Meltdown

[ezodisy]

10 minutes ago, WTIC breached the $50/bbl threshold (NYMEX).  Mideast tensions?  Russian/Ukraine tensions?  OPEC's upcoming February meeting?

How dare they. Well the Russians will not be in any way endorsed by me to carry on their petulant behaviour so I am selling at 50. I hope it tanks to $5 

[BachQ]

How dare they. Well the Russians will not be in any way endorsed by me to carry on their petulant behaviour so I am selling at 50. I hope it tanks to $5 

lol.  Now Gazprom has cutoff all of Europe's natural gas which flows through Ukraine. Russia blames Ukraine for the shutdown.  And Ukraine blames Russia.  Fun times.  Isn't it wonderful to be dependent on Russia .....



As the map indicates, over a dozen countries are affected, including: Austria, Italy, Poland, Bulgaria, Turkey, Greece, Romania & Czech Republic, forcing some countries like Austria to tap into their dwindling reserves.  I assume that Germany and France are also partially affected by this.

This gives new meaning to the concept of "cold war."  Brrrrr.

[ezodisy]

This gives new meaning to the concept of "cold war."  Brrrrr.

well it certainly gives a new meaning to the term "bullshit". I hear Bulgaria is down to just a couple days of reserves. Now I sense is the time to swoop in to save Miss Bulgaria from the discomfort of sub-zero temperatures 

U.S. Democratic lawmakers on Tuesday reintroduced legislation to change bankruptcy laws to allow homeowners to shrink their mortgage debts on primary residences, a measure fiercely opposed by the banking industry.

[Lethevich]

Everything seems to have a silver lining - this can only hammer it into the eastern European former colonies that Russia is not their friend.

[Florestan]

this can only hammer it into the eastern European former colonies that Russia is not their friend.

As if we needed one more proof for that...

[ezodisy]

bloody great interview with Mish and Michael Hampton on commod watch covering everything from deflation to the environment to personal savings and beyond

http://commoditywatch.podbean.com/

[BachQ]

NY Daily News: Porn kings Larry Flint and Joe Francis go begging for a bailout

BY CATEY HILL
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Wednesday, January 7th 2009, 11:51 AM

Is the porn industry up next for a bailout?  If porn titans Joe Francis and Larry Flynt have anything to do with it, it will.

Yes, ladies and gentleman, the titans of pornography are begging for a bailout.

Joe Francis, creator of the "Girl's Gone Wild" video series, and Larry Flynt, founder of Hustler, will ask Congress for a $5 billion bailout, according to TMZ.

Why does the porn industry need a bailout?  Because apparently even porn is getting smacked by the recession.

XXX DVD sales have taken a hit - about a 22% hit, according the TMZ.

"With all this economic misery and people losing all that money, sex is the farthest thing from their mind," Flynt is quoted as saying on TMZ. "It's time for Congress to rejuvenate the sexual appetite of America."

Francis thinks that the porn industry deserves a bailout just like the auto and financial industries got, and he said he'll go to DC to get it, according to TMZ.

"Congress seems willing to help shore up our nation's most important businesses; we feel we deserve the same consideration," Francis is quoted as saying on TMZ.

Is the porn industry really experiencing a severe downturn?  It depends on who you ask.

Francis Koenig's fund AdultVest, which invests in porn-related assets, was up 50% in 2008, according to Tom Johansmeyer's article in next month's Atlantic (as reported by The Huffington Post).  But video sales are down.

"The industry's not going anywhere," Koenig says. "You've got 6 billion people on the planet," he laughs, "and they're all horny."

The porn industry generated about $12 billion in 2007, according to the Atlantic article. 

[BachQ]

U.S. Democratic lawmakers on Tuesday reintroduced legislation to change bankruptcy laws to allow homeowners to shrink their mortgage debts on primary residences, a measure fiercely opposed by the banking industry.

Yeah, the banking lobby vigorously opposed that in 2007.  However, times have changed, and now everyone hates bankers, so this legislation should sail through Congress (provided that Obama gives it a green light).

[ezodisy]

How dare they. Well the Russians will not be in any way endorsed by me to carry on their petulant behaviour so I am selling at 50. I hope it tanks to $5 

ha ha ha get stuffed Putin, under $43 now and tanking.

