Whoa...

Since you named Chris Hedges as one of the persons in Bailout it must be damn good and a different 'take' too.

Enough said.

If I gave a copy to ALL all of my favorite banksters as gifts, it would still provide zero revenue for Mr. Titus.

However, I may get one for myself.

Even with the decent selection of economy meltdown documentaries like this one and "Inside Job", etc....I still don't think the American public gets it or understand how they were swindled by the big boys. So sometimes I wonder how big an audience these documentaries get or whether people really recall what they view? Something isn't working because the American public is still incredibly stupid. They keep voting the same people into office.

I don't have any banksters that will talk with me any more but I do have many friends that _almost_ believe me that banksters need to be held accountable. This should nudge them to my side of seeing things.

Interesting that Titus is a lawyer. Lawyers get a bad rap, my Dad was one for a while, and he would freely admit deservedly so. But I also remember the countless times when strangers would come up to me and mention how my Lawyer-dad helped them out.

Lawyers are there to press for the rights of victims and to defend the accused. Right or wrong, they are a needed advocate for the screwed up process.

I don't know any lawyers personally these days but I can only imagine they are chomping at the bit, wanting to get their hands on the banks but no, the entire process of regulating banks through legal means is in the hands of...

...well just take a guess who creates banking regulation.

Ordered the CD and will digitally stuff stocking when Amazon comes out.

Ordered.

Noodle is right.

Karl

Looks like he puts in an nice plug for ya at the site:
http://usabailout.com/experts/karl-denin....

Oh cool - I didn't see that....

Sounds like a "Studs Terkel" (ala "Working" fame) for the early 21st century.

Is this the website? http://www.usabailout.com/

And a little more ... (in which KD is shown!) ...

Ok. I would like to order a copy. I don't see where to order one though. Please help me!

I make a concerted effort to follow this stuff and try keep it all straight. But there's so much gaming going on in the capital markets that it's practically impossible to digest and retain. Just when I thought I've seen it all something else supercedes it. Sometimes when I read Karl's numbers my fracking head starts buzzing like a cheap electric razor. So what are the chances that J6P is going to understand how he's being screwed, stewed and tatooed? They did the same thing to the Russians right before Peristroika. Nobody saw it coming.

The public doesn't want to think negatively. I see it this way. 5 percent benefit from the status quo and fight vigorously to maintain it. 5 percent feels like KD et al. 90 percent prefer to watch DWTS and American Idol.

Nothing will change until things collapse. I suspect we will descend into a more totalarian state. I hate NDAA but its just one facet of the decoupling in beliefs of the ruled and the actions of our rulers.

Putting My 2 cents worth in I'll spread the "word" around My usual site(s) I visit,(crediting you of course), Hopefully I'll be able to afford to watch it when I get the ex-tra cash... Thanks again Karl for all you do..
(Yes I saw/watched "inside Job"....)
CT

Ordered and bookmarked -- I will give this to all of my TV-watching-and-not-thinking friends.

If anyone sees the Amazon link, please post it here.

Quote:

I don't know any lawyers personally these days but I can only imagine they are chomping at the bit, wanting to get their hands on the banks but no, the entire process of regulating banks through legal means is in the hands of... ...well just take a guess who creates banking regulation.

Most legislators are lawyers.
I'm actually of the belief that we shoul not vote for anyone into political office that is a lawyer.

There is supposed to be a housing revival. Like Karl, Doug Noland takes apart the z-1 or what ever that quarterly report is called. He noted that mortgage debt fell considerably. What hasn't fallen is the money we are on the line for in the GSE's, the federal deficit, which was on a borrowing basis over $1 trillion again and so forth.

It is kind of like farting in a room and leaving. The air is clear until the fart drifts to where someone can smell it. Politicians are the same way, in that we don't smell their farts until time has passed. We hear this **** about Clinton and high tax rates in the 1990's producing a boom. The credit bubble and stock market mania produced a boom. Clinton had the Republicans, Alan Greenspan and Robert Rubin shoveling coal into a downhill train. 2000, we were left with a hangover, which was solved by more booze, a housing bubble.

