another site
And by ‘greatest fools’ we mean sovereign wealth funds that stand ready to soak up any and every heavily-marketed pitch that comes their way…
Just one word of caution… if the US is looking to pressure oil prices in order to squeeze Russia, perhaps a glance at just where all this sovereign wealth fund ‘wealth’ comes from will change their mind…
Source: Deutsche Bank
via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1pKkhU9 Tyler Durden
To think all it took to wake up not only the FBI (which generously provided a phone number to all intereste parties so others could do its work for it) but the porn-addicts at the most corrupt, complicit and clueless, not to mention bought and paid for, “regulator” in US history, the SEC from a five year slumber – yes, we started warning about HFT in April of 2009 – was one Michael Lewis book. Moments ago the SEC announced that, with a five year delay, it is has opened several investigations into HFT. From the WSJ:
Ms. White, testifying before a House Appropriations subcommittee, said the SEC currently has “a number” of ongoing investigations regarding “market integrity and structure issues, including high-frequency traders.” She declined to provide specifics about the investigations, but said they have been under way for “quite some time.”
And now, please hold for laughter:
“We’re very much focused on any abuses in that space,” she said.
Ok, now you can laugh. And laugh some more:
The SEC and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission are looking into ties between high-speed traders and major exchanges, examining whether the firms are getting preferential treatment that puts other investors at a disadvantage, people familiar with the probes said Monday.
Since we feel generous, here is a place to start: several hundred articles covering precisely what you should have been investigating 5 years ago! And since we know you are budget strapped, we won’t even ask for our finders fee for having been the first to expose the scam that is HFT – we realize that all those porn subscriptions cost a pretty taxpayer penny.
Then again, not even we are dumb enough to fall for the lie that the SEC is actually going to finally do something about HFT:
Ms. White acknowledged the SEC is in the midst of a policy debate on whether the speed and complexity of trading in stocks and other securities pose risks to markets. She said the SEC’s approach on the issues would be “data-driven and disciplined.” She stopped short of embracing any policy shifts.
The review of the guts of the stock market follows a string of market breakdowns, such as last year’s failure of the Securities Information Processor, a computerized link that transmits market orders to the public and is overseen by the Nasdaq Stock Market.
Why? Because since hundreds of current SEC employees can’t wait to quit their job in the glorious tradition of the SEC revolving door just so they can find a much higher paying job doing nothing at the same HFT firms they were supposed to be policing, and because it is the HFT lobby itself that controls the SEC (recall that SEC Uses HFT Firm-Designed Tool To Find That HFT Doesn’t Cause Flash Crashes), only an idiot would fall for the same lie again and again. Especially since Mary Jo White will have to promptly recuse herself from this investigation: after all the bulk of her former clients at Debevoise, especially Morgan Stanley, are some of the most flagrant abusers of HFT.
As for retail investor “confidence” in capital markets, that ship sailed long ago. Because no matter how high the rigged market closes day after day on increasingly worse economic news, they are never coming back, period.
via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1gZY6Ku Tyler Durden
No, this is not Tuesday Humor or an April Fool. As the WSJ's China Real-Time blog reports, this is also not a scene from Spaceballs. In the smog-ridden city of Zhengzhou, a Henan-based travel company shipped 20 bright blue bags of fresh mountain air to show oxygen-deprived city residents what they’re missing. Of course, as we have noted previously, the canned-air idea is hardly unique to Henan: Rags-to-riches Chinese tycoon Chen Guangbiao began selling such cans in 2012.
Smog sufferers reportedly wrung the blu ebags out in order to extract every last bit of fresh air possible…
Though the cans seem a little easier to carry…
The cost: $0.80 for a can of fresh air.
Nope, not a joke!
via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/PebsXj Tyler Durden
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European leaders may have felt a momentary brief lapse in the wary feeling of disdain that has existed between them for years now, but that was once exacerbated by the financial crisis and the entire PIGS- story that ensued, with the debt crisis. But the moment was fleeting as they sat round tables and spoke via special diplomatic communiqués as to what they should do (or not do, as the case may be) over the arch–enemy to that myth that is called ‘democracy’, Vladimir Putin. But, all of that was fleeting, secondary, peripheral and unlasting. They have greater divisional problems over the horizon and this time it’s the fear of deflation. It won’t be a fleeting moment, but a fleeing moment for them to leave the EU.
