Facebook shares

We might get our toes wet in this name when she hits mid-single digits.  Might being the key word.

No reason to step in the way of so many sellers at this level.  The greed of the Wall Street whores who pimped this on the public will never go away.   There are alot of shares to be puked up by buyers above.  It's not pretty.  It's rather sad and pathetic.

Understanding the IPO process is something we have spent alot of time on over the years. 

Like the Google IPO, the Dutch Auction process should have been used on Facebook.

We said it along time ago.  Even Morgan Stanley would have been better off in retrospect.

So you want to get RICH?

The richest woman in the world has a message for all you normals out there: Becoming rich is as easy as putting down that beer and getting off your ass.

Australian billionaire Gina Rinehart wrote that there is “no monopoly on becoming a millionaire,” in a column in Australian Resources Magazine, according to the AFP.

"If you're jealous of those with more money, don't just sit there and complain,” Rinehart wrote. “Do something to make more money yourself -- spend less time drinking or smoking and socialising, and more time working.”

Rinehart has a point, working hard is one way to make a lot of money. Another way is to inherit a boatload of it and turn that wealth into more wealth. Rinehart may be more familiar with the second route. When her father died in 1992, he left the mining mogul $75 million and, yes, she multiplied that sum by 386 over the past 20 years. 

Think Ahead

Alpharetta or Milton

The landscaper crew just left, my yard looks great, who needs a green thumb when you have a gold Amex?

Dennis Lockhart, Atlanta Fed

What are the costs of any new QE3 Dennis?

Tell us.  Give us every single ramification of making retirees poorer.

You are killing the middle class.   The stock market is broken.    

All of your ilk should be fired.

Ben Bernanke and QE to infinity

You may call it what you want.

This is what I call it.

"Counterfeit money" or "bonus's for bankers".

That is all it is.   Bailing out the banks to keep the re-election coffers full.

It's always about the money.    Always.

Condi Rice on TWITTER

The vile, sexist, racist rants flying around on TWITTER about her are just disgusting.

What a bunch of worthless pieces of shit that spout such vitriol about such an amazing person.

The wanks on CNN

Who are these duds who get in front of the camera on CNN and bullshit to the masses?

The loons in the current administration haven't done a thing to get America out of the mess we face.

The Muslim Marxist's Ode..........

Why can't I
just eat my waffle Now go eat your peas
Can I get a
shout out in the white hizzo please
I've now been
in 57 states and I think one to go
When I was in
college I enthusiastically did blow
I enacted
wealth redistribution cause I gutsta get mine
I hear the
private sector is doing fine
If I had a
son he would look like me
The Cambridge
police acted stupidly
After the
bill is passed you will like what you see
Arent you
glad you voted for me and I hope you
still believe in me
Cause I be
gonna bankrupt the entire country

Chinese Boom or Chinese Bust?

Would someone, anybody, please tell me how can a country, supposedly growing its economy at over 7%, with factory output up over 9%, manage all of this superlative production while rail traffic is shrinking at almost 5.4% annually?

Isaac

They must be full of glee in New Orleans with Isaac headed to blow their way.   Freebie's, hand-outs, and no school.  What's not to like?   

If it weren't at taxpayer expense it would be hilarious.

The number of utility trucks headed down Interstate 75 the last few days has been simply unbelievable.  Are these companies compensated just for showing up by FEMA?  It was convoy after convoy headed south into Florida the past 4 days.  The strippers will make a small fortune.

The New York shooting

I wonder if somebody tried to order a 32 oz. Coke and went postal when it wasn't available.

With 19 people shot in Chicago yesterday I wonder why they don't have chopper cams running full time for Rahm's constituents?

Stay armed boys and girls.   You just never know.  

It's far better to be "slayer" than "deceased".

Little Friday Folly...........

The garbage is just more concentrated this year.

This is the Mississippi River in 2011.  A mere few hundred days ago.  Plenty of water flowing to move barge traffic.   No worries about shipping back then.   Here is the same river this summer.

Maybe the "dead zone" of thousands of square miles of ocean bottom in the Gulf of Mexico may get a reprieve this summer from the pollution.  I hope so but probably not.  our Earth Mother is in trouble.  This river is "cleaner" than any river I saw in India.   There are plenty of "gods" in India.  Clean water and Mother Earth would be a couple more to add to the mix.

Just the facts...........

Never forget that the wealthy families of India, China, Africa, and the Middle East have been wealthy for time immemorial. There is nothing new under the sun.