The fart in the room today is the Federal defict and the politicians that are still there need to do something about it. They need the Wall Streeters to shovel coal for them and the lunatics at the Fed, the delusional students of revisionist history, to provide the money. More and more debt on less and less worth. Keep the stock market inflated, so it appears we can still pay.

I was either listening to or reading Kyle Bass. The Japanese national debt is now greater than the net worth of the households in Japan is what I understood him to say. Solution? It appears they are going to try to pump air into a new bubble in Japan. Problem is, there isn't anyone over there with enough wind to blow one. They never fixed the holes in the old one. Neither have we, the Europeans nor anyone else. The China bubble rests on unsound banking practices that make the subprime mess look tame. Think we have mark to fantasy?

We are about to see the worst bear market in history. Doug mentioned one of the unintended consequences of Bernanke's shennanigans, the fact that regardless of how low mortgage rates are, they are massively higher than what the banksters are paying on your savings. You have $100K in the bank and a mortgage, you are giving up $3000 a year. Forget the tax deduction, which only starts after you have paid several thousand in taxes and interest on your house in most cases. Getting statements on $100K money market and CD's and seeing the $20 or less they credit to you for interest is stunning. Rates are about 1/20th what they should be and the system forces someone to hold the cash.

This is what is missing in this bank money era, the fact that someone is tied up in cash. It isn't a societal choice, as someone has to hold it. It isn't so much inflationary as it is deflationary, as either more and more resources are tied up in cash or, should it decline in value, the purchasing power in the economy falls, not increases. More than anything, I sense this is what has hamstrung Japan for 2 decades, excessive bank credit inflation that is used, not for internal expansion, but international arbitrage finance.

So, the politicians need some loaded ammunition. This is why it isn't fixed. The politicians are in the ****ter and the bankers have the toilet paper. The only solution is to make the problem worse, as to not do so would mean the fart gets out while the politician is still there. We are now going to war and the ammo boxes are filled with more and more spent casings. National debt is a spent casing. Bank money credit is a spent casing. It can only be recycled to factories that reload it and immediately fire it and send out reloaded casings that are already spent. This is what the debt bubble and the expanding national debt are, fired casings.

Look what is going on? Intel borrowed $6 billion last week. Why? Their dividend payments were yielding higher than the interest rate on the debt, so why not load up and buy some of their own stock? We are going to find out why not in the future. This makes INTC the ultimate short in the next slowdown, which will be worse than the last slowdown, because the ammo box has been spent. INTC could reduce its dividend in a cash crunch, but they won't be able to reduce the interest on this debt, nor evade its payment. INTC isn't in the catbirds seat it was before, because so much of what is computers has moved to phones and they aren't on this sailing ship. I have read they are going to attempt to become blow buddies with AAPL, as AAPL is waging war with its supplier, Samsung. The price wars are coming in the phone business, as they have in the PC business. What happens to AAPL if margin shrinks?

Speaking of which, the 4th quarter results of AAPL show 26.028 million phone units, producing 16.245 billion in revenue. This is right at $625 per unit wholesale. Each dollar less margin produces $26 million less gross. These items will be commodities in a matter of a few years and to annualize these figures, multiply by 4. I'm sure the Chinese in the rice paddies are going to be lining up to buy these items at $1000 retail to use in places there isn't broadband capacity. I'm also sure that when Samsung and other foreign competitors decide to really get competitive, there will be charges of dumping on the US market. But, can we really get too upset by loss of revenue by a company that for the most part employs Chinese slave labor? History shows a complete round trip on mania stocks like AAPL. I'm sure their cash balances will be discussed when the market price of the stock is nearby. Remember, in 1998, everyone had to own DELL.