Eurozone inflation has now fallen to an all-time low for the past 52 months (March 2014) and this is now increasing the pressure that the European Central Bank will be forced to act to keep deflation at bay. There will be a Monetary Policy Meeting that is going to take place on Thursday April 3rd.
• Consumer prices increased by 0.5% year-on-year in March as shown in figures released today by Eurostat.
• Core inflation dropped to 0.8%.
• It had previously stood at 1%
• Analysts had expected it to be at 0.6%
• The rise was 0.7% in February.
• As a consequence, the Euro immediately fell this morning against the Dollar; although it did get back the ground that had been lost by early morning.
• It is currently 0.26% up, standing at S1.3788.
Consumer prices have risen therefore at their slowest pace since November 2009. The European Central Bank has a current target of 2%. The figures are now fuelling fears that deflation is only round the corner and whatever happens the European Central Bank will not be able to change the onset of that pressure on the economy. There have been warnings now that the EU risks deflationary pressure in its economies for months now.
Is the EU drifting towards deflation (Japanese –style)? Probably. At least, it looks like that. Just a few days ago, figures announced showed that Spain had falls in its prices and inflation was edging down in Germany. 10-year government bonds in Portugal (moving inversely with prices) dropped under 4% and that was the first time in four years.
Even before the figures that have just been released the pressure was on at the ECB with radical action to counter the problem needed. It is doubtful if the ECB will unveil any plans however immediately regarding a bond-buying program. But, there is increasing likelihood that quantitative easing is in sight right now. Economists are now saying that the ECB will have no other choice than to go down the long and lonely path of easy money. What the US did, Europe does and follows suit…later, but they end up doing it all the same. Get the printing presses rolling!
If Spain, which seems to be the most worrying case at the moment, has a high risk of deflation while it is trying to gain some competitiveness through maintaining lower wages, then procrastination by the ECB will not be the perfect answer to the problem. The country as all of Europe is laboring under heavy debt and public sector debt there is about 200% of GDP. Spain also has until 2016 to get its deficit under 3% (as imposed by Brussels). Figures released show that it has already missed the target of 6.5% today (standing at 6.6%). Deflation can only make things worse.
If they don’t do anything and Draghi turns into Dragh-ing on with the decision-making over deflation, then people will stop buying hoping that prices will decrease even further, which is what will happen…and so the circle, vicious as it is, continues its cycle. Unemployment figures will be published tomorrow and that may influence the ECB too.
Europe is sleepwalking into catastrophe and neither the European Central Bank or the Merkels and the Hollandes and certainly not the Camerons of this struck Union will be able to get themselves out of the predicament that they have gotten themselves into. Goodbye Europe and hello deflation. But the UK is still rejoicing that the minimum-wage increases will outstrip inflation for the next few years, “provided the economy continues to improve” (to use the words of the UK’s Low Pay Commission chairman, David Norgrove). Not certain that we have the same definition of “continues to improve” and secondly it’s hardly difficult to outstrip inflation when it turns into deflation. But bring on the deflation, rejoice, and come all ye faithful. Quantitative Easing is on its way. The markets will be rejoicing.
Originally posted: European Fears: Deflation
via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1pJOov2 Pivotfarm
Submitted by Mark St.Cyr via Mark St.Cyr blog,
Suddenly the world is a buzz with the revelations that High Frequency Trading (HFT) may be doing more than actually harming the markets, it might be destroying the illusion they still are markets.
This past Sunday the world at large was introduced that maybe, just maybe, something was amiss in the financial markets. However, anyone with more than a passing interest in business, finance, and a little common sense could feel in their gut that something just wasn’t copacetic.
Between the Federal Reserve's massive QE experiment amplified by the arms race of algorithmic technologies (aka HFT) to shave off a piece of that pie for themselves, the last few years have been nothing less than breathtaking.
