Zephyr Global Report

I always love Saturdays as the Zionists are off worshiping their money, their penises, and their money god and the Gentiles have ‘free’ run of the country  between Sunset Friday and Sunset Saturday.

When I was single, Friday was always just another 12 hour day although maybe once a month, I would knock off at 5-00 to relax. But one thing I always did was my shopping well  after Sunset on Friday or early Saturday morning, simply as well no Hebrews. I used to sing to myself, ‘gentile day and smile at all the Gentiles , knowing the ‘ears’ and the ‘mouths’ of Israel were far away. Watch you will notice, Gentiles are much happier on Friday evenings and Saturday. We come alive as the Vampires go underground for their money occult rituals and to curse us for the coming  week. I think our happiness and goodwill and kindness towards each other only infuriates them more. Kill the Jew with Kindness. Kill the Jew in them by loving your fellow American including them. The Jew can’t stand real love.

Japan, once someone asked me, who was Japanese ,  what I liked best about Japan, and I said,, ‘well no Jews  and  Wa’ , or the spirit of togetherness or brotherly love the Japanese have for each other.

All I ever experienced in the USA city of brotherly love was a bunch of foul rude, and vulgar Hebrews. They settled there to run the rum/slave and cotton trade. Almost as many Hebrews in Philly as in NYC and Las Vegas or Beverly Hills, although Beverly Hills has some nice Jews. I can’t say that about Philly.

Even Larry Ellison says he likes Japan the best but he cant put his finger on it. Easy Larry, none of your Hebrew kin live there and as a result the gentiles have ‘wa’ in Japan.

The first Hebrew traders to visit Japan, well the Japanese were pretty astute and confined them to an island and gave them prostitutes until the next ship came through and kicked them out and told them to never come back which eventually got an English gun boat sent there along with American gunships to open up Japan to the Anglo-Jewish traders.

The first Hebrews came strolling into Japan like he owned the place and the Jew found himself clasped in Irons and confined to  guarded Island where they could not infect the population and break the ‘wa’ of the Japanese people. The Japanese are noone’s  fools.

In Japan it is a great, great disgrace to work for Goldman Sachs. Their employees kill themselves all the time over the shame, something Goldman does not like known about their Japanese employees. In reality if you’re Japanese and work for Goldman Sachs it is your job to keep the Japanese government informed of what greasy Goldman Sachs is up to. No one in Japan trusts Goldman Sachs, they have no real customers only spies.

I had a great day dealing with my people the great Christian gentiles. You can see why God so loves people when you see all these bright eyed gentiles and such good Christians. Who are the Jews and the English to think they have the right to murder these people?

I had a great day and was down at the Italian owned farm supply place, where all the girls are Italian and wear beautiful summer smocks that cling to their bodies in the summer heat. Their hair is up in very feminine fashion, and  their smiles are sublime and they radiate a beauty that comes from their faith in God and warm Italian culture and their complexion are perfect as  they eat from the Italian farms in the area and not the Hebrew’s swill. Its a bit of drive down there, as I simply cant deal with the Anglo -Hebrew run establishments as crazy people selling Dow GMO seed work there.

What wonderful people the real Italians , not the Sephardi Sluts like Penelope Cruz, Carla Bruni or John Travolta or Lady Gaga,. Actually lady Gaga is  a descendant from an ancient Samaritan tribe of Italian Jews, who are considered to be the most satanic of all the tribes of Hebrews with the exception of the Lithuanians Jews who are at the ‘top’ of the satanic Hebrew pecking order. This is knowledge the Gentile is not allowed to know and is considered to be too stupid to observe. The Lithuanians Jews’ Rabbis are considered to be the high priests of Satan upon this planet.

If you’re a real Christian and you have the misfortune of running into one of these Lithuanians Jews you will never forget it as they are so animated by Satan they will have a hard time restraining themselves from attacking you or spitting upon you and cursing you. The devil is strong in the Lithuanian Jew and they cant stand the spirit of Christ upon this earth. Probably the most dangerous tribe on the face of the planet that would give the English-Jews a run for their money even.

Still I managed to ruin my day by stopping in at the Homosexual depot, where I hoped to pick up a made in the USA electrical wiring fixture as it was on the way home.

Now while never a ‘cable’ designer perse, I took quite a few course in graduate school where I learned  the theory of cable or wire, waveguide, etc design at a very mathematical and theoretical level and learned to design things like SWR meters, and TDR, and of course cable and how to model this stuff using s-parameter, tensor equations etc .It is not terribly difficult but you do have to have a facility for tensor calculus and such. Tensor calculus is the ‘non-trivial’ form of Calculus.

Now cable is extraordinarily important but typically it is given to let us say not the best graduate engineers. But one time I found myself head of design and in charge of a very large cable design and manufacturing group that it was my job to turn around among my many other jobs. I suppose at that point only the Car makers and Boeing designed and made more cable than I did. So I know the cable /electrical wiring industry quite well and whipped that division around in no  time at all.

Well all the Homosexual Depot had was one Jew firm;s  connector and a bunch of made in China. The Jew firm was in Florida (where else) and while a rip off on the price, I simply did not have time to make my own fixture and at leas the Jew made his parts in the USA.  So I grabbed it as I knew of the firm and they made  parts that were ‘okay’. Now walking out to the car, I gave it good look over and immediately saw where I had been Jewed and that this fixture was not really UL compliant, and could tell they had used the wrong type of epoxy seal that would eventually leak as it was not truly waterproof but just highly water resistant. So I took it back and sure enough while rummaging around, I found a box with connectors with the right type of expoxy. Now this fixture is rated for use in water, so it is very important for it to be designed right and manufactured right.Homosexual depot probably got a deal on some parts meant for the third world or the factory mismarked them. Anyways I took a closer look at the fixture and notice it was ‘designed’ in the USA, but manufactured in British Honduras of all places, which I thought was still better than a made in China part. Anyways I got my Swiss Army Knife out and opened up the fixture and sure enough it was a really poor fault detector design and fault detector. The fixture should not have been sold in the USA, so I did not mind opening it up and ‘ruining’ it and it was the last one out in the open boxes.  And I thought, what a choice, parts made in the still Crown Colony of Honduras by the Jew using sweatshop labor that was dangerous or ones made in China parts at firms probably a owned by Chinese Jews or English people. But I thought I would  go check the warranty on this very expensive part, it was around 50 dollars. Sure enough the warranty was only 1 year. Ha. Ha. Typically you get a 10 year or life warranty on a part like this if you pay 50 dollars. So I went back and found a very good designed in the USA, but made in China part that was only 16 dollars. The quality of the material was very good and design but manufacture was just acceptable but at least this usa firm gave a lifetime warranty on the part and I thought it not likely to cause a fire or a massive ground fault.

Anyways I went home and looked up what happened to this firms florida manufacturing, and  sure enough the Jew had sold his company to his royal Anglosaxon Kin a Coleman, and  Yetman, another Royal Anglosaxon ran thenew  firm and the Royal WASP had fired all the Florida workers and moved the manufacturing to British Honduras just a year ago. So I was not Jewed in the traditional sense of the word as supposedly the Royal Anglosaxon are a better class of Jews than the regular Florida Jew. I sure did not see it.

There are good made in the USA fixtures like this, but you have to  go to the ends of the earth to get them made in the USA and I just needed one and fast.

The Homo Depot equation is, the English Royals or their Kin the Jew always win and you get screwed when it not made in the USA. And the English royals work hard at it.

I did homosexual depot a favor by opening that sealed connector as there is no way someone should use that in a water environment. The people a Homosexual depot would be too uneducated to know.

All the Hardware stores seem to be in on the ‘made in china’ scam as the profit is so large for them even the local stores.

Well thanks to the Chinese workers at least they built that one fixture to the specification so I could get home although you could tell their heart was not in the work.

What a complex world, how can we blame the common man for the problems the Jews create with their international schemes of finance and global trade and global government?

I suppose one person in 10 million could look at the fixture and see what was wrong with it. I may have saved someones life by destroying that connector. Thank goodness for Swiss Army knives. The Swiss probably even outsource those to China these days they are so slimy and Rothschilds controlled.

I did get a new buck Bowie knife while at the farm store. Still made in the USA. It is really not a knife at all but a work of American art and science. There is coming a day I fear when real Americans will be fixing our bayonets and mine will be a Buck!!

One by one the English crown is picking off American firms and destroying them and as often or not it is a Yetman, an English Royal as it is a Weiss destroying the American people and pirating us.

Boycott not made in the USA or Canada or Europe Good and tell Homosexual Depot and Lowes you’re tired of the scams to endanger you and your property and kin for the sake of profit and the Crown!

Not to create any hysteria, but if you live in the USA/Canada/Mexico, you should work on having your food storage, home defense, and preparations complete in the next the 90 days. The PTB, may hold off crashing the dollar until after the election but Obama may do it before as he looks set to lose.

The minimum I suggest is having at least 10- five gallon , food grade buckets filled with rice, beats, oatmeal, etc and use Mylar bags and desiccants as was shown in  the video I posted. At the very least as we are in a very high inflation environment if you seal the food right, you can use it as cost increase. Buy brown rice.

Bilderberg is coming up and this one is going to be held in the USA, so likely the decision will be made there to push for Martial law in the USA, so Obama can loot your personal wealth to pay off the FED and other global loan sharks for England’s forever wars.

Maybe the criminals at the USAF should consider buying the 1/10 of the cost F22 clone that can actually stay airborne. I would sort of like, in a hypothetical way to see the British-Israel gang launch a war with Iran as we would see F22 falling from the sky like blackbirds during a golf ball hail storm and the biggest military defeat in history of the world.

The USA military is criminal and evil and incompetent and for the safety of the world, it should be badly humiliated and defeated. There has never been in the history of the world such a vile, and filthy military and one so disrespectful of natural law and morality, to say nothing of the USA constitution, and there has never been a military so conceited and incapable and so war like in the history of the world.

I think of the USA military as a 1 trillion dollar a year parasite that has gotten so big and viscous the host is dying. I’m not speaking about the economic refugees hanging out there but the West Point/Annapolis/Colorado Springs Crime gang that lives in the Pentgram in Washington DC and all the firms like Martin-Lockheed, Raytheon, etc.

We have the G8 meeting today and tomorrow. Austerity has not failed, the bloated social welfare state of Europe, supported by a massive defense and technology subsidy by American taxpayers has failed. European Credit cards are maxed out and I doubt the Germans will allow their pockets to be picked directly. Merkel got her message. That said the ECB/FED are likely to do the big print to float the EU if Greeks get the heave-ho which is looking more likely every day.

Moodys last night hit the Spanish banks. All of London was trading off of that material information yesterday as I noted. Clearly there is no place as lawless as London although Bibi and Barak give Cameron and King a run for their money. The English people are pure excrement, as they all know in England what a land of pirates and inside traders and criminals they are, and they all feast off sucking the life out of the USA, China and Europe with their market machinations. I have nothing good to say about the English people who are throwing festive parties for the war criminal and drug dealing Windsor family while they give the world the big middle finger for being to stupid to figure out who the English are and what their goals are to rule the world and put a Rothschilds on the throne. I guess the Lord is good the the English to allow them their life of ease in this life as they are a damned people along with their first cousins, the Christ killers.

I suspect regardless of what the Greeks do they will be shoved out of the EMU. There is no will to continue to play their games anymore. The Greeks are a massive parasite, like the USA military,  leeching the life out of Northern Europe. They are not Italy or Spain with massive production capability, agricultural, and engineering and manufacturing talent. The Greeks only value is their beachfront property which I hope they lose as they are such a wicked people, and oil transit route and oil.  The Greeks rather think they are clever snookering so many people to buy their debt which they hid off book for so long. If ever there were people that deserved their chains of usury it is the Greeks.

Americans are not much better except Americans love to work, that is if the illuminati had not shipped all their jobs to China and India. Now America has a permanent underclass of 25 pc of the population,  and an illegal immigrant class that turns to prescription drugs, paid for by you and me, and illegal drug use, pulling the rest of the nation down with. After the Chinese failed to stop the English Opium running, they came up with a solution I rather like for the USA at this point as the situation is so dire, give everyone sixty days to get off the drug, then execute everyone who continues to take Opium. The communist did this and thus ended the English Opium trade. And trust me before China did that they tried ‘legalizing’ Opium and driving the cost so low the English would give up and they did not, largely as England uses drugs to enslave and conqueror a nation. That is why Heroin is flooding into the USA, Germany, Iran and Russia. There is hardly any in England.

We as a country would do well to execute our drug addicts as they are destroying the country and we have to pick up the welfare tabs for their life on the couch mainlining heroin or oxycontin. No one would like to see Rush Limbaugh executed for his drug addiction, lawfully executed of course, more than me. I would attend that execution and cheer! Americans lack of character is shocking to me. Of course if the MI6/Mossad/CIA were not running the drugs and doing it ‘lawfully’ thanks to Edwin Meese we could execute those people lawfully for running heroin for the Rothschilds/Windsors and Rockefellers.

I see one of the illuminati  sock puppets, the Sephardic Hebrew pretty boy John Travolata is melting down no longer being young enough to find the homosexual boys he so lusts after. No doubt he bent over many a casting couch of a the hollywoood crowd to get where he got so quickly. Guilt over XO his son it looks like. Ultimately this is the end of all illuminati. Sheer madness and self destruction. No one deserves it more than the foul pig John Travolta for corrupting so many young children with his ‘hip to be stupid and vulgar and profane’ act. His end is exactly like Elivs’ Presley’s end it appears.

Ex the golden line I did not have anything in the water today. I figured an equity short would not do well as the Facebook IPO was today and they market would be pushed up for that as that a firm the English Crown and Rothschilds and Rockefeller are heavily invested in  ,which is why JS ‘touts’ it. Facebook is sort of part of this great mass delusion that the Lord is going to give people over to for being so wicked. Here you give up your valuable life story for data mining and political codification and to be used to potentially exterminate you and your family and you get nothing for that.Truly people are delusional if they use Facebook or buy their shares, although no doubt they will be run.

In gold we had more short covering as talk of more easing emerged from the EU politico-bankster crowd. SVM had a bang up quarter. GS/JPM are refusing to really cover their naked shorts in shares.

Big things are afoot the people that hate the American people with a deep, deep passion are meeting in Washington with the illegal English immigrant.

Damn you English, and damn your lies if you won’t repent. May you reap the destruction you sow in our country. May the heavens fall upon you perverse and wicked people and may you all drown in the Irish sea if you won’t repent along with your wicked kin of your witchcraft, piracy, wars, drug running and lies and continual wars upon the American people and free people of the world.

Take Care

Hewlett-Packard Said to Consider Cutting Up to 25,000 Jobs

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-17/hewlett-packard-said-to-consider-cutting-as-many-as-25-000-jobs.html

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said turmoil in the financial markets caused by Europe’s debt crisis may last another two years, as Group of Eight leaders prepared to discuss Greece and its impact on the global economy.

More than 2 1/2 years after Greece revealed its bloated budget deficit, Europe has “known a lot of crisis,” Schaeuble said in a recorded interview broadcast today on France’s Europe 1 radio. “It’s practically normal.” Even so, “in 12 to 24 months we’ll see a calming of financial markets,” he said.

t the same time, German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government has a duty to voters to prepare for a potential Greek exit, Finance Ministry spokeswoman Silke Bruns said. “People have the right to expect the government to make preparations for all eventualities,” Bruns said at a regular government press briefing in Berlin today.

Merkel and fellow European leaders face pressure from their G-8 counterparts to do more to quell the crisis after almost $4 trillion was wiped from global equity markets this month amid speculation that Greece will exit the euro. The U.S., which hosts the G-8 summit starting today, faces economic challenges from the “damaging” situation in Europe, Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner said yesterday.

European stocks headed for their biggest weekly decline since November and the euro touched a four-month low amid investor concern that the crisis is worsening.

Video Call

Europe’s G-8 chiefs — Merkel, French President Francois Hollande, Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti and U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron, plus EU leaders Herman Van Rompuy and Jose Barroso — held a video call on the crisis yesterday and agreed that fiscal rigor and economic growth are mutually compatible, Merkel’s office said.

“During the G-8, it’s very important to see that the Europeans form a common position as quickly as possible,” Schaeuble said in the radio interview. “In recent years we haven’t been quick enough” at doing that.

Cameron called for more to be done “to persuade euro-zone countries to take really decisive action” to deal with the problems rather than “kicking the can down the road,” he told ITV television today. The U.K. is not part of the 17-nation euro area.

‘False Promises’

Geithner, in a speech in Baltimore, highlighted the debate in Europe over encouraging growth, as demanded by Hollande, and the need to consolidate budgets and reduce debt insisted upon by Merkel. Merkel and Hollande said two days ago at their first meeting that they would consider measures to spur growth in Greece as long as voters there committed to the austerity demanded to remain in the currency region.

“We want Greece to stay in the euro,” Schaeuble said. “But that presupposes that Greece does on its side what is necessary to develop its economy.” Policy makers are open to “every suggestion targeting more growth,” he said. “It’s up to the Greek politicians to explain reality, not make false promises.”

European officials are working on contingency plans to deal with a possible Greek exit, European Union Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht told the Belgian newspaper De Standaard in an interview published today.

“A year and a half ago, there might have been the danger of a domino effect, but today there are both within the European Central Bank and the European Commission officials who are working on the emergency scenarios in case Greece doesn’t make it,” De Gucht was quoted as saying by the newspaper.

