Jim Rogers: “Saudi Arabia Is Lying About Being Able To Increase Its Oil Production”
by Zero Hedge - February 28th, 2011 3:40 pm
Courtesy of Tyler Durden
Jim Rogers joins Zero Hedge in being highly skeptical about just how credible Saudi’s call for a 1MM + boost in its oil supply is: “Saudi Arabia has been lying about the reserves for decades. Saudi Arabia the last two times said they are going to increase production and they couldn’t increase production. Don’t fall for that. The reason oil is going up is the world is running out of known reserves of oil.” Of course, then there is the question of does one trust the Quantum fund creator who retired at 37, or does one go with the sellside lemming brigade of monkeys with typewriters who will groupthink anything and everything to death, just to get paid another completely unwarranted bonus. As to those who are concerned that the commodity “bubble” is about to pop, Rogers says: “It’s still years away.” And some reinforcement for the gold and silver bulls: “Gold will certainly go over $2,000 by the end of the decade, and silver will pass $50.” And as a hedge to his great commodity bull market call, Rogers continues to be short Nasdaq stocks. His thesis: “If the economy gets better I am going to make money in commodities, if it doesn’t get better, I am going to make money in commodities cause they are going to print huge amounts of money.” Call it the adjusted Tepper call. Rogers is also holding a contrarian all on the dollar: “I own some dollars now because there was a huge drop in the dollar. I do sometimes like to buy things when they collapse, and sometimes I don’t. Sometimes I lose money.” We assume this is merely a short-term revulsion trade as all the near-record USD shorts get flushed out as we highlighted in the latest Committment of Traders update.
Full interview:
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DiggConstitution Version 2.0: “Of the Banks, By the Banks and For the Banks”
by Zero Hedge - February 28th, 2011 3:06 pm
Courtesy of George Washington
We the People Giant Corporations of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union Pig Trough, establish Justice Perpetual Bailouts, insure domestic Tranquility Passivity, provide for the common defence Bewilderment, promote the general Welfare Sense of Cynicism and Helplessness, and secure the Blessings of Liberty Socialism for the Rich to ourselves and our Posterity Key Executives, do ordain and establish this Constitution Version 2.0 for the United States of America …
Of the banks, by the banks and for the banks.
On a related note, a reader sent me the following:
If the Declaration were written today, how would Jefferson phrase it? A reader speculates . . .
TO THE GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES:
A DECLARATION
CONCERNING THE RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE OF THE
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for the people to renounce the political bands which have connected them with their government, and to reclaim among the powers of the earth, the equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to that renunciation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of…
Obama Adds Citigroup’s Dick Parsons To Jeff Immelt’s Jobs Panel
by Zero Hedge - February 28th, 2011 2:55 pm
Courtesy of Tyler Durden
And there was a time when people thought Obama was out to get the bankers…
From Citi:
Richard Parsons, chairman of the board of directors of Citigroup, has been named to President Barack Obama’s advisory panel on jobs and the economy. The President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, to be chaired by General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt, will focus on ways to promote growth and hiring in American businesses.
We expect someone to tell us that between the two, their respective companies have seen headcuts well into the tens of thousands. As a reminder, under Immelt alone, GE’s track record of employment of US workers has been an utter and complete disaster.
[Immelt] runs a big company, but Immelt has shown more skill at cutting jobs, frankly, than creating. GE finished 2009 with 18,000 fewer US workers than it had at the end of 2008, and US headcount is down 31,000 since Immelt’s first full year in 2002. During his tenure, GE workers based in the US as a percentage of total employees has fallen to 44% from 52%.
Perhaps if the members of the Immelt panel had more time to focus on fixing their companies so they did not rely 100% on the generosity of the US taxpayer, this country would actually generate some (non part-time) jobs…
CBOE To Add Another Layer Of Gold Price Volatility, Launches Futures And Options On Gold VIX
by Zero Hedge - February 28th, 2011 2:47 pm
Courtesy of Tyler Durden
It’s not quite a triple forward (or inverse) ETF on gold just yet, but it’s a start. Capitalizing on the surge in volatility in the commodity space, which together with FX has become the go to arena for day traders seeking volatility, which has been completely eradicated from stocks courtesy of the Bernanke Put, the CBOE and CFE have “announced plans to launch futures and options on the CBOE Gold ETF Volatility Index (Ticker – GVZ). Pending regulatory approval, CBOE Futures Exchange (CFE) will begin trading GVZ futures on Friday, March 25, and CBOE will introduce GVZ options a few weeks later.” The reason for this product to be pushed on investors is that after peaking near 25 in December, the ^GVZ has plunged to one year lows as gold has steadily remained just off its all time highs. So if the first volatility derivative isn’t generating the much needed commission broker P&L, it is time to break out 2nd and further vol derivatives. We expect a triple or more-leveraged ETF on gold and silver to arrive shortly, then followed by an ETF which tracks the theta in the first ETF , and so forth, until the entire market is dominated by “synthetic CDO-like” derivatives and nobody cares about the actual underlying, just so traders have something to keep them occupied. After all diversion, is half the battle.
