Mur's Wall of Whine

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Mur
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Mur's Wall of Whine

Post by Mur » Mon Apr 04, 2011 2:06 am

Let the party begin.....
Guest Post: The Dirty Secret of the Debt Ceiling Debate: Nobody Wants Treasuries







Submitted by Mark McHugh

The Dirty Secret of the Debt Ceiling Debate: Nobody Wants Treasuries

On this side of the rainbow, “How much money should an uncreditworthy entity be allowed to borrow?” is a rhetorical question. In Washington DC, it’s a topic of much rhetoric. In fiscal year 2009 Congress borrowed 53.5 cents of every dollar they spent. In FY2010 they borrowed 48 cents of every dollar (*check your numbers, Santelli). So they’ve borrowed and spent 3.5 Trillion to produce 255 Billion in GDP growth (7% efficiency!), never even bothered to pass a budget for FY2011, and still haven’t managed to get a single bankster put in jail. Now these whores are lecturing us about “moral obligations.” They also swear they’re gonna straighten up and fly right this time.

There is one little detail they forgot to mention – no one actually wants to lend them money. Welcome to the last resort.

Everybody knows that the Federal Reserve has the unique ability to create money out of nothing. What most don’t know is the Fed, not the Treasury, provides most of the explanations as to who is buying Treasuries (read the footnotes). So to those who said, “I told you so!” when the Treasury revised China’s holdings by $268B in February, welcome to the pee-pee in your coke moment. That revision brought China’s purchases to $577B in the two years period ending June 2008. That was:

More than 5.5% of China’s GDP.
116% of China’s trade surplus with the US.
More than 4 times China’s defense budget.

And you swallowed it. Of course had you done even a little research you’d have understood that the data is about as helpful as an eight month old snapshot of the Universe:
“The collection of accurate country-level data on cross-border financial activity ranges from straightforward to virtually impossible, depending on the type of data to be collected and the method of collection”
~From “Why Treasury’s Data is Crap”

by The Federal Reserve

I can hear you still clinging to your Scooby-Doo thesis, but anyone who speaks of “demand” in the US Treasury market at all displays their ignorance. Like this is some giant game of Hungry, Hungry Hippos. Take a peak at this report and you’ll see that ownership is an antiquated concept when discussing US debt. Transactions of long-term Treasuries with foreigners during the last two fiscal years totaled more than $50 TRILLION, ($160,000 per US citizen) . So if you insist on having a six year-old understanding of things, I suggest Gnip-Gnop.



Speaking of six year-olds, I blame the tooth fairy for all of this. Most American children’s first brush with economics is the notion that somebody or something out there is actually willing to pay money for their crummy, little teeth. It is a convenient lie that distracts children from the pain and anxiety of losing body parts. Most of us evolve beyond this delusion, the rest become US congressmen and TV pundits. Face it America, no one wants your debt. The tooth fairy is all you’ve got left, and it’s been that way for a while.



When I fill up at the local gas station using my debit card, the money is gone from my account before I can drive home and log on to my bank’s website (less than 5 minutes). Details about Treasury purchases are trickled out at an agonizingly slow pace that literally takes years to complete. That’s right, years. This time delay, combined with explanations that are vague at best make intelligent discussion about purchasers of US Treasuries impossible. The more you dig into the data, the less sense it makes. With the recent release of the Fed’s discount window activity, I’d like to know how many believe demand for the last 3.5 Trillion of US debt wasn’t fueled entirely by the Fed. Now they’re playing Got your nose with us.

So the next time Maria Bartiroma asks Lady Gaga, or whatever sock-puppet she happens to have on her show, “Who will buys US Treasuries when the Fed steps away?” An enlightened response might be, “I have no idea who was buying US Treasuries before the Fed stepped in. Do you Maria?” To which she will most likely reply, “So what sectors do you like going forward?”

***


?

