Re: Deep Capture

Excellent video. Recaps all of the material presented in "The Darkside Of The Looking Glass."

imo, Banks will eventually be forced to find a way to write down all of the fraudulent coporate paper through regulatory means. They will have seen the light, and suddenly become responsible corporate citizens as the laws are changed to allow certain bankruptcy processes to proceed without damaging the real equity.

Much of the credit derivatives are ficticious capital, so anybody seeking to reap the benefits of legal process against this is probably out of luck if the banks go through bankruptcy anyways.

But that will mean a good numbers of pension funds, hedge funds and the like will go broke because of their exposure.

Overall, I believe the punchbowl will be taken away at some point, when bankers see a real challenge to their power.

follow up to my posting of Saturday February 2, 2008:

[CUQ.to, mentioned in this blog, is a stock I have been watching. It was purchased last Thursday for my investment account.]

I bought this stock based on fundamentals. At the time I was looking to buy 4 oil stocks for my account. This stock, an indirect play on oil, looked very favourable. Technical signals were not the best but I did overbuy my allocation of this stock by a factor of 4. It proved me wrong by falling 17% the following week. This market is so volatile. I hope that you did look at this stock and bought it the following weeks. After suffering a month and a half of being underwater the stock finally showed technical strength by maintaining support at $16.00. I tried to sell off part on my position on Friday May 11, 2007, but my asking price was a smidgen too high. Now MACD is looking better but I am now once again looking to lighten up or hold if it can beak out from $23.00. Indeed this is a stock more for short-term trading than buy and hold.

If you did buy this stock at around $16.00 your return would be 39%. My gain from a purchase price of $17.89 is 24%. Paying attention to RSI daily, weekly and monthly would have been a deal maker on the higher percent return. Currently I will take any opportunity to lighten up my position, as the opportunities (short-term) in the junior gold stocks are looking better by the day.

Oil stocks on the other hand are looking overvalued. Traders in the commodities market have run up oil to a threshold that does not appear to have the strength to continue upwards from current levels. Remember what goes up goes down faster. Stories of oil going to $150 or $200 are feeding the ill informed to buy. I have taken a small position in an ETF to await the fall in oil prices.

This market is going to reward those who have become short-term traders. Although diversification is important in portfolio management, for the individual trader, a focus on a few stocks that you spend the time to research in depth is the tactic of the day now.

Any comments/discussion on this stock or on the price of gold and/or oil is most welcomed, as I cannot make the market do what I want it to. [039]

Re: POG, POO

Price of gold should be seeing a little recovery soon, to $900 in the next couple of days. I've been expecting a late season rally, but have been proven wrong so far. A really positive sign would be that silver advances percentage wise against gold.

Oil is on its own momentum trajectory, so its going to be very difficult to pick out a top. But like, gold and the euro its running past its long term price objective. If Louise Yamada says that $124 is the long term price objective, then she should be believed, though fibonnaci overlays on the weekly chart have oil at 131.

I saw Patrick's video some time ago. It really alerted me to the fact that all electronic trading (commodities and stocks) nowadays essentially operates on the fractional reserve system. In other words, a limited number of assets (commodities/stock certificates) backing an almost unlimited number of IOUs (electronic certificates and derivatives). This is even confirmed by the CFTC in their response to silver trader's claiming manipulation. http://tinyurl.com/8ryvl
Where they explain there are more future positions than there is silver.

Understanding this, Jim Sinclair's suggestion that people get their stock certificates makes some sense. But then more can be printed, just like money. So that would be equivalent to stashing cash in the mattress which is easliy devalued.

Daytrading with small money seems a viable option but it begs the question: Aren't we enabling these people by participating in the banks and markets which have been so corrupted? How can we change them and be a part of them at the same time?

[Bill Cara note: We can talk about it. Sound plans lead to successful results regardless of the enemy, when the numbers are in our favor.]

Thank you for the charts Ron.

I notice descending volume for most of the ascending charts. Is this part of your consideration?

Great! Patrick used my reference to the movie Matrix (red pill blue pill). Ha! I am stuck in the Matrix!

A report came out yesterday from Benjamin Tal, a senior CIBC economist with some interesting facts in a "Consumer Watch" report. Looks like Canadians are listening to Bill!

Headline yesterday in globeinvestor_com: "Canadians sitting on $45-billion of cash"

Some notes from the article:

Canadians are still sitting on cash positions which in real terms are 15 per cent higher than the already elevated level seen in 2001.

