Zero Credibility

[GSIMMERLE]

The dictionary defines posturing as the striking a pose for effect, and a posturer as one who assumes an artificial or pretended attitude. Thus it follows that if you accept the goings on at Davos 2010, you have been attitudinized, which is to say you have assumed an affected mental attitude, precisely what consensus the gathering in Davos is there to build.
People, don’t fall for that stuff or else you will lose your shirt.
I often use the slang expression that “B.S. baffles brains” because I see that it is so easy to move the majority of people from their grounding in logic and common sense. Get-togethers like this so-called World Economic Forum are convened for just that purpose.
Without belaboring the point, I’ll leave you with the thought that the reappointment of Federal Reserve chairman Bernanke is all about posturing that the global financial crisis is under control. Rather than blind-fold and shoot the perpetrators of the history’s biggest financial disaster, namely Bernanke, Geithner and Paulson, all of whom were on the world stage yesterday, it appears to me that history will be rewritten and those people will be recorded as American heroes, candidates for next year’s Nobel Prize...

http://caracommunity.com/content/bill-cara’s-blog-january-29-2010

[defio70]

Tally of Senate Votes on Bernanke

The following full list of U.S. Senators is sortable by their votes on confirmation and cloture...
http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2010/01/ ... -bernanke/

...So we got our "Bernanke" reconfirmation on two votes, the first the "real" one and the second the one that everyone is trying to "count."
Let's first look at the real vote - the vote for Cloture, without which there would have been no confirmation vote at all.
The following Senators voted YEA on Cloture and stand for election this November.

AK:Murkowski (R)
AR:Lincoln (D)
CA:Boxer (D)
CT:Dodd (D)
GA:Isakson (R)
HI:Inouye (D)
IN:Bayh (D)
MD:Mikulski (D)
NC:Burr (R) YEA
ND:Dorgan (D) YEA
NH:Gregg (R) YEA (Retiring - to a Goldman affiliate!)
NV:Reid (D) YEA
NY:Schumer (D) YEA (Wall Street's Chief Whore)
OK:Coburn (R) YEA
OR:Wyden (D) YEA
UT:Bennett (R) YEA
VT:Leahy (D) YEA
WA:Murray (D) YEA


Ignore the actual confirmation vote. Some of the clowns in the Senate, like Babs Boxer, tried to obfuscate reality by voting for Cloture and then voting "Nay" on the final vote itself, in an attempt to play "I voted against it before I voted for it." This sort of symbolic malarkey must not be allowed to stand.
More importantly though is that Bernanke is now officially President Obama's child. He put him up for renomination, he did not pull that nomination, and he personally lobbied for his reconfirmation. He owns it...

Bernanke: Now The Adminsitration Owns The Mess
http://market-ticker.denninger.net/arch ... -Mess.html

[Entendance]

Richmond Fed: "Bubble? What Bubble?"
The same crappy Fed analysis that got into this mess in the first place. And the reason the Fed should be abolished!!! They are incompetent, and completely stupid. I said that before as someone who used to set on a Fed Regional bank beige book committee and I quite sure I haven't changed my mind.
by Hondo
http://tinyurl.com/yfv4y6n

The Power of Stupidity
viewtopic.php?f=16&t=220&p=9228#p9128

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[Entendance]

Ron Paul Warns of Social Unrest and Martial Law
http://inpoints.blogspot.com/2010/02/ro ... t-and.html
http://inpoints.blogspot.com/2010/02/pi ... ey-as.html

The Crisis is Not Over
http://www.counterpunch.org/roberts02032010.html

CSCO: Oh No... You Heard It Here First (Lucent Gastric Reflux)