Greek Downgrade

Greek political leaders began campaigning today for the June 17 election, the second vote in six weeks, after a rise in support for anti-austerity parties scuppered the formation of a government. Greece’s credit rating was downgraded one level by Fitch Ratings late yesterday on concerns the country won’t be able to muster the political support needed to sustain its membership in the euro area.

“An exit would require two conditions: for a Greek government to reject the terms of the EU/IMF program and for the rest of the region to take a hard line in any renegotiation process,” David Mackie, chief European economist at JPMorgan Chase & Co, said in a note. “Recent developments suggest that both of these conditions may now be falling into place.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-18/g-8-meets-as-schaeuble-says-markets-face-two-years-of-turmoil.html

EU, ECB working on Greece exit contingency: trade commissioner

Reuters) – The European Commission and the European Central Bank are working on scenarios in case Greece has to leave the euro zone, EU trade commissioner Karel De Gucht has said.

Speculation about such planning has been rife, but the comments in a newspaper interview, confirmed by a person close to De Gucht, appear to be the first time an EU official has acknowledged the existence of contingency plans being drawn up in case Greece has to drop out of the currency bloc.

“A year and a half ago there maybe was a risk of a domino effect,” De Gucht told Belgium’s Dutch-language newspaper De Standaard, referring to the threat of Greece leaving the euro.

“But today there are in the European Central Bank, as well as in the Commission, services working on emergency scenarios if Greece shouldn’t make it.”

He added: “A Greek exit does not mean the end of the euro, as some claim.”

The source close to De Gucht said the commissioner was explaining that EU institutions had not been sitting on their hands for the past two years, and that they were now better prepared than they had been.

Concern has grown that Greece may decide to leave or be forced out of the 17-country currency bloc after a rise in popular opposition to an EU-IMF program of fiscal austerity and structural reforms undermined attempts to form a government after May 6 elections.

Greeks are scheduled to go the polls again on June 17. A victory by the far-left, anti-bailout coalition SYRIZA – which some opinion polls suggest is likely – would increase the possibility of the country leaving the euro.

However, one opinion poll on Thursday showed the pro-bailout New Democracy party in first place, several points ahead of the SYRIZA, which has pledged to tear up the bailout agreement.

The prospect of SYRIZA winning the election has sent the euro and markets across the continent tumbling this week.

Earlier this week, the country’s president said Greeks had withdrawn up to 800 million euros ($1 billion) from banks as the political uncertainty deepened.

In a further blow, the European Central Bank said it had halted liquidity operations with some Greek banks because their capital was too depleted.

De Gucht told De Standaard he thought Greece would stay inside the euro zone, but that the crucial question until the next election was what conditions the ECB would set for guaranteeing the liquidity of Greek banks.

“The endgame has begun, and how it will finish I do not know,” he said. “The question is can everyone maintain their sangfroid over the coming weeks.”

Asked earlier this week about any contingency planning for a Greek exit, the spokeswoman for the European Commission replied:

“There are many, many questions arising and many questions open about Greece and most answers have to come from Greece and we have to respect the ongoing political process.

“Clearly, the future of Greece is in the euro zone. We are working on that.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/18/us-eurozone-greece-degucht-idUSBRE84H0AR20120518

China Home Prices, Car Inventory Add to Signs of Slowing

China’s home prices fell in a record number of cities last month and car dealers posted inventory levels that foreshadowed deeper price cuts, adding to signs of slowing growth in the world’s second-largest economy.

Prices of new homes fell from a year earlier in 46 of the 70 cities tracked by the National Bureau of Statistics, the agency said today. Dealerships for Honda Motor Co., Chery Automobile Co., BYD Co. (1211) and Geely Automobile Holdings Ltd. had more than 45 days of inventory at the end of last month, according to an official from the government-backed China Automobile Dealers Association.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. today joined banks including Citigroup Inc. and UBS AG in lowering its estimate for China’s second-quarter growth after weaker-than-forecast economic data released last week. The nation’s expansion may drop to a 13-year low this year, a Bloomberg News survey this week showed, as Europe’s debt crisis crimps exports and a campaign to rein in property speculation curbs domestic demand.

“There is no doubt that the level of activity growth in April is significantly below the government’s comfort zone,” Goldman economists Song Yu and Michael Buchanan wrote in a report distributed today. “It is clear that there is a consensus within the government that policy should be loosened further.”

China cut banks’ reserve requirements by 50 basis points for the third time in six months on May 12 to spur lending. Analysts forecast a further 100 basis-point reduction over the rest of the year, according to the Bloomberg survey.

Yuan Drop

China’s benchmark Shanghai Composite Index fell 1.2 percent as of 1:17 p.m. local time. The one-year swap rate, the fixed cost to receive the seven-day repurchase rate, fell 37 basis points this week, poised for the biggest drop since November. The yuan was headed for its largest one-week drop since January.

Goldman Sachs lowered its estimate for second-quarter growth to 7.9 percent from 8.5 percent and cut its full-year forecast to 8.1 percent from 8.6 percent.

Authorities should consider cutting benchmark lending rates to alleviate funding costs and anchor inflation expectations, economists led by Fan Jianping wrote in the China Securities Journal today. The researchers, from the government’s State Information Center, estimate economic growth may drop to 7.5 percent this quarter.

The eastern city of Wenzhou led declines in new-home prices last month with a 12.3 percent drop from a year earlier, according to statistics bureau data. Prices in Beijing fell 1 percent and in Shanghai slid 1.3 percent.

Maintaining Curbs

A housing ministry official said the country will steadfastly continue curbs on the residential real-estate market and won’t flip-flop on its policies, the Shanghai Securities News reported yesterday. The comments followed a pledge by China’s State Council, or Cabinet, last month to stick with existing property controls implemented over the past two years that have included higher down-payment requirements and restrictions on the number of homes families can buy.

“The general price trend as a result of developers cutting prices and regulatory environment is continuing this month,” Chris Brooke, chief executive officer for China at CBRE Group Inc., a commercial real-estate services company, said in a Bloomberg Television interview from Beijing. “The objective is to remove the speculative element from the market.”

Car dealers have cut prices this year to spur sales after the government repealed tax incentives introduced in 2009 to counter the effects of the global financial crisis. A monthly survey of 36 major Chinese cities by the National Development and Reform Commission showed average car prices fell 1.9 percent in April from a year earlier, a fourth straight decline this year.

‘Fiercer’ Competition

“Competition will get fiercer,” said Huang Wenlong, a Hong Kong-based analyst with BOC International Holdings Ltd. “China’s auto demand will definitely slow down with the decline of the economic growth rate.”

Price cuts may deepen as inventories of unsold cars increase to levels that industry officials including Su Hui say are unsustainable.

“Unsold cars are crowding dealer lots in cities from Guangzhou in the south to Xi’an to the west,” Su, vice president of the auto market division at the automobile dealers association, said in a phone interview yesterday from Beijing. “It’s like a contagious disease that will spread.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-18/china-home-prices-car-inventory-add-to-signs-of-slowing.html

China Home Prices Fall in More than 50 pc of Cities Tracked -Ouch!

China’s home prices fell in a record 46 of 70 cities tracked by the government in April from a year earlier as officials pledged to keep restrictions on property purchases that have sapped buyer demand.

The eastern city of Wenzhou led declines with a 12.3 percent slump in values from a year earlier, while Beijing dropped 1 percent and Shanghai prices declined 1.3 percent, according to data released by the statistics bureau today…

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-18/china-home-prices-fall-in-more-than-half-cities-tracked.html

Bloody Meg Whitman to Cut 25,000 jobs as She Proves Incompetent

Hp is jettisoning a lot of its r*d into commercial and business projects to focus on ‘total information’ and government spy networks and software and AI. This woman is the bitch from England and England. Rothschilds revenge for not allowing his Anglo-Zionist kin to loot California. Evil witch!!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/electronics/9273531/Hewlett-Packard-may-cut-25000-jobs.html

Britain colder than Arctic and Antarctic with just two weeks until summer

Quick, someone tell Al to start gabbing more about Global warming, England needs warming badl!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/topics/weather/9272469/Britain-colder-than-Arctic-and-Antarctic-with-just-two-weeks-until-summer.html

English Tart News Faker  Calls French Women Predators…

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/9271471/Samantha-Brick-French-women-are-hostile-and-predatory-adulterers.html

Global banks see market rally on Greek exit

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis/9273209/Global-banks-see-market-rally-on-Greek-exit.html

City of London Crime Gang Moodys Hits Spanish Banks for Zionist Fun and Profit!!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/9273435/Euro-crisis-ensnares-Spain.html

Royal Hebrew Dimon Summoned to Anglo-Hebrew Senate

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/may/17/senate-jp-morgan-jamie-dimon

Royal Anglo-Zionist @….s!!!

Duke and Duchess of Cambridge to join the Queen in jubilee flotilla. May the Heavens rain fire and brimstone upon this entire pagan nation and their Satanic Crown. Down with the English. Down with their crown!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/may/17/duke-duchess-cambridge-queen-jubilee

Obama was born in Kenya and raised in Indonesia and Hawaii’: President’s OWN literary agency  promotional booklet from 1991 claims he WAS born in Africa

John Travolta ‘tried to perform oral sex act on Grease co-star Jeff Conaway as he was sleeping’

The horny Sephardi are in the news tonight!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2145792/John-Travolta-tried-perform-oral-sex-act-Grease-star-Jeff-Conaway-sleeping.html

France Wonders, Who Carla Bruni has Not Screwed

Those Sephardi girls are very horny. The Arabs used to tell me they would sneak out to cheat on their husband all time and slipped into the West Banks as their men were so queer. I saw no reason to doubt the veracity of the Arabs in this regard.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2145689/Carla-Brunis-embarrassment-claimed-passionate-relationship-Frances-new-foreign-minister.html

Lots going on in the markets tonight, but it can wait until tomorrow. At least for me as I closed my trades out for the week. The Lord willing I will post it all tomorrow.

‘Travyon High on Pot Night of Shooting. Zionist Zimmeran on Hebrew Shrink Drugs

Pot makes virtually everyone into a pacifist. Zimmerman’s Hebrew Shrink sure did not help him, eh..

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2146070/Trayvon-Martin-killing-Teenager-drugs-autopsy-finds.html

 ”Participation in Emu brings huge advantages. The benefits of joining a stable economic area are greatest for countries that were unable to deliver such conditions before. Thanks to the euro, Greece has enjoyed long-term interest rates at a record low. But instead of delivering on its commitment at the time of entry to reduce public debt levels, the country has wasted potential savings in a spending frenzy. The crisis with which it is now confronted is not the result of an “external shock” such as an earthquake, but the result of bad policies pursued over many years. Bailing out Greece would reward such behavior and create moral hazard of a dimension hardly seen before.”

Otmar Issing

Former Bundesbank, ECB leader, Professor of Economics

I’m traveling today, so I have to be brief.

Otmar Issing brings up what seems to be missing from every pundits commentary on the Greek situation, the crass immorality and moral hazard of letting the Greek people off the hook. They have already been gifted with $100k for every man, woman , child and probably every goat in Greece. This is not Ireland or Iceland where the people were Zogged and are having to bailout the English banks and their criminality. The Greeks have a lavish and wealthy lifestyle and refuse to work or develop their resources. When the Germans gave them money to grow more wine grapes and to export them to Germany, the Greeks did nothing with it but spend it on goodness knows what-Ouzo? Greece as nation needs to repent of its theft and lies and laziness. I take a hardline with Zorba the Greek. They should be pushed out of the EMU and be the pariahs of Europe at least until they hand over their 50 BOE to someone competent to develop it for them like XOM, CVX, or Total, etc.

In gold we saw massive short covering as lousy USE data rolled in and the FEDs’ minutes were parsed from their last meeting and whispers of QE3 again emerged. Clearly Bernanke set the gold bugs up for a massive bailout of JPM  and HSBC short of silver and gold position. Nick Hollande of GFI provided a very good commentary on the gold markets. I was late yesterday posting the Rolling Stone article on Goldman Sachs naked shorting , that should be a must read. Forward that article  to your senator and congress person and ask them why JPM and Goldman sachs always get away with what appears to be criminal and reckless behavior. Demand glass-steagall back.

In the equity markets after putting out the ZGR yesterday before the close , something told me to put on a large short position, largely as I expected the English to continue to cause chaos in the markets and bad USE to roll in from Philly and the Jobs report. I closed that short position out at noon largely to get this report out.Markets are ticking back up as I type.

In the global news arena that moved markets-

Spain like Greece is having its own mini bank runs. In Greece they are limiting withdrawals to something like 50 dollars a day. The English traders good to their collusive, trading word ran the CDS on Spanish sovereigns and their auction was horrid today. Moodys leaked out to London they were going to whack the Spanish banks which emboldened the English CDS trader. Moodys, what and Anglo-Zionist criminal outfit. Max Keiser call them financial terrorists. Not be ‘chance’ are the bond rating desks in London and run by English thugs.

As the ZGR predicted JPM positions are not easily unwound and are said to potentially increase their exposure to a 5 billion dollar loss should credit markets move against. We highlighted the ‘tribe’ feeding on its ‘master’. Dimon is evil, despotic, a liar, and a major moral hazard. The very evil Mitt Romney came to his defense today and said, ‘don’t you think about Glass-Steagall’. No doubt JPMs losses were cut by the CB gift of gold loans. The ‘whale’ this mysterious Ashkenazi that drifted in from Russia to London looks set to head back to Paris and is going to be canned as soon as his ‘walk on water’ trade is to be unwound. Why do so, so many Ashkenazi think they are Jesus Christ and the Lord’s gift to the world. Since reliable sources have put his trade in the trillion dollar range of notional value on the CDS contracts he sold, JPM losses are probably far larger than they put on, and since they were writing the contracts not as a hedge as they state but as a raw speculation, who would have sold them the opposite position to hedge since they were the market maker in that index.

This is too funny. Guess which one of the two Hebrews is running Europe?

Tiny evil Hebrews are everywhere running the globe, but no ‘conspiracy’ right, just pure ‘coincidence’ after all they are ”chosen” by their strange Talmudic god and so much more talented than we lowly human cattle, aka Gentiles.

One of the most vile and filthy and satanic men in the world David Cameron was out beating his chest and saying how great England was and how fiscally responsible as the world’s largest derivative bubble rolls on along with another made rush up in London home prices that is probably only matched by the bubble in UST in its insanity.I listened for a bit then shut him down. I never could listen to more than 1o minutes of Bush or Obama, with Cameron it is about 3 minutes as the lies are so fast and furious.

I updated the flashlight recommendations today, largely as I was in super-rush and linked to solar charger that was no good, so I put up the one I purchased. Plus Maglite which were all my prior flashlights prior to this upgrade has recently released some modern 2 generation LED technology that was not available  six months ago. So I went and purchased one and included it. Most all of the ‘value’ and cost of these flashlights is the CREE LED which is made in the USA. Maglite apparently is going to get its ‘maglite’ brand flashlights made in the USA. Too bad they were so late in adopting high quality LED technology. The need to have C/D batteries is simply not there anymore except for specialized situations.

Sorry for the typos, but I’m out of time.

JPMorgan’s future losses at the mercy of an obscure index

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/17/us-jpmorgan-losses-idUSBRE84G06T20120517

Euro Strains Overshadow Obama Hosting G-8, NATO Meetings

Europe’s financial crisis and its political fallout are shaping back-to-back international summits hosted by President Barack Obama on the global economy and military cooperation, including funding for postwar Afghanistan.

Leaders in the Group of Eight — with the notable exception of Russian President Vladimir Putin — convene tomorrow and May 19 at Camp David, Maryland, near Washington. Then, most will fly to Chicago, Obama’s hometown, for a North Atlantic Treaty Organization meeting.

Both are venues for Obama, who is seeking re-election in November, to show U.S. audiences he is playing a leadership role on foreign policy. Still, Obama may have little say over how allies address the euro region crisis, including proposals to revive debt-ridden Greece’s economy at the same time its political system is in turmoil over an austerity plan.

The G-8 “is a euro-crisis summit — it will be dominated by the crisis,” said Heather Conley, director of the Europe Program for the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington policy institute.

Before Camp David, Obama, will sit down privately at the White House with France’s new President Francois Hollande, who may help Obama press Europe for more growth-focused policies and may complicate Obama’s case for continued European commitments in Afghanistan.

Hollande, who campaigned as a “normal” guy, defeated incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy on May 6 in a campaign in which he called for a balance between stimulus measures and austerity. He also called for pulling French forces from Afghanistan a year earlier than the U.S. was counting on.

Merkel Meeting

Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel met this week before traveling to the U.S. and said they would consider measures to promote economic growth in Greece if Greeks commit to austerity requirements they are under in order to stay in the euro.

White House press secretary Jay Carney said yesterday that “we have been saying for some time now that growth has to be a factor in Europe.”

Carney said while “we’re not prescribing actions” for Europe, Obama favors “a balanced approach that includes austerity, dealing with fiscal challenges as well as the need to grow the economy.”

The G-8 discussions are expected to cover how to deal with Greece’s fiscal and political crisis and bailout; African food security programs; economic growth in the U.S., China and Japan; trade, energy and climate change; and collective approaches toward regimes in Syria, Iran and North Korea.

Greek Elections

The G-8 includes the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Germany, France, Italy, Japan and Russia. The European Union also has two seats. This is the first G-8 for Hollande, Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti and Japan’s Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda.

Greece moved this week to call new elections for next month, after political gridlock left the nation without a government since inconclusive May 6 elections. The country is on its second bailout from the European Union.

