Stacy Summary: What’s the proper word for it? Debt slavery? Indentured servitude? So many schemes so few words. We need a new Shakespeare.
“This vividly shows the risk of entering into interest- rate swap agreements,” said Christopher Taylor, former executive director of the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board in Alexandria, Virginia. “The world’s got to see what stupidity even the sophisticated investors like the transportation fund can get into.”
While New Jersey replaced the debt with fixed-rate securities in 2008 after the $330 billion auction-rate bond market froze, the swap, in which two parties typically exchange fixed payments for ones based on floating interest rates, isn’t scheduled to expire until 2019.
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1st
haha Stacy, saw that story on Bloomberg and thought you’d like it.
@harry_w – that reminds me, I need to give a tip of the hat to @maxkeiser for sending me that link!
@Stacy, New Shakespeare?.. we already have Max and his elaborations on the TAM
Should write down those thoughts into a book and there you have it!
@Stacy
Max sending you the link?? Is he not just there sitting next to you?Anyway, this morning I have been mostly reading…
The US as Failed State
By PAUL CRAIG ROBERT
http://www.counterpunch.org/roberts10222009.html
Four extraordinary Jim Willie interviews
http://www.kingworldnews.com/kingworldnews/Broadcast_Gold+/Entries/2009/10/16_Jim_Willie_-_Part_IV.html
Hyperinflation Watch by James Turk
http://www.fgmr.com/hyperinflation-watch-october-21-2009.html
What good are these banks to society … Zilch !
Here a company – AMD – that does something REAL , but is constantly put at a disadvantage by the US Govt. Justice Dept. and WS by not hearing their complaint about harmful monopolistic practices of their main competitor.
Even despite the fact that the EU , Japan and many other countries have already fined their competitor .. the US Justice remains blind !
The best real-time graphics I’ve ever seen!
Click the “HD” link on the bottom to see it better.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9F6zSgtRnkE&feature=related
A beautiful experience .. thanks to AMD !
hi Stacy,
It’s similar to the Alabama swap story you posted last week. The banks involved are hedged so that the profits come to them, while convincing clients to go in unhedged, and subject to all the risk.
“People want to kill somebody, but they don’t know who to shoot at”
In that case the state’s investment manager was in the pocket of the banks, taking kick-backs on the deals.
They point to an interesting property of swaps and associated hedges:
Jan 11, 2006
Of debt, deflation and rotten apples
By Henry C K Liu
“…In the era of industrial capitalism, a low interest rate was a stimulant. But in this era of finance capitalism flirting fearlessly with debt, lowering rates creates complex problems, especially when most big borrowers routinely hedge their interest-rate exposures. For them, even when short-term rates drop or rise abruptly, the cost remains the same for the duration of the loan term, the only difference being that they pay a different party. While debtors remain solvent, investors in securitized loans go under. Credit derivatives have been the hot source of profit for most finance companies and will be the weapon of massive destruction for the financial system, as Warren Buffet warned.”
has anyone seen lindsey williams dvd yet ? any views ?
The Max Keiser of Brussels
EU Budget Continues to Grow
I just couldn’t resist posting this slightly off topic video : 80 seconds.
I just love this guy – he is really the Max Keiser of Brussels IMO !
…”The purpose of the EU is the employment of it’s own employees”…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ra3dAtD_utY&feature=sub
Dutch lawinforcement admits they haven’t known for years how to shut down eavesdropping on certain people (amongst which lawyers)..The Israelian company that made the eavesdropping gear won’t tell them..
http://www.nrc.nl/binnenland/article2394162.ece/Afluisteraar_zoekt_naar_deleteknop (in dutch)
I think todays version of a witch hunt is going after people doing ordinary things (like making coffee n the nude at home) like they are serial killers..
PS@EU Budget Continues to Grow
The disease is everywhere … no surprises !
100,000$ – 300,000$ Pensions for LA City Employees !!
