IN SeaRCH oF a SYMBoL
by Zero Hedge - November 30th, 2010 3:10 pm
Courtesy of williambanzai7
Many ZH readers have asked for a symbol denoting the Anti-Bankster movement. After all, what good is a movement without a symbol?
I have been playing around with several ideas and posted some of them for your preliminary views.
The feedback so far has indicated the following, in no particular order of importance:
1. The symbol should denote popular rebellion against the global bankster contagion.
2. The symbol should be simple and instantly recognizable across cultural and national boundaries.
3. The symbol should be readily adaptable to many uses such as bumper and ATM stickers, T-shirts, placards, graffiti, bank note ink stamps, body tattoos and skywriting.
4. The symbol should be easy for anyone to draw.
5. The symbol should not be inherently offensive (no profanity etc). You want to get lots of people using it.
I considered many alternatives, including simple icons similar to the peace symbol, the vampire squid, fat cats and robber barons etc.
With the help of various readers, friends and CD 
, I have come to the preliminary conclusion that a pig would be the best candidate meeting the above criteria.
The pig has a storied history for use as a counter establishment symbol/slogan. It is recognized as such internationally.
I set about designing a very basic pig symbol for the purposes set forth above.
By posting this I am soliciting as many of your thoughts and suggestions as possible. I have also matched it with some simple slogans, but I am also soliciting your ideas in that regard as well.
Obviously this kind of conceptual device cannot be successful unless everyone buys into it. I did some research and learned that the peace symbol was originally designed for a specific march against nuclear non-proliferation. After the successful march, it took off like a missile
Whatever we decide collectively, I am pretty sure that the social graph of the ZH community provides an ideal channel for propagation.
If you like it please say so. If you hate it, please say so as well, but in the interest of progress I would appreciate an alternative suggestion that takes into consideration the above criteria. If you have a drawing or image, post a link and I will put it up in the comments section.
Here it is…
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DiggYou Can’t Make This Up: Europe Plans Fresh Round Of “Secret” Stress Tests To “Restore Confidence”
by Zero Hedge - November 30th, 2010 3:04 pm
Courtesy of Tyler Durden
You really can’t make this up: the WSJ reports: “As market sentiment toward the euro zone sharply deteriorates, European officials are planning a new round of bank “stress tests” that they say will be more rigorous than the widely discredited exams conducted earlier this year.” Thank you for confirming the prior stress test, the one which found that not one Irish bank was impaired, was a bunch of bullshit. Of course, this being Europe, it will require another forceful intervention by the uber-propaganda czar Geithner to get European countries in line: “But the tests are already subject to bickering between countries. While some European leaders are pushing for next year’s tests to be broader and more transparent than last summer’s exercise, the agency that will oversee the tests says it might opt not to publicly disclose the results at all.” And all will be proclaimed to be fine. No further comment needed.
Will The Comcast Internet Toll Test The Netflix Business Model?
by Zero Hedge - November 30th, 2010 2:39 pm
Courtesy of Tyler Durden
As was mentioned briefly yesterday, and all Netflix longs had hoped it would be promptly dead and buried, Comcast has begun imposing a fee on Internet middleman Level 3 Communications Inc., one of the companies that Netflix Inc. has hired to deliver movies and TV shows to Web customers. Bloomberg adds: “Comcast, the largest U.S. cable TV company, has set up an Internet “toll booth,” charging Level 3 whenever customers request content, the Broomfield, Colorado-based company said in a statement yesterday.” This could very well be the end to the Netflix business model which so far has had the benefit of near-free streaming content distribution. Of course, this move was inevitable as Netflix is rapidly stealing traditional cable subscribers from precisely the likes of Comcast, whose premium on demand services are unable to compete with the Netflix model (which is based more on marginal churn retention than anything, and as such has very little barriers to entry). Furthermore, traditional distributors of content are also starting to scratch their heads at the cost-benefit analysis of their Netflix relationship. As such, as more and more gates are imposed, and as the cash breakeven suddenly surges for Netflix, what will likely be impaired is not only the firm’s cashflow (which as we described recently has been rapidly declining) but to its long-term growth prospects. In a word: nothing good.
More from Bloomberg:
Level 3 plans to complain to U.S. regulators who may enact so-called net-neutrality rules next month. The Federal Communications Commission is seeking to bar phone and cable providers from interfering with legal traffic on their networks. The rules are backed by President Barack Obama and companies led by Google Inc., EBay Inc. and IAC/InterActiveCorp. Phone and cable companies say rules aren’t needed and may hurt investment.