Today it is 17 barrels of oil to an ounce of pure gold.

This is the ultimate price fix at work in the global economy.

FACEBOOK & MORGAN STANLEY

This company deserves the "Fresh Steaming Turd" award for 2012!   This esteemed prize comes in non-certificate form and is provided by Chippewa Partners every year to the company that does the best job of fleecing unsuspecting, greedy, gullible, sophisticated investors via Wall Street hustlers.  We usually wait until the end of the year to make the announcement but the summer heat and the billions upon billions of dollars lost in this IPO leads us to believe you couldn't find a company like this in the next few years that is so deserving.  Well, unless it is a soccer company in Manchester but we won't touch that with a vuvuzela!

This year we are also making a duplicate award to some mighty fine salesmen.  This year the award has co-winners.   The first accolades go to the investment bank that duped so many, the venerable Morgan Stanley Smith Barney.  These slick salesmen did more to wipe out equity of so many fine Americans in the Facebook IPO, in fact the losses inflicted pale in comparison to the criminal duo of Sir Alan Stanford and Bernie Madoff.

Our second co-winner is none other than Jon Corzine.   Corzines esteemed accomplishments are as follows:  Only on Wall Street can you bankrupt a company; misplace $1.6 billion of customers’ money; lose 75 percent of shareholders’ money in two weeks; speed dial a high priced criminal attorney and get a court to authorize the payment of your multi-million dollar legal tab from the failed company’s insurance policies; have regulators waive your requirements to take licensing exams required to work in the securities and commodities industry; have your Board of Directors waive your loyalty to the firm; run a bucket shop out of the UK; and still have the word “Honorable” affixed to your name in a Congressional investigations hearing.

Nicholas Carlson on CNBC

One of the biggest dipshits ever to grace the camera's at CNBC.    Having the public listen to a guy like Carlson with an  IQ about 3 points above bean dip is what CNBC excels at.

The elite carry on with Obama blessings........

Priorities are a bitch.
The United States won’t prosecute Corzine for raiding segregated customer accounts, but will happily convene a Grand Jury in preparation for prosecuting Julian Assange for exposing the truth about war crimes.

From the New York Times:

A criminal investigation into the collapse of the brokerage firm MF Global and the disappearance of about $1 billion in customer money is now heading into its final stage without charges expected against any top executives. After 10 months of stitching together evidence on the firm’s demise, criminal investigators are concluding that chaos and porous risk controls at the firm, rather than fraud, allowed the money to disappear, according to people involved in the case.

Corzine is considering opening a new hedge fund, though the notion that anyone — even a slack-jawed muppet happy to buy whatever Goldman ‘s prop traders want to sell — would seed Corzine money so he can trade or steal it away seems absurd — rather like putting a child molester in charge of a day-care.
But nobody knows how much dirt Corzine has on other Wall Street crooks. Not only may Corzine get away with corzining MF Global’s clients’ funds, he may well end up with a whole raft of seed money to play with from those former colleagues and associates who might prefer he remain silent regarding other indiscretions he may be aware of.
But the issue at hand is the sense that we have entered a phase of exponential criminality and corruption. A slavering crook like Corzine who stole $200 million of clients’ funds can walk free. Meanwhile, a man who exposed evidence of serious war crimes is for that act so keenly wanted by US authorities that Britain has threatened to throw hundreds of years of diplomatic protocol and treaties into the trash and raid the embassy of another sovereign state to deliver him to a power that seems intent not only to criminalise him, but perhaps even to summarily execute him. The Obama administration, of course, has made a habit of summary extrajudicial executions of those that it suspects of terrorism, and the detention and prosecution of whistleblowers. And the ooze of large-scale financial corruption, rate-rigging, theft and fraud goes on unpunished.

Water..........

Water stocks are breaking out.

Is the corn crop finished, is your lawn brown?

It's too easy.

    

TED NUGENT in Knoxville, TN

The motor city madman, Ted Nugent, will be performing Monday, August 20, at the Tennessee Theater located on Gay Street in Knoxville.

Nugent became world famous for his hard rock tunes such as "Cat Scratch Fever" and "Stranglehold."

No stranger to controversy, the” Nuge,” as he is known to fans, talked about his present tour, his latest projects and politics in an interview with writer Michael Williams.

Q: Ted, let me tell you I have been a big fan of yours since I first heard Double Live Gonzo. Tell me about your latest tour. How long is it and how many cities?