Six-figure L.A. city pensions
…On average, the 14,975 civilian pensioners in the Los Angeles City Employees’ Retirement System receive $39,828 per year. Paid from separate funds, DWP pensioners receive an average of about $48,000 annually and police and fire pensioners collect an average of $53,832 annually. Topping the combined list below is Ronald Deaton, former DWP general manager.
Click the headers below to resort the list
…
http://projects.latimes.com/big-pensions/los-angeles/
AMAZING !
Stacy!
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aoJTUKcx.E9A
Unexpected by whom???
Mike
Australia …. Senator Joyce warns of bigger Global Financia Crisis
…In unusually pessimistic comments for a senior political figure, Senator Joyce said the US Government was running such large deficits and building up so much debt that it was in a similar position to Iceland or Germany before World War II….
…
…
… ”The US dollar is almost becoming like junk bonds,” he said.
http://www.theage.com.au/national/joyce-warns-of-bigger-gfc-20091022-hbg6.html
I read these comments on a post at Zero Hedge. I think we should all do this as a form of non-cooperation.
———–
“”’hsbc reduced my credit limit below my outstanding balance. I quit paying and taking their calls. that was 3 months ago. I just got a letter offering to settle for 52%. I’m gonna hold out for 30% F- you hsbc, who screwed who? feels good”- delacroix
————–
“Excellent move delacroix. Hold out till 10%. What’s the rush? As far as I am concerned none of the TARP credit card assholes are getting a single cent out of me as long as I am alive.” gordon gekko
————–
this is the link …if you would want to read more…
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/citis-new-apr-30-theyre-toast
The fact that New Jersey even exists as a state has always shocked me.
In the social and economic stratification of the US, it is technically a slave colony of New York State.
To assume that any NJ state entity has any sovereign existence is at best wishful thinking — as the time when the NJ population can go to the loo etc … is all determined in New York City.
Unless it is pre-decided upon — no one can even move a muscle in NJ unless there is a centrally ordered command from NYC.
@doomandbloom .. as the commenter said … truly a Bad Bank !
BTW … I posted a Denninger link yesterday on this same topic :
Recovery? How, Given THIS?
http://market-ticker.denninger.net/archives/1535-Recovery-How,-Given-THIS.html
BNP leader’s Question Time appearance draws almost 8m viewers
…nearly three times its normal audience…
…
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/oct/23/bnp-question-time-ratings
U.S. formally asks Swiss to extradite Polanski
http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE59M1AL20091023
No mention of his filming of Ghost !
I noticed that they’ve removed this link :
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/film/article6856134.ece
OTOH, the Internet is still not completely censured :
Was Polanski arrested, after 32 years, in order to destroy “The Ghost”?
… Robert Harris, “The Ghost” writer. His thinly disguised portrait of former PM Tony Blair raised eyebrows and questions of disloyalty. Now he supports Polanski, the arrested director who is filming “The Ghost”….
http://keeptonyblairforpm.wordpress.com/2009/10/01/was-polanski-arrested-after-32-years-in-order-to-destroy-the-ghost/
PS@Was Polanski arrested, after 32 years, in order to destroy “The Ghost”?
The article refutes the theory that there is a connection .. but at least the title was right !
On the subject of the BNP rather than SCREEM at them if we ask WHY people vote for them, it might be in-ter-rest-ing.
Mike
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjI0g7hUMbU wish i knew more about this kind of thing , some clever people out there . http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNqbNJmox88
Wow!
Dollar to remain WRC to atlest 2030!
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/finance/ambroseevans-pritchard/100001459/dollar-hegemony-for-another-century/
Mike
@Mile/Liverpool … Charles Dumas from Lombard Street Research says Washington must be chuckling as the weak dollar gives it time to rebuild America’s industrial core. The “inflationistas” — ie, those convinced that the dollar is being debauched despite the fact that core inflation in the US is falling and that the M3 money supply is contracting — are playing straight into the hands of the United States….
Funny name !
… & don’t worry mike …. 128 bit PCs will be the norm by then !