One key difference, he said, is that younger investors are a lot more risk averse than they were just seven years ago. He calculates that 25-to-49-year-olds are responsible for nearly 40 per cent of the pile of cash now sitting on the sidelines, twice as much as in 2001.

Another measure of just how nervous investors have become? The implied volatility index of the TSX, the report says, has rocketed up by an “incredible” 80 per cent over the past to levels not seen in more than five years.

As well, punters have cashed in a startling $35-billion in equity mutual funds in the past six months alone, and this has helped produce a net outflow on a three-month moving average basis, the worst showing ever, according to Mr. Tal. “Investors are in a bad mood,” he said.

By contrast, money market fund sales hit a record $10.7-billion in the first quarter of this year, giving them a 10 per cent share of total mutual funds, up from 7 per cent last September. As well, cash positions in brokerage accounts are swelling by an estimated annual rate of 15 per cent.

-The $45 billion in “extra” cash they are withholding from the market adds up to 10 per cent of total personal liquid assets in Canada.

----

This would support my position that the junior stocks have sold off without any buying interest because of a 'buyers' strike'.

[correction to my previous post this morning: "sell off part on my position on Friday May 11, 2007" should be April 11]

Best of trading to all [040].

I am often called a cynic, I consider myself (my ego) to rather realistic. Hell, my friends who have no clue what is going on ecofinancially really think I'm a cynic.

Anyway, when in history have the financial markets ever truly been operated for the benefits of those who own capital? Why would we think now would be any different? Kaimu whacked me on activism, but it seems to me activism is usually only successful when the targeted phenomenon become so overtly feckless usually of it's own mistakes, that it collapses.

Did not Joe Kennedy help reform the capital markets so that basically the same mechanisms could exploit the system? Having said that, I'm writing to my Congressman and forwarding the information to those I know who would likely be interested. Hell, I'm even posting the links to this stuff on Cramer's blogs. As I think I've quoted before from some philosophical literature written 2000 years ago, "Steal a hook, hang as a crook; Steal a kingdom, be made a duke."

What I think Bill helps us do is understand the system so we can operate more successfully. We have to live within the system as it is while it is. So in answer to Bert, what other choice do you have other than to withdraw? It becomes a personal question of what is better for you and your family.

I appreciate, "fighting the good fight" but the system is much bigger than us. So Bill, do your best, but at the end of the day, put it down, kiss your wife and hug your kids.

BernardF - Tal was interviewed this morning on CBC's biznet. Here's a link to the audio .ram file
http://tinyurl.com/6k9zh2

His (cibc part of the HB&B ilk) theme was spend those dollars and put them into the market. I was waiting for him to say buy bank stocks but that didn't get directly stated.

Re: your previous o&g thoughts -- what ETF are you alluding to? HOD.to or possibly DUG? I'm underwater both at present.

Anyone watching Paulson's speech on TV?
He can't speak due to an ugly squelching feedback.......I'm thinking someone hooked up a lie detector to the microphone. :>)

bigger volume so far today compared w/yesterday, we'll see if the selling pressure is enough to take out the infamous 12,800.

XLF broke it's upward channel yesterday to the downside, but on light volume. a confirmation today would be nice, since i'll be gone all next week...

gotta put in some stops this time...

Exited rest of V position at 87.40.

Feels like another down day unless oil should suddenly reverse.

scratch what i said about the vol being greater- it's about the same. i miscalculated.

Nemo - I think you're on target. I agree that the system is bigger than us, but I believe change starts small and it starts with us all individually. If you think about it, the system became corrupt and exploitable because the masses made choices individually to be irresponsible. Irresponsible by not doing due diligence about their finances, elected officials, government, etc . . . (you name it) Cumulatively, all of these choices made by individuals, I believe has led the system to where it is today.

r. saunders - thank you for posting the link.

I think we all (at least myself) are NOT (lol) going to follow their recommendations. Bill has scared the "HELL" out of me in believing anything they say as far as "spend those dollars and put them into the market". I guess they need the business, but to be fair to CIBC, they do have the Investor Advantage program with very low trading fees for a fixed up-front price. But I have not been able to determine (from the fine print) if they can yank it away in the future and cancel it.

I am not a believer that the banks here in Canada are in trouble, but they have had their day and opportunities elsewhere are definitely more favourable.

