SHOULD YOU BELIEVE THE VAMPIRE SQUID?

I find it fascinating the mainstream corporate media and Wall Street shysters spend SO MUCH time talking down gold and spending an inordinate amount of electronic ink trying to convince the masses that only nutjobs would buy it. I believe less than 2% of people have gold in their investment portfolio, so why the endless articles bashing it?

Newsletter hawkers like Martin Armstrong take every opportunity to shit on gold as an investment. I wonder if he was shitting on it from 2001 through 2011? We don’t know, because he was in prison for investment fraud during most of that time. Fatass Barry Ritholtz is in the same boat. He’s nothing but a failed lawyer pretending to be an investment guru. He’s gleeful when gold falls. It’s because he completely missed a 10 year bull market.

The suppression of gold prices through the paper market since 2011 by the Fed and their Wall Street bank co-conspirators has thus far been successful, but it is fraying at the edges as China continues to accumulate physical gold and pushing the ponzi scheme towards its inevitable conclusion. Soaring gold prices tells the masses central bankers are a fraud, that’s why they are desperate to keep the price capped.

With zero and negative interest rates throughout the world, gold should be skyrocketing. It is showing signs of calling the central banker bluff. Jesse’s comments below should be heeded. The stock market dead cat bounce and the holiday manipulation of gold down $30 will fail. If there is a lesson from the Big Short, do the opposite of what Goldman says to do.


Chart of the Day

Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts – Goldman Says Have No Fear and Buy Our Paper

 

Goldman analyst Jeffrey Currie came out this morning with a ‘sell gold’ recommendation for Ma and Pa Muppet.

I was fortunate enough to hear his explanation for this in his own words on Bloomberg TV, which had touted his gold call about every fifteen minutes all day.

The net summary of Mr. Currie’s forecast is that Goldman’s economists think that there ought to be no fear in the financial paper markets, since there is an historically low chance of a recession, less than fifteen percent, and he sees no real possibility of negative interest rates.

Continue reading “SHOULD YOU BELIEVE THE VAMPIRE SQUID?”

Clinton Speaking Fees Since 2001 Total $125 Million

Clinton-Fees

Hillary will not release transcripts of her speeches at Goldman Sachs for which she was paid $675,000. The New York Times has reported that she has racked up $30 million in speaking fees in just 16 months. However, the total amount Clinton received in speaking fees since 2001 has reached $125 million. It seems to be a fair issue that she should release the transcripts of those speeches so you can see how she kisses the asses of the bankers behind closed doors and then pretends she will be independent as president.

This issue could be her undoing. It will not impact those who would vote for her just because she is a Clinton or a woman. If 5% turn against her, it will be the end of her campaign.

Behind the curtain she has had a reputation of being a greedy foul-mouth person who is very dictatorial. When it comes to money, she has always jumped through hoops. Remember her magical cattle trades in futures while she was in a meeting? That was just another money-laundering scheme. The lawyer and her had accounts at the same firm. The trades were allocated at the end of the day. The win placed in her account and the loss in the lawyer’s. It was out-right laundering a bribe.


The Fed Responds To Zero Hedge: Here Are Some Follow Up Questions

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Over the weekend, we gave the Dallas Fed a chance to respond to a Zero Hedge story corroborated by at least two independent sources, in which we reported that Federal Reserve members had met with bank lenders with distressed loan exposure to the US oil and gas sector and, after parsing through the complete bank books, had advised banks to i) not urge creditor counterparties into default, ii) urge asset sales instead, and iii) ultimately suspend mark to market in various instances.

Moments ago the Dallas Fed, whose president since September 2015 is Robert Steven Kaplan, a former Goldman Sachs career banker who after 22 years at the bank rose to the rank of vice chairman of its investment bank group – an odd background for a regional Fed president – took the time away from its holiday schedule to respond to Zero Hedge.

This is what it said.