Putin, inaugurated earlier this month, is skipping the G-8, sending Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev in his place. Putin is at odds with the U.S. on issues ranging from missile defense to the approach toward Syria and Iran.

Fiscal woes also are casting a shadow over NATO funding. The European alliance’s modernization is at risk as well as commitments that individual countries will make to continue training and assistance programs to Afghan forces after 2014, when the Western-led alliance forces plan to depart.

Hollande’s Promise

Hollande’s approach to the NATO summit will determine whether France remains aligned with the U.S. on “major strategic issues,” such as Afghanistan, said R. Nicholas Burns, former undersecretary of state for political affairs during the George W. Bush administration, who co-authored an Atlantic Council report on the future of NATO.

Hollande may find himself under pressure from the U.S. and other NATO allies not to pull French troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2012, as he promised during the campaign.

France now has 3,308 troops in Afghanistan, according to information provided by the International Security Assistance Force on its website.

At the summit in Chicago, NATO leaders are to review plans to give full responsibility for security to Afghan forces by the end of 2014, and also discuss and define the future role of the alliance and its partners in that country.

Withdrawal From Afghanistan

Financing the stand-alone Afghan force has taken on greater urgency as Western allies head for the exit after more than a decade of warfare, the longest combat operation in NATO’s history.

Afghan soldiers and police officers totaled about 337,000 in mid-March and are scheduled to reach 352,000 this year. The coalition has agreed with Afghan leaders to begin paring the force after 2014 to about 230,000.

Maintaining those numbers of Afghan security forces would cost about $4 billion, with the U.S. seeking $1.3 billion from allies and with the Afghanistan government contributing about $500 million annually, Assistant Secretary of State Philip Gordon told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on May 10.

Over the past month, since defense and foreign ministers met at NATO headquarters in Brussels in preparation for the summit, several countries have announced financial pledges for Afghan security forces, including Britain with 70 million pounds ($112 million) and Germany with $190 million a year.

In the past year, NATO nations have begun reducing their military budgets, including the U.S. which is slated to cut $487 billion over the next ten years, said Burns, who is a board director at the Atlantic Council and a professor at Harvard University.

The U.S. military may face another $500 billion in cuts if Congress and the White House do not agree by the end of this year on other ways to reduce the budget deficit.

“The cohesion of the Atlantic community is under strain from economic crisis, political paralysis and the emergence of new global powers in Asia,” Burns said in the Atlantic Council’s report.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-17/euro-strains-overshadow-obama-hosting-g-8-nato-meetings.html

Dental Abuse Seen Driven by Private Equity Investments

Wall Street ruins everything they touch, after all these people claim to be ‘the destroyers’. Anglo-Zionist thugs and thieves is more like it!

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-17/dental-abuse-seen-driven-by-private-equity-investments.html

London Whale’ Said to Be Leaving JPMorgan

The $2 billion trading loss at JPMorgan Chase has claimed another victim.

Bruno Iksil, the so-called London Whale at the center of the trading debacle, is expected to leave the bank, according to current and former colleagues. The timing of the departure is unclear.

Mr. Iksil gained notoriety last month after reports that he built up outsize positions that distorted prices in an obscure corner of the credit markets. The holdings proved disastrous for the bank. Last week, JPMorgan disclosed $2 billion in trading losses, and indicated that the final cost could be much higher. Jamie Dimon, the bank’s chief executive, called the wounds “self-inflicted.”

His expected departure follows the resignation Monday of Ina Drew, the 55-year-old banker who oversaw the chief investment office, where Mr. Iksil worked. Achilles Macris, a top JPMorgan official in London and a senior London trader, Javier Martin-Artajo, are also expected to leave.

Although a spokeswoman for the bank said Mr. Iksil is still employed, he is no longer trading on behalf on the bank and is expected to be gone by the end of the year, according to people with knowledge of the situation.

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/05/16/london-whale-said-to-leave-jpmorgan/?partner=rss&emc=rss

S&P 500 Falls 5th Day Amid Disappointing Economic Data

U.S. stocks fell a fifth day, sending the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index toward the lowest closing level since January, amid weaker-than-estimated economic data and as Moody’s Investors Service is said to downgrade Spanish banks.

Six out of 10 groups in the S&P 500 declined as manufacturing in the Philadelphia region unexpectedly shrank and an index of U.S. leading indicators retreated. Caterpillar Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped at least 2.6 percent to pace losses among the biggest companies. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT), the largest retailer, rallied 5.3 percent as profit beat estimates.

The S&P 500 retreated 0.2 percent to 1,321.69 at 11:10 a.m. New York time, falling 2.7 percent in five days. The Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 28.27 points, or 0.2 percent, to 12,570.28 today. Trading in S&P 500 companies was 15 percent above the 30-day average at this time of day.

“It’s a double whammy,” James Paulsen, the chief investment strategist at Minneapolis-based Wells Capital Management, said in a telephone interview. His firm oversees about $333 billion of assets. “Not only do we have continued scary European news, we’ve got weak economic data in the U.S. today. We’re going to bounce around for a while.”

Stocks fell as data indicated the pace of economic expansion may cool, adding to concern about a worsening of Europe’s crisis. Moody’s is set to downgrade the credit ratings of Spanish banks later today, said two people with knowledge of the situation. A Moody’s spokeswoman in London declined to comment in a phone interview.

Biggest Losses

Consumer discretionary and industrial shares had the biggest losses in the S&P 500 among 10 industries. Caterpillar sank 3.3 percent, the most in the Dow, to $88.79. JPMorgan (JPM) retreated 2.6 percent to $34.55. Home Depot Inc. (HD) declined 2.1 percent to $47.74.

American International Group Inc. (AIG) dropped 2.4 percent to $29.74 after the Federal Reserve Bank of New York postponed the sale of assets acquired in the company’s rescue.

Limited Brands Inc. (LTD) retreated 2 percent to $47.01. The owner of the Victoria’s Secret lingerie chain forecast earnings for the second quarter and full year that trailed analysts’ estimates.

A measure of homebuilders in S&P indexes slumped 2.7 percent as 10 of its 11 stocks fell. KB Home (KBH) decreased 4.7 percent to $7.33. Lennar Corp. (LEN) dropped 3.5 percent to $28.24.

Wal-Mart Stores rallied 5.3 percent to $62.32. At a time when bribery probes in Mexico threaten growth in Wal-Mart’s international operations, Chief Executive Officer Mike Duke is trying to boost U.S. sales by adding items back to shelves and honoring the promise of everyday low prices.

Sears Rally

Sears Holdings Corp. (SHLD) gained 8.4 percent to $55.15. The retailer controlled by hedge fund manager Edward Lampert reported first-quarter net income of $189 million after selling stores and said it would partially spin off its Canadian operations.

Agilent Technologies Inc. (A) rose 1.6 percent to $40.40. The maker of scientific-testing equipment agreed to buy Dako, a Danish maker of cancer-diagnostics tools, for $2.2 billion in cash to expand its life-science business.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) and funds managed by the firm will sell about $1 billion of stock in Facebook Inc. (FB)’s initial public offering, cashing out almost half their stake after the social network doubled in value.

The investment bank and its funds will sell 28.7 million of the 65.9 million shares they own, more than twice the amount initially planned, Menlo Park, California-based Facebook said yesterday in a filing. The shares are being offered in a range of $34 to $38 apiece, meaning the stock being sold in this week’s IPO is valued between $975 million and $1.09 billion.

$104 Billion

The IPO, the largest by a technology company, would value Facebook at $104 billion at the top of the range. That’s more than double the $50 billion value at which Goldman Sachs offered $1 billion of stock to non-U.S. clients in January 2011. The firm and the Goldman Sachs Investment Partners hedge fund run by Raanan A. Agus bought $450 million of Facebook stock.

A long-term peak in the S&P 500 is developing as the gauge diverges from other equity measures, meaning stocks are likely to decline next year, according to RBC Capital Markets.

While the S&P 500 surpassed its 2011 peak last month, other stock measures including the Russell 2000 Index (RTY) of small U.S. companies and the MSCI Emerging Markets Index (MXEF) failed to reach last year’s levels, sending a warning sign, according to a May 15 report from RBC’s Robert Sluymer.

Market Tops

“The MSCI and Russell didn’t confirm the S&P’s new cycle highs,” Sluymer, a technical analyst at RBC in New York, said during a phone interview yesterday. “These are the types of divergences you start to get as market tops develop.”

At the same time, the index may rebound in the next few weeks after reaching its “support band” of 1,300 to 1,330, Sluymer said in the May 15 report. The S&P 500 fell 6.6 percent between April 2 and yesterday, when it closed at 1,324.80.

Cyclical companies are showing no signs of a reversal even though they appear “oversold,” Sluymer said. Caterpillar Inc. (CAT) and Joy Global Inc. (JOY) are two examples of economic-sensitive companies that have shown no evidence of bottoming, he said.

“We’re working through a much bigger top here,” he said in the interview. “We’re already seeing the market rotating away from cyclical leadership towards defensive themes.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-17/u-s-stock-futures-rise-before-jobs-manufacturing-data.html

Military Detention Law Blocked by New York Judge

Opponents of a U.S. law they claim may subject them to indefinite military detention for activities including news reporting and political activism persuaded a federal judge to temporarily block the measure.

U.S. District Judge Katherine Forrest in Manhattan yesterday ruled in favor of a group of writers and activists who sued President Barack Obama, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and the Defense Department, claiming a provision of the National Defense Authorization Act, signed into law Dec. 31, puts them in fear that they could be arrested and held by U.S. armed forces.

The complaint was filed Jan. 13 by a group including former New York Times reporter Christopher Hedges. The plaintiffs contend a section of the law allows for detention of citizens and permanent residents taken into custody in the U.S. on “suspicion of providing substantial support” to people engaged in hostilities against the U.S., such as al-Qaeda.

“The statute at issue places the public at undue risk of having their speech chilled for the purported protection from al-Qaeda, the Taliban, and ‘associated forces’ – i.e., ‘foreign terrorist organizations,’” Forrest said in an opinion yesterday. “The vagueness of Section 1021 does not allow the average citizen, or even the government itself, to understand with the type of definiteness to which our citizens are entitled, or what conduct comes within its scope.”..

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-16/military-detention-law-blocked-by-new-york-judge.html

JPMorgan’s Trading Loss Is Said to Rise at Least 50%

The trading losses suffered by JPMorgan Chase have surged in recent days, surpassing the bank’s initial $2 billion estimate by at least $1 billion, according to people with knowledge of the losses.

When Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan’s chief executive, announced the losses last Thursday, he indicated they could double within the next few quarters. But that process has been compressed into four trading days as hedge funds and other investors take advantage of JPMorgan’s distress, fueling faster deterioration in the underlying credit market positions held by the bank.

A spokeswoman for the bank declined to comment, although Mr. Dimon has said the total paper trading losses will be volatile depending on day-to-day market fluctuations.

The Federal Reserve is examining the scope of the growing losses and the original bet, along with whether JPMorgan’s chief investment office took risks that were inappropriate for a federally insured depository institution, according to several people with knowledge of the examination. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation is still under way.

The overall health of the bank remains strong, even with the additional losses, and JPMorgan has been able to increase its stock dividend faster than its rivals because of stronger earnings and a more solid capital buffer.

Still, the huge trading losses rocked Wall Street and reignited the debate over how tightly giant financial institutions should be regulated. Bank analysts say that while the bank’s stability is not threatened, if the losses continue to mount, the outlook for the bank’s dividend will grow uncertain.

The bank’s leadership has discussed the impact of the losses on future earnings, although a dividend cut remains highly unlikely for now. In March, the company raised the quarterly dividend by 5 cents, to 30 cents, which will cost the bank about $190 million more this quarter.

A spokeswoman for the bank said a dividend cut has not been discussed internally.

At the bank’s annual meeting in Tampa, Fla., on Tuesday, Mr. Dimon did not definitively rule out cutting the dividend, although he said that he “hoped” it would not be cut.

John Lackey, a shareholder from Richmond, Va., who attended the meeting precisely to ask about the dividend, was not reassured. “That wasn’t a very clear answer,” he said of Mr. Dimon’s response. “I expect that shareholders are going to suffer because of this.”

Analysts expect the bank to earn $4 billion in the second quarter, factoring in the original estimated loss of $2 billion. Even if the additional trading losses were to double, the bank could still earn a profit of $2 billion.

And many analysts and investors remain optimistic about the bank’s long-term prospects.

Glenn Schorr, a widely followed analyst with Nomura, reiterated on Wednesday his buy rating on JPMorgan shares, which are down more than 10 percent since the trading loss became public last week.

What’s more, the chief investment office earned more than $5 billion in the last three years, which leaves it ahead over all, even given the added red ink.

But the underlying problem is that while these sharp swings are expected at a big hedge fund, they should not be occurring at a bank whose deposits are government-backed and which has access to ultralow cost capital from the Federal Reserve, experts said.

“JPMorgan Chase has a big hedge fund inside a commercial bank,” said Mark Williams, a professor of finance at Boston University, who also served as a Federal Reserve bank examiner. “They should be taking in deposits and making loans, not taking large speculative bets.”

Not long after Mr. Dimon’s announcement of a dividend increase in March, the notorious bet by JPMorgan’s chief investment office began to fall apart.

Traders at the unit’s London desk and elsewhere are now frantically trying to defuse the huge bet that was built up over years, but started generating erratic returns in late March. After a brief pause, the losses began to mount again in late April, prompting Mr. Dimon’s announcement on May 10.

Beginning on Friday, the same trends that had been causing the losses for six weeks accelerated, since traders on the opposite side of the bet knew the bank was under pressure to unwind the losing trade and could not double down in any way.

Another issue is that the trader who executed the complex wager, Bruno Iksil, is no longer on the trading desk. Nicknamed the London Whale, Mr. Iksil had a firm grasp on the trade — knowledge that is hard to replace, even though his anticipated departure is seen as sign of the bank’s taking responsibility for the debacle.

“They were caught short,” said one experienced credit trader who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the situation is still fluid. The market player, who does not stand to gain from JPMorgan’s losses and is not involved in the trade, added, “this is a very hard trade to get out of because it’s so big.”

He estimated that the initial loss of just over $2 billion was caused by a move of a quarter percentage point, or 25 basis points, on a portfolio with a notional value of $150 billion to $200 billion — in other words, the total value of the contracts traded, not JPMorgan’s exposure. In the four trading days since Mr. Dimon’s disclosure, the market has moved at least 15 to 20 basis points more against JPMorgan, he said.

The overall losses are not directly proportional to the move in basis points because of the complexity of the trade. Many of the positions are highly illiquid, making them difficult to value for regulators and the bank itself.

In its simplest form, traders said, the complex position assembled by the bank included a bullish bet on an index of investment-grade corporate debt, later paired with a bearish bet on high-yield securities, achieved by selling insurance contracts known as credit-default swaps.

A big move in the interest rate spread between the investment grade securities and risk-free government bonds in recent months hurt the first part of the bet, and was not offset by equally large moves in the price of the insurance on the high yield bonds.

As the credit yield curve steepened, the losses piled up on the corporate grade index, overwhelming gains elsewhere on the trades. Making matters worse, there was a mismatch between the expiration of different instruments within the trade, increasing losses.

The additional losses represent a worsening of what is already the most embarrassing misstep for JPMorgan since Mr. Dimon became chief executive in 2005. No one has blamed Mr. Dimon for the trade, which was under the oversight of the head of the chief investment office, Ina Drew, but he has repeatedly apologized, calling it “stupid” and “sloppy.”

Ms. Drew resigned Monday and more departures are anticipated.

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/05/16/jpmorgans-trading-loss-is-said-to-rise-at-least-50/?ref=business

Fed Minutes Reflect Wariness About Recovery’s Strength

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303360504577408320289444822.html?mod=rss_whats_news_us

Jobless Claims in U.S. Were Unchanged at 370,000 Last Week

More Americans than forecast filed applications for unemployment benefits last week, a sign the labor market is making little progress.

Jobless claims were unchanged at 370,000 in the week ended May 12, Labor Department figures showed today in Washington. The median forecast of 48 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News called for a drop in claims to 365,000. The number of people on unemployment benefit rolls rose, while those receiving extended payments decreased.

The claims figures, reflecting dismissals, may raise concern payrolls will fail to pick up after employers in April added the fewest number of jobs in six months. The lack of a sustained rebound in hiring damps the outlook for consumer spending, which accounts for about 70 percent of the world’s largest economy.

“This is just a steady moving along, claims are not getting worse at least,” said Yelena Shulyatyeva, a U.S. economist at BNP Paribas in New York, who correctly projected the number of claims. “We need to see more hiring. We don’t see that happening yet.”

Stock-index futures were little changed after the report. The contract on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index maturing in June was at 1,322.6 at 8:47 a.m. in New York, up less than 0.1 percent, depressed by a report that Moody’s Investors Service will downgrade Spanish banks intensified concern that Europe’s debt crisis is worsening…

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-17/jobless-claims-in-u-s-were-unchanged-at-370-000-last-week.html

Several on FOMC Said Easing May Be Needed on Faltering

The Federal Reserve signaled further monetary easing remains an option to protect the U.S. economy from the danger that lawmakers will fail to reach agreement on the budget or Europe’s debt woes worsen.

Several members of the Federal Open Market Committee said new actions could be necessary if the economy loses momentum or “downside risks to the forecast became great enough,” according to minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee’s April meeting released yesterday in Washington.

U.S. stocks declined yesterday as reports the European Central Bank will stop lending to some Greek banks overshadowed stronger-than-forecast data on U.S. housing and manufacturing. A focus on threats to the U.S. economy gives officials more scope to ease policy, said Michael Hanson, senior U.S. economist at Bank of America Corp. in New York.

