Whatever it Takes

Oh the time will come up
When the winds will stop
And the breeze will cease to be breathin’
Like the stillness in the wind
Before the hurricane begins
The hour that the ship comes in.

And the sea will split
And the ships will hit
And the sands on the shoreline will be shaking
Then the tide will sound
And the waves will pound
And the morning will be breaking…
Oh the foes will rise
With the sleep still in their eyes
And they’ll jerk from their beds and think they’re dreamin’
But they’ll pinch themselves and squeal
And they’ll know that it’s for real
The hour that the ship comes in.
Then they’ll raise their hands
Sayin’ we’ll meet all your demands
But we’ll shout from the bow your days are numbered

– Bob Dylan, “When the Ship Comes In”

They’re selling postcards of the hanging
They’re painting the passports brown
The beauty parlor is filled with sailors
The circus is in town
Here comes the blind commissioner
They’ve got him in a trance
One hand is tied to the tight-rope walker
The other is in his pants
And the riot squad they’re restless
They need somewhere to go
As Lady and I look out tonight
From Desolation Row…

Now at midnight all the agents
And the superhuman crew
Come out and round up everyone
That knows more than they do
Then they bring them to the factory
Where the heart-attack machine
Is strapped across their shoulders
And then the kerosene
Is brought down from the castles
By insurance men who go
Check to see that nobody is escaping
To Desolation Row

Praise be to Nero’s Neptune
The Titanic sails at dawn
And everybody’s shouting
“Which Side Are You On?”

– Bob Dylan, “Desolation Row”

Whatever it Takes

Of the many lamentable things to have emerged from the financial crisis and the subsequent rape of the American public by Wall Street and their employees in Washington D.C. has been the emergence of catchy phrases used by the criminal elite class to sell us on our own servitude.  We know all about that horrid “Too Big To Fail” gimmick, the entire concept of which is anti-freedom and anti-capitalism but right up there on the list of irritating and dangerous statements is the constant use by central planners like The Bernank and Tiny Timmy Geithner that they would do “whatever it takes.”  Ah, but what does this mean.  Whatever it takes.  Let’s think about this for a second.  Whatever it takes to achieve what exactly?  They say to boost the economy but in reality when you look at what they really mean is “whatever it takes” to PRESERVE THE STATUS QUO.  A status quo that has not worked for the vast majority of Americans for decades and will not work for 99.9% of us going forward.  Key to preserving the status quo is the preservation of the financial and monetary system as it exists today.  During 2008, traitors like Hank Paulson were able to con most of us by saying that we risked a destruction of the financial system as an excuse to give the banksters and their allies a blank check.  The con wasn’t in the notion that the financial system risked implosion as I believe that statement was most likely true.  The con was that since most Americans don’t have a clue how the financial system works they merely became scared and reflexively agreed in their own minds that “well of course the financial system must be saved.”  I on the other hand argue that the financial system is a ponzi scheme that enriches only the three enshrined parasite classes that dominate America today.  The TBTF Wall Street banks, the military industrial complex and the politicians and lobbyists in D.C. that line their pockets.  Everyone else gets sucked dry.  I have spent the last three years of my life writing about this so that people understand when the next major crisis happens who is to blame and more importantly I want to instill in people the courage to look outside of this immoral money system to something that can move us forward when this one gets dismantled.  I do not claim to have the answers I am just trying to get people to ask the right questions and get educated on how things operate.  We the People must own the debate or it will own us.

Whether or not you agree with me that the financial system is not worth saving, the other key point I try to hammer home is that it doesn’t matter.  “Whatever it takes” has already failed.  This creates an extremely dangerous scenario became I am not convinced these clowns have a Plan B.  Just the statement ”whatever it takes” implies that these guys believe with 100% confidence that they can save the system.  So here we are, basically back in recession in the West and there is no Plan B.  What most people in the markets fail to understand is that the secular bear forces or what we can call a Kondratieff Winter has remained firmly in place this entire time.  All you need to do is look at the Dow Industrials in terms of gold.

Dow/Gold Chart from 2003

As you can see from the chart above the downtrend of stock prices in real terms is completely intact and they have barely bounced since the low in March 2009.  In fact, although stocks did surge in real terms from the low in 2009 for the year as a whole they were still down 5% in real terms.  Even in 2009!  Then last year, stocks were 14% lower in terms of gold.  Finally, despite a brief rally early in 2011, stocks in terms of gold are down another 6% ytd.  The point is that “whatever is takes” has been as effective as me saying I am going to do “whatever it takes” to never die.  I can go grab a cracker jacks box and stand on it in the middle of the town square claiming I will do whatever it takes to prevent my death, yet I can promise you one thing; I will eventually drop dead.

