (gas injection, acid fracturing) based on a pilot project. Coal seam gas, bitumen, oil shale and other unconventional resources can be booked as Proved Reserves. Estimated reservoir properties in the aggregate is a departure from the old rules. The new SEC definition does not require that an analogous reservoir has to be in the immediate area or in pressure communication. Seismic analysis and reservoir models are sufficient to book Proved Reserves.

Hold on to your shorts, it gets worse.

Under the new SEC rules you don't have to drill a well and actually produce oil. An operator can establish levels of lowest known hydrocarbons and highest known oil through "reliable technology" other than well penetrations. It doesn't have to be 90% reliable or widely accepted by industry peers...

You can get the full paper here:

http://incakolanews.blogspot.com/200...ad-on-oil.html

If our banks don't actually have to be solvent to do business, why should our oil and gas companies actually have to have any reserves? ]]> News oddlots http://www.itulip.com/forums/showthread.php?t=13054 So maybe there IS an AGW conspiracy after all... http://www.itulip.com/forums/showthread.php?t=13053&goto=newpost Fri, 20 Nov 2009 16:16:26 GMT Hadley center computer hacked; many private emails all over internet. Some embarrassing excerpts: ... Hadley center computer hacked; many private emails all over internet.

Some embarrassing excerpts:

http://motls.blogspot.com/2009/11/ha...rence+frame%29

Tax evasion and money laundering:

Quote:
That is why it is important for us to get money from additional sources, in particular from the ADVANCE and INTAS ones. Also, it is important for us if you can transfer the ADVANCE money on the personal accounts which we gave you earlier and the sum for one occasion transfer (for example, during one day) will not be more than 10,000 USD. Only in this case we can avoid big taxes and use money for our work as much as possible. Please, inform us what kind of documents and financial reports we must represent you and your administration for these money
Manipulation of data to get desired results:

Quote:
From: Phil Jones
To: ray bradley ,mann@virginia.edu, mhughes@ltrr.arizona.edu
Subject: Diagram for WMO Statement
Date: Tue, 16 Nov 1999 13:31:15 +0000
Cc: k.briffa@uea.ac.uk,t.osborn@uea.ac.uk

Dear Ray, Mike and Malcolm,
Once Tim's got a diagram here we'll send that either later today or first thing tomorrow. I've just completed Mike's Nature trick of adding in the real temps to each series for the last 20 years (ie from 1981 onwards) amd from 1961 for Keith's to hide the decline. Mike's series got the annual land and marine values while the other two got April-Sept for NH land N of 20N. The latter two are real for 1999, while the estimate for 1999 for NH combined is +0.44C wrt 61-90. The Global estimate for 1999 with data through Oct is +0.35C cf. 0.57 for 1998. Thanks for the comments, Ray.

Cheers
Phil
Quote:
From: Gary Funkhouser
To: k.briffa@uea.ac.uk
Subject: kyrgyzstan and siberian data
Date: Thu, 19 Sep 1996 15:37:09 -0700

Keith,

Thanks for your consideration. Once I get a draft of the central and southern siberian data and talk to Stepan and Eugene I'll send it to you.

I really wish I could be more positive about the Kyrgyzstan material, but I swear I pulled every trick out of my sleeve trying to milk something out of that. It was pretty funny though - I told Malcolm what you said about my possibly being too Graybill-like in evaluating the response functions - he laughed and said that's what he thought at first also. The data's tempting but there's too much variation even within stands. I don't think it'd be productive to try and juggle the chronology statistics any more than I already have - they just are what they are (that does sound Graybillian). I think I'll have to look for an option where I can let this little story go as it is.

Not having seen the sites I can only speculate, but I'd be optimistic if someone could get back there and spend more time collecting samples, particularly at the upper elevations.

Yeah, I doubt I'll be over your way anytime soon. Too bad, I'd like to get together with you and Ed for a beer or two. Probably someday though.

Cheers, Gary
Gary Funkhouser
Lab. of Tree-Ring Research
And tricks on how to avoid FOI requests (no example given).

And tips of stacking the peer review process.

No doubt more juicy stuff to come...

The hacking has been confirmed also - this appears to all be real. ]]> Rant and Rave c1ue http://www.itulip.com/forums/showthread.php?t=13053 Asia Considers Capital Controls http://www.itulip.com/forums/showthread.php?t=13051&goto=newpost Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:27:54 GMT Asia Considers Capital Controls to Stem Bubble Danger Nov. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Asian policy makers are studying capital controls to limit “hot money”... Asia Considers Capital Controls to Stem Bubble Danger

Nov. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Asian policy makers are studying capital controls to limit “hot money” inflows that may stoke asset bubbles and force their currencies to appreciate.

