Bill Cara's Blog for Jul 6, 2011 [See Post-Close report]

"I suppose the shareholders of the banks are not too happy with the US ratings agencies and media maintaining a full-court press, now pushing hard down on Portugal as well as Greece, rather than say California, Illinois and New Jersey."

Bill,

Bankers no doubt watch such happenings with a sharp focus.

Speaking as a guy in Illinois, I must say what I hear from friends and neighbors is far removed from our conversations here regarding financial matters.

Those who seldom change their investments and could not be classed as any kind of trader — day, swing, or even allocation reallocating — are dismayed and disgusted with what appears to be a disconnect between legislative bodies, rating agencies, the Fed and our daily lives and concerns. It appears that many, if not most, my age (retirees) are holding tightly to various bonds. The recent equity plunge is simply too reminiscent of what our parents saw in 1929. The term "Gambling" with stocks," comes to mind.

Diversions like the Blagojevich trial/conviction smother the real issues and people who are struggling to find jobs or keep one, pay the mortgage and ever rising food and energy costs are far removed from the causes of the malaise.

I wonder if this is so in the Canada, the European Union, Scandinavia and Great Britain as well.

If so, those pulling the strings will go on until we see a major global crisis, I suspect.

Grym

Good morning.

2.5 - 3.5 Billion Dollar POMO Injection Today.

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07:00 MBA Mortgage Index (-5.2%)
07:30 Challenger Job Cuts (5.2%)
10:00 ISM Services

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AMZN - Collins Stewart Initiates with a Neutral. Target $180

GOOG - Collins Stewart Initiates with a Buy. Target $680

SCHW - Charles Schwab initiated with a Hold at Citigroup. Target $18

WFM - Whole Foods coverage assumed with an Overweight at Piper Jaffray. Target $77

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"The only good bureaucrat is one with a pistol at his head. Put it in his hand and it's good-bye to the Bill of Rights." -- H.L. Mencken

A vending machine in a London shopping center, a city where downtown, underground parking spots sell for over $300K USD. Notice they use the term ATM as if gold were a currency. The nerve. :)

http://www.gizmag.com/gold-to-go-launches-in-londo...

following this pre-market take down. Perhaps smart money positioning itself, but I noticed SLW stayed green even as SLV got hit hard. The market seeing beyond these cheap tricks? Gold has gone ballistic:

http://www.finviz.com/futures_charts.ashx?t=GC&p=m5

Curious timing on the downgrade of Portugal. Why now and not a long time ago?

When is a default not a default? When the lawyers say so.

Seriously, this would be comical if it weren't so serious. Seriously.

The inability to repay your debt on an agreed upon schedule isn't default.

Really?

Greece was small potatoes, played by the elitists for sport. I don't see Ireland or Portugal being much different. All three easy to score on. They'll need some home-cookin' referees when they get to Italy...

Crazy.

Markit iTraxx SovX WE 247.12 17.6 (7.7%) 14:11

Portugal 890 122 (16%) 13:00
Italy 220 24 (12.3%) 13:00
Ireland 825 87 (11.9%) 13:00
Greece 2090 174 (9.1%) 13:00
Spain 301 25 (9.2%) 13:00

With all due respect, Kaimu's posts are excellent. It's impossible to separate markets from politics in today's world.

The information gathered & presented by Kaimu is available nowhere else and his angle & opinions are welcomed.

new highs

BH,

"Since Obama was elected President on November 4th, 2008, the U.S. dollar has lost 48% of its purchasing power."

Whenever I point this out to friends and family, i show them the rise in the price of gold. Since it has relatively little industrial use and has been a recognized store of value forever, I think of is as the best barometer of currency debasement.

On Father's Day I pointed this out to my son who has been primarily a holder of gold funds for some time simply based on observation of its behavior relative to other investments. Now he has one more reason ;-)

I am still of my long time opinion that the Fed cannot control anything except perhaps Congress and the media perceptions. Many of us are, unfortunately, experiencing a massive deflation of wages and other forms of income and inflation in the necessities of life simultaneously.

As Bill points out, those in the global control seats are playing us for suckers.

Grym

Hi - Noted this summary of the larger players in the Bakken oil shale - made viable through the innovation of modern well stimulation. Thanks Halliburton et.al., and thanks to Kaimu for his insights. For those that don't want to hear the tragedy wrought on us in the U.S. by progressive elements within both parties don't go to the special section Bill has set aside for Kaimu's insights. Happy Trading
http://seekingalpha.com/article/278151-3-leading-c...

