Lumber prices vs. ISM, S&P and S&P forwrd EPS estimates 

 

https://twitter.com/Not_Jim_Cramer

"These policies are not “beggar-thy-neighbor” but rather are positive-sum, “enrich-thy-neighbor” actions. No really, they are. You got any pot?"

"Wall Street investors hungry for advance information on upcoming federal health-care decisions repeatedly held private discussions with Obama administration officials, including a top White House adviser helping to implement the Affordable Care Act.
/
White House records show that Elizabeth Fowler, then a top ­health-policy adviser to President Obama, met with executives from half a dozen investment firms in 2011 and 2012."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/political-intelligence-firms-set-up-investor-meetings-at-white-house/2013/05/26/73b06528-bccb-11e2-9b09-1638acc3942e_story.html?hpid=z1

Surely Ms. Fowler knew not much and had even less to share with the investment firms. Right?

"When the legislation that became known as "Obamacare" was first drafted, the key legislator was the Democratic Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Max Baucus, whose committee took the lead in drafting the legislation. As Baucus himself repeatedly boasted, the architect of that legislation was Elizabeth Folwer, his chief health policy counsel; indeed, as Marcy Wheeler discovered, it was Fowler who actually drafted it. As Politico put it at the time: "If you drew an organizational chart of major players in the Senate health care negotiations, Fowler would be the chief operating officer."
/

"Elizabeth Fowler is leaving the White House for a senior-level position leading 'global health policy' at Johnson & Johnson's government affairs and policy group."

The pharmaceutical giant that just hired Fowler actively supported the passage of Obamacare through its membership in the Pharmaceutical Researchers and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) lobby. Indeed, PhRMA was one of the most aggressive supporters - and most lavish beneficiaries - of the health care bill drafted by Fowler."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/dec/05/obamacare-fowler-lobbyist-industry1
 

William Z. Ripley

"Prosperity, not real but specious, may indeed be unduly protracted by artificial means, but in the end truth is bound to prevail." William Ripley circa 1927
http://www.unz.org/Pub/RipleyWilliam-1927?View=ReadIt

“Nevertheless, balance sheet policy can still lower longer-term borrowing costs for many households and businesses, and it adds to household wealth by keeping asset prices higher than they otherwise would be.”

Brian P. Sack Executive vice president of the Federal Reserve bank of New York October 4 2010

http://www.ny.frb.org/newsevents/speeches/2010/sac101004.html

 

 

 

 

 

The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Texas State Fire Marshal's Office declined CSB access to witnesses and the explosion scene, wrote Rafael Moure-Eraso, chairperson of the safety board.
/
When the CSB finally did set up an interview with a plant employee, four armed ATF and State Fire Marshal's Office agents intercepted the employee and took him away before he could speak with CSB investigators, Moure-Eraso said.
/
The CSB is an independent federal agency responsible for investigating industrial-chemical accidents. The April 17 ammonium-nitrate explosion killed 14 people and destroyed a part of the town.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/21/us-texas-explosion-investigation-idUSBRE94K1BO20130521

 

 

 

"While there may be other explanations for this phenomena, Occam's law would lead one in the direction of selective disclosure and trading upon material non-public information. Not that one should be surprised at this. The sheer number of people with privileged information is vast as is the trade in such information via "expert networks", even before considering friends, family, old boys' networks or similar networks of obligation and opportunity.exchange.
/
"Some think, and argue persuasively that Porsche is well-guilty of outright fraud."
http://nihoncassandra.blogspot.com/2013/05/league-of-extraordinary-gentlemen.html

Dazed and Confused Performed by the Original Songwriter

And the classic version:
 

Penetration Tester?

Penetration Tester

Post Date: Feb 14, 2013

Location: Dallas, TX

http://frs.referrals.selectminds.com/jobs/5342?et=7JYWDVN

Systemic Malfunctioning of the Labor and Financial Markets

The sudden barometric change in Washington has arrived so rapidly that it is hard to comprehend. “The town is turning on President Obama,” announced Politico honchos and custodians of the conventional wisdom Mike Allen and Jim VandeHei, and they’re right. Republicans are gleefully unleashing a vast investigative apparatus; erstwhile supporters like Jon Stewart are mortified. The black clouds may dissipate within a few days or weeks, or they may hover over the White House for the rest of Obama’s term. In the meantime, it is dizzying enough that, even in such a short period of time, we ought to step back and ask, what the hell just happened here?
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2013/05/strange-creation-of-the-obama-scandals.html

"But we must be careful! Injustices are not the monopoly of the underdeveloped countries. They exist in the developed countries too, just as much on the capitalist side as on the socialist.

In the capitalist world, even in the richest countries, there are underdeveloped strata, which in Canada, are beginning to be called 'gray belts'.

As we all know, President Lyndon Johnson declared war on poverty in the USA. According to him, thirty million North Americans were living under sub - human conditions. Although it is true that what are considered sub - human conditions in the developed countries are not quite the same as those in the underdeveloped countries, it is no less true that the gap between poverty and wealth in the rich countries provides some shocking contrasts."
http://www.alastairmcintosh.com/general/spiral-of-violence.htm

Office of the Comptroller of the Currency - Too Complicated and Helping Almost No One

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Indecision Political Humor,The Daily Show on Facebook

“In the 40 years I’ve been working as an economist and investor, I have never seen such a disconnect between the asset market and the economic reality ... Asset markets are in the sky and the economy of the ordinary people is in the dumps, where their real incomes adjusted for inflation are going down and asset markets are going up. Something will break very bad.”
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/inside-the-market/master-of-doom-marc-faber-is-feeling-gloomy-about-canada/article11788240/

 

 

https://twitter.com/Not_Jim_Cramer

https://twitter.com/Not_Jim_Cramer

You Want Fries With That?

Another scenario is that Aso is giving India and other South Asian countries reason to partner with Japan economically and perhaps militarily, too.
http://qz.com/50615/welcome-to-ireland-where-house-payments-are-optional-apparently/#81814/japanese-official-reaches-back-through-1500-years-of-china-japan-tension/

Grease

Greek banks needed to be recapitalized. Evangelos Venizelos, the fatman pictured, saddled "investors" with a loss of 74% on Greek debt held by these banks. Members of the two political parties that have ruled Greece for the last forty years owe these same banks over $300 million dollars and are not paying.

A probe into these loans was launched by financial investigators for the country of Greece and they are preparing to share their findings with the Greek parliment controlled by these same two political parties. The Greek parliment also recently passed a law granting immunity to the bankers that provided uncollaterized loans to these political parties meaning no one will be prosecuted.
http://greece.greekreporter.com/2013/04/21/greek-banks-immune-for-political-loans/

 

The existing (and ongoing) massive expansion of base money into the banking systems of the US, England, and Japan is without precedent. As Nomura's Richard Koo notes, at 16x statutory reserves, the liquidity 'should' have led to unprecedented inflation rates of 1,600% in the US, 970% in the UK, and 480% in Japan. However, it has not, yet. In short, Koo explains, businesses and households in these economies have stopped borrowing money even though interest rates have fallen to zero.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-04-20/japans-inflation-propaganda-and-why-boj-better-hope-its-not-successful

 

 

 

Wage, Wealth Gains, GDP Per Capita and Debt Per Capita

 

 

Note the parabolic rise occuring near when the US went Fiat.

Note how over the same period all the income growth went to the top 10% as the income for the bottom 90% declined. Debt is good for the pigmen who captured all the income gains as public and private debt did a moonshot.