Category: zerohedge

This Is How The NSA Is Tracking You This Instant

That little “entertaining” cell phone in your back pocket, which you are so addicted to thanks to all its apps, videos, messaging function and all other cool bells and whistles, that you can’t possibly live without? It is simply the definitive NSA tracking beacon used to find where you are at any given moment. The following infographic explains how the NSA does just that…

Source: WaPo


    



via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/2HmobrYXkSc/story01.htm Tyler Durden

Guest Post: Inflation Since 2000 Is "Not Contained"

Submitted by Jim Quinn of The Burning Platform blog,

First things first. Losing 39% of your purchasing power over the course of 13 years is criminal. This was purposely created by Greenspan/Bernanke and the Federal Reserve. My annual salary has not gone up by 39% since 2000. Therefore, I’ve lost ground. I’m sure that most Americans have not seen their wages go up by 39% since 2000.

But now we get to the falseness of the data. If the BLS measured CPI as they did in 1990, without all of their hedonistic adjustment crappola, it would exceed 60%. The housing figure of 39% is a pure lie. Even after the housing crash, the Case Shiller Index is 50% higher than it was in 2000. The houses in my neighborhood sell for an 85% higher price than they sold for in 2000. They can’t fake the price of energy, so the 121% increase is real. They can’t manipulate tuition costs, so the 129% increase is real. Are you really paying less for clothes today than you did in 2000? The 68% increase in medical costs isn’t even close to the real increases which are above 100%.

 

 

I wonder where taxes fall in the inflation calculation, because my real estate taxes, sales taxes, income taxes, and the other 50 taxes/fees I pay have gone up dramatically in the last thirteen years. No matter how you cut it, Federal Reserve created inflation slowly but surely destroys the middle class and benefits the ruling class. Ben isn’t working for you. His mandate of stable prices has been disregarded. He does not have it contained.


    



via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/rr9_LCingEM/story01.htm Tyler Durden

Guest Post: Inflation Since 2000 Is “Not Contained”

Submitted by Jim Quinn of The Burning Platform blog,

First things first. Losing 39% of your purchasing power over the course of 13 years is criminal. This was purposely created by Greenspan/Bernanke and the Federal Reserve. My annual salary has not gone up by 39% since 2000. Therefore, I’ve lost ground. I’m sure that most Americans have not seen their wages go up by 39% since 2000.

But now we get to the falseness of the data. If the BLS measured CPI as they did in 1990, without all of their hedonistic adjustment crappola, it would exceed 60%. The housing figure of 39% is a pure lie. Even after the housing crash, the Case Shiller Index is 50% higher than it was in 2000. The houses in my neighborhood sell for an 85% higher price than they sold for in 2000. They can’t fake the price of energy, so the 121% increase is real. They can’t manipulate tuition costs, so the 129% increase is real. Are you really paying less for clothes today than you did in 2000? The 68% increase in medical costs isn’t even close to the real increases which are above 100%.

 

 

I wonder where taxes fall in the inflation calculation, because my real estate taxes, sales taxes, income taxes, and the other 50 taxes/fees I pay have gone up dramatically in the last thirteen years. No matter how you cut it, Federal Reserve created inflation slowly but surely destroys the middle class and benefits the ruling class. Ben isn’t working for you. His mandate of stable prices has been disregarded. He does not have it contained.


    



via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/rr9_LCingEM/story01.htm Tyler Durden

Gold's Best Day In 7 Weeks As Stocks Start Month Worst In Over 2 Years

This is the first 3-day losing streak at the start of a month since September 2011. Despite the best efforts of the machines to lift stocks into the green (which NASDAQ managed very marginally),  Bonds closed near their high yields of the day, the USD roundtripped with weakness in the US session leaving it unch for the week. S&P futures closed the day-session perfectly at VWAP as many noted the inversion of the VIX term structure once again (short-term 'fear' above medium-term 'fear'). The day's action was punctuated by 4 things – ADP beat (sell), ISM miss (rally-hard), Obama "inequality" (sell hard), BTFD (levered carry ramp 'blamed' on budget deal rumors) – which left the S&P entirely adrift from its relationship with FX carry and Treasuries by the close (amid the heaviest volume in a month). Precious metals had their best day in 7 weeks.