“If you have very clear and potentially large downside risks, like the fiscal cliff and Europe’s debt crisis, you are going to have a little more of an easing bias in place,” said Hanson, who formerly worked in the Fed’s monetary affairs division.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index (SPX) fell 0.4 percent to 1,324.80, the lowest since February. Treasury notes erased losses, leaving the yield on the 10-year Treasury note little changed at 1.76 percent.

A fiscal tightening caused by a failure of U.S. lawmakers to agree on a budget could damage the economy even before cuts take effect as an unclear outcome prompts businesses to defer investment and hiring decisions, the minutes said.

Bernanke Warning

Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke warned a group of senators last week that the expiration of fiscal policies at the end of the year may push the U.S. into recession, according to lawmakers who attended the meeting.

Fed governor Elizabeth Duke told a gathering of Realtors May 15 that the combined impact of the changes could amount to about 4 percent of the country’s economy.

Programs scheduled to end include tax cuts enacted under President George W. Bush, a payroll-tax holiday and extended unemployment benefits. In addition, budget cuts are set to take effect in January of 2013 as part of a deal last year in Congress to raise the U.S. statutory borrowing limit.

Central bankers last month affirmed their plan to hold interest rates near zero at least through late 2014 as they sought to push down an unemployment rate that has stayed above 8 percent for more than three years.

Rate Guidance

Fed policy makers discussed the conditions for any change in the 2014 horizon for low rates. The minutes cited a lack of confidence in their forecasts as one reason to leave the guidance unchanged.

“Some members recalled that gains in employment strengthened in early 2010 and again in early 2011 only to diminish as those years progressed,” the minutes said. “Moreover, the uncertain effects of the unusually mild winter weather were cited as making it harder to discern the underlying trend in the economic data.”

St. Louis Fed President James Bullard told reporters yesterday that there is “good logic” to putting policy “on hold” for an indefinite period of time.

“Until we get a clear difference in the economic outlook” with an acceleration or slowdown, there is no need to change course, Bullard said in Louisville, Kentucky.

Yesterday’s minutes summarized a meeting before the Labor Department report on May 4 showed U.S. employers added 115,000 jobs in April, the least in six months. The unemployment rate fell to 8.1 percent, the lowest since January 2009, as people left the labor force.

Jobless Claims

More recent data has allayed concern the job market is cooling. First time claims for unemployment benefits declined to a one-month low of 367,000 in the period ended May 5, Labor Department data showed last week. The Labor Department may report today that claims fell by another 2,000 last week, according to a Bloomberg News survey of economists.

The Fed said at its April meeting that the central bank would continue its swap of $400 billion of short-term debt with long-term debt to lengthen the average maturity of its holdings and help lower the interest rate on Treasuries, a move dubbed Operation Twist. The Fed is scheduled to complete the program at the end of June.

The central bank said in forecasts released with its April statement that it expects unemployment to fall to 7.8 percent to 8.0 percent by the final three months of this year. Gross domestic product is likely to rise by 2.4 percent to 2.9 percent this year, according to the so-called central tendency estimates that exclude the highest and lowest forecasts.

Growth Cools

Economic growth slowed to a 2.2 percent annual rate in the first quarter of this year from 3 percent in the final three months of 2011.

A stabilization of housing, the industry at the heart of the financial crisis, may provide a boost to the economy.

Builders broke ground on more homes than anticipated in April, Commerce Department data showed yesterday. Housing starts rose 2.6 percent to a 717,000 annual rate. A Fed report yesterday showed industrial production rose 1.1 percent in in April, propelled by gains in auto manufacturing and utility use.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-17/several-on-fomc-said-easing-may-be-needed-on-faltering.html

Coffee May Help Drinkers Live Longer, U.S. Study Suggests

Yes!

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-16/coffee-may-help-drinkers-live-longer-u-s-study-suggests.html

China Slowdown to End in Third Quarter, Survey Shows

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-16/china-slowdown-to-end-in-third-quarter-survey-shows.html

Soros and Gang Stirring up Riots and Trying to Crash Rouble/Russian Markets

China consumers less willing to spend in first quarter: Nielsen

(Reuters) – China’s consumers are cooling towards discretionary spending, preferring to salt money into savings or education for their children, according to a Nielsen survey of Chinese consumer confidence published on Thursday.

Although Nielsen found that Chinese consumer confidence rose in the first three months of 2012 to its highest since 2005, making China the world’s fourth most optimistic nation, willingness to spend remained flat.

Savings and education were the only areas in which survey respondents were more willing to allocate additional cash.

Willingness to spend on clothes, food, entertainment and holidays all dropped compared with the previous quarter, although higher than the first quarter of last year.

Recently released official data for April also showed a slowdown in China’s retail sales growth to 14.1 percent, the lowest in 14 months and well below economists’ expectations, hit by a prolonged credit crunch in the property sector and flagging demand from export markets.

Nielsen’s previous quarterly survey had found that Chinese consumers expected inflation to continue to stabilize in 2012.

Inflation in April eased to 3.4 percent year on year, from a three-year peak of 6.5 percent in July 2011, according to government data.

The latest Nielsen survey showed consumer confidence rose the most in rural areas where remittances from migrant workers are helping to boost spending power.

By contrast, confidence in China’s wealthiest cities, provincial centers and county seats remained flat. Only the second-tier cities – which generally include the regional economic centers – saw an uptick in confidence.

Urban consumers’ outlook for China’s overall economic state was either flat or down compared with the previous quarter. Only among rural consumers did the outlook tick up.

Nielsen, which provides data on consumers’ spending and viewing habits worldwide, surveyed 3,500 Chinese people from a range of backgrounds.

Sales of quick-turnover consumer goods such as food and personal care and hygiene products are rising at a faster rate in rural areas, Nielsen found, as incomes rise and local markets stock more goods.

But rural consumers only spend an average of 418 yuan ($66.16) a month on discretionary items, often during day trips to larger towns with shops and markets, compared with average monthly spending of 1,617 yuan a month by urban consumers.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/17/us-china-economy-survey-idUSBRE84G05H20120517?feedType=RSS&feedName=businessNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+reuters/businessNews+%28News+/+US+/+Business+News%29&utm_content=Google+Re

Spain beset by bank crisis, recession, bond pressure

(Reuters) – Spain’s borrowing costs shot up at a bond auction on Thursday, after economic data confirmed the country is back in recession and reports of an outflow of deposits from nationalized Bankia hammered its share price.

The Spanish Treasury had to pay around 5 percent to attract buyers of three- and four-year bonds. The longer-dated paper sold with a yield of 5.106 percent, way above the 3.374 percent the last time it was auctioned.

“This … fits the pattern of recent sales, with the Spanish treasury successfully getting its supply away but at ever-higher yields,” said Richard McGuire, rate strategist at Rabobank in London.

“This unfavorable trend looks set to remain firmly in place … Ultimately, this ratcheting up of yields will likely require some form of outside intervention,” McGuire said.

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said on Wednesday his government, struggling to reduce its budget deficit, could soon find it difficult to fund itself affordably on the bond market unless the pressure eases.

His finance minister, Cristobal Montoro, meets heads of finance of all 17 regions later to review their budget plans which are a crucial plank of the drive to lower public debt.

The European Commission warned last week that stubbornly high debts in the regions and the welfare system would prevent Spain meeting its deficit goal of 5.3 percent of GDP this year.

Spain’s 10-year yields have spiked back above 6 percent, which investors view as a pivot point that could accelerate a climb to 7 percent, a cost of borrowing widely seen as unsustainable even though Madrid has sold well over half its debt needs for the year.

WORRY LIST

Top of the heavily indebted country’s worry list is a banking sector beset by bad loans, the result of a property boom that bust in spectacular fashion.

El Mundo newspaper reported that customers at troubled Bankia SA had taken out more than 1 billion euros ($1.3 billion), equivalent to around 1 percent of the lender’s retail and corporate deposits, over the past week.

The government denied there had been an exit of funds, but the bank’s shares dropped more than 20 percent at one stage, extending the previous session’s loss after it delayed publishing fourth-quarter results.

“It’s not true that there is an exit of deposits at this moment from Bankia,” said Economy Secretary Fernando Jimenez Latorre.

The government last week took over Bankia, the country’s fourth-largest lender which holds around 10 percent of Spanish deposits, in an attempt to dispel concerns over its ability to deal with losses related to the 2008 property crash.

“The majority of outflows came after the chairman resigned last week, but I think once the bank was taken over by the government, depositors calmed down a bit,” said one Madrid-based trader. “The share price fall has to do with disappointed retail investors dumping the stock.”

Spain’s deposit guarantee fund guarantees 100,000 euros per customer.

“I have two accounts with Bankia and up to now I have not closed them. I’m not even considering it,” said Jose Ignacio Gonzalez, 42. “It must be more secure with the backing of the state, it has a guarantee.”

The problem for Madrid is that property losses facing banks are not yet quantifiable, given prices are likely to fall further.

The government told the sector last week to set aside another 30 billion euros in provisions, prompting some analysts to say much more would need to be done.

A government spokeswoman said the bidding to select an external auditor to value real estate assets across the banking sector was still open, denying Oliver Wyman and BlackRock had been chosen as sources previously told Reuters.

RECESSION AND CONTAGION

While Greece, facing fresh elections which could hasten its exit from the euro zone, has dominated headlines, uncertainty over the final cost of Spain’s banking reform has raised the prospect that it could require an expensive international bailout, a bill the euro zone would be stretched to cover.

Stuart Gulliver, head of Europe’s biggest bank HSBC, reflected on his biggest external concerns.

“It’s absolutely how the euro zone plays out and whether Greece stays in, and/or whether firewalls are high enough to protect Spain and frankly whether markets take things into their own hands before (Greek elections on) June 17,” he said.

Official data confirmed the Spanish economy shrank by 0.3 percent in the first quarter, putting it back into recession and facing a prolonged downturn as the government cuts spending in an attempt to wrestle down its budget deficit.

Unemployment is already running close to 25 percent, rising to around 50 percent among the young.

The government will publicize budget plans from 17 powerful autonomous regions later on Thursday, possibly rejecting some of them if they do not make deep enough spending cuts and giving local officials 10 to 15 days to redo them.

If the regional budgets are not approved by the end of the month, the central government can invoke a new law and take control of spending. The regions must cut 15 billion euros out of their budgets, after their overspending last year caused Spain to miss its deficit reduction target badly.

Even if it puts its house in order, Madrid faces the threat of contagion from Greece if it elects an anti-bailout government next month, a move which could hasten a hard default and exit from the euro zone.

“It’s not Greece leaving the euro that is the major issue,” said John Bearman, chief investment officer at Thomas Miller Investment, which manages roughly 3 billion pounds ($4.8 billion) of assets. “It’s the domino effect.”

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/17/us-spain-economy-idUSBRE84G0CK20120517

ECB Stops Loans to Some Greek Banks as Draghi Talks Exit

The European Central Bank said it will temporarily stop lending to some Greek banks to limit its risk as President Mario Draghi signaled the ECB won’t compromise on key principles to keep Greece in the euro area.

The Frankfurt-based ECB said yesterday it will push the responsibility for lending to some Greek financial institutions onto the Greek central bank until they have sufficiently boosted their capital. “Once the recapitalization process is finalized, and we expect this to be finalized soon, the banks will regain access to standard Eurosystem refinancing operations,” the ECB said in an emailed statement.

The move comes after Draghi acknowledged for the first time that Greece could leave the monetary union. While the bank’s “strong preference” is that Greece stays in the 17-nation euro area, the ECB will continue to preserve “the integrity of our balance sheet,” he said in a speech in Frankfurt yesterday.

“A Greek exit was seen as an absurdity up to now,” said Thomas Costerg, an economist at Standard Chartered Bank in London. “It is gradually becoming the main scenario. The ECB is prioritizing its balance sheet over monetary-union geography.”

Greece faces a fresh election on June 17 that may boost parties opposed to the conditions of its international bailouts, raising the specter of its exit.

stocks Drop

European stocks dropped for a fourth day today, to their lowest level this year, amid growing concern Greece will be forced to quit the euro. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index (SXXP) fell 0.4 percent to 243.52 as of 9:21 a.m. in London. The gauge has dropped about 3.3 percent this week. The euro was unchanged at $1.27, having dropped almost 4 percent this month.

A 130 billion-euro ($165 billion) bailout earlier this year provided a 50 billion-euro fund to recapitalize Greek banks after they reported losses from the country’s debt restructuring, the largest ever. Greece’s four biggest banks are waiting for European Union approval to receive 18 billion euros of bonds issued by the European Financial Stability Facility for their recapitalization, Imerisia reported yesterday, without saying how it got the information.

Emergency Support

The ECB can only lend to sound banks and therefore won’t allow undercapitalized institutions to access its refinancing operations, a euro-area official said on condition of anonymity.

“Pending the recapitalization of Greek banks that are severely undercapitalized as a result of the” debt restructuring, some “have been moved to Emergency Liquidity Assistance,” said ECB said.

The so-called ELA is emergency support national central banks can provide to lenders with ECB approval. The ECB “continues to support Greek banks,” it said.

The ECB is conducting a comprehensive review of all its policy tools and has no immediate plans to increase stimulus even as market tensions mount, two euro-area officials said.

The review, mandated by the central bank’s six-member Executive Board, intends to assess the effectiveness of its measures, including the bond-buying program and long-term refinancing operations, and is scheduled to be completed in June or July, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the deliberations are private.

A third official said the ECB may not consider taking any further policy action until July, and that the bank sees current market tensions as a way of focusing politicians’ minds on reform efforts. Bond yields in Spain and Italy have reached levels that last year pushed the ECB to restart its bond- purchase program.

A Greek exit could be “technically” managed yet would damage confidence in the monetary union, ECB council member Patrick Honohan said on May 12. A departure by Greece “is not necessarily fatal, but it is not attractive,” he said.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-16/ecb-stops-lending-to-some-banks-as-draghi-talks-exit-correct-.html

Japan Growth Pick-Up Clouded by Deepening European Risk

Japan’s economy expanded faster than estimated in the first quarter, boosted by reconstruction spending that’s poised to fade just as a worsening in Europe’s crisis threatens to curtail export demand.

Gross domestic product rose an annualized 4.1 percent from the final three months of 2011, exceeding all but seven of 27 estimates in a Bloomberg News survey of economists, a Cabinet Office report showed today in Tokyo. Singapore also reported a rebound in growth last quarter, while warning about the risk of a disorderly European debt default…

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-16/japan-s-economy-grows-more-than-forecast-4-1-in-first-quarter.html

I am centering my emergency light strategy around candle lanterns , long life, low power LED flashlights based upon rechargeable AA technology and  a solar recharger. My LED flashlights center around the USA designed, leading CREE LEDs. Everyone seems to have gone to China to manufacture, even the once venerable maglites which don’t use the high quality, high output, lower power 100k hr life CREE LEDs. I linked to the wrong solar charger, so I had to fix that and included a Maglite, LED that is made in the USA that is a very good value.

Candle Lanterns

In candle lantern all climbers and backpackers are familiar with the UCO candle lanterns, and they are about 90 pc of the market. We all have spent many a long night with our UCO lanterns in the climbing community.

I have several of these micro-candle lanterns that burn inexpensive tea candles.The main advantage is the 2.5 cents per hr operation cost. You can get 125 tea candles that burn for 4.5 hrs each for 8-10 dollars.

http://www.amazon.com/UCO-B-LTN-STD-RED-Micro-Lantern-Red/dp/B004BR2B0U/ref=sr_1_sc_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1337229869&sr=8-1-spell

I have the larger UCO multicandle latern, which burn the 9 hour more expensive UCO candles although you can find the candles on sale sometimes.

http://www.amazon.com/UCO-Deluxe-Candlelier-Candle-Lantern/dp/B005DMPFG4/ref=sr_1_5?s=sporting-goods&ie=UTF8&qid=1337230125&sr=1-5

Don’t forget your waterproof matches, butane lighters and fire starters.

AA Batteries and Solar Charger

In LEDs flashlights I stuck with AA batteries, rechargeable although I have some 1650 style Lithium Ion batteries. I did some tests and Sanyo Eneloop Ni-Mh are by far the best value for the money in AA rechargeables.

http://www.amazon.com/Sanyo-eneloop-Pre-Charged-Rechargeable-Batteries/dp/B004RP2VNI/ref=sr_1_cc_3?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1337230340&sr=1-3-catcorr

Here is a low cost solar battery Charger you might want to consider. I consider it a must.

http://www.amazon.com/C-Crane-SBC-11-in-1-Battery-Charger/dp/B001BKS3Z2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1337273724&sr=8-1

LED Lantern

These are excellent Lantern/Flashlights that use AA. Designed in the USA, uses USA Cree led, but made in China. Quality was very good. Most of the cost of these units is the LED. So most of the money stays in the USA as CREE mfgs here.  I recommend you buy 2 these are such outstanding values.

http://www.amazon.com/Camp-Chef-Bright-Lantern-Flashlight/dp/B004S37HFG/ref=sr_1_cc_1?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1337230597&sr=1-1-catcorr

Headlamps

Headlamps are a must for people who need to work. And I consider a headlight to be a must for each family member. These are staggering in their power.

I purchased the following 3 headlamps which use the CREE LED, 3 generation, ultra low power consumption, high power output device.