*Generally I shy away from correcting hot-headed Italian-Americans, but I believe Rick Santelli values truth and accuracy. I’m not sure how Rick calculated his recent claim that the government borrows 43 cents of every dollar they spend, but here’s how I calculated my numbers:

In FY2009 & 2010 government spending was $3.5177T and $3.4558T respectively.

Source: http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/120xx/doc120 ... 5B1%5D.pdf (page 1)

Total borrowing was $1.8851T for FY 2009; $1.6518T for FY 2010

Source: http://www.fms.treas.gov/bulletin/b2011_1.pdf (Table OFS-2)

US GDP 2008: $14.369T (World Bank – 2010 data not available)

Source: http://www.google.com/publicdata?ds=wb- ... l=en&q=gdp

US GDP 2010: $14.624T (IMF)

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_co ... _(nominal)
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/guest- ... treasuries



Again.....it's called extend and pretend.

I'm not sure how long this can go on, but it's going to be real ugly when the shit hits the fan


Edit...Note to self....use yellow instead of red next time
Last edited by Mur on Wed Dec 14, 2011 7:52 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Mur's Meltdown Thread

Post by Mur » Mon Apr 04, 2011 10:55 am

Tax the Rich Before Society Explodes?

Monday, April 04, 2011 – by Staff Report

Tax the Super Rich. Tax them now. Before the other 99% rise up, trigger a new American Revolution, a meltdown and the Great Depression 2. Revolutions build over long periods — to critical mass, a flash point. Then they ignite suddenly, unpredictably. Like Egypt, started on a young Google executive's Facebook page. Then it goes viral, raging uncontrollably. – MarketWatch

Dominant Social Theme: Whack them now, as we've been whacked. We'll feel better and maybe we won't demand substantive change.

Free-Market Analysis: Gee, this is a blunt piece that Paul B. Farrell has written for MarketWatch. It is part of a larger theme on which he's elaborated in several columns, apparently. His perception is that the Super Rich (whoever they are) and the GOP are laboring under what he calls the "Super Rich Delusion" that things are OK in America.

Once the economy turns positive again (and didn't the Obama administration just announce the recovery was finally underway?) America will return to normal. The backyard barbecues will fire up; GM will turn a profit and the vitriol increasingly affecting the national US conversation will diminish and perhaps even die off completely. It's happened that way before. But that's the Delusion. Farrell is convinced it won't happen this time, or not unless some fairly decisive, even radical steps, are taken. He's trying to save the world, or at least warn people of what's coming.

This is an increasingly evident sub-dominant social theme in the mainstream media: That Western society is going to rise or fall based on the actions of the Super Rich and how society treats them. We noted it in an article earlier this year in the US elite-oriented publication The Atlantic. "The Rise of the New Global Elite" by Chrystia Freeland argued that "today's super-rich are different from yesterday's: more hardworking and meritocratic, but less connected to the nations that granted them opportunity — and the countrymen they are leaving ever further behind ..."

Freeland, just like Farrell, is most concerned about the attitudes of the Super Rich. Where Farrell sees deadly apathy and arrogance, Freeland sees a process at work: "They are becoming a transglobal community of peers who have more in common with one another than with their countrymen back home. Whether they maintain primary residences in New York or Hong Kong, Moscow or Mumbai, today's super-rich are increasingly a nation unto themselves." You can see our article on Ms. Farrell's treatise here: Necessity of the Plutocracy.

It is noteworthy to have MarketWatch and The Atlantic speaking with one voice. Obviously, the Super Rich have Become a Problem. Freeland is concerned; Farrell is positively apocalyptical. "We know the Super Rich don't care," he writes. "Not about you. Nor the American public. They can't see. Can't hear. Stay trapped in their Forbes-400 bubble. An echo chamber that isolates them. They see the public as faceless workers, customers, taxpayers. See GOP power on the ascent. Reaganomics is back. Unions on the run. Clueless masses are easily manipulated."