AAPL - estimates were boosted at Sterne Agee through 2012. Company should benefit from better component pricing, Sterne Agee said. Buy rating and $460 price target.

JOYG - estimates were raised through 2012 at Robert Baird. LeTourneau purchase should add to earnings, Baird said. Outperform rating and $114 price target.

We must learn to educate.

Enormous effort goes into creating "Kaimu's Sound Money" and some insist on complaining about style and length? Why post publicly such ridiculous criticism of free, optional and easily avoidable content?

Perhaps the critics wish to discourage opinion and debate?

If you disagree, please prepare a coherent rebuttal. I sent this quote to Bill once and it certainly would help us all to remember its wisdom;

"It is NOT the critic who counts, not the one who points out how the strong man stumbled or how the doer of deeds might have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena who's face is marred with sweat, dust and blood; who strives valiantly who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion and spends himself in a worthy cause; who if he wins, knows the triumph of achievement and when if he fails at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who are afraid to risk victory nor defeat...."

pulse

Bull Hunter,

More accurately: since Obama was elected China has stepped up its consumption, and in some cases, stockpiling of commodities.

The reckless economic policies of the previous administration resulted in a finacial meltdown with subsequent high unemployment and shrinking government revenues. This worsened a massive existing deficit.

All efforts to correct these criical problems have been stymied for short term poitical gain-the nation be damned.

Ciao, Z.

pulse -

You asked an important question, I think - "Why post publicly such ridiculous criticism of free, optional and easily avoidable content?" Especially when clearly so much effort goes into the post.

Here's the answer. I want his insights to reach more people. I want him to appeal to a wider audience. Rough guess: half the readers here feel as I do, and half do not. I think with some style tweaks, he'd get to 90%, without losing one bit of content or authenticity in the process. And new readers would find his posts more accessible.

I posted my opinion publicly so that others would be able to weigh in and either agree, or disagree so we could get a sense of the community on this - what I think is an important matter.

Of course that is just my opinion - free, optional, easily avoided, and to some ridiculous. :)

davefairtex
Thanks for elucidating my thoughts far better than I can. When I'm short of time, I skip kaimu's lengthy epistles (I'm part of the choir, so don't need converting) while wishing I didn't have to.

pulse - "I'm with him" (Les points finger at davefairtex)

A little memoire I'm rereading over now that is pertinent here:

"I believe that the public wants to be led, to be instructed, to be told what to do. They want reassurance. They will always move en masse, a mob, a herd, a group, because people want the safety of human company. They are afraid to stand alone because they want to be safely included within the herd, not to be the calf standing on the desolate, dangerous, wolf-patrolled prairie of contrary opinion"

Jesse Livermore

http://bit.ly/3ZkYr

My own understanding gained from university is that the academic code of ivory tower research papers (which I was admittedly good at decoding) was not the way forward to helping others. I found in Aikido the way to practice with others. I find in this blog a way to share with others.

3 dollar shysters abound on the net, in radio, business and politics and they play a very savvy communication game. Kaimu has something important to share, but I know if I have difficulty reading it so will others and that prairie of contrary opinion is so easily avoided.

davefairtex -

I would miss Kaimu's contributions to my personal education. I prefer unedited communications and fight the tyranny of the politically correct and 'something for nothing' squids at each opportunity.

Wisdom arrives when we realize our own principles are not absolute and we are in fact often in need of some polish to our own presentations.

Just my opinion : If personal style becomes the talking point, the talk becomes personal and should be communicated personally!

pulse

I'm in the camp that the Kaimu's full court press is necessary and valuable macro backdrop. If it slips from our awareness, we are not properly armed to invest. It won't matter until it does, which it will some day. Just look at the postings today on the loss of purchasing power of the USD since 2008. These two are corelated. Soldier on Kaimu

(EU) EU Regulatory ministers note that a suspension on ratings from ratings agencies could be implemented for those countries receiving bailouts
- Reminder: The EU commission earlier had called for a break up of ratings agencies and claimed ratings agencies are generating uncertainty, not clarity; noted Moody's Portugal decision highlights the questionable decisions of the ratings agencies

After reading each "Sound Money" I find myself wanting more Kaimu; not less. And yes, that includes what some here refer to as rants. Someone in today's financial world certainly needs to rant considering what a road to disaster we are all on at this point. Nowhere else have I ever seen explanations of Fed and financial issues spelled out as clearly as those of Kaimu.