I was nearly out of high school when the hand held calculator hit the market. TI is 8 miles down the road and half the town worked for them at the time. A kid brought one to chemistry class. He probably wouldn't have owned one save for the fact his old man was in TI management. Half the class copied his homework and of course, couldn't work the problems when the test came out. While in college, the HP brand was AAPL. To get one of the fancy HP calculators, it was $300 to $400. By the mid 1980's, the 12C, what I consider to be a marvelous tool, was about $120. The last one I bought was $40. My sister's was run over by a car, as she had dropped it in the parking lot. It still worked.

From Doug Noland wrote..

I’ve essentially ignored the (stagnant) banking system in my “flow of funds” analyses over recent quarters. Total Bank Assets grew only $66bn during Q3 to $14.762 TN – and were up only $197bn (1.4%) over the past year. Yet I would be remiss for not noting the 9.7% y-o-y increase in business loans (to $2.174 TN) or the 8.3% y-o-y increase in government securities holdings (to $2.231 TN). Meanwhile, Corporate Bond holdings were down 4.1% y-o-y (to $776bn), mortgage loans contracted 2.0% (to $4.334 TN) and Misc. Assets fell 11.0% y-o-y (to $1.267 TN). On the Bank Liability side, Total Deposits were up $495bn, or 4.9%, y-o-y to $10.532 TN.

With federal government liabilities now locked in an historic inflationary cycle, there’s at this point a significantly reduced need for the traditional workings of the U.S. financial sector. The vast majority of system Credit growth remains governmental. In stark contrast to the mortgage finance Bubble, this Credit for the most part need not be intermediated (transformed from risky Credit to perceived safe instruments) through the banking system, or through asset-backed (ABS) and mortgage-backed (MBS) securitization. It is also worth noting that, at $7.544 TN, total GSE Securities (debt and MBS) were little changed during the quarter and declined only 0.5% over the past year. And while Total Home Mortgage Credit has contracted $660bn over the past two years, GSE securities have declined only $54bn. Despite talk of “winding down” Fannie and Freddie, total GSE securities are about where they were in early 2008. It is worth noting that GSE securities began year-2000 at $1.723 TN.

Monitoring the financial sector for signs of rejuvenation remains less than fruitful. Finance Companies were stagnant for the quarter and year. Securities Broker/Dealer assets were down slightly during the quarter (assets up $70bn, or 3.5% y-o-y, to $2.051 TN). The ABS market continues to contract (down $216bn y-o-y to $1.824 TN). Money Market Funds expanded $39bn during the quarter to $2.507 TN, reducing the year-over-year contraction to $170bn. Fed Funds and Repo increased $32bn y-o-y, or 2.9%, to $1.134 TN. Funding Corps increased $70bn y-o-y, or 3.6%, to $2.256 TN. Credit Union Assets did see year-over-year growth of 5.5% to $897bn. Real Estate Investment Trust (REITs) Liabilities jumped $67bn to $792bn, with one-year growth of $172bn, or 28%.

From my analytical perspective, the SAAR $299bn contraction of Home Mortgage Credit was the biggest surprise for the quarter. This compares to Q2’s $214bn contraction and Q3 2011’s $200bn decline. With mortgage borrowing costs having taken another leg down to historic lows – and all the talk of an unfolding housing recovery – I was anticipating a return to positive mortgage Credit growth in Q3 or Q4. But, then again, with negative real returns on savings and such highly uncertain policy, market and economic backdrops, it remains perfectly rational to pay down mortgages and other borrowings. That extreme fiscal and monetary policy measures foster extraordinary uncertainty – thus incentivizing a cautious approach for many individuals and businesses - reminds one of the Law of Unintended Consequences. And a “fiscal cliff” compromise, while perhaps spurring the markets’ speculative reflexes, would do little to resolve ongoing uncertainties.

http://www.prudentbear.com/index.php/cre....

Read between the lines and you might understand what is happening. The households, in general aren't taking the bait. But, there is more. Look at the GSE debt figures and the explosion that occurred between 2000 and 2008. Look back in Doug's archives, which can be found on safehaven.com's website to 2001. You will note a similar growth rate in the 1990's, money which fueled the stock market bubble.