Currently I am staggered as I watch or read many in the so-called “smart crowd” taking to the financial media outlets professing their ire at (wait for it….) Michael Lewis’ assertion that: “the markets are rigged.” This is where they have an issue? Really? I mean…Really?
Let’s put a few things into its proper perspective. HFT is currently a catch-all phrase or moniker. At one time when it was first introduced it could be (and was) argued it had a legitimate use in making markets more efficient. However that was some 10 years ago. Today’s HFT seems to have been on an evolution of exploitation and adulterated well past the point of resembling the good idea it once was hailed to be.
Efficient markets are when: real buyers, and real sellers meet, agree, and exchange with the least amount of friction to transact. Note the emphasis on real, it’s not there for style, real means an actual buyer or seller. Period. (Just so we’re clear and not falling down the black hole of what “is” is.)
This point is one of the underlying problems in the markets today. It’s not the only one HFT has adulterated, but it just might be the most important to this discussion. For what everyone seems to be missing as they defend HFT as the great market liquidity engine, that so-called “liquidity” more often than not is fake. So I ask: Is fake now acceptable in the financial markets? For if that’s true: Bernie Madoff might be looking for his get out of jail card.
We have laws on the books to protect the markets from people trading on inside information, fraud, and more. People get arrested and perp walked in front of the media as to make examples to show, “This can happen too you!” Yet, if machines are doing the same in an equivalent manner, that’s OK. For this is technology we’re talking here, and we all know without technology, the markets are nothing more than the pits. (pun intended)
Sometimes complicated issues have to be reduced to their smallest form to get an indication on whether or not something is good, bad, or indifferent. And once one reduces this all down to just basic common sense, you don’t need a supercomputer spinning algorithms near the speed of light to come up with the obvious answer of – Duh!
When someone within the financial markets comes across information that is deemed “confidential” then uses that information as to front run said information and profit by it, we throw them in jail for insider trading.
If a machine can detect you placing an order then within nanoseconds execute buy and sell orders throughout the exchanges as to skim a piece or to push markets in a beneficial direction to enrich itself. That’s fine. Are you kidding me?
Since when is it “legal” to insert oneself into a transaction they had no business being involved in? That is not “facilitating” that’s fraudulent skimming, for that “inserted freeloader” was not needed to transact. That’s front running pure and simple. And like I said earlier we perp walk people for that. But an HFT? Nope, that’s now looked upon as “improving liquidity” by the so-called “smart crowd.” Simply jaw dropping in my view.
Add to this the insane notion that these HFT outlets are providing, “deep markets.” Again, I’ll ask, what are we talking about here? Real buyers? Or, the illusion of real buyers? For if anyone remembers, the “Flash Crash” showed everyone just how real and deep the markets were.
All those quotes of illusive bids and ask were anything but illusive: they were illusions. The term “quote stuffing” and its consequences were first highlighted there. Now, it’s as if it never happened or better yet, is defended in an “ancient history” type dismissal.
Ancient history or not, if someone were to set up shop selling land deals at bargain prices touting that the demand was high and pointed to the surrounding landscape pointing out the row upon row of newly constructed facades as proof, you might think or find comfort in the notion, “Well if I need to sell there’s a chance I might find a buyer.”
Then you walked over unbeknownst to find all those freshly constructed home facades were just that – facades resembling a Hollywood movie set. Then what would you think? I know what one should be thinking: “How do I contact the authorities? These people need to be put in jail!”
But if it’s a machine rendering a “virtual reality” showing demands of large bids or asks in any given instrument that’s OK, they’re providing a valuable service to the community showing what it could be like if there were real buyers and sellers I guess. Just don’t think of ever trying to sell or buy one of them, for they disappear faster than a snake-oil salesman can close up shop.
The only good thing that has come out lately on this whole issue of HFT is maybe for the first time in years the cover has been thrown off exposing the parasitic beast that’s been living just beneath the surface passing itself off as a symbiotic entity, rather than the pernicious monster its grown to be.