More from the CBOE:
The calculation of the CBOE Gold ETF Volatility Index (“Gold VIX”) is based on the well-known CBOE VIX methodology applied to options on the SPDR Gold Trust (Ticker – GLD). The Gold VIX is an up-to-the-minute market estimate of the expected 30-day volatility of GLD, calculated using real-time bid/ask quotes of GLD options that are listed on CBOE.
“Each year we’ve added greater depth to our suite of volatility products,” CBOE Holdings Chairman and CEO William J. Brodsky said. “Most recently we’ve extended the reach of our VIX methodology to new asset classes, including highly active commodity ETF options. With the addition of CBOE Gold ETF Volatility Index futures and options, market participants will have valuable products that will allow them to hedge volatility in a new way.”
And here is how hard the CBOE is working to satisfy the dmands of all vol addicts out there:
Calculated and distributed by…
“The Financial Industry Has Become So Politically Powerful That It Is Able To Inhibit the Normal Process of Justice And Law Enforcement”
by Zero Hedge - February 28th, 2011 2:15 pm
Courtesy of George Washington
In his acceptance speech for winner for best documentary at the Oscars, director Craig Ferguson said:
Three years after our horrific financial crisis caused by financial fraud, not a single financial executive has gone to jail, and that’s wrong.
But none of the mainstream, corporate networks covered it. Not CBS, ABC, NBC or MSNBC.
Ferguson told Reuters:
“The biggest surprise to me personally and biggest disappointment was that nobody in the Obama administration would speak with me even off the record — including people that I’ve known for many, many years,” Ferguson said backstage.
He believes Americans, who lost homes and jobs in the millions because of shady mortgage lending and bank collapses, are disappointed that “nothing has been done.”
“Unfortunately, I think that the reason is predominantly that the financial industry has become so politically powerful that it is able to inhibit the normal process of justice and law enforcement,” said Ferguson.
For background on the subversion of justice to the powers that be, see this.
Indeed, as I have repeatedly pointed out, fraud is one of the main causes of the financial crisis. See this and this.
Even Bernie Madoff tells New York Magazine:
“I realized from a very early stage that the market is a whole rigged job. There’s no chance that investors have in this market.”
***
“The SEC,” he says, “looks terrible in this thing.” And he doesn’t see himself as the only guilty party on Wall Street. “It’s unbelievable, Goldman … no one has any criminal convictions. The whole new regulatory reform is a joke. The whole government is a Ponzi scheme.”
The economy cannot stabilize unless fraud is prosecuted. But the folks in D.C. seem determined to turn a blind eye to Wall Street shenanigans, and is now moving to defund the enforcement agencies like the SEC and CFTC.
And yet the large corporate media never covers this issue. An October 2009 Pew Research Center study on the coverage of the financial crisis found that the media has largely parroted what the White House and Wall Street were saying. (The mainstream media is also pro-war.)
In fact, the financial industry has become so politically powerful that it is able to inhibit the normal process of justice and law enforcement, and the American press.
The Calm Before the Storm
by Zero Hedge - February 28th, 2011 2:03 pm
Courtesy of ilene
The Calm Before the Storm
Courtesy of Phil of Phil’s Stock World
Flat futures this morning.
Isn’t that special? The futures were off a bit very early this morning but the dollar fell below 77 and cheered them right up. Oil is looking like it will be around $98 this morning and gold is flat to Friday at $1,411 with silver at $33.50 and copper at $4.47 – just the normal noises in here, it seems. Tomorrow, of course, is March first and, as we all know, the first day of the month is THE BEST day to go long. 12 of the last 14 first day’s of the month have been up days with the S&P gaining 17% on the first day of the month (Feb 1 not on this chart) and just 1.4% on all the rest of the day’s combined!
So, miss the first day and miss out on the rally is a bit of an understatement, isn’t it? In 2010 alone, the first trading day accounted for 123 of the 134 points the S&P gained. Essentially, the market traded flat the other 200-plus trading days. “Maybe it’s on that first day of the month that the Fed comes in and does its buying,” observed David Rosenberg, economist and strategist at Gluskin Sheff in Toronto. Whether it’s more Fed manipulation or just 401K money pouring in on the adjustment periods – the first day of the month has been as reliable as buying the F’ing dips as an investing strategy and we stick with it until it doesn’t work anymore, right?
