Marc Faber

"Believing In Bernanke Is Like Believing In Santa Claus"

other notable quotes from the good doctor:
“I keep in my toilet a picture of Mr. Bernanke. And every time I think about selling my gold, I look at it and I know better!”

"If you look at what happened in Cyprus, basically people with money will lose part of their wealth, either through expropriation or higher taxation. The problem is that 92 percent of financial wealth is owned by 5 percent of the population. The majority of people don't own meaningful stock positions and they don't benefit from a rise in the stock market. They are being hurt by a rising cost of living and we all know that the real incomes of median households has been going down for the last few years. What happened in Cyprus will happen everywhere in the world, in Western democracies."

"If I had to vote for either Obama or Romney I would shoot myself."

"In order to protect their assets, investors should buy themselves a machine gun…I need to buy a tank. Joking aside, look, we have manipulated markets. Whenever you manipulate markets, you will get unintended consequences."

“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.”

 

"Ireland is a Nation of Pimps and Obama is the Hypocrite of the Century."

Irish Politician Clare Daley

"the Taoiseach has showcased the Republic as a nation of pimps, prostituting ourselves in return for a pat on the head."

"there was speculation whether the Taoiseach was going to deck the Cabinet out in leprechaun hats decorated with a bit of stars and stripes to really mark abject humiliation."

"there had been almost unprecedented slobbering over the visit of US First Lady Michelle Obama"

" We’ve had separate and special news bulletins by the State broadcaster to tell us what Michelle Obama and her daughters had for lunch in Dublin but very little questioning of the fact that she was having lunch with Bono, Mr Tax Exile himself."

" Mr Kenny is pimping Ireland as a tax haven."

Ms. Daley on Obama:
"Is this person going for the hypocrite of the century award? Because we have to call things by their right names, and the reality is that by any serious examination, this man is a war criminal."

"This is the man who has facilitated a 200 percent increase in the use of drones, which have killed thousands of people including hundreds of children,"
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/g8-summit/ireland-pimped-out-like-prostitute-to-war-criminal-obama-says-politician-clare-daly-29357659.html

 

Bernanke's Tapir Moment

1 Million Protest in Brazil

If you know a Brazilian, you know that a Big Mac combo meal costs over $20 US, that in Brazil you don't call the police you call a relative or a friend, the politicians and therefore the police are hopelessly corrupt and that Brazil is a violent nation.

"[m]any have been united by a common concern for Brazil’s economy: even though incomes have gone up, Brazil’s new middle class has been demanding more from public services, and the rising cost of living, particularly food and services, has hit Brazilians hard.
American expatriate and Rio’s Gringo Café owner Sam Flowers says that food and labor costs have skyrocketed in just the last six months: “One product jumped forty percent in a week, many others are up 12 to 20 percent. Rent, food, transportation are all rising. Everyone is changing their spending habits and using credit cards more, some are even moving,” he tells The Rio Times.
http://riotimesonline.com/brazil-news/front-page/economic-worries-stoke-brazil-protests/#

 

Via Zero Hedge

 

“We’ve slipped away from a true republic. Now we’re slipping into a fascist system where it’s a combination of government, big business and authoritarian rule, and the suppression of the individual rights of each and every American citizen. When it comes to any significant differences on foreign policy, economic intervention, the Federal Reserve, a strong executive branch, a welfarism mixed with corporatism, both parties are very much alike. The major arguments in hotly contested presidential races are mostly for public consumption to convince the people they actually have a choice.”

Mini Amba

Solo Cissokho
 

We Had Certain Necessities to Consider

“When it becomes serious, you have to lie.”

From 2 years ago:
Is lying considered an appropriate mode of communication for euro-zone leaders?
We have to wonder after a strange episode on Friday evening. Here’s what happened:
Just before 6 p.m., German news magazine Spiegel Online distributed a report saying that euro-zone finance ministers were convening a secret, emergency meeting in Luxembourg that evening to discuss a Greek demand to quit the euro zone.

http://blogs.wsj.com/brussels/2011/05/09/luxembourg-lies-on-secret-meeting/

 

and today:

"Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung on Sunday cited central bank sources as saying the ECB had set a limit of 524 billion euros on the Outright Monetary Transactions (OMT) scheme.