...This is Ponzi-style financing and John Chambers knows better, having survived the 2000 tech crash in no small part because he didn't do the same thing that Lucent did and thus didn't get hammered by the defaults when the bust came.
The market has paid exactly zero attention to this "contribution" to CISCO's sales, and it won't in the immediate future either. You can count on it. I'm willing to bet there will not be one mainstream analyst who will point this out tomorrow morning in a research report and slap a big fat SELL on CISCO as a consequence. I sure didn't hear anyone on the Fast Money CNBS show bring it up.
The market loves a good bit of Ponzi Finance and typically rewards those firms that engage in it for quite some time - sometimes for as long as a year or two.
But each and every loan made below market price for the credit extended is impaired at origination. It cannot be otherwise as there is no such thing as a real zero or negative cost of capital, even if only on time value. "Spurring demand" by holding the risk on a product you sell looks good when you consider that after a year or two you could "eat it" and lose "just your gross margin", until you consider that you spent that margin on salaries and operational needs for the business in the interim.
That we are seeing this sort of crap again in the technology space just ten short years after it blew up last time, taking down one of the titans in the telecommunications space, is proof positive that there is no real economic recovery, there is no solid fundamental demand, and that it is financial trickery and games that are leading to these "excellent results."
I can't tell you when the collapse engendered from this round of BS will come, but I can tell you with all but absolute certainty that it will, just as I said it would last time when I saw this same game being played in this very same industry.
"This time it's different" - right John?
I look forward to FedExing a copy of this article to you in a year or two, with a big fat "I told you so" scrawed across the front of it in black sharpie marker.
http://market-ticker.denninger.net/arch ... eflux.html

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[Entendance]

Senator Prodded Fed to Aid Ailing Lender
Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey urged the Federal Reserve last July to approve an acquisition to save a struggling bank in his state. He didn't mention that the bank's chairman and vice chairman were big contributors to his political campaign.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... TopStories

"More Empires Have Fallen Because Of Reckless Finances Than Invasion"
http://tinyurl.com/yzccrzh


This Trend is Not Your Friend
Wall Street's Killer Instinct Spells Death Knell for Jobs
http://www.counterpunch.org/martens03082010.html

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[defio70]

Keep flapping your jaws Ben - it's what you're best at.

http://market-ticker.denninger.net/arch ... nanke.html

[Entendance]

Lots of politicians understand that the simple free system leaves them out in the cold. No power for them. No fat checks from lobbyists. No committees to sit on to decide people’s lives. When the people’s power grows, theirs shrinks, and vice versa.

Thank you Hank, Ben and Tim. Excellent work. Seriously. Great f*cking job.
http://dailybail.com/home/taxpayers-23- ... rth-0.html

Zero Credibility
March 13th, 2007 – Henry Paulson: “the fallout in subprime mortgages is "going to be painful to some lenders, but it is largely contained."
March 28th, 2007 – Ben Bernanke: "At this juncture . . . the impact on the broader economy and financial markets of the problems in the subprime markets seems likely to be contained,"
April 20th, 2007 – Paulson: "I don't see (subprime mortgage market troubles) imposing a serious problem. I think it's going to be largely contained." , "All the signs I look at" show "the housing market is at or near the bottom,"
May 17th, 2007 – Bernanke: “While rising delinquencies and foreclosures will continue to weigh heavily on the housing market this year, it will not cripple the U.S.”
June 20th, 2007 – Bernanke: (the subprime fallout) ``will not affect the economy overall.''
July 12th, 2007 – Paulson: "This is far and away the strongest global economy I've seen in my business lifetime."
August 1st, 2007 – Paulson: "I see the underlying economy as being very healthy,"
October 15th, 2007 – Bernanke: "It is not the responsibility of the Federal Reserve - nor would it be appropriate - to protect lenders and investors from the consequences of their financial decisions."

