Bullshit Artists

Argentina: Dollar price at 10.45 Pesos over two times the ‘official’ price

"The blue dollar jumped past the key psychological barrier of 10 Pesos on Tuesday in thin t rade, reflecting persistent demand for greenbacks amid tough currency controls. Meanwhile, the official rate remained unchanged at exchange offices in Buenos Aires at Pesos 5.16 (buying price) and Pesos 5.22 (selling price), with the gap between the two markets over 100%. In a context of high inflation, negative interest rates or other options to defend the value of the Argentine currency, Argentines are increasingly taking refuge in the US dollar. To this must be added an overall feeling of distrust and uncertainty which can have a greater impact that what stats can present." Continue reading →

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Chris Martenson: Official Gold Numbers Don’t Add Up

"If a lot of gold has been leased out, someday it will have to be rebought, and difficulties may emerge if the gold cannot be rebought in sufficient quantities without creating mayhem within the financial system by causing a very large hike in the price of gold. The amounts of gold leased by central banks is a very closely guarded secret, and we do not have direct information on them, which means we have to try and back-calculate these amounts by other means. After accounting for all known flows of gold into and out of the US over the past 22 years, the Sprott team arrived at a figure of nearly 4,500 tonnes of gold that cannot be accounted for." Continue reading →

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Boston’s Top Cop Warns Against “Police State”

"Boston Police Commissioner Edward Davis warned against creating a 'police state' in the aftermath of the marathon bombings during testimony in front of a congressional hearing today. 'We do not, and cannot, live in a protective enclosure because of the actions of extremists who seek to disrupt our way of life,' Davis told lawmakers, adding 'I do not endorse actions that move Boston and our nation into a police state mentality, with surveillance cameras attached to every light pole in the city.' However, he did call for more surveillance cameras as well as more undercover officers to increase security around big events." Continue reading →

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Fed Economists: Stocks Are The Cheapest They’ve Been In 50 Years

"New York Fed economists Fernando Duarte and Carlo Rosa are out with a new article on Liberty Street Economics titled, 'Are Stocks Cheap? A Review of the Evidence.' The answer: judging by the equity risk premium (ERP), stocks are about as cheap as they've ever been. The last time the Fed said something so bold was when in 2004 when NY Fed economists wrote that there was no housing bubble." Continue reading →

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In Argentina, More Official Lying About Basic Economic Facts

"How much inflation is there? Who can buy dollars legally? Who really runs the economy? Last Friday these questions tripped up Angel Toninelli, one of the directors general of the Administración Federal de Ingresos Públicos, the national tax agency. Toninelli admitted that he did not really understand the inner workings of the approval process for obtaining foreign currency to travel abroad. 'It is a formula that changes periodically,' he said in answer to a question. 'It contains ingredients that come from the central bank, the A.F.I.P., and others that come from God,” he explained, adding, 'It isn’t the Coca-Cola formula, but it’s very similar.'" Continue reading →

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The Pension Rate-of-Return Fantasy

"In June of 2012, Calpers lowered the expected rate of return on its portfolio to 7.5% from 7.75%. Calpers had last dropped the rate in 2004, from 8.25%. But even the 7.5% return is fiction. Wall Street would laugh if the matter weren't so serious. And the trouble is not just in California. Public-pension funds in Illinois use an average of 8.18% expected returns. The 100 top U.S. public companies with defined benefit pension assets of $1.3 trillion have an average expected rate of return of 7.5%. Three of them are over 9%. (Since 2000, these assets have returned 5.6%.) Who wouldn't want 7.5%-8% returns these days? Ten-year U.S. Treasury bonds are paying 1.74%." Continue reading →

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The Obamacare Nightmare Will Officially Start October 1

"What's really going on here is a program that attempts to suck in the youth to pay for the healthcare of the elderly. It's insane. On top of that, the first year penalty for not buying insurance is small ($95), so most young will opt out, meaning the revenue to support the structure will have to come from massive premium hikes paid by those older who opt to stay in the system. There is no other way out if Obamacare goes into effect. Well, there is one way out. According to Emanuel: 'The president connects with young people, too, so he needs to use that bond and get out there to convince them to sign up for health insurance to help this central part of his legacy.'" Continue reading →

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President Obama: Reject Warnings of Tyranny

"This is a startling video clip because in it US President Barack Obama bluntly confronts the reality of the current US conversation in which up to 30 percent (according to one recent poll) believe armed rebellion will be a necessity in the near future. Here at The Daily Bell, of course, we try to focus on dominant social themes from an economic and civil society standpoint. Surely the growing anger in the US – and throughout the West – must be a concern for those who have helped shape the current society ... even though you rarely hear a leader address these concerns so bluntly." Continue reading →

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The Cyprus Depositor Haircut

"The manager told him not to worry, saying the deposit insurance was per account, not per person. She added: ‘We just put your name on the account so your wife wouldn’t take money out without your consent.’ Remembering that in the 1980s his British building society had played down the risks of taking out an endowment mortgage, Demetriou asked if they were 100 per cent sure. He was told they were. The advice was 100 per cent wrong. The deposit insurance is per person, not per account. Soon afterwards, the banks closed for more than a week, and when they reopened, he’d been stripped of 44 per cent of his savings." Continue reading →

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Bill Bonner: Fed’s QE has not created one single extra job

"Our central banks are engaged in a breathtaking program of activism. We don't know where it will lead. But, from the historical record, activism and central banking go no better together than drinking and driving. Keep it up long enough and you're bound to have an accident. But the accident hasn't happened yet. So most people have stopped worrying about it. They smell the liquor on the driver's breath. But they get on the bus anyway. The most reckless driving in central bank history...raising the footings of the US financial system by a factor of 5 times...from $800 billion to $4 trillion...and it has not resulted in one single extra job." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingBill Bonner: Fed’s QE has not created one single extra job