Farrell is not shy about widening culpability. He writes that the Obama administration is working "secretly" with the GOP and that the administration is not about to attack its Super Rich donor-base. Farrell even quotes a "savvy insider" who describes the lifestyle of the Super Rich and its larger Delusion:

Here's how one savvy insider who knows described this Super-Rich Delusion: "The top 1% live privileged lives, aren't worried about much. Families vacation at the best resorts. Their big concerns are finding the best Pilates teacher, best masseuse, best surgeons, best private schools. They aren't concerned with the underlying deterioration of America or the world, except in the abstract, because they aren't directly affected by it. That's not to say they aren't sympathetic, aware, or don't talk about the issues you bring up. They are largely concerned with protecting and enhancing their socio-economic positions, ensuring their families live well. And nothing you write about will change things."

Farrell writes that the Super Rich are insulated by their megabucks, by their gated compounds and even by their mercenaries. But this is nothing more than "delusion" pushing America and the world to the "edge of a great precipice." He even reminds us that the top economist of the day, Irving Fisher, maintained that stocks had "reached what looks like a permanently high plateau" right before the 1929 Crash itself. Fisher was blinded the same "delusion."

Farrell goes abroad for further examples of delusion. He reminds us that the recent "color revolutions" were unexpected. Dictators like Egypt's Hosni Mubarak lived in a bubble just as the Super Rich do today. Mubarak didn't see revolution coming until it was too late. Then Egypt's educated but hungry younger generations turned on him, as they are turning on power centers throughout the Middle East and Northern Africa. Some more from the article:

Still, you don't believe there's a depression ahead here in America? The third great market crash of the 21st century? A new economic revolution about to blow up in our faces? No, you don't believe, can't believe ... you, me, we are all infected by the Super-Rich Delusion, just as Americans were in the Roaring Twenties. Check the stats folks: The last time America's wealth gap between the Super Rich and the other 99% was this big was just before the 1929 Crash and the Great Depression ... Start preparing for the third meltdown of the 21st Century, and depression ...

Wall Street, Farrell writes, lost 20% of savers' retirement money from 2000 to 2010 ($10 trillion). It's an "us versus them" mentality that Farrell is preaching. Unlike Freeland, he is not just posting a polite warning to the Super Wealthy. He is predicting class-warfare, especially if the Super Rich don't change their ways – and soon. The trends are unmistakable and don't bode well.

But the trouble with Freeland's polite warning and now Farrell's screed, we would suggest, is that it is aimed at entirely the wrong people. Farrell, like numerous others in the mainstream media is trying to convince readers that those with US$500 million or US$1 billion are the world's movers and shakers. These are the people, as well, who will need to be made an example of if class warfare in America (and perhaps in Europe) is to be averted. The trouble with this argument is twofold.

First of all, the real Super Rich in the world are not worth billions, apparently, but trillions. Second, the real Super Rich are trying to build a one-world order using the central banking structure that they have created over the past 100 years and that allows them to print money from nothing. Farrell says nothing about central banking. Neither does Freeland for that matter. Farrell is certainly eloquent, and we'll assume he's sincere, but his argument is just a variant of the one that has worked well for the REAL Super Rich – the Anglosphere's select group of top banking families located mostly in the one-square-mile of the City of London.

It is surely a dominant social theme – that the rich ought to be blamed for what's gone wrong along with Wall Street and politicians. Exempt from the blame game are those who created the problem via the easy money of central banks and those who control the central banks from behind the scenes. These are the REAL super-wealthy. Unfortunately, Farrell apparently has not turned his attention to them. Why not?

Farrell does have a point: Anger is building and chaos is increasing. But we would argue that the chaos is being induced by the same power elite that Farrell refuses to describe. Farrell uses the youth revolutions of the Middle East to buttress his thesis that unexpected change can affect the Super Rich at any moment. But there is plenty of evidence that the color revolutions were actually supported and even initiated by Western governments and intelligence agencies.

In the past, especially during the 1930s, the power elite's divide and conquer approach worked fairly well. The "blame the rich" approach to financial woes resulted in higher taxes and Wall Street convictions and massive financial reorganizations that were supposed to ensure that "greedy tycoons" could not take advantage of the system.

