Financial topics

[Higgenbotham]

jc, I'm with you on everything you said. One question in my mind is since that trendline held, and the market is still working inside that wedge, can it run up to a slightly higher high to the top trendline of the wedge and that would be the final retrace high. In other words, we have 11 trading days from the June 4 low to the first high, 10 trading days to the next high, then maybe 9-11 more from that second high to the final retrace high.

[Higgenbotham]

It's all just a gambling addiction, isn't it?

According to Chairman Bernanke, it is "maximum employment", "price stability" and "stimulate investment". And he wants you to know that he runs the casino.

CHAIRMAN BERNANKE. So I’m not going to get involved in political rhetoric. I’m just going to stay completely away from that. I have a job to do, and as long as I’m here, I will do everything I can to help the Federal Reserve achieve its dual mandate of price stability and maximum employment. That’s my answer to the last part as well. I’m not going to be thinking about hypothetical situations in the future. In the case of savers, you know, we think about all these issues, and we certainly recognize that the low interest rates that we’re using to try to stimulate investment and expansion of the economy also impose a cost on savers who have a lower return. And we do hear about that, obviously, and we do think about that. I guess the response I would make is that the savers in our economy are dependent on a healthy economy in order to get adequate returns. In particular, people own stocks and corporate bonds and other securities as well as, say, Treasury securities, and if our economy is in really bad shape, then they are not going to get good returns on those investments. So I think what we need to do, as is often the case when the economy goes into a very weak situation, then low interest rates are needed to help restore the economy to something closer to full employment and to increase growth and that, in turn, will lead ultimately to higher returns across all assets for savers and investors. So that’s—I think that’s how we would explain it.

[jcsok]

John wrote:

It's all just a gambling addiction, isn't it?

(Shameful nod of head); Yeah. An obsession. Can't explain futures trading to anyone. Unless someone trades, I don't think its possible to for them to understand what thoughts go through a traders mind. And the markets are so vast, so consuming, that I don't even tell people why I'm looking at my Blackberry. They think I'm reading text messages. I used to be trying a case to a jury with my handheld quote monitor on the desk with me.

Hig - I will be short July 17.

[Higgenbotham]

Hig - I will be short July 17.

I see that as one possible outcome. 3 months from April 17. Some are looking for a low there. Another area I'll be watching is early August.

To be honest, I hate to trade but once they turned gold and silver into a bubble, then burst it and started trashing the currency again, there was nothing left that I could see, unless you want to buy bonds and ride that bubble to the end. Or just watch your cash waste away.

[jcsok]

Just came across a link to Ann Barnhardt's website. For those who haven't heard of her, she's a former futures broker, mainly hedging feedlot cattle, who closed her futures business at the time MF Global occurred, advised EVERYONE who trades to get out of the markets because its rigged, a fraud, etc. Her latest rant on PFGBest is great.

http://www.barnhardt.biz/

[Higgenbotham]

ECRI usually doesn't miss on their forecasts.

"We have not been freaked out by it because the business cycle has been pretty mellow over the last 20-25 years. Until now. So if you have a more volatile business cycle and low growth, you get more recessions and you start to destroy people's ability to earn. In particular, when we talked slower expansion, we're not talking GDP, we're talking jobs, too. In particular you're seeing no jobs growth."

I don't know how he knows this. I am inferring the same thing based on past data.

http://www.safehaven.com/article/26128/ ... on-already

[Trevor]

We're not exactly seeing any jobs growth now. Yes, we're technically in a "recovery", but only in the absolute literal sense. I'm still amazed that this stagnation has lasted this long. However, one thing that does seem different is that people are starting to predict a depression. People I know are now saying it's a real possibility, instead of completely dismissing it the way they did a few months ago.

Spain vows to use bank bailout for deep clean-up: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/ ... 4Q20120710

Reuters) - A euro zone bailout for Spain's crippled banks paves the way to clean up the financial sector within 18 months and will also put the economy on a path to recovery, Spain said on Tuesday.

Euro zone finance ministers agreed on Monday a rescue package of up to 100 billion euros ($123 billion) for Spanish banks devastated by a burst housing bubble.

"This puts us in a position to clean up the Spanish financial system that I think is going to go very deep," Economy Minister Luis de Guindos said after the meeting in Brussels, where ministers approved the deal and will sign off on it on July 20.

[aedens]

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/chronolog ... fg-debacle
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_WJgimz ... re=related

on a percentage basis

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92zMMZWP ... re=related

http://library.mises.org/books/Butler%2 ... andias.pdf

Respect for autonomy and inviolability of personal boundaries that define liberty and peace and allow for cooperation.

Flippant attitude to allude that vanity derives pleasure to subjugate another when gray is the only intent.
1 down 519 weeks to go in the asylum as it is said.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xb8OHZ5I ... re=related

http://kuznets.fas.harvard.edu/~campbel ... i_JOIM.pdf

[Higgenbotham]

Buffett discusses the LIBOR scandal.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/48160135

[John]

Buffett discusses the LIBOR scandal.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/48160135

I didn't see the segment you mention, but I saw the segment an hour
later when Becky interviewed Buffett, Simpson and Bowles:

CNBC Transcript: Warren Buffett, Alan Simpson, & Erskine Bowles On
Fixing the Debt Problem
http://www.cnbc.com/id/48166800

I actually found this segment to be fascinating because they
were all Silents, and they were all in complete agreement about
cutting back the debt. I didn't hear any political crap at all.
These are all people typical of the generation that was in
charge in the 1980s.

John