Personally, I'm waiting for "Kaimu/Sound Money the Book" and the accompanying lecture tour. I'd paid good money for both.

Kaimu's Sound Money is one of the highlights of being part of the Cara Community.

"If YOU had to pay the cost out of your own pocket, would your mothers Bladder infection treatment cost 24K?"

If it were paid privately it would have, with all of the other hospital visits, bankrupted my mother. To be clear, I live in Washington State and my mom lives in California near my younger brother. She, like a lot of other elderly people, doesn't have a lot of family to care for her or they are very busy trying to keep their heads above water. In this case my brother works on the movie business and he was in a remote location and unavailable. It was also a weekend.
My example was more to illustrate how much it costs for the uninsured to use ER's for medical care when as you correctly point out, just using a regular doctor would be at most, a couple hundred bucks. My mom had insurance, so imagine what it might have really cost without an insurance company contract controlling the costs!
Just imagine what all those uninsured people are costing us.
They don't go to regular doctors for a couple hundred bucks. They don't have an insurance company contract controlling that cost. They wait until they are VERY sick and then they end up in the ER at insane costs to the taxpayer.

simply having a single payer or even a semi-private system like they do in Germany would save us billions of dollars and we would have better care and better health.

I have more examples, and I'm sure others here do too.
A simple one: My wife goes to get a mammogram. they goof up her insurance card info and we get the bill for $475. They send us this form asking if we qualify for low income help. We call them and ask, WTF are you doing, we HAVE INSURANCE. They re-bill the insurance company and the insurance company pays the entire thing, 100%. THEIR COST??? $156.

So I ask everyone.....what other service or industry do you know that can charge one person $156 and another identical customer $475?

Why do we tolerate it? We should demand a simple pay scale and a simple billing system with fair pricing for everyone. Right now the medical system makes Wall Street look honest.

Bill,

In general I concur, the web is indeed an excellent tool for "getting the word out". But, like any tool, it is open to misuse, and we much be on alert for distortions or false information. Imagine what Goebels could have done with it.

Last night I watched a bit of a program about 9/11 conspiracy theories. Some allegations, based on erroneous comments, are on the web — never to be erased — even though the words of the originator were later clarified (a 180 degree difference in meaning).

I often remind myself how a few years ago an interview by Ron Ansana on CNBC was intercepted, deliberately altered to reverse the meaning and rapidly passed several blogs before a disclaimer was issued.

Truth is a sacred and delicate thing which the unscrupulous will try to squelch.

Grym

ah, "brevity is the soul of wit", yet I respect the value of "dealer's choice".

I offer only one chart here: Portugal CDS
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/quote?ticker=GSPT2YR...

In my book, kaimu is a true gem.

If readers don't have the patience to understand the complex shenanigans of U.S. Treasury accounting that he so kindly deciphers in as condense posts as possible for us here, I would only assume they are the types that consistently bounce checks in their own balance sheets on a regular basis like my mother. No time for such trivial pursuits?

I'm back from Costa Rica with some insights when time permits include the brand spankin' new issuance of 1000 Colones PLASTIC notes! The first of their kind.

Stop the whinging and learn to love the bomb.

Cheers.

Craig;

I love the blend on these two topics of sound money and the medical systems. We have a much different system here in Canada. I was fortunate enough to experience a 'blended' hospitalization 3 years ago for a hernia operation. I had to pay (partially) and was impressed by the thorough efficiencies versus the criminally lacking level of care provided in the 'public' portion of my experience. I was back at work in 3 days (2 of those on the weekend) versus a 6 week absence for an associate who had gone the pure 'public' route (naturally he was compensated by his union's insurance policy.)

The future demands on the public system are unsustainable. We have the ability to prolong life (quality - no) with great cost. I have read that 80% of the average health care costs will be consumed in the last year of a person's life. Yet, who will deny the 'hope' of life extension. There must be blind restraints placed on infinite desire.

Of course no shrewd politician will touch this hot point. They lack moral fibre and we continue to be deceived. Because of our inability to confront realities (in Canada, 20% are employed in the public sector - wonderful pensions and extended health care benefits, of course) the wolves are many and prepared to consume all the sheep, not realizing they themselves will soon starve.