Judd Gregg
Judd Gregg is an utter disgrace to Congress, the United States of America and humanity generally.  In case you weren’t aware, the former Senator from the state whose motto is “Live Free of Die” has signed on to work for the squid.  Yep, that’s right Goldman Sachs has rewarded Gregg for steadfast defense of the Federal Reserve and its bankster cabal by hiring him as a “international advisor” to the bank.  From the mouth of the squid: “Judd Gregg’s experience and insight will contribute significantly to our firm and our continuing focus on supporting economic growth,” said Lloyd Blankfein, Goldman’s chairman and CEO.  This is how you get paid in America in 2011.

It’s funny because while many people thought Gregg was saying a lot of the right things a couple of years ago in the heat of the crisis I never trusted him and thought he was the epitome of a “fake conservative.”  He would obsessively and irrationally defend the “independence of the Fed.”  Now we know why.  He was doing as he was told to get a payout later.  I don’t know how this man wakes up in the morning and looks at himself in the mirror.  If there is any justice in the universe he is going to get it.  In this life or the next.  It matters not.

The SEC Just Killed Hedge Funds

Am I the only one that saw this yesterday and thinks it is huge?  “SEC commissioners voted 5-0 today to adopt a tracking system for firms that buy and sell at least 2 million shares a day or meet other volume standards. The system, initially proposed three weeks before the May 2010 crash that temporarily erased $862 billion in U.S. share value, aims to help guard against market abuse and manipulation.”  “The system, which would monitor firms that execute $20 million of equities a day or$200 million in a month, gives the SEC access to non-public data maintained by the traders’ broker-dealers, who would have to provide it upon request.  After the rule takes effect in about two months, about 400 large traders would have to identify themselves within 60 days and broker-dealers would have to begin maintaining transaction records within seven months, according to the SEC.”  Full article is here: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-26/sec-weighs-system-to-seek-abuses-among-market-s-biggest-traders.html

I think this is absolutely huge on many, many levels.  First of all who wants to run a hedge fund in this environment?  You would almost have to be crazy.  They are drawing the line at $20 million trades a day?  That is supposed to be systemic?  No chance.  They just want to be able to see your every move.  Notice the trend of big time managers calling it quits and opening family offices instead.  That is the wave of the future and this will accelerate that process in a major way.  I happen to think George Soros is one of the most disingenuous people I have ever come across (just like Uncle Warren Buffet, both of whom want to shut down capitalism AFTER they make their fortunes like typical monopolists) but he is no fool.  Soros has decided to move to a family office structure as stated in their recent letter “We are writing to inform you of an important new development relating to regulations

recently announced by the US Securities and Exchange Commission. As you may know, the new regulations will require certain private investment advisers to register with the SEC by March 2012. An exception to this requirement is available if an organization operates as a family office…An unfortunate consequence of these new circumstances is that we will no longer be able to manage assets for anyone other than a family client as defined under the regulations.”  Full letter is here:  http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/Soros.pdf

Besides the effect mentioned above I think this will also lead to a flight of capital outside of financial assets first and then outside of the United States second.  This will be a major unintended consequence and it will cause huge issues.  I mean think about it.  If you are worth $100 million what are you going to do when you see this.  You will want to pull a lot of money out of your hedge fund investments and look to deploy it overseas in real assets.  You will go to Uruguay and say oh I’ll take that farm.  You will go to Zurich and say oh I will take that apartment.  You will get it as far away from the SEC and the maniacs running the United States as possible.  Of course you will also buy a lot of physical gold and silver.

Back to Babylon

This is the last time you will hear from me for a while.  I will be making my way back to Babylon (NYC) next week for the first time since I moved out to Colorado.  I am have an extremely busy schedule and I really look forward to catching up with folks in the business I haven’t seen in a long time.  It will be great to be back and get a pulse on where people’s heads are at and just have some good old fashioned summer fun.  I will of course report on what I learn when I get back.  In the meantime…Raise Da Debt Ceiling!  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EoS52fVtVQM

See ya in few weeks.

Peace and wisdom,

Mike

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