Now the only question left to ask is: Can they invoke the death penalty for this creature…
Without killing the patient?
via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1dP6lIG Tyler Durden
April Fools’ Day occupies a special place in the heart of
internet culture—a day when tech titans like Google and YouTube
roll out elaborate pranks involving digital maps to unleash our
inner
Pokémon masters and viral
#ButterFails.
The gags this year extend beyond the human realm to include the
humiliation of our feline counterparts. Ben Huh and the team at
Cheezburger—the
online humor site that became famous for it’s viral cat memes—has
teamed up with clothing site Betabrand to launch
a cat garment line complete with hipster-inspired tees, crop
tops, and a Silence of the Lambs-esque human skin
onesie.
And while the entertaining photoshops of cats in clothes is for
now an April Fools’ stunt, Cheezburger has intimated that
if the site sparks enough interest, they might produce an actual
line of kitten couture.
So just why do tech companies embrace April Fools’ Day
shenanigans so enthusiastically and expend countless man-hours
crafting intricate hoaxes that are likely to be forgotten within a
day? The answer could lie in the disruptive culture of the
internet—a culture that perfectly compliments the mischievous
nature of All Fools’ Day.
In 2012, Reason TV producer Zach Weissmueller interviewed Ben
Huh about the nature and morals of the internet and why the ability
of individuals to create their own content (even if that content is
feline crop tops) is a good thing for society. You can watch the
full interview below:
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Just last week we asked “Is college waste of time and money?” It appears, based on the latest data from the BLS, that for all too many, it absolutely is. As CNN Money reports, about 260,000 people who had a college or professional degree made at or below the federal minimum wage of $7.25 last year.
Experts point to shifts in the post-recession labor market as the reason for so many college graduates in low-paying jobs.
“The only jobs that we’re growing are low-wage jobs, and at the same time, wages across occupations, especially in low-wage jobs, are declining,” said Tsedeye Gebreselassie, a staff attorney at the worker advocacy group National Employment Law Project.
…
Some 58% of the jobs created during the recent economic recovery have been low-wage positions like retail and food prep workers, according to a 2012 NELP report. These low-wage jobs had a median hourly wage of $13.83 or less.
Perhaps the following sums it all up perfectly…
“My family told me, ‘just get your degree and it will be fine,'” Bingham told CNNMoney. “A degree looks very nice, but I don’t have a job to show for it.”
via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1jVKPVp Tyler Durden
That National Security Agency
has used a “loophole” in surveillance law to conduct searches of
the contents of Americans’ personal communications without
bothering to secure warrants, warn Senators Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and
Mark Udall (D-Colo.). The senators cite a
letter to Wyden from Director of National Intelligence James
Clapper (pictured at right) in which the controversial spy
chief answered a question as to whether the NSA “sought and
obtained the authority to query information” regarding the
“communications of specific Americans.” The NSA has
engaged in such queries, Clapper replied.
“It is now clear to the public that the list of ongoing
intrusive surveillance practices by the NSA includes not only bulk
collection of Americans’ phone records, but also warrantless
searches of the content of Americans’ personal communications,”
Wyden and Udall respond.
The forms of communications subject to search aren’t specified
in Clapper’s letter, but could include phone calls, emails, and
other electonic communications. The senators, who have long counted
among the main legislative opponents of the surveillance state, go
on to critique the NSA’s actions at length.
This is unacceptable. It raises serious constitutional
questions, and poses a real threat to the privacy rights of
law-abiding Americans. If a government agency thinks that a
particular American is engaged in terrorism or espionage, the
Fourth Amendment requires that the government secure a warrant or
emergency authorization before monitoring his or her
communications. This fact should be beyond dispute.Senior officials have sometimes suggested that government
agencies do not deliberately read Americans’ emails, monitor their
online activity or listen to their phone calls without a warrant.