Of course, the system actually got worse rather than better, the more power was concentrated in fewer hands. This is part of power-elite methodology. The more the system is regulated and centralized, the more government levers are available. Mercantilism is the preferred way of building wealth. The REAL wealthy use the power of government for private gain.

Has the Internet changed the substance of the modern financial conservation? We argue regularly that it has. In fact, we have not seen, despite Farrell's angry text, a great deal of Western (or American) agitation for "higher taxes" on the rich. Nor have we seen large protests calling for increased Wall Street regulation. Maybe we're just not looking in the right places.

What we do see, especially in America, is a growing awareness that the fulcrum of the system – central banking's ability to print money from nothing – is an increasingly significant issue. Just last week, the news came out that 70 percent of the Federal Reserve's low cost and no cost loans and other kinds of liquidity had gone overseas. Congressman Ron Paul (R-Tex) is holding a hearing on it. Ben Bernanke's job just got appreciably tougher.

Conclusion: Unlike Farrell, we are not looking for ways to stave off civil unrest such as higher taxes on the wealthy. If the elites cannot ignite the kind of indignation at Wall Street and banks and the "wealthy" that they were able to create in the 20th century, then the system itself becomes a target. If this is the case, there might be significant changes leading to freer markets and more monetary freedom as well.
http://www.thedailybell.com/1975/Tax-th ... lodes.html

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Re: Mur's Meltdown Thread

Post by Egg » Mon Apr 04, 2011 5:45 pm

Funny thing about Reagan is, he closed corporate tax loopholes and upped the corporate tax. So, he was left of the current administration in that regard.

The Right has moved further right since Reagan and so has the Left.


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Re: Mur's Meltdown Thread

Post by Mur » Tue Apr 05, 2011 4:02 am

Good article at the link.....

http://www.financialsense.com/print/con ... eet-friend

A few excerpts....but try to read the whole thing.
“We now have an economy in which five banks control over 50 percent of the entire banking industry, four or five corporations own most of the mainstream media, and the top one percent of families hold a greater share of the nation’s wealth than any time since 1930. This sort of concentration of wealth and power is a classic setup for the failure of a democratic republic and the stifling of organic economic growth.” - Jesse – http://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/ [1]
“All of the old-timers knew that subprime mortgages were what we called neutron loans — they killed the people and left the houses.” - Louis S. Barnes, 58, a partner at Boulder West, a mortgage banking firm in Lafayette, Colo
The storyline that has been sold to the public by the Federal government, Wall Street, and the corporate mainstream media over the last two years is the economy is recovering and the banking system has recovered from its near death experience in 2008. Wall Street profits in 2009 & 2010 totaled approximately $80 billion. The stock market has risen almost 100% since the March 2009 lows. Wall Street CEOs were so impressed by this fantastic performance they dished out $43 billion in bonuses over the two year period to their thousands of Harvard MBA paper pushers. It is amazing that an industry that was effectively insolvent in October 2008 has made such a spectacular miraculous recovery. The truth is recovery is simple when you control the politicians and regulators, and own the organization that prints the money.