The Iranian Oil Burse looks like it will be starting on Monday if the reports I hear are indeed as accurate as I believe them to be. Could this be the harbinger of the quick dollar decline that will trigger the “bank holidays” or is the just another head fake by the Iranians since the deadline to talk about these so-called “nukes” will have come and gone. Either way look for the Obama Administratiokn to cry foul on Iran and for the defense to department to rattle the sabre some more.
Time to withdraw whatever cash I have from the bank today.
The documentary
Secret Mysteries of America s Beginnings 1,
http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=Secret+Mysteries+of+America%27s+Beginnings+2+-&emb=0#q=Secret+Mysteries+of+America's+Beginnings+1&emb=0
is interesting concerning Enlish and North American secret societies. In that movie you´ll find the well known idea that Shakespeare was in real an other person. The movie arguments that it was actual Francis Bacon together with other authors. Nothing is as it seams!
hopefully the tide is turning.
Bring back the guillotine for Goldman Sachs & Co!
http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/55090,news-comment,news-politics,goldman-sachs-and-the-bankers-give-them-bonuses-or-give-them-death
Mike2Liverpool:
There is zero possibility that the dollar will retain hegemony. The BIS owns the dollar and is moving to a basket of currencies as reserve unit for drawing rights at the IMF. Ambrose is sniffing glue.
BIS uses sdr as reserve unit for the banking conglomerate since 2003:
http://www.bis.org/press/p030311d.htm
Is Ambrose denying that this has happened? Is Ambrose suggesting that somehow the Federal Reserve is operating as an independent entity separate from the BIS hub? Is Ambrose cognizant that both the US and the UK are now set to purchase huge quantities of sovereign bonds in a bid to monetize their debt?
@ Phil
I must say that I really enjoy reading your posts.
@Cash Tango .. Thx … hope you find them funny !
e.g. the 128 bit PC post … maybe it wasn’t a joke !
BTW .. thank Max & Stacy for the great website .. not me !
.. or did you mean “The Max Keiser of Brussels” ?
I just love that guy …. I have a general VERY big disrespect for politicians, but Dan Hannah and Ron Paul are exceptions.
@Phil:
Why Ron Paul, Phil? Where is Ron planning on passing the Fed dollar-torch after the audit?
@frances …. Where is Ron planning on passing the Fed dollar-torch after the audit?
He submitted a step-by-step plan a few years ago to Congress. I’ll try and find it again !
@sam…good article
Thanks, Phil! I tried to find the info, but come up blank.
Defaults are called for now – mass defaults.
@frances .. a tidbit from Ron Paul…
… Imposing any tax on Social Security benefits is unfair and illogical. In Congress, I have introduced the Senior Citizens Tax Elimination Act (H.R. 191), which repeals ALL taxes on Social Security benefits, to eliminate political theft of our seniors’ income and raise their standard of living.
Solvency is the key to keeping our promise to our seniors, and I have introduced the Social Security Preservation Act (H.R. 219) to ensure that money paid into the system is only used for Social Security.
It is fundamentally unfair to give benefits to anyone who has not paid into the system. The Social Security for Americans Only Act (H.R. 190) ends the drain on Social Security caused by illegal aliens seeking the fruits of your labor. …
I’m still looking for his “plan” !
Banks never lose
Ron Paul 1988
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDEgBWO54dA
Banks at “state level” being wiped out.
Ron Paul … 21 years ago …sending the right message !
@Phil:
I think Geithner had it.
http://static.seekingalpha.com/uploads/2009/3/23/saupload_geithner_bank_plan_details.jpg
stacy, like our kamerad lenin said: “trust is good, but control is better”… please give me a brake
Not to worry, Phil. I think the white team wins!
http://www.ringgame.net/goodvsevil.gif
@frances … LOL … but that was Geithner’s plan , not Ron Paul’s !
@#2
BNP… bricks and bats too good for em’
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCb2Le3wtIk
@frances … great cartoons !