Officials from India, South Korea and Indonesia are among those expressing concern over overseas capital stoking stock and real estate prices. Indonesia’s central bank is “seriously” studying a limit on inflows to short-term bills, Senior Deputy Governor Darmin Nasution said yesterday. Taiwan last week banned international investors from placing funds in time deposits.

etc

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...JUKXcM3A&pos=2 ]]> News jk http://www.itulip.com/forums/showthread.php?t=13051 <![CDATA["A Govt. Not Run by the Financial Sector": James Galbraith's Rx for Wall Street Reform]]> http://www.itulip.com/forums/showthread.php?t=13050&goto=newpost Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:03:26 GMT


"A Govt. Not Run by the Financial Sector": James Galbraith's Rx for Wall Street Reform

Posted Nov 20, 2009 07:30am EST by Aaron Task in Newsmakers, Banking Related: XLF, FAS, FAZ, GS, MS, JPM, C

The post-op on the great crash of 2008 continued in Washington Thursday as the Joint Economic Committee (JEC) held a hearing on financial reform."Unfortunately, the regulatory regime that failed so terribly leading up to the financial crisis is precisely the regulatory regime we have today," Treasury Secretary Geithner declared. "We need comprehensive financial reform."
As a former executive director of the JEC and professor of government/business relations at University of Texas, James Galbraith knows a bit about public policy. As the son of esteemed economist and "The Great Crash" author John Kenneth Galbraith, he also knows something about what it takes to put the pieces back together after a speculative boom and bust.
There is a way to have a financial system with a "reasonable degree of stability" and "serves a public purpose," Galbraith says. "But it does require having a government which is not run by the financial sector."



http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker...AZ,GS,MS,JPM,C
wishful thinking ]]> Video D-Mack http://www.itulip.com/forums/showthread.php?t=13050 Paul-Grayson Amendment To Audit The Fed Passes Overwhelmingly By 43-26 http://www.itulip.com/forums/showthread.php?t=13049&goto=newpost Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:52:24 GMT two links, second more relevant.... via zerohedge.

" In what could be the biggest news of the day, with potentially historic consequences, Mel Watt's attempt to detour the Fed transparency process has been soundly denied. The vote on the final passage of the bill is delayed, but the critical amendment has passed. Congratulations to Messrs Paul and Grayson."

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/pau...elmingly-43-26


Given that I know that we have several activist voters here, the following link has a video with Graysons comments and the list of votes (especially the nays). Wasn't Barney Frank supposedly endorsing this at least publicly? Guess again.

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/gra...ll-list-voters

By the way, has anybody seen this development in the MSM? I haven't. ]]> News WildspitzE http://www.itulip.com/forums/showthread.php?t=13049 The Day The Dollar Died (Speculative Fiction) http://www.itulip.com/forums/showthread.php?t=13048&goto=newpost Fri, 20 Nov 2009 12:21:35 GMT *by John Galt* *November 18, 2009* *The following story in italics is a potential fictional time line for the day the dollar died. I hope not to... by John Galt

November 18, 2009

The following story in italics is a potential fictional time line for the day the dollar died. I hope not to instill fear or loathing but to give everyone some perspective on a POSSIBLE outcome which does not really take much of a reach to come to any conclusion. Despite popular belief and promises from those who wish to rob you of your savings and investments, the collapse of the dollar might just be an event measured in hours, not days as their control is not what it seems…..

Mike was less than an hour from home in Minnesota after dropping his load off in Fargo but knew he needed to top his tank off this Sunday evening to insure his rig would make it home. He pulled into the Petro Truck Stop just outside of Fargo and hopped out of the cab into the bitter twenty below temperatures which he could not believe had already hit at ten o’clock at night. He slid his fuel card into the pump waiting for the next prompt when the “SEE ATTENDANT” message flashed in the screen. He blustered, figured it was another card problem and whipped out his Master Card and slid it in after the pump reset and again the “SEE ATTENDANT” message flashed up. “What the hell is going on?” he thought to himself as he wandered into the long line of drivers boisterously yelling at managers and clerks alike.