“This action by Comcast threatens the open Internet and is a clear abuse of the dominant control that Comcast exerts in broadband access,” Thomas Stortz, Level 3’s chief legal officer, said in the statement. “With this action, Comcast is preventing competing content from ever being delivered to Comcast’s subscribers at all, unless Comcast’s unilaterally determined toll is paid.”
Comcast, which is seeking regulatory approval to acquire majority ownership of NBC Universal, defended the fee in a statement, saying it is based on “long established and mutually acceptable commercial arrangements” with
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Dear Wikileaks: Leak the Bank Records NOW, Or Forever Hold Your Peace
by Zero Hedge - November 30th, 2010 2:17 pm
Courtesy of George Washington
Wikileaks head Julian Assange told Forbes that the next leak will be regarding a major American bank. He said that Wikileaks plans to release the documents early next year.
Assange told Computer World in October 2009:
“At the moment, for example, we are sitting on 5GB from Bank of America, one of the executive’s hard drives,” he said. “Now how do we present that? It’s a difficult problem. We could just dump it all into one giant Zip file, but we know for a fact that has limited impact. To have impact, it needs to be easy for people to dive in and search it and get something out of it.”
Indeed, speculation that the leak could be about Bank of America is going viral, being reported by CBS, MSNBC, CNBC, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Reuters, Bloomberg, Yahoo Finance, Huffington Post and elsewhere.
As Joe Weisenthal writes today: “Bank Of America Selling Accelerates, As Fears Spread That It’s In The Wikileaks Crosshairs”.
(Bank of America is the largest U.S. bank.)
But the Department of Justice has launched a criminal probe of Wiklileaks, Assange may face espionage charges, representative Peter King is asking that Wikileaks be designated a foreign terrorist organization like Al Qaeda, some have called for Assange’s assassination (and see this), and Wikileaks’ website is under attack by hackers.
Unless Wikileaks quickly moves up the release of the bank documents, it may be shut down before it has the chance to organize them so that they are easy to search.
Wikileaks could, of course, leak the raw documents now “into one giant Zip file”, and then – if it is still able to do so – leak the organized version later.
Admittedly, if Wikileaks is really a “clever Psyops front”, then the bank release will be about a bunch of unsavory – but perfectly legal – shenanigans.
The Next Shoe To Drop: European Insurance Companies – Assicurazioni Generali CDS Explodes
by Zero Hedge - November 30th, 2010 2:02 pm
Courtesy of Tyler Durden
As the idiot market relishes in yet another day of foolish self-delusion that the most globalized market in history can simply decouple between the two largest economies in the world (Europe as a whole is far larger than China), things are starting to stir beneath the surface in Europe. While it is now given that no state will be allowed to default, no market will be allowed to trade down, and no bank will ever be impaired as long until the current flawed economic fundamentalist religion is violently overthrown, the question now becomes (just like it did in the America in late 2008) how far down the foodchain with the global Bernanke put stretch? Case in point: Italian insurance company Assicurazioni Generali (CDS ticker: ASSGEN). The proximal reason – today the company’s CDS spread has gone vertical, wider by 34 bps on the day, or about 20%, to 184 bps. Why is this happening? Simple: ASSGEN has total assets of €423 billion, and more worrisome, a fixed income portfolio of €262 billion, of which 93% is European-bond based (Italy 28%, France 22%, Germany 25%). We all know what has happened to Italian bond prices in the past weeks: as of today, Bund spreads have just hit a fresh all time high. But all this is irrelevant since the bank must have a capital buffer to accommodate the losses. After all, what idiot would run a company with almost €300 billion in Euro-facing bond exposure and not factor for deterioration in risk after the events of May… Well the ASSGEN CEO may be just such an idiot. The company’s balance sheet as of 9/30 discloses that the firm had a mere €10 billion in tangible capital (excluding €10.7 billion in intangible assets). So let’s recap: €262 billion in Euro bonds on…. €10 billion in tangible equity! A 26x leverage on what is promptly becoming the most impaired asset class in the world. We are amazed that it has taken the market so long to realize that European insurers are the next shoe to drop, and doubly amaze that instead of trading points up, ASSGEN is only 184 bps. We give it a week.
Some charts.
