Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Spain, what is wrong

The Euro is a way for the 'richer' countries to extract value from the poorer countries.
It isn't a normal fiat currency.

Nigel Farage gives a nice speech to describe the situation that has been created.

Giving opinion, is it worth it?

I have posted before about some concerns about blogging some of the political aspects of the topics before. What I find most disconcerting in the years ahead, police will be able to sweep a room and using face recognition technology to associate me with things I posted....anywhere.....ever.
In effect the posting on the net will put me into different categories, one of which may plop me into "anti-XXX" or "radical", etc.  That future cop will likely be WAY less open minded than I'd like.

I could delete this entire blog today, and it would make zero difference.  Everything is backed up, archived, and indexed.  I could even change as a person to the core, heck, I could be one of the worst people I rant against today someday. But the internet scan will not take this into account.  

I used to hear in high school behave or "it will go on your permanent record".  Like anyone looks at such a thing.....  But the internet EVERYONE looks at it!  Even a future employer.
A simple search on WebSurfinMurf reveals WAY too much about me that the random public should not have.  Its a pretty small jump to find out my real name from there.

I had a super tiny altercation via email on an opinion with a friend today.  It amplified to me that if a friend has such a radical reaction to relegate me to crazy.....what about people who find offense about my postings on Goldman Sachs? Financial Companies? US government? Current or Future employer?  Worse yet, for my son's future college or employer!

I am in effect, playing with fire posting ANYTHING that could offend against my future self.

Therefore, I am going to try to roll back severely my rhetoric.  I did a notch back in 2009 when I realized above, but I didn't turn it down enough.    I want to cut this blog back to more dry facts and avoid calling out opinions on corruption, or specific companies issues like Goldman Sachs, etc.

I'll continue to report on Money, USD, Fiat Currencies, bonds, and some other topics along these lines that are controversial.  These topics are  the next crisis and it  too important to not contribute to the social discussion.

I am adding this post to my corruption tag, so it can show when I tried to tone it back.
I urge people to read Mish and Market Ticker, for they do not pull any punches.
 10-24-2014 - see update 2013 Giving opinion is NOT worth it

Discussions on true financial reform

Ran across this former Goldman Sachs employee talking about true financial reform.
Refreshing to talk frank about there is a true issue here.
Wish some solutions are offered, but recognition is a great first step.

Quick 15 minute watch.

Goldman Sachs accused of shorting more shares than available

Rolling stones reports that Goldman Sachs made available 107% of the shares of Overstock.com available to short.

A couple of ground rules should be explained.  Rule 1 is stocks CANNOT be shorted unless you "borrow" someone's existing shares to short with.  so 107% is impossible unless breaking the law, intentional or not.

Second, shares that are held by others CANNOT be used to short unless the stock is made available TO short.  Typically investment firms, mutual funds, etc all lend their shares to be short.  So I find it hard to believe that legally 100% of the shares where available to short, since SOME shares would not be eligible for shorting.

Since the start of the financial ground zero events, I do not know of any prosecutions due to the actions by any major investment firm stakeholders.  I am not counting side people like Bernie Madoff, they are small time outright crooks that are easy to take on. (and should be)

My FAVORITE quote is:
"Fuck the compliance area – procedures, schmecedures," chirps Peter Melz, former president of Merrill Lynch Professional Clearing Corp. (a.k.a. Merrill Pro), when a subordinate worries about the company failing to comply with the rules governing short sales. 

We also find out here how Wall Street professionals manipulated public opinion by buying off and/or intimidating experts in their respective fields. In one email made public in this document, a lobbyist for SIFMA, the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, tells a Goldman executive how to engage an expert who otherwise would go work for “our more powerful enemies,” i.e. would work with Overstock on the company’s lawsuit.

"He should be someone we can work with, especially if he sees that cooperation results in resources, both data and funding," the lobbyist writes, "while resistance results in isolation."

Since this is a clear case of someone, somewhere, intentional or accidentally breaking the law in trading stocks, I will wait for the prosecution.  Also I will wait for pigs to fly, and for me to live to 300 years old.  Since this happened back in 2005-2006, I am sure a prosecution is going to happen any day now.

This entry goes into Financial Ground Zero series.  This event is small potatoes and irrelevant.  What isn't irrelevant is lack of law enforcement (corruption) which will ultimately take down the US dollar if the law continues to be ignored.  If this isn't a clear cut case of Moral Hazard is waaaay past a theory and fact, i don't know what it will take to prove that lack of prosecutions directly influences risk takers to cross the line to take on more risk.

Goldman Sachs Exec resigns

Goldman Sachs has tremendous influence on every aspect of the world economy.  Their executives become governors,  United States Secretary of the Treasury, and hold many posts in various wold governments.