Tom finished up his shift on the docks at the Nestle warehouse in Hampton, Georgia at exactly 11 o’clock at night and decided that because of the scuttlebutt he had been reading on the message boards, it may not be a bad idea to pick up a few cans of food and some toilet paper at the local WalMart Super center. Even though it was a Sunday night, they were always stocked and it was just five minutes out of the way to his home. As he walked inside the store, his mouth dropped. It looked like the day after Thanksgiving sale with every register open and ten plus people deep at 11:30 p.m. “Oh my God!” he gasped as he walked in grabbing the last shopping cart with the wheel that was half locked up. As he walked as fast as he could to the aisle with the paper goods, he looked at all the shelves then noticed the clerk who looked stunned himself. “How in the SAM HELL does WalMart sell out of Toilet Paper son?” he screamed at the eighteen year old kid. “Sir, I don’t know what is going on. Is the world ending? I’m a little freaked out!” the clerk stammered. Tom realized that he was not to blame and as he calmed down said to the kid “Son, I don’t know what is going on either. It must be an ice storm on the way. Are you folks getting another truck soon?” The clerk said in a very low voice “Sir, I think there are two coming at 2 a.m. I would wait here if I were you.” With that information Tom slinked outside to his car and called his wife at home just before midnight to tell her he would be staying to wait on the WalMart trucks.

1730 ET…February 21, 2010

It was a typical Sunday night in my household, a tremendous dinner, nice weather in Florida and of course a chance to chat with my friends online about the events of the world. The big news was that on Friday, February 19, 2010 the US Dollar Index closed at 69.07 far below any level in history and of course shattering all known technical support. As I grabbed a glass of Port and settled in front of my computer at 5 p.m. Eastern to watch the Asian fireworks and watch Bloomberg and CNBC-Asia on my computer, I noticed the Middle Eastern markets closed in horrid shape. The Israeli market closed three hours after the open and down 22% for the session. The Saudi markets closed after one hour and down 41%. Other regional markets did not open or were shut down due to national emergency declarations. As I tuned in expecting the usual repeat on Bloomberg, it was live with a somewhat excited news babe reading information from a blog reporting “rumors” that the CEO’s of Citigroup and Bank of America were in meetings since 11 a.m. with the New York Fed. At that point, it was time to put the port up and break out the hard stuff.

Gold had closed at a record high again, up some $37 to finish Friday’s session up at $1289 and change so I figured it would be jumping again with all of this worldly instability on display. I searched the boards and feeds like mad, looking for anything on an Iranian attack or outbreak of war elsewhere in the world but nothing was found at all. As 6 p.m. Eastern flipped up on my watch, CNBC interrupted their programming with a live update from New York instead of Australia or Tokyo about the meeting at the NY Fed. Bloomberg also broke from their Asian coverage with a brief story but no details as to why there was a meeting today or who else was there. As the New Zealand markets opened, the prices went nuts but shockingly to the upside. Their markets shot up 11% on the open to break over the 3900 price level but that was not the story. As the futures opened in Chicago for the evening session, no matter where you were in the world that day or night, you printed that screen at 6:04 p.m. Eastern time as the prints were staggering:

Gold UP $212.15 to $1501.15

Silver UP $39.13 to $81.06
US DOLLAR INDEX DOWN 9.5869 or just over 14% to 59.4830
US S&P FUTURES DOWN 49.13
US DOW FUTURES DOWN 472
NASDAQ FUTURES DOWN 135

Holy Smokes! This was an absurd way to start the night and my phone started ringing along with text messages and emails out my wazoo. The sense of panic was evident on Bernie Lo’s face as he came on to the air discussing what was happening in the futures market and fortunately he announced that Jim Rogers would be joining him after the next break. As the commercial started at 6:09 p.m. Eastern the scroll at the bottom of the screen was bright red with the headline:

ALL U.S. EQUITY FUTURES ARE LOCK LIMIT DOWN…..TRADING SUSPENDED UNTIL 0900 ET MONDAY FEB 22….US DOLLAR BEING SOLD ACROSS THE BOARD

By 6:15 the Euro was trading at $1.92, the Kiwi (New Zealand Dollar) at $1.26, the Aussie Dollar well beyond par at $1.39 and the Canadian Loonie rocketing past par to $1.33. The U.S. Dollar was in a full fledged collapse and the world was putting money anywhere they could to escape the carnage. As the New Zealand equity markets struggled to handle the order flow an announcement emerged at 6:27 p.m. Eastern time that they would no longer accept U.S. dollars within their nation for the next 72 hours until the United States Federal Reserve Bank introduced stability measures. That instantly turned a huge move to the upside to down 17% in less than three minutes and soon thereafter, trading was suspended by 7 p.m. Eastern time. Instead of waiting to see what was next, I left at 6:51 p.m. to run down the street and take $500 from the local grocery store ATM, returning just in time for the top of the hour news.