No truth to this @zerohedge story. The Dallas Fed does not issue such guidance to banks. https://twitter.com/zerohedge/status/688441021986959361 

Continue reading “The Fed Responds To Zero Hedge: Here Are Some Follow Up Questions”

Goldman Sachs fined $5 billion but is Still Above the Law

GoldmanSachs-Bldg-NJ

Goldman Sachs is finally paying a price (money) for the role it played in 2007 mortgage scandal, but of course nobody goes to jail proving Goldman still remains above the law. The Wall Street firm agreed to only a civil settlement of up to $5 billion with federal prosecutors and regulators arising from it marketing and selling of known faulty mortgage securities to investors they created. Goldman Sachs announced:

Under the terms of the agreement in principle, the firm will pay a $2.385 billion civil monetary penalty, make $875 million in cash payments and provide $1.8 billion in consumer relief. The consumer relief will be in the form of principal forgiveness for underwater homeowners and distressed borrowers; financing for construction, rehabilitation and preservation of affordable housing; and support for debt restructuring, foreclosure prevention and housing quality improvement programs, as well as land banks.

Revolving-Door

The number one question we always get is why are the regulators and prosecutors so damn corrupt? Besides the bankers being in a position to blackmail politicians that if they are not bailed out, nobody will sell their debt, then the real problem is they buy the prosecutors and regulators. How? They hire the government lawyers who are suppose to be regulating them. This even includes staff of politicians who actually write the legislation. This is known as the revolving door. It is different where Rubin and Paulson were CEOs of Goldman Sachs who then became Secretary of the Treasury and left after they did what they had to do for the banks. This corruption ensures that there will never be any real criminal prosecution of the bankers. They are indeed always ABOVE the law. Why not? They pay for that privilege and Congress will never outlaw the revolving door because they too want to be rewarded for their dishonesty since they know this is the game and they pretend it is an outrage but silently condone it for decades. This is why we can no longer afford career politicians. No matter what country, we need to get rid of career politicians to save our own future.

Continue reading “Goldman Sachs fined $5 billion but is Still Above the Law”

Trump v Cruz & Goldman Sachs

Trump-Cruz

While Trump has held rallies and they are now playing Born in the USA to distinguish him from Cruz who was born in Canada, the real issue Cruz is not addressing head-on, is the New York Times revelation that Cruz failed to properly disclose large loans he received during his Senate campaign. Trump brought up the issue, but in a half-ass manner. Cruz quickly retorted: “Thank you for passing on that hit piece on the front page of The New York Times.” Cruz continued: “The entire New York Times attack is that I disclosed that loan on one filing with the United States Senate … but it was not in the second filing with the FEC.” Cruz even admitted: “Yes, I made paperwork errors … but if that’s the best hit the New York Times has got, they better go back to the well.”

However, that is interesting, but who gave him the loans he forgot to disclose? None other than Goldman Sachs. When you run for office, you are BY LAW required to disclose the source of your funds. It just does not cut it to say – oh, I forgot. Sorry, that disqualifies you from holding office and others have been seriously investigated for such lapses of memory.

Putting that aside, the source of the funds was the notorious Goldman Sachs. The dishonesty here is that Cruz has pretended to stand against the bankers. “Like many other players on Wall Street and big business, they seek out and get special favors from government,” Cruz told the New York Times previously. How dishonest is this statement and then forgetting to report a loan from Goldman Sachs? His wife Heidi, is a managing director at Goldman Sachs and has taken a temporary “leave” during his presidential campaign.

I am sorry. But Cruz is bought and paid for and would be in the pocket of the New York Banks no different than Hillary, Bush, or the rest of them who take money from this crowd. You do not forget to report a loan from Goldman Sachs when your wife is a managing director. Come on. How stupid do we have to be to entertain this excuse?


HAVING FUN YET?

Looks like China may have lost control of their debt saturated economy and rigged financial markets. It surely couldn’t happen here in the good ole US of A. We have honest free markets. Right? Debt isn’t a problem for us. Right?