The heart of the matter is the exploitation of savers and overpowering obfuscations of our modern system of irredeemable currency by putting the bill to the next generation. This is enabled by the seemingly endless capacity to create new 'money' by the privileged class. When we allow others to 'secure' our future we lose the joy of responsibility and accomplishment. We have been deceived on a grand scale and are being led to division by those who have created this all consuming beast.

We are stealing the future from our children by ignoring natural bounds and demanding we pursue infinite. This, of course, leads to zero.

"The ceremony involves the poling across a lake of a small boat containing an effigy of Care (called "Dull Care"). Dark, hooded figures receive from the ferryman the effigy which is placed on an altar, and, at the end of the ceremony, set on fire. This "cremation" symbolizes that members are banishing the "dull cares" of conscience"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cremation_of_Care

pulse

Craig;

duplicate

Vad... no longer read ZH... thought I would share info about a site gaining popularity (probably ZH fans) which isn't what it seems... nothing more... shrug

Just reminding myself, I am trading with machines, not other humans. Maybe we need the machines on the blog chat.

Interesting. I have some friends that went to Germany for a spinal surgery that isn't performed here in the U.S. because insurance companies won't cover it. A couple but the wife needed the surgery.

In Germany it is a hybrid system. They have insurance companies but doctor schooling is paid by the state and therefore they have their compensation (and liability, etc.) set by the state. The state sets rates for insurance based on income and everyone is covered. All children are covered as they are considered a precious resource. The insurance companies are there only to administer. It's obviously good enough care that people from the U.S. go there for some procedures.

My friends were very impressed with the level of care and attention to detail from janitorial care up to the nurses, doctors, surgeons, etc. The hospital was in a small town and they said the care was very impressive and comprehensive. They also were more than impressed with all of Germany, very modern, clean and efficient.
They noted some interesting differences with America. Since they were only visiting they wanted to get some paper plates, plastic utensils, plastic cups, etc. They simply do not sell them in Germany. All plastic containers are recycled and the store you buy them from has recycling in front of the store.
They said nearly every building has solar panels and of course the autobahn, roads and highways were awesome.
Their impression as Americans is that we are falling further and further behind and all the talk about "we are number one" is a tragic joke.

We surely need to take the best of what works elsewhere and use the best examples to our advantage. We can and should do much better and sometimes that means using better systems than supposed "free markets". There are instances where social democracy is more efficient, less expensive and has better outcomes. We foolishly stick to our ideology while paying more than any other modern country for care and living with much poorer outcomes and incomplete coverage.

I would book some profits in equities here and either park it in cash or maybe even buy some 10 year paper.

The tape is starting to feel a little staged. Everyone is watching the same technical levels, the volume is weak and earnings uncertainty will soon be upon us.

I'd sell into this strength today and look to re-load once we have some earnings visibility.

GL to all.

Was wondering if anyone had stumbled across this story? The company was created in a reverse takeover of privately run Ryan Gold by Valdez Gold in early 2010. Ryan Gold was majority owned by Shawn Ryan who is credited with a lot of early gold discoveries in the Yukon, including Kinross' White Gold project (acquired in the Underworld acquisition). The new publicly listed Ryan Gold has claims to 133,000 hectares in the Yukon and has locked up a 5-year deal with Shawn Ryan to run the company - he also personally owns a 1% NSR on the properties still. They managed to close on a $52M CAD financing in May and also Osisko owns a large stake in the company (was 10% but not sure off hand if it was diluted by the recent financing). Anyways, seems to have a jockey, nice land package and now a nice swath of cash to start progressing exploration.

Anyone else taken a look at this? Yukon has been a hotbed recently (see ATAC Resources!)

working best in dull market.

Grym,

I am not a supporter of Obama but I am less of a supporter of Bush. Obamas' economic stimulus hurt the dollar but fighting two wars has hurt the dollar worse than the stimulus. I am glad to see us leaving both areas but I am unhappy with Obama giving a timetable to those we have opposed. It is time for the United States to have a president who is a leader, we haven't had one of those in 50 or 60 years.

mayhem, last real leader was JFK imo...

Been a long time since I was in Germany... lived four years from ages 8-12... learned to ski there, rode my first train, visited my first nude beach (with friends not parents), great bakeries and chocolate and many other firsts at that young age...

What I remember most was getting in trouble for making too much noise one Sunday and people always sweeping the street in front of their home...