 

The day in the S&P… VWAP was king (note the lack of volume in the levitation)…

 

Gold's best day in almost 7 weeks…

 

Disconnected…FX carry

 

Disconnected… bonds

 

and VIX term structure inverted…

 

And for those hoping for a squeeze of the shorts… they really didn't lay too much out here…

 

Charts: Bloomberg


    



via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/ZsWArCb8KWs/story01.htm Tyler Durden

Gold’s Best Day In 7 Weeks As Stocks Start Month Worst In Over 2 Years

This is the first 3-day losing streak at the start of a month since September 2011. Despite the best efforts of the machines to lift stocks into the green (which NASDAQ managed very marginally),  Bonds closed near their high yields of the day, the USD roundtripped with weakness in the US session leaving it unch for the week. S&P futures closed the day-session perfectly at VWAP as many noted the inversion of the VIX term structure once again (short-term 'fear' above medium-term 'fear'). The day's action was punctuated by 4 things – ADP beat (sell), ISM miss (rally-hard), Obama "inequality" (sell hard), BTFD (levered carry ramp 'blamed' on budget deal rumors) – which left the S&P entirely adrift from its relationship with FX carry and Treasuries by the close (amid the heaviest volume in a month). Precious metals had their best day in 7 weeks.

 

The day in the S&P… VWAP was king (note the lack of volume in the levitation)…

 

Gold's best day in almost 7 weeks…

 

Disconnected…FX carry

 

Disconnected… bonds

 

and VIX term structure inverted…

 

And for those hoping for a squeeze of the shorts… they really didn't lay too much out here…

 

Charts: Bloomberg


    



via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/ZsWArCb8KWs/story01.htm Tyler Durden

Another Hedge Fund Legend Returns Cash To Investors Due To "Lack Of Investment Opportunities"

While hardly as spectacular as Hugh Hendry’s supernova flameout, or the far more boring, slow motion conversion of the assorted other famous and less famous bears, a legendary hedge fund titan has decided he too has no use for excess capital in this broken market. No surprise then that Institutional Investors’ Alpha reports that Baupost’s Seth Klarman is returning $4 billion in capital to investors for only the second time in its history due to “a lack of investment opportunities.” And watching how the epic farce that Bernanke’s wealth effect known as the Stalingrad & Poorski trades in the last 30 minutes of every day nobody can blame him. And no, Klarman is not returning cash due to some hidden underperformance: “Baupost’s many partnerships were up 13 percent, on average, through the September quarter. Its annualized return since inception is in the high teens.” This happens to push it in the top decile of all hedge funds in 2013.

Yet despite the exercise of the redemption put, Baupost, which at the end of 2013 had $26.7 billion in AUM making it the 7th largest hedge fund in the world, still will have a ton of both capital and dry powder.

From Alpha:

When it completes the capital distribution, firm-wide assets will likely be more than $25 billion, according to a source. Earlier this year we reported the firm’s goal is to keep assets at $25 billion.

 

This is only the second time in the hedge fund firm’s 31-year history that it is returning money to investors. The previous time was in 2010, and Baupost subsequently raised money in early 2011.

 

At the end of 2012, Baupost had nearly $26.7 billion under management, making it the seventh-largest hedge fund firm in the world, according to the most recent annual Institutional Investor’s Alpha ranking of the world’s 100 largest hedge fund firms.

The good news: the trickle down from Mr. Chairwoman’s policies to the E-trade babies still left fighting for bid/ask scraps in this “market” with the vacuum tube HFT armies is sure to have a happy ending.