It seems futures are down a tad in the U.S. – 400 points. Someone call the PPT at the NY Fed and tell them to buy, buy, buy. Where’s Ben B when you need him? Oh yeah – he’s making a $300,000 speech at a Goldman Sachs luncheon about how he saved the world.  

Here We Go Again: China Halts Trading For The Entire Day After Another 7% Crash

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*CHINA STOCKS HALTED FOR REST OF DAY AFTER CSI 300 TUMBLES 7%

Chinese traders unsure what to do for the rest of the day

“I won’t short the CSI 300 again I promise”

FOURTH TURNING – POLITICIANS DRIVING THE WORLD TOWARDS WAR

In Part 1 of this article I discussed the catalyst spark which ignited this Fourth Turning and the seemingly delayed regeneracy. In Part 2 I pondered possible Grey Champion prophet generation leaders who could arise during the regeneracy. In Part 3 I focused on the economic channel of distress which is likely to be the primary driving force in the next phase of this Crisis. In Part 4 I assessed the social and cultural channels of distress dividing the nation. In Part 5 I’ll examine the technological, ecological, political, and military channels of distress likely to burst forth with the molten ingredients of this Fourth Turning, and finally in Part 6 our rendezvous with destiny, with potential climaxes to this Winter of our discontent.

Technological & Ecological Distress

“Technological progress has merely provided us with more efficient means for going backwards.” Aldous Huxley – Ends and Means

The level of distress being produced by technology was probably underestimated by Strauss & Howe when they wrote their book in 1997. The internet, cell phones and e-commerce were still in their infancy, while cyber security was an unknown concept. Huxley would be shocked by how backwards we have “progressed” through the efficient distribution of iGadgets, creating millions of distracted, non-thinking, passive, easily pliable, willfully ignorant sheep who adore their technological servitude.

A vast swath of the populace never reads a book and can’t go more than a few minutes without checking their iGadget to view the latest funny cat video, the latest update on Kim Kardashian’s ass, Bruce/Caitlyn Jenner’s courage, or Lamar Odom’s latest whorehouse escapade. Our country is drowning in a sea of irrelevance as our infinite craving for diversions and triviality overwhelms any thoughts of confronting our oppressors. The adoration of technology has degraded our ability to think and allowed the Deep State to control the masses by amusing them to death.

The totalitarian Orwellian utilization of technology was exposed by a millennial with courage, intelligence, and love of his country – Edward Snowden. His revelations were very distressful to the felonious government apparatchiks who blatantly flaunt their disregard for the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution. The criminals at the NSA, fully supported by Obama and Congress, have made Big Brother look like an amateur, as they siphon up every phone call, text, email, and facebook entry made by each person in this country and for good measure the political leaders of our allies and enemies.

Continue reading “FOURTH TURNING – POLITICIANS DRIVING THE WORLD TOWARDS WAR”

FOURTH TURNING – SOCIAL & CULTURAL DISTRESS DIVIDING THE NATION

I wrote the first three parts of this article back in September and planned to finish it in early October, but life intervened and truthfully I don’t think I was ready to confront how bad things will likely get as this Fourth Turning moves into the violent, chaotic war stage just over the horizon. The developments in the Middle East, Europe, U.S., China and across the globe in the last months have confirmed my belief war drums are beating louder, global war beckons, and much bloodshed will be the result. Fourth Turnings proceed at their own pace within the 20 to 25 year crisis framework, but there is one guarantee – they never de-intensify as they progress. Just as Winter gets colder, stormier and more bitter as you proceed from December through February, Fourth Turnings get nastier, grimmer, more perilous, with our way of life hanging in the balance.

In Part 1 of this article I discussed the catalyst spark which ignited this Fourth Turning and the seemingly delayed regeneracy. In Part 2 I pondered possible Grey Champion prophet generation leaders who could arise during the regeneracy. In Part 3 I focused on the economic channel of distress which is likely to be the primary driving force in the next phase of this Crisis. In Part 4 I will assess the social and cultural channels of distress dividing the nation, Part 5 the technological, ecological, political, military channels of distress likely to burst forth with the molten ingredients of this Fourth Turning, and finally in Part 6 our rendezvous with destiny, with potential climaxes to this Winter of our discontent.