This is suitable for light use, hiking and women and children. Single AA. CREE LED

http://www.amazon.com/14500-Focus-CREE-Headlamp-SS-05/dp/B004RR5RGY/ref=sr_1_12?s=sporting-goods&ie=UTF8&qid=1337231056&sr=1-12

This unit uses a Lithium-Ion 1650 battery but comes with charger. Works better than most $100+ lamps. CREE LED. This is for serious outside work.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0059HOJ5Q/ref=oh_details_o06_s01_i00

AA version. CREE Led. Good backup as cost is low.

http://www.amazon.com/LED-Headlamp-Headlight-Camping-8110/dp/B001GLUMIM/ref=sr_1_6?s=sporting-goods&ie=UTF8&qid=1337231613&sr=1-6

I have a made in the USA Climbing headlamp, led as well but it is too expensive to recommend.

General Flashlights

Maglite at last puts out a near state of the art LED flashlight. Typical outstanding Maglite, made in the USA, lifetime warranty. Nice Candle mode.

http://www.amazon.com/MAGLITE-SP2209H-2-AA-Flashlight-Holster/dp/B000IF6JMK/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1337274003&sr=1-1

This is a good value for the money, although made in china the quality was very good. Mine had a CREE LED. AA.

http://www.amazon.com/TerraLUX-TLF-3C2AAEX-LightStar220-Aluminum-Flashlight/dp/B001IMCU66/ref=sr_1_13?s=sporting-goods&ie=UTF8&qid=1337231768&sr=1-13

Low Cost , LED waterproof, uses 3 AA. Multiple LED used. One for each kid and wife. No CREE LEDs, but it is ‘okay’ and fairly bright and you can keep it in your boat, car, etc without worrying about thieves as its low cost.

http://www.amazon.com/Dorcy-41-2510-Carabineer-Waterproof-Flashlight/dp/B0039PV1QK/ref=sr_1_1?s=sporting-goods&ie=UTF8&qid=1337231943&sr=1-1

Mini  LED, CREE For Travel

http://www.amazon.com/Bonfire-Compact-UltraBright-Flashlight-Battery/dp/B006L7GPY6/ref=sr_1_3?s=sporting-goods&ie=UTF8&qid=1337232295&sr=1-3

US Army General Warns of Impending Fukushima Doom

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2012/5/prweb9498292.htm

“A Staggering Mess” as Tsunami Debris Hits Alaska Coast Early

http://thesunbreak.com/2012/04/30/a-staggering-mess-as-tsunami-debris-hits-alaska-coast-early

Music Industry’s ‘Demonic’ Edge Creeping into Gospel?

http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/us/2012/May/Music-Industrys-Demonic-Edge-Creeping-into-Gospel/

Physicists Succeed in Making ‘Impossible’ Gamma-Ray Lens

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/05/gamma-ray-lens/

Ireland’s Referendum- an Opportunity for Change

By John Perkins

May 16, 2012 “Information Clearing House” — On May 31 Ireland will put the EU’s new treaty for fiscal discipline to a referendum, giving Irish voters a chance to overturn this controversial agreement. The crisis in Ireland is symbolic of ones facing many European countries, as well as the United States, and is a direct outgrowth of policies implemented against developing countries when I was an economic hit man (EHM). The upcoming decision by Irish citizens is a harbinger for other countries around the world, as well as crucial to Ireland’s financial future.

If voters agree to sign this treaty for fiscal discipline, it will obligate Ireland to run low government deficits and maintain drastically reduced levels of public debt; in other words, the country will be forced to implement even stricter austerity measures on its already beleaguered citizens. It is important to remember that Dublin accepted international aid in 2010 in order to deal with a huge budget deficit brought on by the previous government’s pledge to bail out Irish banks for billions of dollars in bad loans. The Irish Government has been “asset stripping” –selling off public resources, including gas from the west coast, utilities, and forests in attempts to reduce the debt. This is an old tactic that was perfected by economic hit men in countries throughout Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East during the 1970s and 1980s. Many Irish are vehemently protesting such acts and are opposed to signing the EU treaty, declaring them a loss of sovereignty for a nation that fought a bloody battle for full independence less than a century ago.

The Awaken Ireland Movement is an example of an approach aimed at empowering the people to create a different future, bringing the people together in a community-based grassroots movement to share information on viable alternatives and to encourage conversations towards a vision for a better future. The challenge will be to base the movement on formulating realistic solutions at local levels in ways that respect differences and allow a voice for the many. Austerity measures are killing the European economy. Not surprisingly Goldman Sachs and other investment organizations are at the root of the problem; they are strategically staffing Europe’s government and the Central Bank with hard-hearted investment bankers more interested in the concerns of the financial sector than those of the people. These ex-European Commissioners and former central bankers are helping the banks gain access to those in power.

I’m looking forward to speaking in Ireland as they are on the verge of these crucial economic changes. From May 21-25 I will be teaching a course at Schumacher College in Devon http://www.schumachercollege.org.uk/courses/hoodwinked-what-wrecked-our-economy-and-how-to-fix-it . Followed by a brief speaking tour, “Financial Terrorism Exposed”, around the UK where I will be speaking in Dublin (May 27), Manchester (June 2), and London (June 3). For more information on this tour please visit www.economichitman.co.uk , or my website: http://www.johnperkins.org/?page_id=21 .

As Chief Economist at a major international consulting firm, John Perkins advised the World Bank, United Nations, IMF, U.S. Treasury Department, Fortune 500 corporations, and countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East. He worked directly with heads of state and CEOs of major companies. His books are published in over 30 languages. John’s Confessions of an Economic Hit Man (70 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list) is a startling exposé of international corruption

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article31348.htm

$1 billion ‘ghost town’ to be built in New Mexico

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/9254994/1-billion-ghost-town-to-be-built-in-New-Mexico.html

18 Headless Bodies in Mexico Tourist Area

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/18-headless-bodies-mexico-tourist-area/story?id=16320937#.T7R8nlKVu5c

Veterans For Peace Calls for an End to NATO

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article31347.htm

WHAT ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION COSTS YOU THE TAXPAYER

By Frosty Wooldridge
May 14, 2012
NewsWithViews.com

Each year, according to the Edwin Rubenstein report, illegal aliens cost American taxpayers $346 billion across 15 federal agencies. (Source: www.TheSocialContract.com) That includes breakfasts and lunches for their children. It includes English as a Second Language. It includes free education from K-12. It means free and unlimited medical care paid for by your wallet. It means you pay for insurance rates by unlicensed drivers and the list grows.

According to the Arizona Department of Motor Vehicles, an average of 57,000 cars are stolen annually. It is now the car-jacking capital of the world. Most are SUV’s and pickup trucks. At a conservative average of $20,000.00 per vehicle, owner losses exceeded $1.1 billion. Insurance companies in the state suffered incredible claims from policyholders.

Where did those vehicles go? Who stole them? Take a guess. Arizona is the home of 1,000,000 illegal aliens. Hopefully the Supreme Court supported S.B. 1070 to rid the state of alien migrants. They cost Arizona taxpayers over $1 billion annually in services for schools, medical care, welfare anchor babies, loss of tax base and prisons. Illegals use those vehicles for smuggling more people and drugs from around the world into our country. When the vehicles are recovered, they are smashed-up wrecks in the desert. If not found, they have new owners south of the border as thieves drive the cars through the desert and into Mexico as easily as you drive your kids to soccer practice.

The chilling costs of illegal migration reach like an octopus into every aspect of our lives. Illegal aliens displaced American workers at a cost in excess of $133 billion dollars according to Harvard Professor George Borjas. College and high school kids cannot find a summer job in yard care, landscape, fast food or service jobs. Why? Illegal aliens work them at a third the wage and often, under the table. Not only do your kids not have jobs; you’re paying taxes for illegal aliens who are not paying taxes.

Annually, 75 percent of drugs arrive from Mexico at a net cost of $75 billion hard currency that leaves our country for good. In addition, our tax dollars pay $80 billion for the War on Drugs each year. It is a war that hasn’t been won in the past 41 years and drugs are as available today to your teenager as they were in 1970.

When an alien criminal gets caught for rape, murder or drug distribution, you pay $1.6 billion annually in prison costs to house, feed and clothe those filling 29 percent of our federal and state prisons—not to mention TV, movies, weight rooms and other entertainment—they enjoy while being incarcerated.

How about illegal alien anchor babies? Over 350,000 women annually arrive pregnant and drop them on U.S. soil. You pay food, housing, medical and schooling for them to age 18 plus their mother. According to the Center for Immigration Studies,(www.cis.org) average annual cost per child K-12 is $7,161.00 and exceeds $109 billion annually per cycle of anchor babies. That’s your money given out to 350,000 moms and their kids annually and all they did was get pregnant and birth that child on U.S. soil.

If you haven’t had a heart attack by now, you’ll need Tums after this figure. The average head of household illegal alien costs you $2,700.00 in welfare money over and above any taxes he or she pays in their meager paying jobs. With 15 to 20 million illegal aliens in the USA, that figures exceeds $20 billion of your tax dollars. (Source: Center for Immigration Studies)

How about the $56 billion in pure cash illegal migrants sent to their home countries last year and every year? That’s after their kids enjoyed free education, free lunches and free medical care paid for by you. Mexico receives $24 billion annually from its worker drones.

The lifetime net fiscal drain—taxes paid minus services used—for an adult immigrant is $55,200.00 according to Carrying Capacity Network. Who makes that money up? You do! Your work! Your taxes!

With a minimum of 15 million illegal aliens in our country, these figures are the tip of the iceberg. Average bilingual education is $1,200.00 per illegal alien student. Get this! We educate 3.1 million illegal alien children each year. Do the math! Ready for another anvil dropped on your toe fact? You pay $27 billion to provide forms, ballots, interpreters and brochures for languages annually.

An estimated one-third to one-half illegal aliens work off the books. It costs $200 million to provide for emergency health care for illegal aliens in the Border States annually. California with over three million illegals paid $79 million, BUT four of their major LA hospitals bankrupted and shut their doors in 2004. Texas with 1.5 million illegal aliens paid $74 million in hospital care. Who is Texas? You, the taxpayer, that’s who! Because you, in your state, pay commensurate medical care according to your illegal alien population. Georgia ran a $63 million deficit for 64,000 unpaid doctor visits to their Grady Health Care system in 2002. In the same year, Georgia taxpayers paid $27 million for 11,188 anchor baby hospital births. Georgia taxpayers paid a whopping $242 million for educating illegal alien kids in 2003. What is it in your state?

What are the consequences? One in two adult African-Americans in New York is unemployed. African-American children’s poverty grew by 50 percent since 1999. Why? Their dads can’t find work.

It costs you, the taxpayer, $68 billion a year JUST to pay for the resettlement of legal immigrants.

Fellow Americans, we are $15 trillion in debt as of June 2012. This year’s budget deficit exceeds $1 trillion under Obama. Our trade deficit stands at $700 billion. Our consumer debt exceeds $2 trillion and our average credit card carries a $9,644.00 balance. (Source: Brian Williams, NBC) Our U.S. government borrows $1.6 billion daily from foreign banks, just to stay afloat. Have you ever heard of the Titanic? We are taking on heavy immigration numbers while we’re being financially bled to death. Are we in trouble or what?

Who brings this fiscal nightmare into America? Take a guess. The majority of your Congress! President Barack Obama!

You can count on your corporations devouring cheap labor as they send you to the unemployment lines. Additionally, they pay PAC groups to keep senators and congressmen in their back pocket. How do I know? Virtually zero companies in 2011 were taken to court for hiring illegal aliens. None went to jail. However, it’s a $10,000.00 fine per illegal alien hired and up to five years in prison. You would think that would deter corporations. Not when they’ve bought off enforcement!

Who else figures in this grand scheme? Your governors and mayors who provide sanctuary laws for illegal aliens!

As a final note, if you’re as sick of this nation-destroying dilemma as I am, join 1.1 million Americans at www.NumbersUSA.org. It’s called a ‘consciousness shift’ and it’s going to take every one of us. That means everything you do, COUNTS!

Wild Elephants Gather to Mourn Death of “Elephant Whisperer”

For 12 hours, two herds of wild South African elephants slowly made their way through the Zululand bush until they reached the house of late author Lawrence Anthony, the conservationist who saved their lives.

The formerly violent, rogue elephants, destined to be shot a few years ago as pests, were rescued and rehabilitated by Anthony, who had grown up in the bush and was known as the “Elephant Whisperer.”

For two days the herds loitered at Anthony’s rural compound on the vast Thula Thula game reserve in the South African KwaZulu – to say good-bye to the man they loved. But how did they know he had died March 7?

Known for his unique ability to calm traumatized elephants, Anthony had become a legend. He is the author of three books, Baghdad Ark, detailing his efforts to rescue the animals at Baghdad Zoo during the Iraqi war, the forthcoming The Last Rhinos, and his bestselling The Elephant Whisperer.

There are two elephant herds at Thula Thula. According to his son Dylan, both arrived at the Anthony family compound shortly after Anthony’s death.

“They had not visited the house for a year and a half and it must have taken them about 12 hours to make the journey,” Dylan is quoted in various local news accounts. “The first herd arrived on Sunday and the second herd, a day later. They all hung around for about two days before making their way back into the bush.”

Elephants have long been known to mourn their dead. In India, baby elephants often are raised with a boy who will be their lifelong “mahout.” The pair develop legendary bonds – and it is not uncommon for one to waste away without a will to live after the death of the other.

http://zen-haven.dk/wild-elephants-gather-inexplicably-to-mourn-death-of-elephant-whisperer/

America- A nation of Pigs

http://www.henrymakow.com/copsoutofcontrol.html

The cover on the London Spectator was too funny.

Not a lot going on today. So lets start with the USA. We had a spate of relatively good economic data come in this morning. The housing situation in reality will not change until Jobs are being generated by the USE, and that is a long way off although Obama-care dying on the vine might finally get that going. The recent surge from 3 to to 1.7 pc in UST 10 years means banks have to lend although Bernanke runs out of ‘official’ funds via TWIST in June to goose that market. The Fed has thrown the bull market rally in UST and created the feeding frenzy as people front run that. I have never seen a mania like this in UST and it is heavily crowded with retail investors and wall street, so I opened a long term short position via an ETF in USTs.

The recent surge in gasoline prices coupled with war weather means Americans must dump their old gas guzzlers and buy new cars and that has been where the USA ‘growth’ has been coming form in most part.

The USA is running on fumes as Obama and his communist UST-PPT  fiends pound on gold and pump the dollar despite no one ‘external ‘ really showing up in February ex the Chinese whom for all we know are selling USTs and buying this bottom in gold.

Rumors continue to swirl that Obama won’t leave power and London will give the order for him to blow up Washington DC and move the Capitol to Denver Colorado for the USA military rule. Around the time the Denver Airport (DIA) was being built the English royals made massive land purchases around Denver Colorado and Colorado is probably the most militarized state in the USA. Perhaps the NWO capital of the world, post the USA will be run from Denver with Prince Wills heading it all.

Obama is clearly an English psychopath and hosted the vile David Beckham at the Whitehouse and feted him for his sexy underwear ads, that the Pink President probably loves. Obama loves Becks  ‘tighty whiteys’ so to speak, ha, ha. Even the London Mail had an article that Obama was not the first Queer President pointing the finger at Buchanan, whom, while he may have had those feelings kept them to himself and in the closet. Always in the media you have the same themes, English, Israeli , London, Royalty, faggotry. Beckham is a Hebrew if or Anglo-Hebrew if you prefer if you don’t know that. How desperate is Michelle Obama to keep Barak out of David’s Tighty whiteys? She spends $50k on ‘sexy’ lingerie on nearly every shopping trip abroad. This is as Americans starve. Clearly the vile habit of Sodomy is like picking your nose a hard one to break. Americans and the entire world should know what freaks our Anglo-Zionist over lords are.

The media continues to pit black against white. And this Trayvon Martin case may be used to try and whip the Blacks up into a civil war ahead the elections. Trayvon had a broken nose and had been severely beaten, not that he probably did not deserve it, but I suppose at some point if some is beating you to death you have the right to shoot back. Clearly no jury maybe even one with a lot of black on it will convict him.

Congress is moving forward with ‘laws’ to allow private and military drones with guns to fly over your house. More on that tonight or later this week. I don’t know how the CNBC crowd is going to sell that, if it happens but expect Maria and Jim and Larry to put a positive spin on the USA Military blowing people who oppose the English crown’s rule of the USA out of the water from the sky. Diane Feinstein said the TSA has just begun to ‘grope’.

In gold the only good news we got was Soros was buying physical. An astute reader observed Paulson and Eichhorns gold shares were being naked shorted to death to force them to sell. One fund manager on WS opined gold was acting strange but buying was strong on this dip in Asia. Another Shylocks Wall Street type lied and said gold was just another ‘risk’ assets and ‘riskless assets’ were UST and dollars in USA bank and safety deposit box. When my own bank sent me a letter telling me that they had the right to take any cash or gold in my safety deposit box after the Patriot box. This is why people end up being hated due to consistent tribal predation upon others.

Jamie Dimon is going to have to go before his employees in Congress to tell them why he is such a great guy despite losing 2 billion dollars on reckless trade while backstopped by the UST/FED and American taxapayer. The shareholders refused to divest him from either the CEO or Chairman position, leaving him unchecked to make further rouge trades then sacrifice the pawns and his pay package is a looting of shareholders. That JPM London ‘whale trade’ for trillions of dollars of corporate CDS, well  the  losses have to be really staggering and still being hidden by Dimon I expect. The MFG commodity debacle, well people are no closer to getting the 1.6 billion dollars back from JPM London either. Probably he is using that ‘profit’ to hide more losses, just like this Gold take down was all about bailing Jamie and Blythe and Mr Gulliver at HSBC out. Gulliver has been earning his money in the old fashioned English blue-blood way, laundering the Royal families, MI6/CIA/Mossads drug money it appears rather than making reckless trades like Dimon and his London grime/crime gang.

