mcafeejs

Pending home sales rose for the third consecutive month, jumping 6.7% in April M/M and rising 3.2% Y/Y. NAR says buyers are responding to very favorable market conditions, and expects "greater activity in the months ahead."

market-ticker.denninge...
debunks the spin

The changing definitions of diversification - I, II.

www.chrismartenson.com...

Please read my views on diversification and take the crash course as well

Jeff Macke's bizarre attack on fellow CNBC commentator Dennis Kneale is making the rounds. If anyone has the faintest idea what he's talking about, let us know in the comments.

My take is Macke "knows" the market is heavily manipulated and that once the government starts talking to "car people" and completely abandons the rule of law then the trust that is necessary for "free markets" is gone. The markets are behaving in Orwellian up is down manner so of course he's gone mad like the rest of us.

The Fed expands TALF to include legacy assets for the first time; some investors had been disappointed with the Fed's initial decision to only include new commercial mortgage-backed securities in the $1T program.

Tyler Durden's comments are a must read
zerohedge.blogspot.com...

Buried in Chrysler's bankruptcy filing is news that the company won't repay more than $7B of taxpayer-funded bailout money.

Anyone know the email address of the Judge for the bankruptcy filing so we can express our concern? Thanks SA

Turning General Motors (GM) into Government Motors could open up a Pandora's box of conflicts. "The big question is whether the government, as a shareholder, will be focused on GM making money, or it making clean and green cars, or whatever other political agenda they have for the auto space."

from Mish: globaleconomicanalysis...

//////////////////////...
Deal Recap

If the deal goes through as currently proposed....

* The Treasury (taxpayers) would be stuck with 50% of GM's equity (currently worth $625 million) in exchange for forgiving about $10 billion in federal loans.
* The UAW would get 39% of GM's equity (currently worth $488 million) in exchange for giving up $10 billion in health care benefits
* Corporate bondholders would get 10% equity (currently worth $125 million) in exchange for giving up $27 billion in bonds.



Under the above agreement there is still a missing $10 billion piece of the puzzle: "The government wants the union to accept company stock to finance half of G.M.’s $20 billion obligation for retiree health care as noted above."

What happens to the other $10 billion? Does it vanish into thin air? My guess is this would be dumped on taxpayers via the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation (PBGC)

Everybody loses but the credit default swap holders. Now who might that be? JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, and/or Citigroup by any chance?
//////////////////////...

The Manipulation of Gold Prices

Simply the best article I've read to explain the current events. The information in this article was the missing catalyst for me to finally be able to make sense of current market behavior. Thank you.

Allow me to contribute another interesting fact to reinforce your conclusions in the linked article describing the end of the gold carry trade whereby gold is sold short and the proceeds are invested into treasuries. With treasuries now yielding nothing, the fraudulent practice of short selling will end and gold will finally appreciate in a "free market"
seekingalpha.com/artic...

Obama's First Moves?

Peter, have you put your name in to serve in Obama's cabinet? I hope so.

U.S. Loses 159,000 Jobs in September: What Does this Mean for the Economy?

Love your posts and distribute them. thanks for the time you invest in us. Hopefully my letters to Congress referencing your posts get traction.

Oppose the Treasury's Bailout Plan

The Honorable Mel Martinez,

Now that we U.S. citizens are part owners of such illusory enterprises as AIG and Fannie/Freddie, I would like you to initiate a lawsuit on behalf of your FL shareholders/constitue... to obtain compensation for breach of contract by CEOs and CFOs who drew bonuses based on earnings that had to be restated.

The link below provides more detail.

www.bloomberg.com/apps...

Oppose the Treasury's Bailout Plan

Example email to congressman. go to https://forms.house.go... or www.senate.gov/general...

The Honorable Dave Weldon,

Please oppose further intervention by the unelected Fed & Treasury during this financial crisis. Please oppose efforts that fix the symptoms of this crisis and not the causes. Please exhibit leadership to shift the debate to fix the causes of the crisis rather than addressing the symptoms making your decision around what happens decades from now rather than next week.

I believe the symptoms to be exorbitant social security & medicare/medicaid liabilities, any budget deficit, failure to invest public funds in ventures which have even a hope of yielding a public & appreciable, & and a palatable lack of moral courage to accept facts. The facts of the situation are the rich made loans to unqualified poor and the Treasury's current plan will have the moral middle class pay for those decisions. The US gov't must acknowledge the wealth destruction that has already occurred and let those directly responsible live with the consequences of their decisions to include the foreign investors, otherwise we will follow Rome and Britain in the destruction of their middle class & subsequent collapse in financial ruin. Acknowledging this wealth destruction will indeed cause credit market to seize up as is necessary. Debt needs to become harder to obtain in the US because that is the most effective way to transform this nation into once again being a producing rather than consuming nation which is a root cause of this crisis.

As an Iraq War veteran, I find it sad that while the Iraq war has cost us under $700B over the past 6 years, the FED/TREASURY has already spent $900B in the past 3 months. On that scale, this is civil war and I thought only congress could declare war.

The unintended consequences of further government intervention are private individuals withdrawing wholesale from the now seemingly state-run markets, wholesale buying foreign currency and international stocks along with gold/silver, & ultimately moving to another country as citizens will choose to not subject their children to this national debt.

Google, Trust and the Marketplace

Rokjok, Your comment implies that you have a right to search Google, that Google some how owes you unfettered access. If anyone doesn't like the results of their Google search and they don't trust Google then they are free to take their searches elsewhere. I for one trust the marketplace enough to know that so far Google does damn good getting me the information I want faster than any other search out there and that if it didn't I'd go elsewhere. I am extremely grateful for the services google provides...free---so they can control that info all they want--I will react accordingly.

Battle of the Building Material Makers: Owens Corning vs. USG Corp.

If PRS really wanted to show its value they would declare a dividend.

The Impending Mortgage Crisis

Great article and posts!

This is why I am long commodities and wealth creating enterprises. The only politically expedient way out of this housing crisis is the "stealth" inflation tax. Trading treasuries for bad mortgage debt, keeping interest rates low, and Americans especially gov't piling on debt breed this market discontent. The euphoria from the Fed's recent actions will soon give way to the fundamental reality that your $5 bill should say "legal tender for all debts or one gallon of gas". If it weren't for efficient markets where I could liquidate my RJI in a matter of minutes, there would be NO effective store & transfer of value. My new currency is a share of DBA, RJA, or GOOG.