The road ahead will be distressful for everyone living in the U.S., as we experience the horrors of war, economic collapse, civil chaos, political upheaval, and the tearing of society’s social fabric. The pain and suffering being experienced across the globe today will not bypass the people of the United States. Winter has arrived and lethal storms are gathering in the distance. Don’t think you can escape. You can prepare, but this Crisis will reshape our society for better or worse, and you cannot sidestep the consequences or cruel environment we must survive.

Continue reading “FOURTH TURNING – SOCIAL & CULTURAL DISTRESS DIVIDING THE NATION”

Still Backstopping the Banks With Public Money

Guest Post by Jesse

“Gentlemen! I too have been a close observer of the doings of the Bank of the United States. I have had men watching you for a long time, and am convinced that you have used the funds of the bank to speculate in the breadstuffs of the country.

When you won, you divided the profits amongst you, and when you lost, you charged it to the bank. You tell me that if I take the deposits from the bank and annul its charter I shall ruin ten thousand families. That may be true, gentlemen, but that is your sin!

Should I let you go on, you will ruin fifty thousand families, and that would be my sin! You are a den of vipers and thieves. I have determined to rout you out, and by the Eternal, (bringing his fist down on the table) I will rout you out.”

Andrew Jackson, in a meeting with the Bankers in Philadelphia, February 1834

Serious financial reform is almost never discussed in any meaningful way in the political campaign debates, for all the petty sniping and smart remarks that pass for a serious discussion of our policy issues.  Life imitates high school.

Goldman Sachs’ Rich Man’s Bank Backstopped by You and Me
By Pam Martens and Russ Martens
October 21, 2015

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Inside Janet Yellen’s Brain at 4 a.m …

No Return to Sanity

GUALFIN, Argentina – Poor Janet Yellen. Usually, we reserve our pity for the poor, the downtrodden, and the hopeless. But today, we spare a thought for the clueless… and feel Yellen’s pain. Markets are tense. Investors seem to be holding their breath. Everyone is waiting to see what the Fed will do.

There must be hundreds of thousands – if not millions – of well-educated adults sitting on the edges of their seats… eager to hear what this rather ordinary functionary will say.

 

fall womanTry to spot the patsy/ fall guy…

Photo credit: Mark Wilson / Getty Images

 

Will Janet Yellen proudly put the Fed on the side of the angels, announcing that she and her crew have decided to move the Fed’s key interest rate to a more normal level… regardless of how much it costs the cronies?

Will she admit that the Fed’s ZIRP and its three QE programs have been failures? Or that they have shifted trillions of dollars toward the rich while leaving Main Street poorer? Will she beg forgiveness for such errant policy decisions over such a long time and vow publicly never to interfere with the market again? No, she won’t.

Continue reading “Inside Janet Yellen’s Brain at 4 a.m …”

FOURTH TURNING: CRISIS OF TRUST – PART 2

In Part 1 of this article I discussed the catalyst spark which ignited this Fourth Turning and the seemingly delayed regeneracy. In Part 2 I will ponder possible Grey Champion prophet generation leaders who could arise during the regeneracy.

The nearly seven year reign of Barack Obama has resulted in furthering wealth inequality, in spite of his socialistic rhetoric. Notwithstanding his Nobel Peace Prize, military spending is at all-time highs and we are engaged in actual and proxy wars across the Middle East and in the Ukraine. Race relations have never been worse. Poverty levels have never been worse. Real median household income is lower than it was in 1989. Real hourly wages are at 50 year lows. Home ownership has plunged to 50 year lows, as middle class workers have been kicked out of their homes and young people are saddled with so much student loan debt and bleak job opportunities they will never have an opportunity to own. The ownership society pushed by Clinton and Bush, with the proliferation of Wall Street created “exotic” subprime mortgages, peddled to people incapable of paying their mortgages, blew up the world in 2008, and the fall out will last for decades.