In gold shares, I neglected to mention the big Pebble release that 107 million in permitting money had been allocated for 2012. So the permit process is at last under way after the $125 million dollar, 3 year EIS. That is a great EIS.

The Germans gave the Greeks their final warning, if they vote wrong, they will be shoved out of the Euro. The actual event might come before that as bank runs are starting in Greece. I’ve watch a lot of the Greek protests on their news and in their press and people want more big government and more deficit spending in Greece, not less, ha, ha. No Greek is going to have his fingers pried out of the American and German wallet so easily. Rebellion in a sin when it is rebellion against morality. You only see a very small percentage of Greeks wanting to cut their welfare state, and get out of the EU and return to hard money. I would be very surprised if the Greeks make it as far as the next election before they are shoved out of the Euro by simply not making their debt payments. Mid June is when they say they will vote. When bank runs start they are virtually impossible to stop short of shutting the banks..

London must be in a world of hurt, as Anglosaxon after Anglosaxon and Hebrew after Hebrew were penning articles again today from London on why Greece must stay in the EU and Cameron told the Germans to float a Federal EU bond market to pay for it all, while the English retain their own rigged gilt market.

The English ‘cleverly’ dumped a lot of their Greek debt on American banks head of the CDS run on Greek debt last summer. Now the Germans appear to have faked the English out and got them to buy the Greek debt and pushing the Greeks out and watching those greasy Greeks get what they so, so richly deserve, and the English squirm and threaten to send their Communist Chinese or Communist American army after them, well it is a good bit of schadenfreude for the Germans and they can ultimately save the Greeks for the right price, like access to their 50 billion BOEs (barrel of oil equivalents).  Right now it looks like the Germans are in the drivers seat and the guy at the FT was having a nervous breakdown over the Greeks maybe defaulting. Ha, ha. Loved it.

The German economy continues to pull the EU along with German growth yesterday just barely keeping the EU out of the Recession. Germans pretty much have a great car industry courtesy of ripping off Chrysler’s MP technology and that export machine depends on Rich Asian and BRIC buyers where Mercedes /Audi ‘chic’ is a status symbol. Asians are the ultimate ‘brand name’ buyers and quality buyers when it comes to their own money.

Hollande was forced to go and kiss his Hebrew cousin Merkel’s big butt,  but as the German banks own France’s debt and all he got was some soft promises the Germans would go easier on the Greeks.

JFK Kennedy got that right- Eich Bein Ein Berliner ( Deutschlander)! Lass’ sie nach Berlin (Deutschland) kommen!!

Markets went into sort of a recovery bounce today although a weak one on USE data, gold was shoved back down along to 1630+ after the floor trading closes and oil was pushed down to 92. The English royals are riding all over the English country side celebrating the diamond Jubilee and the English gear up for their massive Olympics and want a big ROI. So this gold bashing is Prince Phillips and his men’s  little present to the queen as she makes so, so much money off of her HSBC dividends from it. It does not really pay to sell here in commodities as the fundamentals are screaming for gold to go higher. All this desperate manipulation means the LBMA must be close to default, after all the English went to war with Libya and the first thing they grabbed was the gold and gave their thugs some ‘hard cash’ for it.

The market action was over fairly early today and ended as Europe closed. I don’t have time right now to report the daily box scores of the markets.

 More Anti-Gold Hysteria from London!!

By Ben McLannahan
Financial Times, London
Wednesday, May 16, 2012

TOKYO — Okayama Metal & Machinery has become the first Japanese pension fund to make public purchases of gold, in a sign of dwindling faith in paper currencies.

Initially, the fund aims to keep about 1.5 per cent of its total assets of Y40 billion ($500 million) in bullion-backed exchange-traded funds, according to chief investment officer Yoshisuke Kiguchi, who said he was diversifying into gold to “escape sovereign risk.”

The move into a non-yielding asset comes as funds in the world’s second-biggest pension market are under increasing pressure to meet promised payments, as domestic interest rates remain rooted near zero. This year, the first of Japan’s baby boomers turn 65, becoming eligible for payouts….

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/1be7a2a2-9f3f-11e1-a255-00144feabdc0.html

Accidentally Released — and Incredibly Embarrassing — Documents Show How Goldman et al. Engaged in ‘Naked Short Selling’

By Matt Taibbi
Rolling Stone, New York
Tuesday, May 15, 2012

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/accidentally-release…

It doesn’t happen often, but sometimes God smiles on us. Last week he smiled on investigative reporters everywhere, when the lawyers for Goldman, Sachs slipped on one whopper of a legal banana peel, inadvertently delivering some of the bank’s darker secrets into the hands of the public.

The lawyers for Goldman and Bank of America/Merrill Lynch have been involved in a legal battle for some time — primarily with the retail giant Overstock.com, but also with Rolling Stone, the Economist, Bloomberg, and the New York Times. The banks have been fighting us to keep sealed certain documents that surfaced in the discovery process of an ultimately unsuccessful lawsuit filed by Overstock against the banks.

Last week, in response to an Overstock.com motion to unseal certain documents, the banks’ lawyers, apparently accidentally, filed an unredacted version of Overstock’s motion as an exhibit in their declaration of opposition to that motion. In doing so, they inadvertently entered into the public record a sort of greatest-hits selection of the very material they’ve been fighting for years to keep sealed.

I contacted Morgan Lewis, the firm that represents Goldman in this matter, earlier today, but they haven’t commented as of yet. I wonder if the poor lawyer who FUBARred this thing has already had his organs harvested; his panic is almost palpable in the air. It is both terrible and hilarious to contemplate. The bank has spent a fortune in legal fees trying to keep this material out of the public eye, and here one of their own lawyers goes and dumps it out on the street.

The lawsuit between Overstock and the banks concerned a phenomenon called naked short-selling, a kind of high-finance counterfeiting that, especially prior to the introduction of new regulations in 2008, short-sellers could use to artificially depress the value of the stocks they have bet against. The subject of naked short-selling is a) highly technical, and b) very controversial on Wall Street, with many pundits in the financial press for years treating the phenomenon as the stuff of myths and conspiracy theories.

Now, however, through the magic of this unredacted document, the public will be able to see for itself what the banks’  attitudes are not just toward the “mythical” practice of naked short selling (hint: they volubly confess to the activity, in writing), but toward regulations and laws in general.

“Fuck the compliance area — procedures, schmecedures,” chirps Peter Melz, former president of Merrill Lynch Professional Clearing Corp. (a.k.a. Merrill Pro), when a subordinate worries about the company failing to comply with the rules governing short sales.

We also find out here how Wall Street professionals manipulated public opinion by buying off and/or intimidating experts in their respective fields. In one email made public in this document, a lobbyist for SIFMA, the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, tells a Goldman executive how to engage an expert who otherwise would go work for “our more powerful enemies” — i.e., would work with Overstock on the company’s lawsuit.

“He should be someone we can work with, especially if he sees that cooperation results in resources, both data and funding,” the lobbyist writes, “while resistance results in isolation.”

There are even more troubling passages, some of which should raise a few eyebrows, in light of former Goldman executive Greg Smith’s recent public resignation, in which he complained that the firm routinely screwed its own clients and denigrated them (by calling them “Muppets,” among other things).

Here, the plaintiffs’  motion refers to an “exhibit 96,” which refers to “an email from [Goldman executive] John Masterson that sends nonpublic data concerning customer short positions in Overstock and four other hard-to-borrow stocks to Maverick Capital, a large hedge fund that sells stocks short.”

Was Goldman really disclosing “nonpublic data concerning customer short positions” to its big hedge fund clients? That would be something its smaller, “Muppet” customers would probably want to hear about.

When I contacted Goldman and asked if it was true that Masterson had shared nonpublic customer information with a big hedge fund client, their spokesperson Michael Duvally offered this explanation:

“Among other services it provides, Securities Lending at Goldman provides market color information to clients regarding various activity in the securities lending marketplace on a security specific or sector specific basis. In accordance with the group’s guidelines concerning the provision of market color, Mr. Masterson provided a client with certain aggregate information regarding short balances in certain securities. The information did not contain reference to any particular clients’ short positions.”

You can draw your own conclusions from that answer, but it’s safe to say we’d like to hear more about these practices.

Anyway, the document is full of other interesting disclosures. Among the more compelling is the specter of executives from numerous companies admitting openly to engaging in naked short selling, a practice that, again, was often dismissed as mythical or unimportant.

A quick primer on what naked short selling is. First of all, short selling, which is a completely legal and even beneficial activity, is when an investor bets that the value of a stock will decline. You do this by first borrowing and then selling the stock at its current price, then returning the stock to your original lender after the price has gone down. You then earn a profit on the difference between the original price and the new, lower price.

What matters here is the technical issue of how you borrow the stock. Typically, if you’ re a hedge fund and you want to short a company, you go to some big-shot investment bank like Goldman or Morgan Stanley and place the order. They then go out into the world, find the shares of the stock you want to short, borrow them for you, then physically settle the trade later.

But sometimes it’s not easy to find those shares to borrow. Sometimes the shares are controlled by investors who might have no interest in lending them out. Sometimes there’ s such scarcity of borrowable shares that banks/brokers like Goldman have to pay a fee just to borrow the stock.

These hard-to-borrow stocks, stocks that cost money to borrow, are called negative rebate stocks. In some cases, these negative rebate stocks cost so much just to borrow that a short-seller would need to see a real price drop of 35 percent in the stock just to break even. So how do you short a stock when you can\t find shares to borrow? Well, one solution is, you don’t even bother to borrow them. And then, when the trade is done, you don’t bother to deliver them. You just do the trade anyway without physically locating the stock.

Thus in this document we have another former Merrill Pro president, Thomas Tranfaglia, saying in a 2005 email: “We are NOT borrowing negatives. … I have made that clear from the beginning. Why would we want to borrow them? We want to fail them.”

Trafaglia, in other words, didn’t want to bother paying the high cost of borrowing “negative rebate” stocks. Instead, he preferred to just sell stock he didn’t actually possess. That is what is meant by, “We want to fail them.” Trafaglia was talking about creating “fails” or “failed trades,” which is what happens when you don’t actually locate and borrow the stock within the time the law allows for trades to be settled.

If this sounds complicated, just focus on this: Naked short selling, in essence, is selling stock you do not have. If you don’t have to actually locate and borrow stock before you short it, you’re creating an artificial supply of stock shares.

In this case, that resulted in absurdities like the following disclosure in this document, in which a Goldman executive admits in a 2006 email that just a little bit too much trading in Overstock was going on: “Two months ago 107% of the floating was short!”

In other words, 107% of all Overstock shares available for trade were short — a physical impossibility, unless someone was somehow creating artificial supply in the stock.

Goldman clearly knew there was a discrepancy between what it was telling regulators, and what it was actually doing. “We have to be careful not to link locates to fails [because] we have told the regulators we can’t,” one executive is quoted as saying in the document.

One of the companies Goldman used to facilitate these trades was called SBA Trading, whose chief, Scott Arenstein, was fined $3.6 million in 2007 by the former American Stock Exchange for naked short selling.

The process of how banks circumvented federal clearing regulations is highly technical and incredibly difficult to follow. These companies were using obscure loopholes in regulations that allowed them to short companies by trading in shadows, or echoes, of real shares in their stock. They manipulated rules to avoid having to disclose these “failed” trades to regulators.

How they did this is ingenious, elaborate, and complex, and we’ll get into it more at a later date. In the meantime, this document all by itself shows numerous executives from companies like Goldman Sachs Execution and Clearing (GSEC) and Merrill Pro talking about a conscious strategy of “failing” trades — in other words, not bothering to locate, borrow, and deliver stock within the time alotted for legal settlement. For instance, in one email, GSEC tells a client, Wolverine Trading, “We will let you fail.”

More damning is an email from a Goldman, Sachs hedge fund client, who remarked that when wanting to “short an impossible name and fully expecting not to receive it” he would then be “shocked to learn that [Goldman's representative] could get it for us.”

Meaning: when an experienced hedge funder wanted to trade a very hard-to-find stock, he was continually surprised to find that Goldman, magically, could locate the stock. Obviously, it is not hard to locate a stock if you’re just saying you located it, without really doing it.

As a hilarious side-note: when I contacted Goldman about this story, they couldn’t resist using their usual P.R. playbook. In this case, Goldman hastened to point out that Overstock lost this lawsuit (it was dismissed because of a jurisdictional issue), and then had this to say about Overstock:

“Overstock pursued the lawsuit as part of its longstanding self-described ‘Jihad’ designed to distract attention from its own failure to meet its projected growth and profitability goals and the resulting sharp drop in its stock price during the 2005-2006 period.”

Good old Goldman — they can’t answer any criticism without describing their critics as losers, conspiracy theorists, or, most frequently, both.

Anyway, this galactic screwup by usually-slick banker lawyers gives us a rare peek into the internal mindset of these companies, and their attitude toward regulations, the markets, even their own clients. The fact that they wanted to keep all of this information sealed is not surprising, since it’s incredibly embarrassing stuff, if you understand the context.

More to come: until then, here’s the motion, and pay particular attention to Pages 14-19.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/accidentally-released-and-incredibly-embarrassing-documents-show-how-goldman-et-al-engaged-in-naked-short-selling-20120515

Hedge Funds Schooling Jamie Dimon

http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2012/05/16/jpmorgan-bad-trade-hedge-funds/

Unlocking the Crude Oil Bottleneck at Cushing

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-05-16/unlocking-the-crude-oil-bottleneck-at-cushing

Gold Tumbles Into Bear Market on Greece Euro-Exit Concern

A bit behind posting this, but it shows the market mindset as manipulated by the CB and Media. Gold is rallying today.

Gold declined for a fourth straight session in New York and entered a so-called bear market as concern that Greece will have to leave the euro boosted the dollar and cut the metal’s appeal as an alternative asset.

The U.S. Dollar Index, a measure against six major counterparts, rose for a 13th day to a four-month high after Greece’s political leaders failed to form a ruling coalition. Bullion has dropped 20 percent from its intraday record in September, the common definition of a bear market. On a closing basis, futures need to settle at $1,513.52 to post a 20 percent drop.

Gold declined for a fourth straight session in New York and entered a so-called bear market as concern that Greece will have to leave the euro boosted the dollar and cut the metal’s appeal as an alternative asset.

The U.S. Dollar Index, a measure against six major counterparts, rose for a 13th day to a four-month high after Greece’s political leaders failed to form a ruling coalition. Bullion has dropped 20 percent from its intraday record in September, the common definition of a bear market. On a closing basis, futures need to settle at $1,513.52 to post a 20 percent drop.

 http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-16/gold-tumbles-into-bear-market-on-concern-greece-may-leave-euro.html

Facebook Said to Raise Size of IPO to 421 Million Shares

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-16/facebook-said-to-raise-size-of-ipo-to-421-million-shares.html

CFO Tweets Himself out of Job

I would fire anyone who had a Twitter or Facebook account simply as too political or too low of an IQ to understand the potential for spying and constructing a database. Corporate ‘Facebook’ and ‘Twitter’ needs to be very carefully controlled by the Marketing Department.  Somehow people think because ‘celebrities’ use spy organizations Twitter and Facebook it is ‘hip’ but what is ‘hip’ is only using those for disinformation campaigns or not at all.

http://blog.chron.com/lorensteffy/2012/05/francescas-cfo-tweets-himself-out-of-a-job/

F.B.I. Inquiry Adds to JPMorgan’s Woes

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/05/15/f-b-i-inquiry-adds-to-jpmorgans-woes/?hp

JPMorgan: a hedge too far?

http://video.ft.com/v/1639324084001/JPMorgan-a-hedge-too-far-

S&P 500 Snaps 3-Day Slump on Better-Than-Forecast Data

U.S. stocks advanced, snapping a three-day decline in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, as better- than-estimated reports on housing starts and industrial production bolstered confidence in the world’s largest economy.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased at least 1 percent to pace gains in financial companies. General Motors Co. climbed 3.8 percent as Berkshire Hathaway Inc. disclosed a stake. General Electric Co. (GE) rose 3.3 percent as its finance unit plans to pay a special dividend of $4.5 billion to the parent company. Target Corp. (TGT), the second-largest U.S. discount retailer, added 1.5 percent as profit topped estimates.

The S&P 500 rose 0.2 percent to 1,333.31 at 11:06 a.m. New York time. The benchmark measure for U.S. equities pared a gain of 0.8 percent. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 25.24 points, or 0.2 percent, to 12,657.24.

“We’ve had some good economic data supporting the U.S. growth story,” E. William Stone, chief investment strategist at PNC Wealth Management in Philadelphia, said in a telephone interview. His firm manages about $112 billion. “It looks like we’re seeing stabilization in housing. Industrial production was a nice surprise. It’s just then fighting with headlines and rumors coming out of Europe.”

Equities gained as data showed output at factories, mines and utilities increased 1.1 percent last month, the most since December 2010, after a 0.6 percent decline in March that was revised from no change. Economists forecast a 0.6 percent gain. Earlier today, a report signaled that the residential real estate industry is stabilizing.

Europe’s Crisis

The benchmark gauge for American equities had dropped 2 percent over the previous three days amid concern Greece will leave the euro. European Central Bank President Mario Draghi indicated that while his “strong preference” is that Greece stays in the euro area, the bank won’t compromise on its principles to prevent an exit.

