Thursday, February 25, 2010

Every Day Is One Step Closer To The End

Long, slow, painful (yet titillating at the same time if you are into that kind of thing) march to the end. The set up is right in front of your face. Banks hoarding cash and not lending. They know the breadth and depth of the problems. They are now enacting rules and legislation to guard against runs on the banks. Do you really think if things were getting better they would be enacting such policies?

Infowars.com did a nice piece on Citibank Controversy Puts Dubious FDIC Guarantee Back In The Spotlight that covers the issues facing the banks and FDIC limits. "Alarmingly, The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. only has about $50 billion to “insure” about $1 trillion in assets across the nation’s financial institutions. This was even admitted in a Yahoo.com article shortly after the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008. When Americans realize the fact that banks are “going to run out of money”, the article nonchalantly stated, a run on the banks will accelerate." Do not forget the FDIC is basically bankrupt (and the banks are refusing to come off of cash even to fund their obligations with them).

From the same post - ready for this? Want to be scared shitless? “The requirement is part of Regulation D of the Securities Act of 1933. It applies to all accounts classified as Negotiable Order of Withdrawal [NOW] accounts – basically interest-bearing checking and savings accounts held by individuals and non-profits. Banks are not required to hold reserves in place to cover NOW accounts, so the rule prevents a run on withdrawals for which there are no reserves,” states the report." (emphasis mine) Nice! I feel a lot better. Thanks Congress. Thanks a bunch! Uh, isn't that ass friggin backwards? Apparently not.

That is mostly right. A run on the banks from the citizens would be a big deal, but remember Dubai and that nasty thing called fractal lending that has caused this credit driven fuck up. They are not worried about you or me getting the funds. They are worried about Dubai demanding their $10 billion in deposits (fractal that). They are worried about sovereign runs on the banks. It will get ugly cause they don't have the money.

As always Mish does a nice job with the unemployment report. He has a unique way of bringing the worts ot of it almost every time. In Weekly Unemployment Claims Spike To 496,000; Will Reality Soon Set In? "At some point however, reality will eventually set in. Without jobs, all this happy talk about the impending recovery, and all of Bernanke's yapping about low rates, will not satisfy the market. It is going to take both jobs and an increase in consumer spending to lift the economy. From where I sit, neither is coming."

Your daily Greece update comes courtesy of Zero Hedge in Greece Deterioration Hits Nitrous: IMF, EU, ECB Find Greek Plan €4.8 Billion Short. You can only squeeze so much blood out of the turnip. This is it. This is what I see spreading globally. this is the main point of denial. Massive wage deflation and everyone is held captive to the banksters that we bailed out that caused this mess. What a friggin job that must be, huh?

Well the NYT has Banks Bet Greece Defaults on Debt They Helped Hide. Well? You don't think they KNEW this was coming did you? Nah, GS did not sell them (and numerous other countries) the systemic CDO's that caused their financial system to rot from the inside, all while knowing they would and having handsome bets on the other side. Friggin amazing stuff. Who needs regulations? ZH gave a nice graphic in Greek Treasuries Pancake As Bond Vigilantes Chant Death Chorus of their sexy looking bond spreads today.



Late yesterday Denninger put out Clap-Clap (Weil and The Mark-To-Market Scam) which covers the mark-to-myth scandal I do not cover enough (In plain terms the reason the banks are all actually insolvent). The Enron style accounting has led us to this, "We've done nothing other than making legal accounting lies. The impairment and thus the actual economic loss still exists, and while we may have pushed it off another year that actually makes it worse, because these non-accruing loans gather more and more hair on them the longer they sit around without being either foreclosed, put back, or otherwise disposed of. This part of The Bezzle is one of the worst examples in this entire sordid mess and if Congress won't grow a pair then FASB needs to - right now." I keep telling you we're really screwed. Like really deep shit. 

On the issue of lack of regulation Washington's blog has Economist With Financial Services Committee For Eleven Years, Assisting With Oversight of the Fed, Lends Support to Ron Paul's Questions "Today, Ron Paul accused the Federal Reserve of having a hand in nefarious plots such as Watergate and arming Saddam Hussein. House Financial Services Committee Chair Barney Frank said that the Committee should look into it." We really need to audit the Fed before it is to late. Heck, I'm not sure I want to even do it now. Scared of what we might find. Talk about Armageddon?

We're getting closer every day. Sure more QE may be coming but what good will it really do? Kick the can down the road another 6 month to a year and just dig an even deeper hole while stuffing the banksters balance sheets with more of your future tax dollars. Friggin GREAT! Sign me up! TWICE! I hope you all realize I am not blowing smoke here. Every night I bring you real world situations that should scare you to death. Massive deflation is coming to a street near you. Greece should be your model. I just hope like hell we come out of this a free nation.

This is AWESOME - Max at 7:00 - paints a really clear picture. the whole world will hate us when this is all over. 


GL and have a good evening!