I will add... my wife had severe back pain (entire family has same issue)... long story short she saw four different docs: family to get the referral to spinal, met with Nurse Prac of spinal doc, met with spinal doc, spinal referred her to physical therapist, met with physical therapist for eval, has the fifth appointment to finally start treatment... and they called her to reschedule

Two months, 4 appointments w/ 3 Xrays, 2 MRIs, 4 co-pays, 4 separate charges, and nothing was ever done... nothing except an RX given... after researching we found effective home treatment and she has been fine since... again 4 appointments and nothing but evals (redundant) were performed... never have looked at the HC system the same

Yes, my friend that went to Germany had the same endless run around here. What they all want to do because of course it's less expensive for the insurance companies, is to fuse vertebrae. There was one Dr. that would do replacement, but since insurance co's don't pay for more than one nobody here does the surgery or bothers to learn. The best in the world was in Germany.
She had four successfully replaced and is an inch taller now. Her husband is a good friend for about 35 years and he wants us to go to vacation there as he loved the bakeries (four in a small town) and he said the beer (from a local Monastery that's been making it for hundreds of years) was out of this world.
He said the fuel prices were high but manageable and the highways and hospitals were worth it. Also the people were very friendly and helpful. He was surprised that German cars were quite affordable but some Germans told him to go to Italy as they were less there. Overall it sounded pretty good.

I wonder about the chicken or the egg. Okay, so you need higher priced, really liquid stocks to do this.

What starts the game? For example, you could program a stochastics overbought (e.g. 8,3,3 >= 80) and a downcross of the eight period avg of the high (e.g 10 minute chart). As long as the action doesn't cross the eight period EMA of the high by 'x' percent, you stay short and then pile on every time stochastics crosses down.

I surely am not saying that's the ALGO, it does make you wonder.

For the major indices...but look at Silver Wheaton go.

I would think this was primarily a "sit on your hands" day with exceptions.

Waiting for a thumbs up or down.

Welcome to Davy Jones locker. I must be missing something on this one. Another Macondo maybe?

ALOHA!!

CAPITAL MARKETS AND SOCIAL EQUITY; PERSPECTIVE AND DISCUSSION ...

mayhem,

I have not been happy with a president for decades.

I always thought Bush was a pushover for anyone who could stroke his ego. "You have problems just like Lincoln had during the Civil War, but you can hold the course and all will work out fine."

Obama continued the worst policies of Bush and added to them with bailouts, legislation rammed through without proper debate and study and added a third war. He has forgotten more promises than most people make in a lifetime. And already spent more than all previous presidents combined.

Clinton was all about Clinton, Geo. H.W Bush seemed rudderless and no one has cared a rip about the middle class American for so long they don't seem to notice there is little left to tax there, but still refuse to tax the fat cats.

Don't expect Obama to pull all the troops from any of the three war zones until just before the election. If nothing else he is a consummate politician and campaigner. He knows voters have short memories and bringing them home before that would not assure him enough credit. The bin Laden boost has already faded even though he reminded us a week or two ago saying at a personal appearance, "Well, I been busy gettin' bin Laden and releasein' the petroleum reserves."

I guess all is relative because I find myself beginning to admire (well, tolerating) some of the past ones I never liked when in office much more with some of the losers we've had lately ;-)

Grym

Dr.,

Eisenhower brought the Korean War to and end though inconclusive and refused to send troops to bail out the FRench in
Dien Bien Phu.

"The President decided to cut off the movement for deeper involvement by stating clearly and precisely the conditions under which he would sanction sending American combat soldiers to Vietnam. He set out three preconditions: first, the troops would have to be from allied forces sent in approximately equal numbers by at least America, Britain, and Australia; second, the French would have to promise unconditional independence to the people of Indochina; and, third, the United States Congress would have to declare war."

I have a friend (retired Army Lt. Col 2 tours in Viet Nam) who told me when Bush decided to invade Iraq, "We should do what needs doing with Special Ops. It isn't worth a major action."

And after ten years who got bin Laden? (His son has been to Iraq 2 times and Afghanistan once now.)

Grym

I think Grym is onto something here.

Most Presidents are stuck with the actions of previous Presidents and politicians. Could there have been communist domino theory if Truman had listened to Patton and finished the USSR after defeating Germany and Japan in WWII when we had the clear advantage? Would there have been a Korean War? (police action?). Viet Nam? Cuba? West/East Germany?

In hind sight there are always a lot of 'what-ifs'. What might have happened if Nixon shaved and beat Kennedy? Would we have had Watergate or something else?
A nuclear exchange with the USSR? Who knows!
Clearly we can see Obama just continued GW's policies. Change? Oh puleeese!
Obama is about as socialist left wing as Reagan or Nixon.