There are a number of ETFs in Canada that trade a variation of Oil/near oil. The one I am using now is HED.to (HEU.TO - has done well for the up move this last quarter, but I elected to use CNQ.to instead of HEU.to), part of the Horizon funds. I picked this one because I like a lot of volume so I can get in or out. Looks like the mutual funds are using it as well as some large bids or asks are posted on level II quotes.

This is how I felt back on January 12, 2008, as I posted to this site the following:

[Oil - any one expecting the price to come down drastically is dreaming (there will be up and down movements by traders). Oil sells for 15 cents a cup. Since 2005 there has been a deficit in oil production. The dirty, oil sands in Canada are a ticking bomb with the wasteful use of clean natural gas to produce this resource. The destruction to the environment and clean up is beyond belief. Short-term "get-what-you-can" for profits and the USA's need for this oil is the reason for this mess. There is no way that the USA is going to reduce oil consumption and the emerging countries are not going reduce consumption - they consume too little vs the improvements required for a rise in their standard of living.]

It was hard to know where the oil price was going short-term, but the reports from HB&B for lower oil prices at the time made me take a counter position to this stance (like 2nd ave position of trading on sentiment). I (you) just can't listen to the nonsense of HB&B. I do expect wide swings in oil, but $90 is more likely than $120, but I could be wrong as Nigeria and Iran are wild-cards right now. And Iraq is in no position of stability. I would warn that I could switch from HED.to to HEU.to in a flash as the exposure is 2X the risk and there is a risk of decrease value because of internal costs of managing the ETF. So use this for short-term trading only and look at using stops if you can't watch the market. Also I am trying to focus on just a few areas as my research is limited to a day off like today or evenings when I am sometimes too tired to dig deep. [041]

ive posted charts of the short term technical picture for financials (XLF) and gold miners (GDX)

http://jglobal.blogspot.com/

feedback as always is welcome.

Sprott Inc. IPO Seen Priced At C$10/Shr, As Expected
May 8, 2008 11:26am ET

By Ben Dummett

Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

TORONTO (Dow Jones)--As expected, Sprott Inc. priced its initial public offering at C$10 a share or in the middle or the C$9.50 to C$10.50 range, according to market talk.

At that price, the Toronto hedge fund increases its chances of its stock making a strong trading debut on the Toronto Stock Exchange because of pent-up demand for the issue. Orders for the C$200 million issue totaled around C$600 million, leading some to speculate the issue might have been priced at the high end of the range, according to some investors.

According to market talk, institutional demand for the issue was about two times oversubscribed while retail demand was about eight times oversubscribed.

-Ben Dummett, Dow Jones Newswires; 416-306-2024; ben.dummett@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

05-08-08 1125ET

Copyright (c) 2008 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

Bennet Sedacca (great debt trader IMO) at minyanville thinks oil is in a bubble and compares it to housing and nasdaq bubbles.

I see everyone breathlessly bullish on oil and its divergence from other commodities and I think he may have a point.

Jeff Saut has turned extremely cautious in his latest weekly missive, telling short term traders to sell. I have been reading these for a while and he has been spot on in most of them, still cautious in January and turning bullish at the bottom in March. He says clients were calling last week asking what to buy.

http://tinyurl.com/5tgovv

Hey guys, love the conversation about little fish in a big pond. Don't necessarily disagree but change has to start from somewhere and right now the big fish are winning.

Don't be afraid to make some noise every now and then just to let them know you are around and watching.

BTW...That link to Mitchell's Article at DeepCapture.com, do yourself and us all a favor and distribute it around to friends and Congressmen. To get change needs to have people ask for change.

Thanks to all in advance,

Patchie

Metallica Res(MRB)- Oll Time High 7.09

To patchie, Yeah, that's why I do follow-up. Just to re-iterate: what I feel is most important is at the end of my entry. To me it sounds like Bill carries this weight too heavily. All he can do is his best. Hell, we're not on this earth all that long, try not to be to miserable especially over those things which are very difficult to control.

allen/QT- note that if you had sold puts against your FXP positions at Monday's low, then closed hem out at yesterday's high...and simultaneously closed out the underlying stock at yesterday's high, you may well have exited the entire position with just a small loss overall...a high risk strategy to be sure, and as Seamus pointed out- by selling puts you risk doubling your position should the price drop further- but one that would have worked in a short period of time...selling calls, as someone else suggested, would have worked almost as well, with lower risk...not saying you should have, but for anyone caught in FXP, it's a strategy to keep in your back pocket should you decide to use it...

i have read the deep capture article.
i think it spells out the problem well.
i have sent the article to a bazillion people.
i even dugg it.
i want someone somewhere somehow to take notice of this so much so that it cannot be hushed up any longer.
i did have a fairly long phone call with my senators office yesterday. the topic was the subject of the article by mark mitchell.
i want to say thank you to folks like patch and patrick and mark and mr cara and all the rest of those who fight this injustice.
y'all take care

2nd: Thanks for the idea on FXP.