A: “My latest greatest musical jihad (otherwise known as a tour) began in the summer of 1958 and throttles on mercilessly with indefatigable spirit, attitude and pure animal energy. This year's chapter is without question the most fun, high energy, musically powerful of my life. My band is the tightest, most passionate band on earth, and our audiences are every band's dream. It is truly unbelievable.”

Q: You had a reality TV series "Surviving Nugent." Do you have any plans for another TV show?

A: “ Our three times a week Ted Nugent Spirit of the Wild TV show on Outdoor Channel has been the #1 show on that network for nearly 20 years and getting better every season. I have also had a #1 show on VH1, Versus and CMT, "Wanted Ted or Alive" and "Running Wild from Ted Nugent" on CMT. My brand new Discovery TV series- "Ted Nugent-Gun Country" debuts real soon and God knows what else we will end up doing. My thrilling life of unbridled rock-n-roll, politics and the hunting lifestyle is so exciting, my reality will always be the stuff of killer TV.”

Q: Tell me about your latest projects. You've recorded some great albums and written some books and done some acting. What do you have in the works right now?

A: “ A whole lot more of all the above plus a bunch of new killer songs we are dying to record ASAP. I also operate our Ted Nugent Sunrize Safaris at tednugent.com, booking and guiding hunting adventures around the world. Our Ted Nugent Kamp for Kids children's charity is in its 25th year, and we are involved in pretty much every military charity out there to give thanks to the incredible hero warriors of the US Military and their families. We're not having any fun at all.”

Q: Like yourself, I am a Republican and I am hopeful in November the American people will wise up we will elect a more conservative president. What do think of Romney's choice of a running mate in Paul Ryan and what do you think Romney's chances are of winning?

A: “The out of control corruption and criminal abuse of power by our current government is such a terrible heartbreaker, that all good Americans in the asset column of this great country are indeed praying and fighting to elect Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan. These are great men who respect the sacred US Constitution and Bill of Rights, and once elected, will indeed put America back on course to the greatest quality of life the world has ever known.”

Q: You are scheduled to speak in East Tennessee in October. (Oct. 14. Freedom Hall Civic Center, Johnson City, TN) What is the topic you will be speaking about?

A: “The America haters currently infest our country and government because we the people were asleep at the wheel for so long. There is a soldier in a box who died for the basics of the US Constitution and this unique experiment in self-government. I will celebrate the instinctual self-evident truth that still drives so many Americans to be the best that we can be, and dedicate and sacrifice to be as productive as possible. The American Dream is alive and well for anybody with an alarm clock and the will to put their heart and soul into being the very best that they can be. It's so simple, it's stupid.”

Tickets are on sale now and can be purchased on line at tennesseetheater.com.

Native Americans for Romney

Give me a shout if you are onboard!

America committed suicide on Nov. 4, 2008.  Why is that so hard to understand?  Get over it.

The sitting President is a total fraud stealing from our children to promote his "change", whatever the hell that is.

We are now at $15.6 TRILLION in United States Debt!

The ultimate safety net is your brain, your guts, your effort, your determination and your belief in God not governments that come and go.  Let's roll from every Rez................

Kids and conversation........

A week or so ago I was sitting in a nice restaurant in Minnesota.  We won't name names or places, it's not important.  In comes a dad and his young son.  They sit directly across the aisle from me, the son in a high-chair.  Probably didn't need the chair but he had it.

As I sit and listen I hear nothing.   The Dad, never once, engaged his child in chat.  None. He just checked his Facebook page.  And email. And played games.   What the hell ever happened to conversation, the art of exchanging ideas, imparting knowledge, answering questions or just plain letting your child or children know that you value them, their company and what they have to say?  

Throw down the ipads, the cell phones and start listening.  The kids deserve better.

Jim Cramer, bullshit artist

Cramer saying there are no safety nets in America for the down and out is rather bogus.  What a crock.  With a Harvard pedigree he should know better.  America has more safety nets than any other country on earth.   When I traveled to India and South Africa I didn't see a single safety net.  There are none.  Zero.  Zilch.

Vietnam Wall in D.C.