“The U.S. economic data is consistent with the bottom not falling out of the equity market,” Barry Knapp, the New York- based head of U.S. equity strategy at Barclays Plc, said in a telephone interview. “Yet the situation in Europe is extremely precarious. Everybody wants Greece to stay in the euro, but does Greece want to stay? More needs to be done. You can’t have a lot of confidence that assets will stabilize.”

Eight of 10 groups in the S&P 500 rose today as commodity, industrial and financial shares advanced. A measure of homebuilders in S&P indexes climbed 1.1 percent. JPMorgan increased 1 percent to $36.61. Goldman Sachs added 1.3 percent to $101.12.

Boosting Stakes

Hedge funds Moore Capital Management LLC and Blue Ridge Capital LLC boosted their stakes in JPMorgan, while Kingdon Capital Management LLC divested, before the shares plunged because of a $2 billion trading loss.

Moore, the New York-based firm run by Louis Moore Bacon, bought 6 million shares of JPMorgan and its $297.3 million stake was its largest U.S. stock holding as of March 31. John Griffin’s New York-based Blue Ridge purchased 1.85 million shares, raising its stake in the bank to 6.14 million.

JPMorgan slumped 21 percent from the end of the first quarter through yesterday, including an 11 percent decline following the company’s disclosure of losses tied to synthetic credit derivatives. Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon said the New York-based bank made “egregious mistakes.”

GM rallied 3.8 percent to $22.24. Warren Buffett’s firm had 10 million shares of the automaker on March 31, Omaha, Nebraska- based Berkshire said yesterday in a filing disclosing U.S. stockholdings.

GE Rallies

GE gained 3.3 percent to $19.02. Payments to the parent company will begin with a $475 million quarterly dividend for the three months through June, according to a statement today. For the year, the dividend is targeted to be 30 percent of GE Capital’s earnings, excluding the special payment.

Target rose 1.5 percent to $55.91. The retailer increased same-store sales 5.3 percent in the quarter, its best performance in six years, as the warmest temperatures in North America in 50 years encouraged shopping.

Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO), the biggest maker of computer- networking equipment, jumped 1.7 percent to $16.83. Barclays Plc raised its recommendation to the equivalent of buy.

J.C. Penney Co. slumped 15 percent, the most in the S&P 500, to $28.35. The department-store chain led by Apple Inc.’s former retailing chief reported a first-quarter loss and sales that fell more than analysts projected.

Missing Estimates

Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (ANF) fell 12 percent to $39.96. The operator of namesake and Hollister stores reported first-quarter revenue that missed analysts’ estimates and said same-store sales will decline this fiscal year amid weakness in Europe.

Arena Pharmaceuticals Inc. (ARNA) sank 5.8 percent to $5.71. The San Diego-based drugmaker said it will sell shares in a public offering, its first since July 2009. It didn’t specifying the size of the deal.

Facebook Inc. (FB) investors including Accel Partners and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised the number of shares they’re selling in the social network’s initial public offering, boosting the sale to as much as $16 billion.

Existing holders will offer 241.2 million shares, bringing the total on offer to 421.2 million, a regulatory filing today shows. Accel, the biggest seller in the IPO, boosted its amount 28 percent to 49 million, and Digital Sky Technologies increased its amount 74 percent to 45.7 million.

“Everybody is cashing out,” said Trung-Tin Nguyen, a hedge-fund manager at TTN AG in Zurich. “It’s normal for private equities and venture capitals to cash out, but the obvious question is whether they are stretching it too far.”

Largest Ever

Facebook, gearing up for the largest-ever IPO of a technology company, had already increased the offering’s price range to $34 to $38 apiece, from $28 to $35 previously. At $16 billion, Facebook’s debut would surpass that of General Motors Co. (GM) to be the second-largest in U.S. history, excluding so- called over-allotments, which let underwriters buy more shares at a later date, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

Investors will be able to avoid losses in the broader equity market this year by buying stocks with larger-than- average dividends, said David Kostin, chief U.S. equity strategist at Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

“The scarcest commodity in the world is yield,” the New York-based strategist said in a radio interview today on “Bloomberg Surveillance” with Tom Keene and Ken Prewitt. “You have negligible returns” in most asset classes. “Where are you getting any income? You are going to get it in the form of dividends.”

Kostin has a year-end projection for the equities gauge of 1,250, according to a weekly survey by Bloomberg News. The S&P 500 has a dividend yield of 2.1 percent, according to Bloomberg data. Ten-year Treasuries yield 1.8 percent.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-16/u-s-stock-index-futures-pare-their-earlier-decline.html

Mortgage Delinquencies in U.S. Fall to Lowest Since 2008

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-16/mortgage-delinquencies-in-u-s-fall-to-lowest-since-2008.html

Housing Starts Join U.S. Factories Topping Forecasts

Housing starts and industrial production exceeded forecasts in April, pointing to strength in the U.S. economy at the start of the second quarter.

Starts rose 2.6 percent to a 717,000 annual rate from March’s revised 699,000 pace that was stronger than previously reported, Commerce Department figures showed today in Washington. Industrial production climbed 1.1 percent, the most since December 2010, the Federal Reserve said.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-16/beginning-home-construction-in-u-s-exceeded-forecasts-in-april.html

USA Industrial Production Rises

Industrial production in the U.S. climbed more than forecast in April, propelled by gains in auto manufacturing and utility use.

Output at factories, mines and utilities increased 1.1 percent last month, the most since December 2010, after a 0.6 percent decline in March that was revised from no change, the Federal Reserve reported today in Washington. Economists forecast a 0.6 percent gain, according to the Bloomberg News survey median. Manufacturing, which makes up about 75 percent of total production, rose 0.6 percent. Utility output climbed the most in two years….

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-16/industrial-production-in-u-s-climbs-more-than-forecast.html

Gold Eclipsed by Dollar Haven as Goldman Sees Rally

Investors are reducing gold holdings for a third month, the longest stretch since 2004, and favoring the dollar as a haven from Europe’s debt crisis, even as Goldman Sachs Group Inc. predicts record prices for the metal.

Bullion erased its gains for 2012 this week as the dollar rose against a basket of currencies for a record 12 straight days. Gold held in exchange-traded products fell 30.8 metric tons since reaching a record 2,410.2 tons on March 13, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Royal Bank of Scotland Plc, ABN Amro Bank NV and Barclays Plc cut their forecasts in May, though Goldman expects prices to rise 25 percent to $1,940 an ounce in 12 months.

Gold rallied for 11 consecutive years and prices rose more than sevenfold, with demand accelerating in 2008 amid the global recession. Now, mounting concern that Greece may exit the 17- nation euro and prospects for faster U.S. growth are boosting the dollar, making it more attractive than bullion to some investors seeking to protect their wealth. Hedge funds are the least bullish on the metal since December 2008.

“Gold is just another risk asset,” said Michael Aronstein, the president of Marketfield Asset Management in New York, who predicted the 2008 slump that drove commodities down 66 percent in seven months and then the rebound in 2009. “It made you a lot of money if you took the risk eight or 10 years ago. A real safe haven would be a pile of high-denomination Swiss franc or dollar notes, stored in a safety deposit box.”

Trading Partners

Futures dropped 1.1 percent this year to $1,549.10 on the Comex as of 10:40 a.m. in New York. The Standard & Poor’s GSCI Index of 24 commodities declined 1.3 percent, and the MSCI All- World Index of equities climbed 2.4 percent. The Dollar Index, a gauge against six major trading partners, added 1.3 percent after retreating as much as 2.6 percent. Treasuries returned 1 percent, a Bank of America Corp. index shows.

Bullion slid as much as 21 percent from its intraday record in September, the common definition of a bear market. On a closing basis, futures need to settle at $1,513.52 an ounce to record a 20 percent drop from its August peak.

Gold’s correlation to the Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index, a measure of U.S. equity derivatives known as the fear gauge, has now dropped to near zero after moving in lockstep as recently as September, when New York futures touched a record $1,923.70 before plunging 19 percent. The 30-week correlation coefficient between the greenback and bullion is now at -0.66, compared with -0.24 in September, with a figure of -1 meaning the two move opposite to each other.

Barclays, RBS

The metal will average $1,740 in 2012, compared with $1,673.76 so far this year, according to the median estimate of 11 analysts tracked by Bloomberg since March. Barclays cut its outlook by 8 percent to $1,716 last week and RBS lowered its forecast by $25 to $1,725 on May 4. ABN Amro said May 2 its prediction dropped to $1,550, from $1,600 in January.

The European Central Bank will be forced to pump more money into the euro region in response to the debt crisis, reviving the appeal of gold, Hussein Allidina, the head of commodity research at Morgan Stanley in New York, wrote in a report May 14. The ECB already flooded markets with more than 1 trillion euros ($1.28 trillion) to avert a credit crunch. Prices will rebound to an average of $1,825 this year and $2,175 in 2013, Morgan Stanley forecasts.

The Federal Reserve is likely to start a third round of stimulus in June, Goldman’s commodity research team, led by Jeffrey Currie in New York, wrote in a report May 9. The metal rose about 70 percent as the Fed bought $2.3 trillion of debt in two rounds of so-called quantitative easing ending in June 2011. It’s too early to say the dollar has reclaimed its status as the currency of last resort over gold, the team wrote.

Soros, Paulson

Billionaire investor George Soros raised his stake in the SPDR Gold Trust, the biggest exchange-traded product backed by bullion, according to a filing yesterday reflecting first- quarter holdings. Paulson & Co., the hedge fund founded by billionaire John Paulson, maintained its investment in the ETP last quarter, while Steven A. Cohen’s SAC Capital Advisors LP cut.

Record-low interest rates from the U.S. to Europe may prop up demand for gold, which generally earns investors returns only through price gains. The Fed has pledged to keep rates at “exceptionally low levels” at least through late 2014. Central banks are buying bullion at the fastest pace in five decades, adding 439.7 tons in 2011. They may purchase a similar amount this year, the London-based World Gold Council estimates.

VIX Correlation

When gold reached its record Sept. 6, it was moving in tandem with the VIX as Europe’s debt crisis and mounting concern about the U.S. recovery spurred investors to buy the metal to diversify their assets. At the time, the metal’s correlation coefficient with the VIX surged to as high as 0.92. A reading of 1 indicates that the two securities trade in lockstep. The correlation is now less than 0.1 percent.

The Dollar Index gained for 12 sessions through May 15, the longest rally since its inception in 1973. The leadership vacuum in Greece and concern that the country would quit the common currency spurred investors to sell euros and buy dollars. That also diminished demand from investors who use gold to hedge against a weaker greenback. Open interest, or contracts outstanding, in U.S. futures dropped 18 percent since July, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

Holdings in ETPs backed by gold retreated 0.3 percent this month after dropping 0.7 percent during the previous two months, data compiled by Bloomberg show. In the second quarter, the VIX (VIX) has surged more than 40 percent while gold has dropped 6.9 percent, poised for the biggest quarterly loss since June 2004.

Net-Longs

Hedge funds and other speculators are holding a net-long position of 92,498 futures and options, down from 253,653 contracts in August, Commodity Futures Trading Commission data show.

“Usually, gold could be viewed as a safe haven or a contra play to the U.S. dollar,” said Bill Greiner, who helps manage $13 billion of assets as chief investment officer at Mariner Wealth Advisors in Kansas City, Missouri. “It’s really doing neither right now. It’s highly possible that we’ll see gold and commodities in general continue to drift down until the Fed steps in with some sort of quantitative easing package.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-15/gold-eclipsed-by-dollar-haven-as-goldman-sees-rally.html

Democrats See Leverage as Congress Nears Budget Cliff

Congressional Democrats say they can prevail in a year-end fiscal showdown with Republicans, so long as President Barack Obama and Democrats hold firm in their insistence on higher taxes for the rich.

The Democrats are emboldened by the president’s stated refusal to renew expiring income tax cuts for top earners, and they welcome a sequence of deadlines that they say will diminish Republicans’ bargaining power. Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner said yesterday that Congress probably won’t need to raise the federal debt ceiling until 2013, allowing a December tax debate to occur without the risk of an imminent default…

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-16/democrats-see-leverage-as-congress-nears-budget-cliff.html

Higher gold prices needed to sustain gold-mining industry – Gold Fields

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Gold will need a higher price to sustain mine production, says Gold Fields CEO Nick Holland.

Announcing lower net group March quarter earnings of R2 082-million ($268-million) compared with higher December quarter earnings of R2 605-million ($336-million), Holland puts the all-in cost of producing an ounce of gold at $1 400 and says the gold-mining industry will need prices higher than the current $1 500/oz to maintain output at 70-million to 75-million ounces a year.

“If we’re going to replace the ounces being mined out…we’re going to need higher prices,” he says, adding that analyst forecasts need to be moderated upwards.

Project curtailment, rationalisation and consolidation will follow if the gold price fails to return to at least the $ 1700/oz level at which it was trading prior to US Federal Reserve chairperson Ben Bernanke’s February 29 revelation that there would be no further near-term quantitative easing in the US.

Holland believes that the world is more likely to inflate itself out of debt than attempt to increase taxes and that there will be more quantitative easing.

“I think you’re going to see a lot more bad news coming through across the world and that should bode well for gold,” he says.

China, central banks and exchange-traded fund (ETF) investment is continuing to underpin gold, the World Gold Council (WGC) reports in its latest Gold Demand Trends study.

The WGC expects China to become the world’s largest gold market by the end of the year in terms of annual demand.

“Gold is actually in scarce supply. People are struggling to get gold,” says Holland, who adds that Gold Fields is patiently continuing to drive the fundamentals of the business and believes that the company will be rewarded in time.

“We’re not going to be distracted from our strategy by short-term gold-price volatility,” Holland assures.

MARCH QUARTER

The salient features of Gold Fields’ March 2012 quarter were group attributable equivalent gold production of 827 000 oz, total cash cost of $870/oz, an operating margin of 48%, a notional cash expenditure (NCE) margin of 24% and progress on its four growth projects.

Four fatal accidents took place at the South African operations.

Despite the lower production, net earnings remained robust benefiting from a stable gold price combined with continued sound cost control.

Attributable gold production for the year ending December 2012 is expected to be 3.5-million equivalent ounces.

The group NCE increased by 2 % from R313 286/kg ($1 206/oz) in the December quarter to R319 835/kg ($1 280/oz) in the March quarter. This increase was as a result of higher operating costs and lower production, partially offset by lower capital expenditure.

The company now owns 40% of the promising Far Southeast project in the Philippines where it has an option to take up an additional 20% stake from Lepanto Consolidated Mining Company for $110-million.

In Peru, the Chucapaca feasibility study is progressing, with particular emphasis on optimising recoveries, plant design and permitting.

At the Arctic Platinum project in Finland, resource drilling on the Suhanko North prospect added platinum-group element mineralisation to the original Suhanko project of 140 million tons.

At the Damang super-pit project in Ghana, drilling is complete and resource models finalised for the prefeasibility study.

The company’s latest resource and reserve statement indicates 5% higher reserves of 80.6-million ounces.

West African resources are up 46% from 17.3-million ounces to 25.2-million ounces and West Africa reserves are up 21%, from 11.3-million ounces to 13.7-million ounces.

The reserve base of Cerro Corona in South America is up 15%, from 5.3-million ounces to 6.1-million ounces.

At the Australian operations, gold production decreased by 9% from 172 000 ounces to 157 000 oz, owing to lower underground volumes and grades at Agnew.

In South Africa, gold production at the Kloof Driefontein Complex fell 13% from 285 800 oz (8 890 kg) in the December quarter to 249 700 ounces (7 765 kg) in the March quarter.

At Beatrix, production decreased by 12% from 89 700 oz (2 789 kg) to 79 200 ounces (2 462 kg).

At South Deep, production was flat at 58 600 oz (1 824 kg).

http://www.miningweekly.com/article/higher-gold-prices-needed-to-sustain-gold-mining-industry-gold-fields-2012-05-17

 Greece on brink of collapse

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/greece/9268507/Greece-on-brink-of-collapse.html

BOJ Failed to Draw Enough Offers in Debt Purchase

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-16/boj-failed-to-draw-enough-offers-in-debt-purchase.html

Europe Must Face Ugly Reality of Greek Exit from Euro

A Greek exit from the euro area has the potential to be the European Union’s most economically and politically destructive event of a generation. Unfortunately, Europe has reached the point where it must prepare for such an outcome.

Whether Greeks want it or not, circumstances could soon force their country to return to the drachma. Europe’s leaders, as Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker hinted, might extend Greece’s deadlines to meet the budget targets required for rescue money, but they won’t provide emergency financing to a government that refuses austerity measures. Without Europe’s help, Greece’s government (whoever ends up leading it) faces a dilemma: Cut spending even more than under the austerity program, or default on its debts and print a new currency to pay its bills.

A return to the drachma would be painful. The currency would immediately be worth a fraction of a euro, and would depreciate further if the government printed money to finance deficit spending. Bank depositors would get devalued drachmas, if they got anything at all. Businesses would be starved of credit. Prices and wages would probably rise to compensate for the currency’s loss of value, eroding the benefit of a cheap currency to Greek exporters.

Daunting Challenge

The rest of Europe would face the daunting challenge of containing the fallout. To that end, as Bloomberg View columnist Clive Crook notes today, it must be prepared to do all the same fiscal reforms and take all the same emergency measures needed to keep the euro area intact, and more. Even then, a Greek exit would have unpredictable consequences.