ASSGEN’s CDS:
Next, a focus of ASSGEN’s most recent asset exposure:
A more focused look at the geographic distribution of the company’s fixed income portfolio:
Most importantly:…
Post-Thanksgiving Economic Review
by Zero Hedge - November 30th, 2010 1:36 pm
Courtesy of Econophile
This article originally appeared in The Daily Capitalist.
After a nice Thanksgiving spectacle of turkey, pumpkin pie, relatives, cool days of bright California sunshine, and college football, it’s time to turn back to the serious business of the economy.
Here is a review of the latest data.
I see no fundamental issues that would change my last opinions on the state of things. The same forces that have been driving the economy, up or down, still exist. Which means that we are probably improving slightly, or at least we are not dramatically falling, but future prospects do not indicate we will have anything but a slow, if not stagnant, economy. The problem is that although some things are improving, they aren’t improving enough, or aren’t significant factors to drive the economic growth upward and create enough jobs to make the employment meter move to the positive.
Black Friday
Black Friday retail sales were viewed by most analysts as being “improved.” Sales were $45 billion for the weekend and overall, brick and mortar and online, average spending increased 6.4% over last year. According to a ShopperTrak report, brick and mortar store spending was flat from a year ago at $20.5 billion which seems not to be very encouraging. Online shopping was up 9%, which indicates a strong trend which will only increase. Amazon reported a whopping 25% increase in traffic for Black Friday over last year. Cyber Monday showed an increase in sales of between 15% and 21%. For Thanksgiving and Black Friday online sales jumped 15% over last year.
Gallup reported today that as of Saturday, their poll said that average daily spending was up to $92 for the three days from last year’s $83.
Will it all be bling as I reported last week? It is a long season so, perhaps bargain-hunters have blown their wads. Stay tuned.
Consumer sentiment as measured by the U. of Michigan survey turned up in November:
Consumer sentiment moved solidly and consistently higher through the month of November. The index came in at a final 71.6 for the month, up from 69.3 at mid-month and vs 67.7 in October. Both the assessment of future conditions and current conditions show strength.
Regional Economic Activity
There have been some good reports from the regional Fed banks. The Philadelphia Fed reported…
Olli Rehn’s Upcoming Executive Diktat To Ireland #2: “Double Your Tax Rate”
by Zero Hedge - November 30th, 2010 1:07 pm
Courtesy of Tyler Durden
If you thought Olli Rehn’s “intervention” in Ireland’s “democratic” process would end with his yesterday involvement in the voting process, you may be surprised to learn that diktat #2 is coming up. As we speculated last week, the first casualty of the Irish loss of sovereignty will be the country’s lowest among the DM countries corporate tax rate. Today we read in the RTE that we are one step closer to being proven right: “A row has broken out in the European Parliament over Ireland’s 12.5% corporate tax rate. It has emerged that eight, mostly French and German, MEPs have issued a declaration attacking Ireland’s corporate tax rate and calling for a minimum EU wide corporate tax rate of 25%.” Furthermore, these are not just any MEPs: “What has heightened the dispute is the fact that the eight MEPs are all co-ordinators for the different political groupings in the parliament and are, as such, representatives for those groupings on an influential parliamentary committee.” While it is not a done deal yet, the days of the Irish tax haven may be numbered: “The declaration invites signatures from other MEPs and if it can gather the support of 350 MEPs it then becomes the position of the European Parliament.” And here is how the new diktatura will spin its control over the Irish state:
The statement claims that European taxpayers and citizens have been put at risk ‘in order to stabilise a financial system which has been profiting from the exceptionally low Irish corporation tax rate of 12.5%’.
It goes on to suggest that Ireland’s corporate tax rate is unfair and goes against the spirit of European solidarity, especially given the fact Ireland is receiving a bail-out.
‘We urge the European Commission to advance on the dossier of a Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base. We urge the European Commission, the Eurogroup and its members to ensure that the corporation tax rate will be increased to the average EU level of 25% in a spirit of solidarity,’ the declaration concludes.
Sure enough, the Irish response is vocal:
Irish MEPs are understood to be furious at the declaration given that – as co-ordinators on the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee (ECON) – they technically represent the same political groups of
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Scientists Confirm that Dispersants Are Increasing Contamination in the Gulf
by Zero Hedge - November 30th, 2010 12:44 pm
Courtesy of George Washington
I have repeatedly documented the detrimental impacts of dispersants on humans, wildlife and seafood safety. See this, this, this, this, this, this and this.