A little history most people will never know. Interesting Veterans Statistics off the Vietnam Memorial Wall There are 58,267 names now listed on that polished black wall, including those Added in 2010. The names are arranged in the order in which they were taken from us by date and within each date the names are alphabetized. It is hard to believe it is 36 years since the last casualties. The first known casualty was Richard B. Fitzgibbon, of North Weymouth , Mass. Listed by the U.S. Department of Defense as having been killed on June 8, 1956. His name is listed on the Wall with that of his son, Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Richard B. Fitzgibbon III, who was killed on Sept. 7, 1965. There are three sets of fathers and sons on the Wall. 39,996 on the Wall were just 22 or younger. 8,283 were just 19 years old. The largest age group, 33,103 were 18 years old. 12 soldiers on the Wall were 17 years old. 5 soldiers on the Wall were 16 years old. One soldier, PFC Dan Bullock was 15 years old. 997 soldiers were killed on their first day in Vietnam. 1,448 soldiers were killed on their last day in Vietnam. 31 sets of brothers are on the Wall.Thirty one sets of parents lost two of their sons. 54 soldiers attended Thomas Edison High School in Philadelphia. I wonder why so many from one school. 8 Women are on the Wall, killed while nursing the wounded. 244 soldiers were awarded the Medal of Honor during the Vietnam War; 153 of them are on the Wall. Beallsville, Ohio with a population of 475 lost 6 of her sons. West Virginia had the highest casualty rate per capita in the nation. There are 711 West Virginians on the Wall.

Inflation is killing your buying power

The point is that anyone who thinks inflation is tame is full of shit.  

Governments lie. They always have and they always will. A bear will kill and eat you given the chance. Always have and always will. But you're not angry at the bear, right? Go with the flow. No one is ever going to change the dynamics of government. They will lie. Period. The government consists of politicians. And politicians lie for a living. If one is to be frustrated, be frustrated with the fat, stupid and lazy "citizens" of this country. They put these liars into office for the gains of cronyism or out of apathy. Indeed we do get the government we deserve.  No wonder one third of Americans are obese. The crap we are shoveling into our bodies is on par with the misinformation, propaganda and lies that are being programmed into our minds by government bureaucrats, corrupt politicians, corporate media gurus, and central banker puppets. No one could ever accuse the American people of being perceptive, realistic or critical thinking when it comes to economics, math, history or distinguishing between truth or lies. Our government controlled public school system has successfully dumbed down the populace to a level where they enjoy their slavery and prefer conscious ignorance to critical thought.

The Dow is reported in nominal terms, that is why it is up. Try looking at Dow/S&P adjusted for inflation or priced in gold. Last time I looked, the S&P adjusted for inflation was down 40% since 2008.  And it's not only the United States.  Look at food prices across Asia. Look at housing prices in Hong Kong. Look at fuel prices in Nigeria. Look at heating costs in the UK. Look at gold.

Here's Corzine

"Only on Wall Street can you bankrupt a company; misplace $1.6 billion of customers’ money; lose 75 percent of shareholders’ money in two weeks; speed dial a high priced criminal attorney and get a court to authorize the payment of your multi-million dollar legal tab from the failed company’s insurance policies; have regulators waive your requirements to take licensing exams required to work in the securities and commodities industry; have your Board of Directors waive your loyalty to the firm; run a bucket shop out of the UK; and still have the word “Honorable” affixed to your name in a Congressional investigations hearing."

Paul Ryan. What's not to like?

He can shoot straight when he wants.  He might even energize the NRA gang!   I just wish he had shot down spending our money, taxpayers money on TARP.  Hey Paul, how about letting the owners, management team and shareholders pay back creditors the next time they drive a bank/brokerage/financial institution into the ground?   Leave the taxpayers out of it.    I wonder too if he will get Mitt to cancel the TSA/government 750 million hollow point bullet order and abolish the NDAA?

The WH calling Michael Phelps

Sometimes, some things are best left unsaid:

• Weightlifting commentator: "This is Gregoriava from Bulgaria. I saw her snatch this morning during her warm up and it was amazing."
• Dressage commentator: "This is really a lovely horse and I speak from personal experience since I once mounted her mother."
• Boxing Analyst: "Sure there have been injuries, and even some deaths in boxing, but none of them really that serious."
• Softball announcer: "If history repeats itself, I should think we can expect the same thing again."
• Basketball analyst: "He dribbles a lot and the opposition doesn't like it. In fact you can see it all over their faces."
• At the rowing medal ceremony: "Ah, isn't that nice, the wife of the IOC president is hugging the cox of the British crew."
• Soccer commentator: "Julian Dicks is everywhere. It's like they've got eleven Dicks on the field."
• Tennis commentator: "One of the reasons Andy is playing so well is that, before the final round, his wife takes out his balls and kisses them . . . Oh my God, what have I just said?"