    



via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/HqvZOsaVILk/story01.htm Tyler Durden

Another Hedge Fund Legend Returns Cash To Investors Due To “Lack Of Investment Opportunities”

While hardly as spectacular as Hugh Hendry’s supernova flameout, or the far more boring, slow motion conversion of the assorted other famous and less famous bears, a legendary hedge fund titan has decided he too has no use for excess capital in this broken market. No surprise then that Institutional Investors’ Alpha reports that Baupost’s Seth Klarman is returning $4 billion in capital to investors for only the second time in its history due to “a lack of investment opportunities.” And watching how the epic farce that Bernanke’s wealth effect known as the Stalingrad & Poorski trades in the last 30 minutes of every day nobody can blame him. And no, Klarman is not returning cash due to some hidden underperformance: “Baupost’s many partnerships were up 13 percent, on average, through the September quarter. Its annualized return since inception is in the high teens.” This happens to push it in the top decile of all hedge funds in 2013.

Yet despite the exercise of the redemption put, Baupost, which at the end of 2013 had $26.7 billion in AUM making it the 7th largest hedge fund in the world, still will have a ton of both capital and dry powder.

From Alpha:

When it completes the capital distribution, firm-wide assets will likely be more than $25 billion, according to a source. Earlier this year we reported the firm’s goal is to keep assets at $25 billion.

 

This is only the second time in the hedge fund firm’s 31-year history that it is returning money to investors. The previous time was in 2010, and Baupost subsequently raised money in early 2011.

 

At the end of 2012, Baupost had nearly $26.7 billion under management, making it the seventh-largest hedge fund firm in the world, according to the most recent annual Institutional Investor’s Alpha ranking of the world’s 100 largest hedge fund firms.

The good news: the trickle down from Mr. Chairwoman’s policies to the E-trade babies still left fighting for bid/ask scraps in this “market” with the vacuum tube HFT armies is sure to have a happy ending.


    



via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/HqvZOsaVILk/story01.htm Tyler Durden

As "Expected" EURJPY 139.00 Lifts Stocks Into The Green

Mission Accomplished

From 2:45 pm

Then from 3:33 pm

And sure enough, the Lift is complete as Stocks get back to green…

 

So opening and closing ‘beta’ to EURJPY is skyrocketing… in the last few minutes S&P futures added 16 points for a 50 pip rise in EURJPY… more than double the overnight highly correlated 7 points per 50 pip beta…

In other words, the entire market is now a high beta derivative of a currency pair

Thanks K-Hen, and Ben-B!


    



via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/nSHiUogNGZ4/story01.htm Tyler Durden

As “Expected” EURJPY 139.00 Lifts Stocks Into The Green

Mission Accomplished

From 2:45 pm

Then from 3:33 pm

And sure enough, the Lift is complete as Stocks get back to green…

 

So opening and closing ‘beta’ to EURJPY is skyrocketing… in the last few minutes S&P futures added 16 points for a 50 pip rise in EURJPY… more than double the overnight highly correlated 7 points per 50 pip beta…

In other words, the entire market is now a high beta derivative of a currency pair

Thanks K-Hen, and Ben-B!


    



via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/nSHiUogNGZ4/story01.htm Tyler Durden

The Last Two Times This Happened, Things Didn't End Well

With the almost extinction of ‘bears’ we noted last week, the bull-bear index has now crossed the Rubicon into a euphoria mode that marked the turning point before the last 2 major corrections in the US equity market. Of course, we are sure, this time is different; but hasn’t the Fed ‘always’ had our back? Perhaps, as GenRe’s CIO notes, “gravity will win,” after all?

 

 

Shrugging that off… this has happened 15 times in the last 24 years with stocks falling 79% of the time in the following 3 months…

 

h/t @Not_Jim_Cramer


    



via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/7eM9NQdpIuU/story01.htm Tyler Durden