The bank had also had informed Germany's constitutional court - which will weigh the OMT's legality on Tuesday and Wednesday - of that limit, it said."

But wait. This is a very "serious matter" and there are "certain necessities to consider:"
"The report is incorrect," an ECB spokesman told Reuters.
There is no limit to the European Central Bank's (ECB) bond-buying program, a spokesman for the bank said on Sunday, denying a German newspaper report published in the run-up to a court hearing on the scheme.
When it Becomes Serious, You Have to Lie

Barack W. Obushma

From Bill Gross:
Surveillance policy of Bush 42 “puts forward a false choice btw the liberties we cherish & the security we provide.” B. Obama 2007
 

Turkey

ISTANBUL (AFP) - Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan rallied supporters on Sunday after anti-government protesters burned tyres and hurled fireworks at riot police firing back tear gas in unrelenting civil unrest.
http://au.news.yahoo.com/latest/a/-/latest/17536701/teach-protesters-a-lesson-in-polls-urges-turkey-pm/

 

Erdogan from a few months ago:
Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan calls Francis Joseph Ricciardone, the US’s new ambassador to Turkey, a ‘rookie’ regarding his remarks on press freedom in Turkey. ‘He does not know Turkey, he does not have any idea which laws there are, and then he walks into a trap and makes a statement,’ Erdoğan says
U.S. Ambassador is a rookie that walked into a trap

Democracy in Action

"After a decade of breakneck economic growth, Indians are consuming fewer calories on average today than they were in the 1970s. Economic development scientists call it India’s calorie consumption puzzle, and it has been around for a while.
Even as incomes have increased over the past four decades, per capita caloric intake has been falling:"
India’s Calorie Consumption Puzzle

Food Stamp Needs in the United States:

 

The Economic Recovery Continues

 Not_Jim_Cramer

The Obama administration on Thursday defended its collection of the telephone records of millions of Americans...
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/07/us-usa-wiretaps-verizon-idUSBRE95502920130607
 

 



The former head of the IRS visited the White House more times than any Cabinet member, according to an analysis by The Daily Caller, raising questions about the nature of those visits -- particularly around the time the agency was targeting conservative groups.
The Caller analysis of White House visitor logs showed former IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman visited the White House at least 157 times under the Obama administration.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/05/30/former-irs-chief-shulman-reportedly-visited-white-house-at-least-157-times/

Sarah Hall Ingram, the IRS official currently in charge of overseeing the agency’s implementation of Obamacare, has logged 165 recorded visits to the  White House 165 times since 2011, according to an analysis of White House visitor records compiled by the Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity.
Ingram headed the IRS’ tax-exempt division in 2010 when the scandal-ridden agency began improperly targeting the tax-exempt nonprofit status of conservative groups.
http://dailycaller.com/2013/06/05/irs-official-sarah-hall-ingram-recorded-165-white-house-visits-never-overlapped-with-shulman/

According to the Wall Street Journal, two Cincinnati IRS employees have suggested to congressional investigators that the policy of targeting tea party groups seeking tax-exempt status was sparked at least in part from agency officials in Washington.
/
One IRS worker, Elizabeth Hofacre, told the committee interviewers that Carter Hull, an IRS lawyer in Washington, “closely oversaw her work and suggested some of the questions asked applicants,” the Journal reported
http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=ie7&q=WSJ%3A+Cincy+IRS+workers+say+targeting+was+sparked+by+requests+from+DC&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-ContextMenu&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&rlz=1I7LENN


 

"The BIS said in its quarterly report that the markets are “under the spell of monetary easing”, convinced that central banks will keep the asset boom going despite signs of “broad deceleration” in the US economy and fatigue in China.