1900 ET
The Australian markets attempted to open but due to order imbalances they were delayed twenty-seven minutes. It was a buying frenzy in Australia also as the Aussie Dollar was skyrocketing higher and gold continued to gain, now up $273.20 per ounce in less than two hours of trading. The Chicago board was going to make a statement at 8 p.m. ET and the world was holding its collective breath because something bad was happening again in the United States and everyone wanted to buy into foreign markets to escape the American disaster on the horizon. After a brief opening, the Australian government followed suit with the New Zealand announcement and suspended acceptance of the U.S. Dollar for commerce until further notice. The Japanese were very quiet in the mean time as they announced at 7 p.m. they would keep their markets closed but the huge move in the Yen caused massive concerns as noted by the central bank. The yen appreciated from a close of 79.8213 on Friday the 19th to an opening of 48.7326 in less than an hour of trading. Nobody wanted dollars and even fewer people it was discovered wanted the British Pound. The Pound for the first time in its history was worth less than 100 yen and it was well on its way to joining the US Dollar in a death spiral.

2000 ET
The internet is crawling. Message boards were lit up with record numbers of participants. Rumors swirled about declarations of martial law, bank holidays, secret wars and other crazy things. Yet my phone messages, conversations, texts and emails told me there was something very very wrong. Two of my friends called me to tell me the consequences of the failed 30 year bond auction last Thursday came home to roost over the weekend. Citi and BoA were rumored to have a huge CDS obligation due to the interest rates being blown outside of the norm and the 6.05% yield from the auction cost the banks an estimated $400 billion each if they were forced to settle open swap contracts and derivative issues by Monday or the end of the month. The swaps and derivatives which were to prevent the collapse may actually have finally started it but nobody could verify anything that was happening as the NY Fed looked like a war zone with hundreds of cameras around the building and reporters speculating endlessly on every cable channel.

2100 ET
I did not know who to believe but when Bloomberg played the excerpt from Jim Rogers’ interview just after the top of the hour where he said “this is what a currency collapse looks like and if you were not prepared, you were wiped out” really resonated with everyone on the Bloomberg set and throughout the news worldwide. The Chicago Futures were closed by order of the CFTC and SEC and that was the big announcement but it was assumed anyways because there was no way the COMEX or anyone else could possibly have kept up with the demand for precious metals as the last print had gold over $1579 per ounce and worse, the base metals closing at obscene prices like $6.79 per lb. for copper! The Shanghai markets were ordered open for domestic participants only and no overseas selling was allowed nor trading in US Dollars thus allowing the communists to manage their banking situation without outside influence. Unfortunately a rumor was confirmed on FNC later in the hour that Chinese troops were deployed to all U.S. and British bank branches inside their nation. That only permeated the panic already felt on the internet and in the air. The news at the top of the hour was even more shocking.

Rest here

http://johngaltfla.com/blog3/2009/11...e-dollar-died/ ]]> News Master Shake http://www.itulip.com/forums/showthread.php?t=13048 Milton Friedman: Explosion of monetary base NOT inflationary. http://www.itulip.com/forums/showthread.php?t=13047&goto=newpost Fri, 20 Nov 2009 01:52:40 GMT Ok, inflationists are screaming what, thats rubbish... From Paul Kasriel Oct 16 posting.. ---Quote--- I continue to hear that the Fed has sown... Ok, inflationists are screaming what, thats rubbish...

From Paul Kasriel Oct 16 posting..

Quote:
I continue to hear that the Fed has sown the seeds of inflation by inflating its balance sheet. The monetary base – currency held by the public (banks and nonbanks) and reserve balances held by depository institutions at the Fed – accounts for the largest portion of liabilities on the Fed’s balance sheet. Chart 1 shows that the monetary base mushroomed from $936 billion in September 2008, the month in which Lehman Brothers failed, to $1.8 trillion in September 2009. On a year-over-year basis, this represented an unprecedented 94% increase in the monetary base (see Chart 2). Is this what Milton Friedman was talking about when he referred to inflation being a monetary phenomenon?

No. Friedman’s inflation monetary phenomenon was related to the growth in the money supply held by the nonbank public, not the monetary base.

Milton Friedman did not judge the growth in the monetary base in the early 1930s to be inflationary and it is doubtful that he would judge the recent explosion in the monetary base to be inflationary either given the lack of response in the broad money supply.
So if the money does not get into the hands of the consumer, then the velocity of money is not incresing, therefore the inflation 'process' has not even left the station.

The GOLD is trade is mostly an inverse dollar trade, its very early to call it an inflation trade. So gold moving in straight line up is very unlikely.
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