BARF all over the gold chart. First is one I plotted before it happened, showing what would happen. Second is underway. See you at $400.

[ezodisy]

http://financialtruth0.blogspot.com/

Faber on Bloomberg from 7 Jan setting the public straight about who's to blame

[BachQ]

bloody great interview with Mish and Michael Hampton on commod watch covering everything from deflation to the environment to personal savings and beyond

http://commoditywatch.podbean.com/

Nice.  The interview covered a lot of ground.  I liked Mish's take on deflation (which, by definition, includes the contraction of credit/debt) and deleveraging (which he sees persisting for another 6 months into 2009).

Here's a permanent link to the interview:

http://commoditywatch.podbean.com/2009/01/07/2009-mish-and-mike-give-their-views/

You gotta love the way they trashed Dubya's moronic policies .....

[ezodisy]

speaking of Dubya, the BBC's collection of Bushisms: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7809160.stm

last one's a beauty

[BachQ]

speaking of Dubya, the BBC's collection of Bushisms: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7809160.stm

last one's a beauty

   

Hilarious ...

[BachQ]

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid: "I really do believe President Bush is the worst president we've ever had."

[BachQ]

ha ha ha get stuffed Putin, under $43 now and tanking.

Oil just dipped below $41/bbl!  (NYMEX WTIC).

[BachQ]

RT News (07 Jan 2009): Peter Schiff is highly doomerish on America's economy & Obama's economic stimulus

http://uk.youtube.com/v/djgH9wA-JSU

DOLLAR DOOM ! 

[ezodisy]

I don't know if anyone wants to listen to Paul Craig Roberts ("was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration"), but he questions whether there will be a recovery at all, which I have to say sounds a lot more sensible than all thosee economists on Bloomberg now predicting recovery in the second half of '09

Will There be a Recovery?

[ezodisy]

oh dear

"Paulson said he had to make it attractive to banks, which is code for 'I'm going to give money away,'" said Joseph Stiglitz, who won a Nobel Prize in 2001 for his work on the economic value of information.

"The worst aspect of this is that they were designed not to do what they were supposed to do," he said in a telephone interview from Paris Jan. 7. "In many ways, it's not only a giveaway, but a giveaway that was designed not to work."

Stiglitz said finance professionals at Treasury possessed expertise on warrant pricing that members of Congress didn't. As a result, Paulson gave lip service to the lawmakers' intent on TARP without gaining much value for taxpayers, said Stiglitz, a Columbia University professor who described the pricing mechanism as "a gimmick to make sure that they were giving away something worth nothing."

"If Paulson was still an employee of Goldman Sachs and he'd done this deal, he would have been fired," he said.

Paulson declined to comment, McLaughlin said.

[BachQ]

oh dear

"Paulson said he had to make it attractive to banks, which is code for 'I'm going to give money away'", said Joseph Stiglitz, who won a Nobel Prize in 2001 for his work on the economic value of information.

"The worst aspect of this is that they were designed not to do what they were supposed to do," he said in a telephone interview from Paris Jan. 7. "In many ways, it's not only a giveaway, but a giveaway that was designed not to work."
Stiglitz said finance professionals at Treasury possessed expertise on warrant pricing that members of Congress didn't. As a result, Paulson gave lip service to the lawmakers' intent on TARP without gaining much value for taxpayers, said Stiglitz, a Columbia University professor who described the pricing mechanism as "a gimmick to make sure that they were giving away something worth nothing."

"If Paulson was still an employee of Goldman Sachs and he'd done this deal, he would have been fired," he said.

Paulson declined to comment, McLaughlin said.

No surprises there. 

As a result, Paulson gave lip service to the lawmakers' intent on TARP without gaining much value for taxpayers, said Stiglitz, a Columbia University professor who described the pricing mechanism as "a gimmick to make sure that they were giving away something worth nothing."

It's called FRAUD.  Hanky Panky Paulson = Fraudster

Paulson declined to comment,

LOL 

[BachQ]

Meanwhile, a bipartisan congressional oversight panel led by Harvard Law School professor Elizabeth Warren has concluded that there were significant gaps in the Treasury Dept's transparency, oversight and accountability with respect to TARP.  What a shocker!  Who would have guessed!

http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE50818T20090109

Paulson declined to comment on the Reuters article.