February was a real classic with the S&P flying up from 1,276.34 on Jan 31st to 1,307.59 (2.44%) on Feb 1st and then went the next 23 days (through last Thursday) to get to 1,306.10. Friday, however, was a bit out of character with a huge bump back to 1,319.88 (up 1%) and this morning it looks like all stops are being pulled to give us a good February print with (according to Stock World Weekly – who knows all this stuff) another $7Bn of Federal Reserve funny money tee’d up for this morning’s pump job. At 11:10 on Friday the Fed bought $7.24Bn of Treasuries from their pet IBanks, giving them back $65Bn in leverage which they used…
Today’s Precious Metal Close Banging Moment Brought By The Fine People At The Comex
by Zero Hedge - February 28th, 2011 2:00 pm
Courtesy of Tyler Durden
It’s 1:30 pm, the close of trading on the COMEX pit: do you know who is banging the close in your silver?
Silver pits close at 1:25 pm, just as the dump in silver peaked. Gold followed suit, with its 1:30 pm close. This blatant attempt to dump PMs into the pit close and have silver and gold end trading on the books near the lows of the day merely confirms that “someone” is truly desperate to avoid an avalanche of margin calls. Of course, this uber-cheap trick works at best for a day or two.
NDX 100′s “Kiss” of resistance…
by Chart School - February 28th, 2011 1:44 pm
Courtesy of Chris Kimble
CLICK ON CHART TO ENLARGE
After a break of support last week, the NDX has rallied to the underside of resistance at (2).. A Kiss “Good-Buy” or a Kiss “Good-Bye?” We will learn much about the NDX per what it does up here. If long, this is a big and dangerous test for sure!
After $456 Billion In Treasury Monetizations Since The Start QE Lite, A Half-Time POMO Summary
by Zero Hedge - February 28th, 2011 1:34 pm
Courtesy of Tyler Durden
Now that the Fed is by far the biggest institutional holder of US debt, it is time to conduct a periodic review of what, how and when Brian Sack has been monetizing in the past two years. As a reminder, as part of QE1, the Fed purchased $300 billion worth of Treasurys, the balance going to MBS and agency securities. QE Lite and 2 have, so far, focused only on USTs: as Morgan Stanley summarizes, as of today, the NY Fed has purchased a total of $456bn Treasuries / TIPS since August 10, or the announcement of QE Lite. Since additional LSAPs were announced in November (or QE 2 proper), the Fed has purchased $380bn. As the Fed is now roughly half completed with QE2, here is where we stand.
Graphically this looks as follows:
First, and most important for those who enjoy frontrunning the Fed which now telegraphs what it will do within 24 hours with impunity, here is the list of bonds most likely the be monetized by the Fed in future POMOs:
Next, we present the hit ratios, or the Submitted to Accepteds by Sector:
A more detailed visual chart of buybacks by sector and by operations:
Cumulative CUSIP purchases for the duration of QE Lite/2:
Last is the presentation of how many bonds are monetized on an On The Run basis, versus n-Old (aged vintages). Obviously PDs enjoy dumping any just issued 2, 3,5 and 7 years, while holding on recent issuance in the 10 and 30 Year space.
Source: Morgan Stanley
You’ve had! Been took! Hoodwinked! Bamboozled! Led Astray! Run Amok! This Is What They Do!
by Zero Hedge - February 28th, 2011 1:29 pm
Courtesy of Reggie Middleton
Many people ask me for investing advice, something that I am quite reticent to give over casual conversation. There is one aspect that I do offer freely though, and that is the push for the return of common sense. When people ask me what sectors to invest in, and whether banks are a potentially good buy or not, I remind them that buying stocks for the longer term is no different than buying a chunk of any business. The question is, “Is this a good business prospect?”.
Just imagine if I came up to you and pitched my business for an investment along the lines of the following…
“Listen, Dude! I have this big banking business that does several billion dollar per year. It is very sensitive to the business cycle and as you know, Tim Geithner and Ben Bernanke – two of the smartest and most honest people this universe has ever experienced – says that the worst is behind us and the economy is growing. Hey, even the NAR says that we should buy a house now, and they have those high falutin’ fancy economists to crunch numbers for them. So, with that being said, all you have to do is look past the fact that I had to get bailed out by the government several times to the tune of many billions of dollars. My lawyers may also want me to disclose that some smart ass investor/blogger types say that we are coming off a high in the business cycle, but we have Optimism Driven Reduction of Risk Reserve due to our very rosy outlook. Due not be deterred by the fact that the collateral behind our loans has depreciated by as much as 42% and is still on the downfall. I know that blogger/investor guy that is starting to get a few seconds of airplay says we are in a Real Estate Depression That Is About To Get Much Worse, but truth be told, it’s really a matter of semantics. A depression is generally a…
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Philip R. Davis is a founder Phil's Stock World, a stock and options trading site that teaches the art of options trading to newcomers and devises advanced strategies for expert traders...
Ilene is editor and affiliate program
coordinator for PSW. She manages the Favorites backup site
(