However, the facts show that those suggestions were misleading, and
that intelligence agencies have indeed conducted warrantless
searches for Americans’ communications using the ‘back-door search’
loophole in section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance
Act. Today’s admission by the Director of National Intelligence is
further proof that meaningful surveillance reform must include
closing the back-door searches loophole and requiring the
intelligence community to show probable cause before deliberately
searching through data collected under section 702 to find the
communications of individual Americans.Section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act established a legal
framework for the government to acquire foreign intelligence by
targeting non-U.S. persons who are reasonably believed to be
located outside the United States under a program approved by the
FISA Court. Because Section 702 does not involve obtaining
individual warrants, it contains language specifically intended to
limit the government’s ability to use these new authorities to
deliberately spy on Americans.The revelation that — despite the clear intent of Section 702 to
target foreign communications — the government is deliberating
searching for the phone calls or emails of specific Americans and
circumventing traditional warrant protections should be concerning
to all.
The full text of Clapper’s letter can be read below.
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As Scott Shackford
anticipated a couple of weeks ago, Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah)
and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) recently
introduced a bill that would rewrite the Wire Act of 1961 to
include “any bet or wager” placed via the Internet. Chaffetz and
Graham, who were recruited by casino magnate and GOP mega-donor
Sheldon Adelson to help squash his online competitors, call the
bill the Restoration of America’s Wire Act. I think they (or
Adelson’s lobbyist, who
co-wrote the bill) meant to say the Restoration of America’s
Wire Act Act, since the bill aims to “restore the
long-standing interpretation of the Wire Act.”
The problem, as the Justice Department finally
recognized in December 2011, is that the interpretation Adelson
and his pet legislators prefer is plainly at odds with the text of
the statute, which refers to “bets or wagers on any sporting
event or contest“—language that the Chaffetz-Graham-Adelson
bill,
H.R. 4301, would excise. Furthermore, since the Wire Act was
passed decades before the Internet existed, it is rather
problematic to say that Congress intended to ban online gambling.
H.R. 4301 addresses that difficulty with new language referring to
“any transmission over the Internet carried interstate or in
foreign commerce, incidentally or otherwise.” The bill does not
“restore” anything; it imposes a brand new ban on Internet
gambling. That includes online poker, which undeniably involves
betting even if you consider it mainly a game of skill.
Graham
claims admitting that the Wire Act applies only to sports
betting—a conclusion endorsed
by the U.S. Court of Appeals Court for the 5th Circuit back in
2002—is “yet another example of the Holder Justice Department
and Obama Administration ignoring the law.” If you pay close
attention to a statute’s actual words, according to Graham, you are
ignoring the law. Being true to the law evidentally requires
excising the inconvenient parts.
Equally risible is Graham’s claim that his legislation, which
would block moves toward legalizing online gambling in states such
as Nevada
and New
Jersey, is necessary to protect state autonomy.:
In 1999, South Carolina outlawed video poker and removed over
33,000 video poker machines from within its borders. Now, because
of the Obama Administration’s decision, virtually any cell phone or
computer can again become a video poker machine. It’s simply not
right.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry, quoted in the
press release announcing the bill, this argument:
When gambling occurs in the virtual world, the ability of states
to determine whether the activity should be available to its
citizens and under what conditions—and to control the activity
accordingly—is left subject to the vagaries of the technological
marketplace. This seriously compromises the ability of states to
control gambling within their borders.
Since Perry is known as a
10th Amendment enthusiast, his support for the bill may
carry weight among federalists. It shouldn’t. Contrary to Perry’s
implication, H.R. 4301 would not let states decide whether Internet
gambling is permitted within their borders. It would ban online
gambling throughout the country, even in states that want to allow
it. This is a strange sort of federalism.
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Nothing like being close allies with one of the most despotic, Medieval and backwards societies on planet earth.
Never forget, the USA brings democracy to the world!
With the exception of puppet governments sitting on billions of barrels of oil reserves and disturbing ties to the 9/11 attacks. Those governments we love.
From the UK Independent:
Saudi Arabia has introduced a series of new laws which define atheists as terrorists, according to a report from Human Rights Watch.
In a string of royal decrees and an overarching new piece of legislation to deal with terrorism generally, the Saudi King Abdullah has clamped down on all forms of political dissent and protests that could “harm public order”.
Article one of the new provisions defines terrorism as “calling for atheist thought in any form, or calling into question the fundamentals of the Islamic religion on which this country is based”.
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