A systematic plan to create the illusion of stability and provide no-risk profits to the mega-Wall Street banks was implemented in early 2009 and continues today. The plan was developed by Ben Bernanke, Hank Paulson, Tim Geithner and the CEOs of the criminal Wall Street banking syndicate. The plan has been enabled by the FASB, SEC, IRS, FDIC and corrupt politicians in Washington D.C. This master plan has funneled hundreds of billions from taxpayers to the banks that created the greatest financial collapse in world history. The authorities had a choice. This country has bankruptcy laws. The criminally negligent Wall Street banks could have been liquidated in an orderly bankruptcy. Their good assets could have been sold off to banks that did not take their extreme greed based risks. Bond holders and stockholders would have been wiped out. Today, we would have a balanced banking system, with no Too Big To Fail institutions. Instead, the years of placing their cronies within governmental agencies and buying off politicians paid big dividends for Wall Street. Their return on investment has been fantastic.
These four “Too Big To Fail” bastions of crony capitalism have $340 billion of commercial real estate loans on their books. That’s a lot of extending and pretending. Just properly valuing those loans at their true market value would wipe out most of their loan loss reserves. I wonder if Vikrim and his buddies have noticed that home prices have begun to plunge again. Deciding to not foreclose on home occupiers that haven’t made a mortgage payment in two years is not a long term strategy. These four banks have $1.1 billion of outstanding mortgage debt on their books. I wonder what a 20% further decline in home prices will do to these loans. Throw in another half a billion of credit card loans to Americans being hammered by soaring energy and food prices and you have a toxic mix of future losses. These banks are gonna need a bigger boat.

The game of extend and pretend at the expense of the American working middle class is growing old. When this game is over, Wall Street will be looking for another bailout. The American people will not fall for the lies again. Wall Street’s oppression reeks of greed and disgrace. They are liars and thieves. They have pillaged and stolen all that was left to steal. I will be surprised if they get out alive.

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Re: Mur's Meltdown Thread

Post by Egg » Tue Apr 05, 2011 4:05 am

The truth is recovery is simple when you control the politicians and regulators, and own the organization that prints the money.
Truer words never written. I don't know if he's right though about the American people not falling for it a second time. I think he underoverestimates them.


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Re: Mur's Meltdown Thread

Post by lkwalker » Tue Apr 05, 2011 11:28 am

Plus ca change...
"If you don't think to good, don't think too much." Yogi

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Re: Mur's Meltdown Thread

Post by Mur » Wed Apr 06, 2011 3:18 am

Great article at the link....
Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1%


2011-04-05 — vanityfair.com

``Some people look at income inequality and shrug their shoulders. So what if this person gains and that person loses? What matters, they argue, is not how the pie is divided but the size of the pie. That argument is fundamentally wrong. An economy in which most citizens are doing worse year after year—an economy like America’s—is not likely to do well over the long haul... Economists are not sure how to fully explain the growing inequality in America.'' -- We suggest they look at the Federal Reserve system and money printing, systematic lies about inflation, and the "too big to fail" policy.

http://www.vanityfair.com/society/featu ... ntPage=all

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Re: Mur's Meltdown Thread

Post by Egg » Wed Apr 06, 2011 3:39 am

Mur wrote:Great article at the link....
Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1%


2011-04-05 — vanityfair.com

``Some people look at income inequality and shrug their shoulders. So what if this person gains and that person loses? What matters, they argue, is not how the pie is divided but the size of the pie. That argument is fundamentally wrong. An economy in which most citizens are doing worse year after year—an economy like America’s—is not likely to do well over the long haul... Economists are not sure how to fully explain the growing inequality in America.'' -- We suggest they look at the Federal Reserve system and money printing, systematic lies about inflation, and the "too big to fail" policy.
If we repped, I'd rep you for this post. Thanks.

http://www.vanityfair.com/society/featu ... ntPage=all


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Re: Mur's Meltdown Thread

Post by Mur » Wed Apr 06, 2011 11:23 am

Cash will do ;)

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Re: Mur's Meltdown Thread

Post by lkwalker » Wed Apr 06, 2011 11:52 am

If economic equality is the goal we need look no further than the Marxist core principle. "From each in accord with ability and to each according to need" has never been convincingly challenged in good faith. The enemy of equality is profit and profit is the soul of capitalism. We know in our hearts that this is true and ethical. That premise is the seed of Anarchism that languishes like an unwelcome guest at the quick of Marxist analysis. To ignore it is to wallow in mal foie, the existential denial of truth. Both Lenin and Marx identified this denial as the contradiction upon which capitalist theory is woven- and as in all self contradictory principles- the poison that will eventually kill the beast.
General Striker
"If you don't think to good, don't think too much." Yogi

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