February 14th, 2008 – Paulson: (the economy) "is fundamentally strong, diverse and resilient."
February 28th, 2008 – Paulson: "I'm seeing a series of ideas suggested involving major government intervention in the housing market, and these things are usually presented or sold as a way of helping homeowners stay in their homes. Then when you look at them more carefully what they really amount to is a bailout for financial institutions or Wall Street."
February 29th, 2008 – Bernanke: "I expect there will be some failures. I don't anticipate any serious problems of that sort among the large internationally active banks that make up a very substantial part of our banking system."
March 16th, 2008 – Paulson: "We've got strong financial institutions . . . Our markets are the envy of the world. They're resilient, they're...innovative, they're flexible. I think we move very quickly to address situations in this country, and, as I said, our financial institutions are strong."
March 18th, 2008 - Bear Stearns Bailout Announced
May 7, 2008 – Paulson: 'The worst is likely to be behind us,”
May 16th, 2008 – Paulson: "In my judgment, we are closer to the end of the market turmoil than the beginning," he said.
June 9th, 2008 – Bernanke: Despite a recent spike in the nation's unemployment rate, the danger that the economy has fallen into a "substantial downturn" appears to have waned,
July 16th, 2008 – Bernanke: (Freddie and Fannie) “…will make it through the storm”, "… in no danger of failing.","…adequately capitalized"
July 20th, 2008 – Paulson: "it's a safe banking system, a sound banking system. Our regulators are on top of it. This is a very manageable situation."
August 10th, 2008 – Paulson: ``We have no plans to insert money into either of those two institutions.” (Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac)
September 8th, 2008 - Fannie and Freddie nationalized. The taxpayer is on the hook for an estimated 1 - 1.5 trillion dollars. Over 5 trillion is added to the nation’s balance sheet.
September 16th, 2008 - $85 Billion AIG Bailout “Loan”
September 19th, 2008 - $700 Billion Bailout Plan Announced
September 19th, 2008 – Paulson: "We're talking hundreds of billions of dollars - this needs to be big enough to make a real difference and get at the heart of the problem," he said. "This is the way we stabilize the system."
September 19th, 2008 - Bernanke: "most severe financial crisis" in the post-World War II era. Investment banks are seeing "tremendous runs on their cash," Bernanke said. "Without action, they will fail soon."
September 21st, 2008 – Paulson: "The credit markets are still very fragile right now and frozen", "We need to deal with this and deal with it quickly.", "The financial security of all Americans ... depends on our ability to restore our financial institutions to a sound footing."
September 23rd, 2008 – Paulson: "We must [enact a program quickly] in order to avoid a continuing series of financial institution failures and frozen credit markets that threaten American families' financial well-being, the viability of businesses, both small and large, and the very health of our economy,"
September 23rd, 2008 – Bernanke: "My interest is solely for the strength and recovery of the U.S. economy,"



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[Entendance]

Irony’s Hitting The Fan, Too

Somebody should come up with some kind of irony index, you know, like, when irony’s really high in the public realm, watch out. It could be an early warning kind of thing. Call it the IronicX, let the CBOT sell it, and you could have daily updates on Bloomberg radio. I’m telling you, it’s a winner.
The index would be flashing some red lights right about now. Lately, we’ve had some real humdingers...
http://markettalk.newswires-americas.com/?p=8715

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[Entendance]

Bankers are politicians' best friends when they're enabling their "spend today, for tomorrow we may all be dead!" lifestyle, but when the bill comes due, they're "evil speculators".
What a bunch of hypocrites. Not that I didn't know that, but it bears continual repeating.

...French Finance Minister Christine Lagarade has said that "six financial institutions have been singled out for speculating on Greek debt during the ongoing crisis."
In a hearing with the Finance Commission at the French National Assembly, which was closed to the press, Lagarde told French lawmakers that the six institutions are all anglo-saxon, a word French politicians and media use to designate U.S. and U.K.-based companies...
http://tinyurl.com/ycznjws

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[sowhat]

It may be unfair to compare the banking lobby to Al Capone. After all, they haven’t killed anybody. But have they bribed the jury? You be the judge.
http://markettalk.newswires-americas.com/?p=9006