@Phil:
LOL … but that was Geithner’s plan , not Ron Paul’s !
Are you sure? Maybe they are all using the same blueprint.
RGE monitor – Munchau: Next Crisis Coming Sooner Than You Think
… While, according to Minsky, these are the deep causes of instability, the mechanism through which instability comes about is the way governments and central banks respond to crises. …
…
…
… Our present situation can give rise to two scenarios – or some combination of the two. The first is that central banks start exiting at some point in 2010, triggering another fall in the prices of risky assets. In the UK, for example, any return to a normal monetary policy will almost inevitably imply another fall in the housing market, which is currently propped up by ultra-cheap mortgages.
Alternatively, central banks might prioritise financial stability over price stability and keep the monetary floodgates open for as long as possible. This, I believe, would cause the mother of all financial market crises – a bond market crash – to be followed by depression and deflation.
In other words, there is danger no matter how the central banks react. Successful monetary policy could be like walking along a perilous ridge, on either side of which lies a precipice of instability.
For all we know, there may not be a safe way down.
…
http://www.rgemonitor.com/globalmacro-monitor/257847/munchau_next_crisis_coming_sooner_than_you_think
PS@RGE monitor – Munchau: Next Crisis Coming Sooner Than You Think
Physics : Unstable Equilibrium
… best describes the current WW situation IMO.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aSM.ff8A31cA
Yes Phil
Walked into a bar yesterday to a live performance of this band..not bad: Our words are sold like a commodity.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnbYHHn5p2E
@Super,. The Nazi’s were no worse than Governments of today, ask the Iraqi’s and Afghan’s,and Palestinians etc etc, and as for fascism, you’re good with symbols,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fascism
Try not to take sides, it’s a strategy that’s been used for millenia
@d3do
I’m working on the assumption that you are always trying to take the piss… even if it aint funny… better luck next time!!!
Pension Funds to Buy Gold as Insurance, McGuire Says (Update2)
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aiQIC3LYFdvc
It is fundamentally unfair to give benefits to anyone who has not paid into the system.
@Phil:
This is useless rhetoric since the whole point of taxation is forced redistribution of wealth. Paying into the system just means one is a sucker.
Phil:
You are aware that the IRS is an independent corporate body?
Jackie Mason
‘Morons on Capitol Hill’
Oct 22 (3min10)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFGQwAlRfdA
@Dedo … The N*zi’s were no worse than Governments
Yes .. they were in some ways cleverer …
e.g. they introduced the Italian Double-Book-keeping to gain a 100% insight into the German industry’s doings !
@frances snoot … You are aware that the IRS is an independent corporate body?
Yes … and Ron Paul knows this as well … says ( and I agree ), one could do away with them completely .. and they are according to the Constitution … outside the law !
@Phil:
Impressive!
But why doesn’t he do something that will matter?
Timothy Geithner absolutely aware bankers robbed the U S taxpayers 2009
… Timothy Geithner, was absolutely aware, that the Wall St criminals, who helped create the current Economic Destruction, were giving themselves bonuses. Binyamin Appelbaum being interviewed on C-Span.
…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVxGyiGgNQk&feature=rec-HM-fresh+div
FWIW
@frances snoot … But why doesn’t he do something that will matter?
Make him President … and give him the power !
BTW … RP had a massive Internet following before MSM took over and drowned him out !
Sure … the Americans were given a Choice … of the chosen 2 candidates !
Just a joke.
BTW …RP wants to change the electoral system as well .. to ensure that more than just 2 parties run the place.
The US Elections are like a bad Hollywood film … just amazing that the Americans put up with this ! I suppose if they ( the masses ) weren’t such brainwashed flag-waving “patriots” , they might have time to actually think about how they’re being duped !