Why no prosecution? Some of you might recall the 2008 Presidential election. Who were Obama's financial advisors? I recall seeing them listed as Robert Rubin (talk about a fart in the room), Larry Summers (the actual turd?), Paul Volker (the legitimate voice brought along to legitimize the nonsense that I am certain he disagrees with) and Franklin Raines. Who is Franklin Raines? A black man from Wall Street who worked in the Clinton Adminstration, I believe in HUD. He is also the guy who ran FNMA during this disaster. He also financed the black congressional caucus and Obama's rise to prominence. Could there be a connection.

http://www.safehaven.com/article/209/fra....

There have been 4 years of tickers here I have read. I venture 20% of them have dealt with the thin layer of dirt overlying the massive pile of **** known as the mortgage securitization market. The whole pile likely leads to Raines and maybe Rubin. Raines was the leader of the band in the mortgage business. Any uncovering of this massive stench puts this guy and all his cronies in prison. But, he has Obama, HUD and Eric "Place" Holder between him and broad striped outfits. Raines goes, Obama goes with him, as he will be wrapped around Obama's neck like an anvil around the neck of a man in deep water. Bought and paid for. Banker capitalists don't care what are the means as long as the ends are achieved, to the point of historically putting communists and fascists in power. Anyone kicks off a little dirt, the administration quickly covers up the bare spots.

Corruption in bubbles has almost always centered around stocks and real estate loans. We had the swampland deals in the 1920's. The stock market manipulations between the trusts. All were designed to leave others holding the bag. Now we have the greatest scam, leaving the people of the US holding the bag and the elected officials arranging it.

Grunwald wrote..

Most legislators are lawyers.
I'm actually of the belief that we should not vote for anyone into political office that is a lawyer.

The folksinger U. Utah Phillips wrote..

Just about all our politicians are lawyers. We let lawyers make the laws. That's like letting doctors make diseases!

Mann, as a freshman in college, a crony majoring in EE dropped $325 on an HP-45 to help him through the labs. I majored in CS... and to get to a part-time job, spent $325 on a 9-year-old car. He got a LOT more out of my purchase, than I did from his.

Tully

I could not afford a HP-67.

I COULD afford a 34C, and bought one. It was DAMNED EXPENSIVE for a schoolkid.

It was extremely useful and unbelievably rugged - I actually RAN IT OVER WITH MY CAR once (in the soft case) and it was UNDAMAGED.

I now own a 12C (as does damn near anyone else who ever needs to run amort tables and similar things.)

NOTE: Modern HP calculators are now Chineesium crap in terms of build quality, and that sucks.

I loved my HP 12C. I didn't love my finance classes quite as much, but they're the reason that I understand how much we pay in interest and why we don't have any credit cards. We don't pay on a vehicle more than three years or a house more than ten.

Finance classes should be mandatory in school IMO. It didn't seem to matter so much when I was young because if a kid wanted something, he/she had to get a job and buy it. We learned to manage money by managing our money. I asked my husband what jobs he had before he was 15. He said he was pumping gas at the local service stations when he was 12, and he started working construction in the summer when he was 14. I worked in a cabinet shop (with power tools!) when I was 12 or 13, and then in a cannery when I was 15.

A lot of kids are growing up with a single parent without a job who goes to the store with an EBT card that she hasn't worked for, living in housing that she isn't paying for, and having free lunches at school. How in the world are they supposed to know about how to manage money when they grow up? *sigh* Most likely they'll continue the dependent lifestyle.

swampwoman, how long do you think this is going to last though?

Welfare Spending = $168 Per Day for Every Household in Poverty … $137 Median Income Per Day

this election proved that we are past the tipping point now, and it is just a matter of time before rebalancing.

Florida senator Marco Rubio:

"Americans are struggling to find or keep middle class jobs for two reasons: because our economy is not creating enough of these jobs and because too many of our people don't have the education or skills required for the jobs that are being created," says Rubio. "A limited government can and must help solve these challenges.

"We must get the national debt under control. Tax increases will not solve our $16 trillion debt. Only economic growth and a reform of entitlement programs will help control the debt.

Source: http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/rubi....