And finally, Obama calls Phelps:

"Congratulations Michael, but remember you didn't win all those medals, someone else did. After all, you swam in public pools, built by state employees using tax dollars. You got training from the USOC, and ate food grown by the Department of Agriculture. You should play fair and share your medals with the people who can barely keep their head above water, let alone swim."

Morning Joe on MSNBC

Now there's some "Must Watch TV". Really. It should be mandatory viewing!

Where do these dumbo's come from?  How could you get on a TV show being so stupid?

No wonder the middle class is a thing of the past.

Truth or Bullshit? You make the call.

"At this juncture . . . the impact on the broader economy and financial markets of the problems in the subprime markets seems likely to be contained" - Ben Bernanke, March 28, 2007
"I don’t think student loans are a financial stability issue to the same extent that, say, mortgage debt was in the last crisis because most of it is held not by financial institutions but by the federal government" - Ben Bernanke, August 7, 2012

Have money in the stock market? Read this.

MARKET INSANITY

Great bumperstickers for O

Divide everything equally...except work!

Have a job? Thank a road

Lie, Blame, Repeat

Because having a job is overrated

I'll treat you like family...my brother to be specific

I said HOPE and CHAINS not Hope and Change

Change You Once Believed In

Follow the money folks..............

Welfare buys votes. And people on welfare know where the feed trough is. It's hungry out there.

Best quote I heard last week..........

 Re-electing Obama would be like the Titanic backing up and hitting the iceberg again.

MTA, NTA Trappers Associations

I spent the last few days with some of the finest Americans I could ever imagine.  Owatonna Minnesota was ground zero for me.  In my wildest dreams I couldn't find a nicer bunch in one place.  Over many conversations each day one common thread kept coming up.

It went like this.  I'll make it simple.   Main Street doesn't trust Wall Street. 

It's probably best summed up by one of the fine crew at Themis.  This is what Joe Saluzzi had to say.

"This is people’s money. This is 401(k)s. Grandma’s mutual fund is now being whipped around by algos that don’t even understand what they’re doing,” said Joe Saluzzi, co-manager of trading at Themis Trading in Chatham, New Jersey."

“How many more dollars (will) now have to come out of the market because people don’t trust it?”

Barron's

Nice to see Mr. Abelson make reference to Zero Hedge.

Finally, some Abelson acknowledgement.   Tyler and Marla are smiling!

My economics degree from the U of Minnesota

Over 35 years after the degree was put on the wall I have picked up a couple of truisms regarding supply and demand.   The first is that when the US debt/GDP has for the first time in 70 years crossed above 100%, in which over 50 million Americans collect food stamps and disability, in which M2 just crossed $10 trillion, in which total US debt is about to pass $16 trillion, and when total nonfarm employees in America (133,235,000) are the same as they were in April of 2005, it is quite surprising that economics  (and common sense) has not taken on a more decisive role in the electoral debate.

The second is all about simple math.  Compounding interest.  While both candidates may, for their own particular reasons, not want to bring up the slow motion trainwreck that is the US economy now, in 4 years whoever is running for president will not be so lucky, because as the US debt clock shows, assuming current rates of progression, things are about to get far, far worse.

http://www.usdebtclock.org/

Brain dead in St. Louis.........

Dave Lutz, the managing director of U.S. trading at Stifel Nicolaus in Baltimore, cautions investors not to over-react to events like the Knight mistake today.

"A lot of people seem to think it was human error. At the end of the day it wasn't necessarily a failure of systems," he said. "It's not a reason for people to lose confidence in the markets."

TEEN AGERS wake up.......

"Sending a text while driving is the equivalent of driving the length of a football field at 65 mph while blindfolded." -    Courtney Edwards,  Trauma Nurse,   Parkland Hospital,  Dallas, Tx

Regulatory capture across the globe!

The number of bankers arrested for rigging LIBOR remains at zero.

Knight

If you happen to run a brokerage firm that deals in stock trading with supercomputers, Wall Street trading desks and every other dark pool under the sun you might not want to tell them, after all, they are YOUR CUSTOMERS, to go someplace else for trade execution.

When SHTF soon, you won't believe what will happen.   It's coming boys and girls.

The regulators have not a clue.   Best be prepared out in Pine Ridge and Mandaree!  

Want to watch a bullshit artist?

Larry Meyer, UNHINGED

CNBC, NYSE, SEC

So many with their head up their ass.

The markets are broken.