@doomandbloom – I think we warned of that problem that the guy is having with HSBC; they have been extricating themselves from any exposure to the US consumer . . . they suffered massive losses when an American banker they assigned to run US bought Household as his brilliant idea; they lost more than 100% on their investment; since then they have been exiting and it seems their aim is to get out entirely;
@harry_w – I like Harry Liu’s stuff . . . he’s hard to track down; otherwise I would try to get him on to one of our shows
Make him President … and give him the power !
*Poof*
Done. And for my next trick….
shucks, Phil…we forgot that power corrupts…and the president doesn’t wield power outside the UN Security Council anymore… and then only for those who put him there…
He’s like the figurehead on the old wooden sailing vessels:
http://wilhelm-aerospace.org/Photos/summer-2005/roll-09/3638-surprise-figurehead.jpg
Phil:
Can anything good come out of Texas?
Wisdom of Henry Hazlitt
…”The supply of gold is governed by nature; it is not, like the supply of paper money, subject merely to the schemes of demagogues or the whims of politicians. Nobody ever thinks he has quite enough money. Once the idea is accepted that money is something whose supply is determined simply by the printing press, it becomes impossible for the politicians in power to resist the constant demands for further inflation. Gold may not be a theoretically perfect basis for money; but it has the merit of making the money supply, and therefore the value of the monetary unit, independent of governmental manipulation and political pressure. “And this is a tremendous merit. When a country is not on a gold standard, when its citizens are not even permitted to own gold, when they are told that irredeemable paper money is just as good, when they are compelled to accept payment in such paper of debts or pensions that are owed to them, when what they have put aside, for retirement or old age, in savings banks or insurance policies, consists of this irredeemable paper money, then they are left without protection as the issue of this paper money is increased and the purchasing power of each unit falls; then they can be completely impoverished by the political decisions of the ‘monetary managers.’ “The tremendous merit of gold is, if we want to put it that way, a negative one: It is not a managed paper money that can ruin everyone who is legally forced to accept it or who puts his confidence in it. The technical criticism of the gold standard become utterly trivial when compared with this single merit.
…
http://www.investmentrarities.com/wisdom_of_hhazlitt.shtml
FWIW
@frances snoot … Can anything good come out of Texas?
Thinking .. and Thinking .. and Thinking …
Ah … a return to Mexico ?
Phil:
LOL!
@Phil:
Henry Hazlitt sure does chew for a long time on the same piece of gum! Tell him to spit it out already. The taste is long since gone!
This is truly sad. Lot of decent people being consumed by system.
There used to be a restaurant in Rumson, NJ called Hook, Line, & Sinker…where all the Wall Street Big Shots lived…I did not realize it applied to the whole state being snookered.
Applicant Pool
* I.B.M. business analyst with 18 years experience.
* A former director of human resources.
* Someone with a master’s degree and 12 years at Deloitte & Touche, the accounting firm.
* A former bank branch manager.
* A woman who once owned a trucking company.
All of the above were immediately disqualified as being overqualified.
To land a job you have to be the perfect candidate, near the top of the stack of résumés, neither underqualified nor the slightest bit overqualified and you have to be willing to grab at a fly ball (show eagerness to jump at passing opportunities).
It does not get much harder than that, and there will be no feedback to applicants turned away. Indeed they may have received so many résumés they did not even get to yours.
How Being The Slightest Bit Overqualified Can Cost You A Job
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2009/10/how-being-slightest-bit-overqualified.html
@phil
Nice gravatar
Of course nature can be assisted by lots of mining activity..
The unfair trade happens when you spend the paper you though was money, and the bank comes and takes your stuff in return..
Hay as long as the bonuses are real……everything else can be fiction. oooo except the fee too……..lol NUTT HOUSE ECO’s
QUOTE!!!
“New Jersey pays Goldman Sachs for swaps on non-existent bonds,
——–
Well it will help with he none existent debt and none existent interest and none existent money… hay as long as the bonuses are real lol
Brief History of IRS
Origin
The roots of IRS go back to the Civil War when President Lincoln and Congress, in 1862, created the position of commissioner of Internal Revenue and enacted an income tax to pay war expenses. The income tax was repealed 10 years later. Congress revived the income tax in 1894, but the Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional the following year.