Meanwhile, Wall Street banks have reaped $700 billion of ill-gotten profits since 2010 as the Federal Reserve has handed them trillions of interest free funds to gamble with, while rigging the financial markets, and paying their executives obscene bonuses. The hubris and arrogance of the Wall Street titans is appalling, as they buy politicians, write toothless financial regulations (Dodd Frank) for their bought off politicians to pass, report fraudulent financial results with the stamp of approval from the FASB, blatantly rig interest rate, currency, stock and commodities markets, and use deception and propaganda to distract and mislead the public through their corporate media mouthpieces – dependent upon Wall Street advertising revenue to thrive.

Continue reading “FOURTH TURNING: CRISIS OF TRUST – PART 2”

PREPARE THE GUILLOTINE

These are the guys who used your money to save their Wall Street cronies. They don’t give a fuck about you. They’re your owners. They know it and you know it. They have made billions fucking over America. And they laugh at you and your trivial lives. They are masters of the universe. A time will come when their gated communities with security guards will not matter.

Sandberg: “Yeah, so let’s follow up on a bunch of the things we were [talking about]. Let’s start with income inequality.”

Paulson: “Ok, well.. income inequality. I think this is something we’ve all thought about. You know I was working on that topic when I was still at Goldman Sachs..”

Rubin: “In which direction? You were working on increasing it.”

Paulson then bursts out laughing: “Yeah! We were making it wider!”

Well you are my accuser, now look in my face
Your opression reeks of your greed and disgrace
So one man has and another has not
How can you love what it is you have got
When you took it all from the weak hands of the poor?
Liars and thieves you know not what is in store

There will come a time I will look in your eye
You will pray to the God that you always denied
The I’ll go out back and I’ll get my gun
I’ll say, “You haven’t met me, I am the only son”

Seal my heart and brake my pride
I’ve nowhere to stand and now nowhere to hide
Align my heart, my body, my mind
To face what I’ve done and do my time

 


CITIGROUP IS ATTEMPTING TO CREATE ‘CITICOIN’ TO KEEP UP WITH BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY

Time again to make fun of the big banks like you made fun of that kid in school whose mom bought them corduroy pants. So, in the latest Bitcoin news the “Too Big To Fail” banks are trying to adopt Bitcoin anything to attract customers because they’ve gotten some bad PR in the past. Except they’re also “Too Big To Evolve” with new technology. The only thing corporate banks are good at creating is technological redundancies considering crypto-currencies are special because they are the only form of money specifically created for the internet. Companies that are focused on internet commerce can see a bright future with Bitcoin but the dinosaurs should probably take a seat on the bench and wait for the asteroid.

 

https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTrOOCNq5oSOBkZ6KAi6QEzOUBawf8ebY_Y2s4LMb0bngELa6H6sA

 

Guest Post By Alexandre Beaudry

A few months ago Goldman Sachs jumped into the Bitcoin market by investing in the Bitcoin startup Circle that is creating a dual currency wallet for users to seamlessly transition their Bitcoins into fiat currencies. This was a game changing move from a traditional bank but it has left other big players to fend for themselves as the bank industry adapts to crypto-currencies and new technology.

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Judge Dismisses Charges Against Sergey Aleynikov

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In a victory for open source software and more importantly, for common sense, a judge has thrown out the charges against Sergey Aleynikov, the ex-Goldmanite of Flash Boys fame who was tragically thrown in front of a kangaroo court after ‘stealing’ some open source code on his way out the door at 200 Wall.

  • FLASH BOYS’ PROGRAMMER IN GOLDMAN THEFT HAS CHARGES TOSSED OUT

As a reminder, the ‘theft’ was essentially inconsequential and amounted to what Michael Lewis likened to the programmer equivalent of someone taking their notebook with them after their last day on the job.

Nevertheless, Aleynikov was arrested and tried by a court that hadn’t the faintest conception of HFT or of programming in general.