Jaime Caruana, the BIS’s managing director, said last month that the authorities should refrain from further stimulus to keep growth alive, warning that excessive liquidity is distorting the financial system without achieving much. “If a medicine does not work as expected, it’s not necessarily because the dosage was too low,” he said.
/
Morgan Stanley said emerging markets face a “mini sudden-stop” as bond flows dry up. The retreat is driven by fears that the Fed will soon taper its bond purchases, draining dollar-based liquidity.

The BIS figures show that British banks are heavily exposed to the developing world, with $919bn of loans, more than the Americans ($794bn), French ($473bn) or Germans ($307bn).
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis/10094747/BIS-records-startling-collapse-of-eurozone-interbank-loans.html

The former lead singer of indigenous band Yothu Yindi has died at his home in the Northern Territory. Mr Yunupingu* died at home in Yirrkala, Eastern Arnhem Land.
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/music/yothu-yindi-singer-dies-after-disease-battle-20130603-2nkl8.html#ixzz2V7RkKwtN

>

"The Internal Revenue Service spent an estimated $49 million on at least 220 conferences for employees over a three-year span beginning in fiscal 2010, according to a forthcoming report that will prompt fresh scrutiny of the already embattled agency.
/
During the conference, employees watched two training videos that cost at least $60,000 to produce, according to the audit’s estimates. The first video is a “Star Trek” parody and stars division employees discussing how they might identify and address allegations of tax fraud.
One employee, mocking the Russian character Pavel Chekov, is seen telling another colleague, “Back in Russia, I dreamed someday I’d be rich and famous.”
“Me, too,” the colleague responds. “That’s why I became a public servant.”
/
The second video stars some of the same employees learning how to dance the “Cupid Shuffle” from a 2007 song by the performer Cupid. As other employees learn the dance moves, one female employee comments, “They don’t pay me enough to do this.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/irs-faces-new-scrutiny-for-excessive-spending-on-conferences/2013/06/01/e1469324-cab2-11e2-9245-773c0123c027_story.html?hpid=z2

 

Ironic

A Fed Reserve bank president gives a speech in Istanbul on the positive effects on unemployment increasing inflation would have as the Turkish government beats and gasses peaceful protesters.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/01/us-usa-fed-kocherlakota-idUSBRE95008Q20130601?feedType=RSS&feedName=businessNews

Thousands of Turkish protesters poured onto the streets and reoccupied a central Istanbul park as the police withdrew after three days of clashes that sparked a massive anti-regime demonstration.
The police retreat from Gezi Park and nearby Taksim Square today came as supporters of the opposition Republican People’s Party marched on the square. After reoccupying the park, they danced and called for the resignation of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who appealed for an end to protests while ordering an investigation into police use of pepper spray.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-06-01/turkish-protests-swell-as-police-violence-incites-crowds.html


ISTANBUL—Turkey’s annual inflation jumped in January due to tax increases on tobacco products and rising food prices, the state statistics agency said Monday, despite the central bank’s desire to slow inflation to 5% this year.
But analysts say the central bank will tolerate some surprises and isn’t likely to take action unless forecasts change.
The consumer-price index rose 7.31% annually and 1.65% on a month-to-month basis in January, the statistics agency said. The pace accelerated from a 6.16% annual increase in December. The rise in CPI was above the 6.8% annual rate and a 1.15% monthly increase forecast by six economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires.
http://blogs.wsj.com/emergingeurope/2013/02/04/turkeys-inflation-jumps-in-january/

"State and local governments face unmet pension fund obligations of as much as $4 trillion according to some studies, possibly jeopardizing their ability to provide essential services and meet their debt service payments. Moves by Coventry and a few other towns around the country have sparked fears in the municipal bond market that the situation could unravel.
/
By the end of that painful case, retirees' pension payments were slashed in half, but bondholders escaped unscathed after state legislators passed a law."
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/31/us-usa-pension-rhodeisland-coventry-idUSBRE94U01220130531

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

 

https://twitter.com/Not_Jim_Cramer