I have posted about Goldman before.  An executive has just resigned and posted his thoughts.  Worth a read.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/14/opinion/why-i-am-leaving-goldman-sachs.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all

Then, read the parody version, of Darth Vader resigning from the Empire.
http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/society/why-i-am-leaving-the-empire%252c-by-darth-vader-201203145007/

European Stock Market is Toast

I am not so sure about the title of this post actually happening, but it's what this trader says about Europe.
What I do agree is Europe will in the next two years will be forced to breakup the Euro.
If German law is observed, then it becomes quite likely that the Euro will fail much sooner.

Once Europe implodes, then the world will follow.  Notice what this man says about Goldman Sachs....
What I can safely say is Prediction #2 of my 2011 prediction list is fulfilled, whatever happens.

In the end, all markets will implode without a severe intervention by world banks, which to date, seem to be taking a defensive stance for once.  Fun times.

Quantitative Easing Part 2 explained

Pretty funny, and sad.

With logic like this, I still maintain natural resources is good.

SEC threatens to do its job, I don't believe it.

The SEC filed a CIVIL lawsuit Friday against Goldman Sachs, accusing the corporation of fraud.

The NYTimes has an article Sunday stating "SEC puts wall street on notice", I don't believe it.

In general, any attempt, no matter how weak handed, that the law matters is a step in the right direction. Further, now that the SEC has filed a Civil lawsuit against Goldman, I would expect in the weeks to come every other country will start showing it's citizens that it too, is posturing against wall street and try to slap their own suits.

Any country that files a suit after the SEC does, shows it is a spineless sheep, unable to lead, and unable to defend it's own citizens. I will not be impressed. Fraud has been staring everyone in the face, as I have pointed out numerous times. To follow the SEC lawsuit and get a "spine" to do the same in their jurisdiction is laughable. I hate to sound like an arrogant American, but true independent leadership requires LEADING not FOLLOWING an American institution, the SEC. But I digress.

The SEC filled a CIVIL lawsuit, not a CRIMINAL one. This is a critical point. Until I see criminal prosecutions, I remain unimpressed. I wouldn't be surprised if the market resumed its rally in weeks or months to come. I need to see the S&P 500 break below 950 before I even give this downturn any credit.

I still envision that the criminal (if ever) prosecutions will start only AFTER there is financial decimation at these companies, rendering criminal prosecutions too little, too late. Once criminal prosecutions happen, that will be the signal to me the US economy will be on the mend.

So for now, its wait and see, granted the market could have finally topped and started a multi-year downturn, but I doubt it. A day does not make a trend change, nor does a week. For now its watch and see.

Goldman Sachs

Very good video about Goldman Sachs, the most influential financial entity in the world.

Goldman Sachs

Quote from bloomberg article, a must read:

Oct. 21 (Bloomberg) -- A Goldman Sachs International adviser defended compensation in the finance industry as his company plans a near-record year for pay, saying the spending will help boost the economy.

“We have to tolerate the inequality as a way to achieve greater prosperity and opportunity for all,” Brian Griffiths, who was a special adviser to former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, said yesterday at a panel discussion hosted by St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. The panel’s discussion topic was, “What is the price of morality in the marketplace?”

Goldman Sachs Group Inc., based in New York, set aside $16.7 billion for compensation and benefits in the first nine months of 2009, up 46 percent from a year earlier and enough to pay each worker $527,192 for the period. The amount set aside this year is just shy of the all-time high $16.9 billion allocated in the first three quarters of 2007. Goldman Sachs spokesman Michael DuVally in New York declined to comment.

Couple that with this article:

“The influence of money and lobbies on Washington has reached a shameful level,” Paul Volcker, chairman of the newly formed Economic Recovery Advisory Board, told the financial daily Il Sole 24 Ore. “Not to mention the fact that, since many Treasury nominees have not been confirmed by Congress, Geithner is surrounded by private advisors. Eight months into the new administration, the Treasury does not yet have a staff of [its own] officials. And this raises the question of using informal advisors who come from Wall Street. It should not happen.”

It’s not just Geithner’s aides that have ties to Wall Street, either. The Treasury Secretary’s phone records show he had at least 80 conversations with top financial figures since January 28. That includes 10 discussions with JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s (NYSE: JPM) Jamie Dimon and 22 with Goldman Sachs Chief Lloyd Blankfein. Blackrock boss Larry Fink and Citigroup luminaries Dick Parsons and Vikrim Pandit also ranked high on Geithner’s call registry.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. paid another advisor to Geithner, Gene Sperling, $887,727 for advice on its charitable giving, and fulltime lobbyist Mark Patterson $637,492, according to Bloomberg.

Shadow market trading (dark pools)
Dark pools, the largest of which are run by banks such as Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse, account for an estimated 10 to 15 percent of overall U.S. equity volume.

Summary
Goldman Sachs reminds me of an parasite. (or great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money) To say that America and the world shouldn't question outrageous bonuses coupled with the behavior of Front Running orders (illegal), undo influence in the government, and selling MBS knowing they where worthless, well, thats some brass balls.

And like any parasite, it SHOULD continue to suck from the host, until the host decides it has had enough. And right now, America is indifferent from the parasites sucking it dry.