First, Europe would have to absorb immediate losses on money lent to Greece. The country has about 400 billion euros in external debts, which its government, banks and companies would probably pay only in part or in drachmas. European taxpayers would suffer the lion’s share of the losses: Their exposure by way of the European Central Bank, national central banks and EU lending programs amounts to more than 300 billion euros. The rest would fall on private companies and banks, particularly in France, possibly requiring governments to step in and provide capital.

Second, European officials would need a plan to stop bank runs. As soon as Italian, Portuguese, Spanish and maybe even French depositors see footage of Greeks clamoring for their savings, they’ll want to get their euros out of local banks as quickly as possible. Bank holidays and bans on withdrawals would help only temporarily. To prevent a collapse of the banking system, Europe’s leaders would have to guarantee all deposits in euro-area banks, a move that would put Germany and other core countries on the hook for insuring more than 3 trillion euros in Italian and Spanish deposits. Common deposit insurance would also require euro-area governments to achieve in a matter of days a harmonization of banking regulation that has escaped them for more than a decade.

Third, Europe would have to calm market fears that other euro-area countries, such as Portugal and Spain, might follow Greece’s lead. Investors’ worries about such an outcome could become self-fulfilling if they pushed borrowing costs up to levels that the governments can’t bear — a trend already evident in the yield on Spain’s 10-year bond, which stood at 6.3 percent Tuesday, up from less than 5 percent in early March. To keep interest rates down, the ECB could buy even more government bonds than it already has, or lend banks more money to do so. This could eventually leave the ECB holding or financing all the debt of the afflicted governments.

Market Confidence

Alternatively, the ECB could try to restore market confidence with a show of overwhelming force, guaranteeing the repayment of all struggling euro-area governments’ debts for the foreseeable future. But even this course of action, which Bloomberg View has advocated as part of a plan to hold the euro together, might not have the desired healing effect after a Greek exit.

There would be political as well as economic costs. Greece is highly unlikely to leave the EU in a fit of nationalist pique — it doesn’t want to face Turkey alone over Cyprus, or to see Balkan neighbors such as Albania, Macedonia and Serbia join the EU while it seethes outside. But for a European project that has been expanding and integrating ever more deeply since its formation as a six-nation coal and steel production union in 1951, a Greek exit from the euro — especially if followed by other countries — would mark a turning point. For example, if Greece can leave the euro, why not kick it out of the Schengen open-border zone? The majority of illegal immigrants to the EU come through Greece’s border with Turkey. It’s hard to predict what else might unravel.

Given the potential for unintended and unforeseen consequences, the least bad course for Greece and the EU remains, as Juncker hinted, for deadlines to be waived long enough for Greece to form a government that would recommit to a reform program. To make such an outcome possible, Europe’s leaders should move beyond self-defeating austerity and take immediate steps to support growth in Greece and other struggling countries. Failing that, Europe will have no choice but to prepare for the worst.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-15/europe-must-face-ugly-reality-of-greek-exit-from-euro.html

King Says BOE Braced for Euro Debt Crisis Risks: Economy

Bank of England Governor Mervyn King said officials have prepared for dangers posed by Europe’s debt crisis, after the bank lowered growth forecasts and raised predictions for inflation this year.

“Contingency plans have been discussed and have been for a considerable time,” King said at a press conference to present the bank’s quarterly Inflation Report today in London. “We are navigating through turbulent waters with the risk of a storm heading our way from the continent….

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-16/boe-sees-near-term-u-k-inflation-pressure-before-slowing-1-.html

Greek President Told Banks Anxious as Deposits Pulled

Greek President Karolos Papoulias was told by the nation’s central bank chief that financial institutions are worried about their survival as Greeks pull out euros amid a deepening political crisis.

Central bank head George Provopoulos told Papoulias that Greeks have withdrawn as much as 700 million euros ($891 million) and the situation could worsen, according to the transcript of the president’s meeting with party leaders on May 14 that was published yesterday….

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-15/greek-president-told-banks-anxious-as-deposits-pulled.html

European Stocks Fluctuate; Richemont Surges on Earnings

European stocks fluctuated near a four-month low as better-than-forecast U.S. home-construction and industrial-production data offset concern that Greece may be forced to leave the euro.

Credit Agricole SA and Societe Generale SA (GLE) gained more than 2.5 percent as banks recouped earlier losses. Cie. Financiere Richemont (CFR) SA surged the most in three years as earnings topped estimates. National Bank of Greece SA tumbled 13 percent as the country’s central bank chief said citizens had withdrawn as much as 700 million euros ($891 million) since the May 6 election.

The Stoxx Europe 600 Index (SXXP) rose less than 0.1 percent to 245.84 at 3:40 p.m. in London, erasing losses of as much as 1.4 percent. The gauge has tumbled 9.7 percent from this year’s peak on March 16 amid continued political uncertainty in Greece and concern about its future in the euro currency union.

“I have felt for quite a long time that Greece’s exit from the euro was a matter of when, not if,” Michael Spencer, chief executive officer of ICAP Plc, said in an interview on Bloomberg Television. “I think it is better for Greece in the the long run and certainly better for the euro zone.”

The country yesterday called a new election after Greek President Karolos Papoulias failed to broker a governing coalition in meetings yesterday with Pasok party head Evangelos Venizelos and other political leaders.

New Elections

Greece’s Democratic Left leader Fotis Kouvelis said a new caretaker government decided by party leaders today would have one task, that of holding elections. He also said elections would most likely be held on June 17.

The deadlock in Greece has also sparked uncertainty over the country’s pledged spending cuts required by the terms of its two bailouts worth 240 billion euros negotiated since May 2010.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and new French President Francois Hollande said they would consider measures to spur economic growth in Greece as long as voters committed to the austerity demanded to stay in the euro.

Requests for measures to bolster growth will be considered and the European Union may also “approach Greece with proposals,” Merkel said late yesterday at a joint press conference with Hollande during his first official visit to Berlin. “Greece can stay in the euro area.”

Benchmark Indexes

National benchmark indexes advanced in 13 of western Europe’s 18 markets. The U.K.’s FTSE 100 gained 0.1 percent, Germany’s DAX rose 0.4 percent and France’s CAC 40 rallied 1.1 percent. Greece’s ASE Index fell 1.3 percent to its lowest level since February 1990.

A gauge of European banks gained 0.3 percent, erasing losses of as much as 2.3 percent earlier today. The gauge had tumbled 5.3 percent through yesterday to a January low.

Credit Agricole (ACA) climbed 4.2 percent to 3.17 euros, after tumbling 13 percent over the previous three days. Societe Generale upgraded the lender’s shares to buy from sell with a price target of 4 euros.

CA Cheuvreux also said in a note that the impact on French banks from Greece’s exit of the euro would be minimal. Societe Generale gained 3.4 percent to 16.34 euros and Natixis (KN) rose 2.8 percent to 2 euros.

Italian and U.K. lenders also climbed. Intesa Sanpaolo SpA (ISP), Italy’s second-biggest bank, gained 4.3 percent to 1.02 euros and Barclays Plc (BARC) rallied 3.5 percent to 192.55 pence.

Richemont Rises

Richemont climbed 8.6 percent to 57.95 francs, after the second-biggest luxury goods company reported full-year profit of 1.54 billion euros as it sold more Cartier jewelry in Asia, beating analysts’ estimates.

Swatch Group AG (UHR) gained 3.7 percent to 401.5 francs after the watchmaker forecast that the industry will grow at a “high single-digit” or “double-digit” pace in 2012 amid growing demand for luxury goods.

LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA (MC) also advanced as Bank of America Corp. upgraded the luxury-goods maker to buy. The shares gained 1.6 percent to 124.35 euros.

National Bank of Greece declined 13 percent to 1.22 euros after Papoulias was told by the central bank chief, George Provopoulos, this week that financial institutions are becoming anxious about their prospects as Greeks pull out cash after the inconclusive May 6 elections.

Bankia SA (BKIA) tumbled 9.9 percent to 1.68 euros in Madrid as the extra yield investors demand to hold Spanish 10-year bonds instead of benchmark German debt climbed to a euro-era record.

Construction Companies

European construction companies fell as the the U.S. Architecture Billings Index, an indicator of construction activity, fell to 48.4 in April from 50.4 the previous month, the first time it dipped below 50 since October.

Eiffage dropped 7.7 percent to 24.28 euros, Hochtief AG (HOT) retreated 3.5 percent to 37.66 euros and Vinci SA slid 0.6 percent to 33.18 euros.

A.P. Moeller-Maersk A/S tumbled 5.1 percent to 38,280 kroner after the company said its container line, the world’s largest, will at best break even this year, falling short of analyst estimates for a profit.

Lamprell Plc (LAM) plunged 61 percent to 115.1 pence after the oil and gas rig engineer said it will incur a “small” loss in the first half, citing delays in equipment deliveries.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-16/european-stock-futures-decline-amid-concern-over-greece.html

Merkel-Hollande Meeting Yields Greece Growth Signal

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande said they would consider measures to spur economic growth in Greece as long as voters there committed to the austerity demanded to stay in the euro.

Requests for measures to bolster growth will be “considered” and the European Union may also “approach Greece with proposals,” Merkel said late yesterday at a joint press conference with Hollande during his first official visit to Berlin. “Greece can stay in the euro area,” and “Greek citizens will be voting on exactly that.”

Their encounter, the first meeting between the chiefs of Europe’s two biggest economies, came after Greece announced a return to the ballot box following the collapse of talks on forming a government. The euro and stocks fell as investors speculated that Greece may drop out of the single currency more than two years after its budget-deficit blowout triggered a financial crisis across Europe that continues to rage.

Hollande saw Merkel less than 12 hours after being sworn in as president and an arrival that was delayed by a lighting strike on his plane from Paris. With Greece in its fifth year of recession, the French Socialist returned to a theme he pressed throughout his election campaign, saying policy makers must offer the prospect of something more than austerity.

“I’ll respect the vote of the Greeks whatever it is,” Hollande said. “Yet my responsibility is to give Greece a signal. I see the suffering and challenges that the Greeks feel. The Greeks need to know we’ll come with growth measures that will allow them to stay in the euro zone.”….

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-15/merkel-s-first-hollande-meeting-yields-growth-offer-for-greece.html

Hate Filled Anti-Hetrosexual President Obama Continues to Succor His Dyke/Feminist Political Base

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/05/15/Obama-Stereotyped-Simplified-and-Used-us-Barnard-Woman-Objects-to-President-Commencement-Speech

The Real Blood Diamond Trade and Trader

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2144720/All-ONE-stone-Jewellery-worlds-largest-diamond-goes-display-Buckingham-palace.html

Pentagon Wants to Outsource Kill Decision to Robots

Satanic freaks!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2141694/What-possibly-wrong-U-S-Army-wants-war-robots-power-make-decisions.html?ITO=1490

Why Abortion is Murder

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=fKyljukBE70

Obama, Our First Out of the Closet Sodomite President

Fukushima

Regarding the net increase in exposure, the ‘new normal’ mean for radiation in the USA is 27 urads/hr. This is up 2-3x from the pre-fukushima levels.  Its been a year now and we will see this level effectively forever wrt to our life spans. While this poses no short to medium term threat to children or even pregnant women, long term we will see statistically significant increases in lymphatic cancers, pancreatic cancers, lung cancer, etc.  A daily detox regime should be followed. And this assumes Fukushima just does not collapse and we start another event. French Clay is a good daily detox. And increasing your anti-oxidant intake. There will be extreme medium term risks to those who went out and about from 7 days after 3/11/11 until 7/7/11 when the units were essentially shut down and whom had exposure to over 1 hour of outside activity during this period.

GCB Killed

Thank you if you called to complain and helped support defeating the antichrist /LGBT crowd of Hollywood and shame upon you and your kin if you did not. May God  have mercy upon you.

National Prayer Network

GOOD CHRISTIAN BITCHES (GCB) CANCELED!

By Rev. Ted Pike
14 May 12

A disappointed ABC announced Friday that Christian-bashing sitcom GCB will not replace Desperate Housewives next fall.  Mark Delkin, who played “Christian” homosexual Blake, said, “Wow.  I feel stunned and sad.  We had an amazing ride…”

Yes, it’s been amazing how such unprecedented anti-Christianity could have been pushed down the throats of “Christian” America for ten weeks with hardly a whimper of protest from major Christian leaders.  It’s also amazing how only a few thousand activists, by doggedly calling and emailing commercial sponsors, undoubtedly played a decisive role in the show’s demise.  Four out of five sponsors, clearly apprehensive of the controversy the show was generating among customers, chose not to advertise a second time.   Thirteen national sponsors gave us definitive statements that their ads would not reappear.

GCB’s unique emphasis on the bizarre immorality and hypocrisy of most of its “Christian” characters did not resonate favorably with many, even among the young and liberal. As a result the series, finishing last in its category, was simply not popular enough to successfully replace Desperate Housewives. Did our protest influence GCB’s ratings? TVseriesfinale.com is conducting an informal poll asking that question and 52 percent are saying “yes.”

There is no doubt that our protest powerfully influenced sponsors to abandon the show, undercutting the economic viability of GCB next season.

Fulfilling my prediction of what, with God’s help, a small Gideon’s band could do, we gutted GCB of most of its sponsors. Such massive alienation made GCB the advertising “typhoid Mary” of the industry.

I believe that, above all other factors, God helped defeat GCB.

In my opinion, here are the crucial human reasons dashing ABC’s economic hopes for a permanent GCB next fall:

• Thousands made use of the lists of sponsors at www.truthtellers.org to call or email corporations.  Many never gave up calling new sponsors every week as they were added.  Others, such as the American Decency Association, encouraged calling and emailing.

• Over ten weeks, staff writer Harmony Daws and I wrote 25 articles critical of GCB. In the absence of any other consistent writing against GCB online, they dominated internet search engines. Many were re-posted by other websites, and, under such searches as “protest GCB,” gave the impression to sponsors of raging criticism from many quarters.

• Every week NPN encouraged troops by announcing new sponsors who had abandoned GCB, not allowing this effort to slow down.  Similarly, when the American Decency Association found that nearly four of five GCB sponsors had left, it provided enormous encouragement after the first month to keep up the offensive.

• NPN repeatedly emphasized that Jews were behind GCB and that this was a Jewish attack on Christianity.  This undoubtedly caused Jewish Disney/ABC and the American Jewish community to rethink whether they wanted it widely known that Jews authorized such Christian bashing or that Jews dominate mass media. (See Jews Confirm Big Media Is Jewish)

• We repeatedly publicized the fact that many thousands of evangelicals were coming directly off the search engines to anti-Zionist www.truthtellers.org.  Thousands read multiple articles against Jewish supremacism and media control.  This could not have been good news for Jewish-dominated media and the liberal Jewish community.

• In one of my latest articles I announced that if GCB was renewed NPN was looking forward to leading another boycott next fall.  We would again trumpet the show’s Jewish origins, bringing thousands more evangelicals to www.truthtellers.org.

Where Do We Go From Here?

Considering the boycott’s huge success, some suggest NPN lead boycotts against other depraved television programs.  I won’t exclude that possibility, yet NPN’s primary duty is to warn of the most dangerous present threats to freedom.

I have been very disappointed at response within the alternative right to one of the greatest threats to freedom ever to come before Congress, CISPA (Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act).  (See Who’s Really Behind Internet Takeover Bill CISPA?)

Are lovers of freedom so weary from having worked against (and defeated!) the SOPA bill that they just can’t muster activism to oppose more legislation that will take away internet freedom?

Leaders of the religious right, with vast resources and millions of supporters, clearly thought it was impossible to beat GCB and therefore did and said nothing.  How wrong they were! Don’t be similarly shamed by letting CISPA pass.

Gen. Washington’s truly weary, ragtag, shivering, and malnourished soldiers fought battle and yet another battle to purchase freedom.  They didn’t give up. It’s time for us to again take to the phones.  Under no circumstances can we let a free internet be taken from us.

Please take this link to the crucial members of the Senate Judiciary Committee and all 100 members of the U.S. Senate.  Call immediately as many as you can. (Go Here for Senate Member List)

Yes, we will fight CISPA and the next bill like it and the next one after that.  At least, I will.  I hope you’ll fight with me.

 

Rev. Ted Pike is director of the National Prayer Network, a Christian/conservative watchdog organization.

TALK SHOW HOSTS: Interview Rev. Ted Pike on this subject. Call (503) 631-3808.

The freedom-saving outreach of Rev. Ted Pike and the National Prayer Network is solely supported by sale of books, videos and your financial support. All gifts are tax-deductible.

National Prayer Network, P.O. Box 828, Clackamas, OR 97015

‘Existential threat’ to Western U.S. states

New Obama water policy position overturns decades of practice

Agenda 21

http://www.wnd.com/2012/05/existential-threat-to-western-u-s-states/

Steve Wynn purchases New York City penthouse for $70 million

Steve Wynn, Ashkenazi, Las Vegas Vice Peddler, and his new English, Royal Anglosaxon bride are living in high style like Vampires are want to do. He’s going blind which is why his eyes look so strange. Boy talk about an English gold digger, the so called English beauties are known for fleecing Americans, especially the Hebrew-Americans.

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2012/may/15/steve-wynn-purchases-new-york-city-penthouse-70-mi/

‘So what if he’s gay?’: Mob widow Victoria Gotti defends scandal-hit actor John Travolta

The Gottis are Sephardis, which is why they defend cousin John. The issue with John is ‘date rape’, sexual harassment.  If he had weird volunteers it would only between him and his pal and God.