As I noted in September, scientists from Oregon State University found elevated levels of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in the Gulf, and blamed dispersants.
Now, the website of the prestigious Journal Nature is also reporting on the increase of PAH contamination due to the use of dispersants in the Gulf:
Peter Hodson, an aquatic toxicologist from Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, presented his case on 9 November at a meeting of the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry in Portland, Oregon…
The problem, explains Hodson, is that the dispersed cloud of microscopic oil droplets allows the PAHs to contaminate a volume of water 100–1,000 times greater than if the oil were confined to a floating surface slick. This hugely increases the exposure of wildlife to the dispersed oil. …
Worse, the toxic constituents of oil hang around longer than other components, another speaker told the meeting. “This idea that there’s an oil biodegradation rate doesn’t hold,” says Ronald Atlas, a microbiologist at the University of Louisville, Kentucky, who has studied the aftermath of the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska. Alkanes, the simple hydrocarbons that comprise the bulk of oil, are degraded more readily than the PAHs, he points out.
As the Press Register notes:
“These chemicals, these are PAHs that are carcinogenic. … These items are not in any way appropriate for anyone to eat,” said Ed Cake, an environmental consultant from Ocean Springs. “There’s no low-dose level that’s acceptable to eat.”…
[William Sawyer], the [veteran] Florida toxicologist, said the government tests do not look for total petroleum hydrocarbons in the seafood. He said his tests of Gulf shrimp have shown unsafe levels of the compounds, which can cause liver or kidney damage in a matter of weeks.
And watch this short video.
Raw Story reports:
Dr. William Sawyer… said… “We found not only petroleum in the digestive tracts [of shrimp], but also in the edible portions of fish.
“We’ve
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Surge In GLD December $145 Call Volume
by Zero Hedge - November 30th, 2010 12:12 pm
Courtesy of Tyler Durden
While it is not surprising that 9 out of the top 10 option classes in GLD are calls, what is odd is that the most actively traded call by a substantial margin are the December $145 strikes. In other words, specs are betting that gold will move $60 higher in the next three weeks. Judging by today’s 4% move in silver, the less valuable cousin may have a comparable move.
Here’s Something That You Will Not Find Elsewhere – Proof That Ireland Will Have To Default…
by Zero Hedge - November 30th, 2010 12:09 pm
Courtesy of Reggie Middleton
The BoomBustBlog Ireland Haircut Model has been posted, and it is a doozy. For those who anticipate the Euro being a slow train wreck, it may not be so slow after all. The haircut model is SOOOO damn revealing that I can’t keep it all to just site subscribers, thus I have pulled a few bits and pieces out for the general public. Professional and institutional subscribers can access it here as a live, spreadsheet embedded into a BoomBustBlog web page. Other users can subscribe or upgrade to gain access.
As any who have been following me know, I believe that several European countries are bound to default, ie. restructure their debt. Ireland is in that camp. What makes me so sure about this? Well, its simple math. I can illustrate incontrovertible evidence that shows that Ireland is on an unsustainable path – a path made even more unsustainable by the recent bailout.
Let’s take a look at the cumulated funding requirement of Ireland over the next 15 years.
As you can see, the amount Ireland would have to borrow to run the country (even after harsh and punitive austerity measures) is literally more (and substantially more) than the country’s projected GDP. These GDP projections are (in part) IMF projections which I have already demonstrated to be grossly over optimistic, see Lies, Damn Lies, and Sovereign Truths: Why the Euro is Destined to Collapse!). As a matter of fact, the tab for Ireland is even greater AFTER the IMF/EU/Bilateral state leveraged into Ireland loan/Pension fund raiding bailout! This is what happens when you try to save a debt laden country with more debt!
Even after the IMF/EU/Bilateral state leveraged into Ireland loan/Pension fund raiding bailout, Ireland is forced to raise an unsustainable and most improbably 110% of its GDP from the debt markets. These debt markets are starting to become highly uncooperative.
Over the next year, Ireland would have had to tap the public markets for between 15 and 20% of its surplus cash flow. Again, unsustainable, and probably not doable in this environment either.
This is why the IMF/EU/Bilateral state leveraged into Ireland loan/Pension fund raiding bailout was implemented. Let’s not get it twisted though. This is not a solution, nor a cure – it is a method of…
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