Above.

I agree with you Bill. That was more or less what I was saying. For the most part they play the cards they are dealt by their predecessors and theirs, and so on. Then they have to deal with the congress. They do have some control over administration of the executive branch, but as you say it has it's limitations.

I've administered an 800 plus member not for profit corporation as a vice-president, and even with my total control over personnel and every piece of business making it's way across my desk there were always surprises and variables that could never be accounted for or predicted. And I had to have a great working relationship with my President and Board of Directors to do anything. The best I could do was have a reliable list of people I could count on which took some time to develop but I was lucky to have. I can imagine administering the federal government but it boggles the mind to consider the variables and detail.

I did it for seven years and the budget for the coming year was set by the previous slate of officers and directors. When I stepped down the incoming officers and Board had to manage with what they were left by me just as I had to adapt to what the board previous to me left, which was essentially bankruptcy. Actually we were quite in debt. I left them after seven years with a full treasury and a perpetually funded 501c(3). So I can only imagine what Obama had to deal with, but I do know I would have made some different choices and I would probably have been more aggressive and less liked by some people, but I wouldn't have taken the job to be popular or re-elected.

In the current situation, were I President, I would be despised by the opposing party but the regular work a day people would know I have their back. I was at times in my previous job and I stepped on some powerful toes representing my organization.
However, now eleven years later they still call me and ask if I'll run for VP or President again. People love leaders that do their job and accomplish what the members vote to accomplish and they don't mind a little rhubarb now and again if the job gets done. I would advise Obama to adopt more of TR's attitude and less attorney like compromise. The people like a President that wields a big stick in their defense, but he has to make his case and then go for it, he can't pussy foot around like he has been.

To the good Dr.,

Slow down and take a breath... LBJ escalated the war tenfold as the first act of his presidency and is responsible for most of the 58,000+ US casualties... JFK displayed courage yet to be duplicated since:

On June 4, 1963, President John F. Kennedy signed Executive Order No. 11110 that returned to the U.S. government the power to issue currency... order gave the U.S. Treasury power "to issue silver certificates against any silver bullion, silver, or standard silver dollars in the Treasury"... brought nearly $4.3 billion in U.S. notes into circulation... Kennedy was assassinated just five months later, no more silver certificates were issued.

Ten days before his assassination, President John Fitzgerald Kennedy allegedly said to a Columbia University class on Nov. 12, 1963: "The high office of the President has been used to foment a plot to destroy the American's freedom and before I leave office, I must inform the citizen of this plight."

We will not agree on this one... have a coke and a smile

This hallowed high office became irredeemably corrupt from the second half of the first term of FDR. Politics of this first 'Imperium' has like entropy only increased into that grey hole where money overtly trumps blood. We have allowed the creation of a vast shylockrocy that winnows pennies from the common man for each breath that he is forced 'freely' to take!

We have devolved into a system of pushme pullyou Demuplicans that have allowed the rape of the treasury while coining ever more debt chits to distribute to quell the potential for civil unrest during their watch. It cannot last.

When the 'Great Reckoning' arrives, I hope I shall be dead.

Good luck to you whippersnappers everywhere!

and funnily enough his first topic since returning is the same as his last post before taking leave - Europe.

I do enjoy his acid tongue and the EU's declared war on Moody's is illustrative of the machinations of state that will continue until their house of cards collapse. Moody's "financial vandalism" in Portugal means that large institutional players will have to say "no mas" meaning the EU taxpayer will have to pony up even more.

All the while Germany's High Court is due to give a ruling soon on the legality of these subsidies Germany is doling out to save themselves. Euro currency weakness is likely to increase heading into that ruling. We shall see

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/86215...

From an earlier dated posting Ambrose quotes the BIS in suggesting $2.5T bank exposure to this debt issue, so it is clear why Europe chose one of their own to run the IMF circus and why they are weighing in so heavily on debt and currency markets. This is one contagion they cannot collectively afford. So as Bill has been pointing out, it'll be monetized at all costs.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/ba...

I'd suggest to Kaimu a new posting entitled "pimp my gold stocks" but we know how well he is doing here already :)

Edit

Craig,
"The people like a President that wields a big stick in their defense, but he has to make his case and then go for it, he can't pussy foot around like he has been."

BINGO!

Grym