"On a normal day, 4 billion shares of stock change hands on the New York Stock Exchange. One in 10 belongs to a single company. It's not McDonald's or IBM, both of which have been on a tear. It's Bank of America
……
Instead, Bank of America is the stock of the moment for high-frequency trading, the supercomputer-driven buying and selling that barely existed a few years ago and NOW ACCOUNTS FOR AS MUCH AS TWO-THIRDS OF U.S.TRADING."

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/why-bank-a....

Where's Neo when we need him?

Zero hedge posted this graphic of trading volume a few days ago.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/presenting....

And with that I will say, "This time it is different".

What kind of preternatural power is this, possessed by TPTB? That if they want the markets to remain levitated through the elections, "So shall it surely and truly be, Amen"?

Bah. In the long run the market is far stronger than whatever set of PTBs currently sucks oxygen on the planet. And if the line happens to run out before they'd like, there's not a damn thing they're gonna be able to do about it. Just ask anyone living in the Soviet Union. Wait a minute, there IS NO Soviet Union. Nevermind.

That said, what we are looking at on the long term S&P chart appears to be either a double bottom after which the Mother of All Rallies has begun. Or a double top followed by the Mother of All Dead Cat Bounces, after which even Lucifer hisself won't save us.

Personally I find KD's math to be persuasive, but at the end of the day you makes your choices and you takes your chances.

Quote:

That said, what we are looking at on the long term S&P chart appears to be either a double bottom after which the Mother of All Rallies has begun. Or a double top followed by the Mother of All Dead Cat Bounces, after which even Lucifer hisself won't save us.

Stan, that is the problem I have with charts. You can read them whichever way your bias is.

I haven't heard a single argument for "imminence" of a collapse, or a "sooner rather than later" argument.

Empirically speaking, it sure looks like TPTB can keep this charade going for a long time. Maybe decades. ZH seems to be right, and the prevailing sentiment on TF seems to be wrong.

Show me the math on why this must fall apart sooner than later. So far the dollar is getting weaker and the market is screaming higher. All the chatter on TF seems to be "Yes, but soon it will reverse and we'll all be right".

Yes, yes, and the meek shall inherit the earth, the end times are getting closer. And the sun will eventually supernova.

The problem with "eventuality" is that its an easy argument that never needs to be right.

Looking at history complex systems are more prone to catastrophic failure.
Japan for example has had tsunamis and earthquakes before. But that was when it was an agrarian society. Things are obviously more fragile in a technological society. The interesting thing is there are ancient stones erected that have warnings carved on them saying - Do NOT build closer to the water than this plaque.
They ignored them and built right down to the beach.
This time they did not lose a bunch of farmers. They lost a power grid they needed to have any prosperity and polluted the land. I don't think we'll see how badly they screwed up for another full generation.
The thing about such tech societies is nobody can completely understand how they work. We have models and we have people who are experts in one particular industry. But nobody can mentally model the whole at this stage. Or at least nobody has both the resources and the authority to do so. That is why central planning fails so badly. If the rulers of the USSR didn't wield enough authority to collect the data and issue decrees to control the whole then I doubt it is within the grasp of humans at this point in history.
When you have such a huge ad hoc machine that evolved organically and not by design it is like an automobile engine. Every part needs to function for it to operate, but there is no master plan or blueprint optimizing all the parts.
If one valve or bolt is fragile and fails there is no recovery plan.
I can't see anything else happening but a collapse not over years but in a few days as one component unexpectedly fails and the resources are not there to prevent a cascade.
Just one example. If something happens to halt the delivery of Diesel fuel - institutions will not wait in limbo for a recovery. Modern businesses are a dynamic process like a living body. If the heart stops the brain doesn't wait for the blood supply to resume. It dies. If Diesel stops flowing then some businesses won't exist in as little as three days. If people are let go and have to go home the lose of income will have some businesses unable to meet their payments for rent and credit and utilities the next month even if the fuel and deliveries resume.
You could say the same for electricity. I know one market here that lost $300,000 dollars of frozen food when the power went out for four days. The local power company rep assured them they would have power back in four HOURS and the only reason they are still in business is they sued and recovered from Edison. So it was another lose shifted onto the public. Some other small markets did go under. What if it had been out for four WEEKS?
That's two ways for it to fail - you can think of more. The more there are the more likely one will happen. Those are physical reasons - but a business can be killed by withdrawal of credit or license or sudden regulation just as easily when no physical change exists. An example is Germany suddenly deciding they will shut down their nuke plants.

Baghbalm--that market should have insurance for stuff like that.

If electricity goes out. All bets are off and it's every man for himself. I don't think that's gonna happen.

What if suddenly 50% of homes can't afford to pay their power bills? How long will the lights be able to shine for the rest of us with the loss of revenue to the operating company? Ditto for the water bill or garbage collection.

Also, no diesel = no chlorine = no water service b/c they can't clean the water.

Well, if worst comes to worst, you can always clean your own water - or at least enough for drinking. It's not that hard.

Asimov wrote..

Well, if worst comes to worst, you can always clean your own water - or at least enough for drinking. It's not that hard.

That's why fermentation was invented.

I can make a water filter that'll filter the nastiest ass **** you can imagine using crap laying around in your back yard and a plastic bottle or two. Add a little bleach to kill any critters.

It'll even taste good. (well, maybe a bit of chlorine taste, but it won't taste nasty.)

So how do you do that MacGruber?

Dry grass/moss/something, dirt, sand, wood (to burn for charcoal)

Bleach to kill critters.

You'd be surprised how easy it is to make potable water from little of nothing.