16th Amendment
In 1913, Wyoming ratified the 16th Amendment, providing the three-quarter majority of states necessary to amend the Constitution. The 16th Amendment gave Congress the authority to enact an income tax. That same year, the first Form 1040 appeared after Congress levied a 1 percent tax on net personal incomes above $3,000 with a 6 percent surtax on incomes of more than $500,000.
Ah Wyoming…the state that Cheney owns. Nothing good but hot foul smelling gaseous water comes out of Wyoming.
Funny how the IRS and the Federal Reserve both came back in 1913. Geez, how I would have loved to be in the 3,001 to 499,999 bracket in 1913.
@stacy that whole Household Intl deal was a complete joke…they were going to get crushed by deteriorating loans…but out of nowhere deal to hide the losses overseas.
They actually got rid of 2 loser consumer loan companys at the time.
The questions are unlikely to end with Mr. Caspersen’s death. His family was associated with Beneficial, the consumer lending giant, for most of the 20th century. Mr. Caspersen ran the company for 20 years before selling it to Household International in 1998 for $8.6 billion.
Did you read this story?
Suicide Victim May Have Hidden Millions Abroad
http://tinyurl.com/ylfftep
1913 prices:
Average Income $1,296.00
Loaf of Bread $.06
Gallon of Gas $.12
Gallon of milk $.36
New Car $490.00
New House $3,395.00
Dow Jones Index 78
And you know what is disgusting and never changes…the guys with the best educations and the best connections produce the most horrific losses and maintain their wealth …boggles my mind.
@Dante .. so true !
The Germans call them “Nieten in Nadelstreifen”
= Idiots in Pinstripes !
@Phil – Nieten in Nadelstreifen; that’s an awesome sounding phrase; Sounds like something that Max might try to say on The Truth About Markets tomorrow . . .
@y’all
maybe I am being a bit severe, I am not trying to exclude any topics… but I am thinking a permanent thread or section for gold discussion… we could make it quite attractive and shiny, you could place your cursor on maybe a secret door and with a special knock… enter that section of the site… (fort knocks)… or maybe something like pirates treasure chest… or a ‘canyon del oro’!!!
PS. will someone please let us know if and when we can embed images… cheers!!!
@s.herbert
I thought all german words and phrases sound awesome… why I bet even their word for butterfly sounds like an invitation to start a war!!!
http://www.lewrockwell.com/paul/paul600.html
Ron Paul again on Fed opacity and transparency…
ROFL Phantom Economoy . Think the next big thing will be Sun Credit Defalt SWAPS trading at 10 $ a share PMSL
Hook, Line, & Sinker
Existing Home Sales FALL in September 2009
Existing Home Sales fell 5.4% last month, despite the nonsense you have read elsewhere.
NAR continues to bullshit America with their garbage data and spin, month after month, with few people calling them on it. Well, I’ve had it up to here with their garbage:.
http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2009/10/existing-home-sales-fall-in-september-09/
Hey Phil maybe we can start a “Nieten in Nadelstreifen” of the week!
@Supergeek- der Schmetterling= butterfly
(that deg. minor in German comes in handy occasionally, I am listening to Deutsche Welle right now)
@Stacy,
I’m continually shocked by how relevant his essays from 2005-2007 are, and all ahead of the bubble bursting in July 2007.
I’d love to know what he looks like, does he look like a Chinese Denninger I wonder?!?!?
AsiaTimes Online is a very unusual web publication. A very strange mix of commentators, of widely contrasting views. I suppose it offers the reader a chance to take on board what makes sense to them.
New Jersey’s Governor is a Goldman Sachs man himself.
Phil with the Aleph just a note. Why don’t you check Ron Paul’s comments on Separation of Church and State. He doesn’t believe in it, that one of the reasons I soured on him not to mention what Barry Rithholtz has to say about the need for Central Bankers.