I was thinking about doubling down under $60 with FXP. I never thought about selling puts to double my position. That would have worked out great. I might do that next time.

b0ss & 2nd:

If you are willing to sell Dec 08 at-the-money FXP (covered) calls, you will break even by December if FXP stays at the same level.

In other words, by selling calls for ~$14 (yesterday's quote), you would lower your cost basis by the same amount (a whopping 21%). Seems like a decent exit strategy.

Long PAL as a position trade...check it out.

Best performer in the McEwen stable today is Minera Andes MNEAF - holds 49% of a producing mine in Argentina, and a copper prospect that looks hopeful, broke 2 month downtrend today. Disclosure - Long (for a long time)

I'm surprised the markets are green given the underlying weakness in financials - and considering the downtrend of financials all of this week, I can't imagine big $ will step in to bid them up going into the weekend -

Seems like financials are trying to slip out the back door while everyone is drinking the kool-aid....

It looks to me like the buyers are tired. There was a knee-jerk reaction when the DOW slipped below 12800, likely a computer buying program. But the follow-through hasn't been inspiring at all.

Speaking of financials, FNM is now back where it was before the insane runup when it reported those terrible earnings. And I can't believe they lowered their capital requirements. They would be a no-brainer short in an honest market that was backed by real fundamentals. But, you know...

Rob.

Opening short Oil/gas "SNPIX" (Profunds) position.

Been 2x short Russell 200 since Tues eod.

First trades in weeks.

Dave

TIM.to released a report by Photon Consulting supposedly verifying their claims (low cost process, cells with 14-15% efficiency, potentially reshaping the solar cell industry). Stock is up quite a bit in the last 2 days. A straddle (May 2nd Skype) would have been hugely profitable as the stock could to $40 or $0. Stock is up 36% in the last 3 days and 600% in the last 12 months.

Whether the report is valid or not it doesn't matter, specially with a straddle. The point is to make money and not be married to the companies.

P.S. Oil at $124.38 now.

Finished reading Bill’s recommended reading and it makes some serious implications and is at times hard to follow, given all the twists and turns. Here are some of the names you should be aware of:

People cited in depcapture article as part of the conspiracy or aiding the conspiracy:

Jim Cramer, David Rocker, Larry Kudlow, Herb Greenberg, Jesse Eisinger, Joe Nocera, David Kansas (writer), Cory Johnson (former street.com writer) , Dave Evans (writer), Roddy Boyd (writer), Bill Alpert (writer), Bethany McLean (writer), Jonathan Weil (writer), Jeff Mathews (blogger & former street.com), Karen Richardson (writer), Carol Loomis (writer), Betty Quick (cnbc producer), Justin Lahart (former street.com), Chris Byron (writer), Dan Colarusso (editor & former street.com), Floyd Norris (writer), Floyd Schneider, Manuel Asensio (short seller), Mike Wilkins (short seller & Kingsford Capital), William Ackman (short seller), Barry Minkow, Spyro Contagouris, Gene Philips, Eliot Spitzer (former college roommate of Jim Cramer), Kevin Ingram (stock basher & former GS trader), Jon Markman, Karen Hinton & Donn Vickery (Gradient Analytics), Carol Remond (writer), Dan Loeb, David Einhorn (Greenlight capital and cramer friend), Gary Weiss, Sam Antar (former CFO of Crazy Eddies), Michelle McDonough (formerly Michelle Sarian), Milberg Weiss Lawfirm (sentenced for racketeering), Kroll Investigative Agency, Hanover Sterling (brokerage firm), Kingsford Capital Fellow, Pacific International, Johnathan Curshen (Red Sea Management), Institutional Credit Partners, Wall Street Journal Money & Investing Section, Steve Cohen (responsible for 3% of NYSE daily trading volume), Jim Chanos (fund mgr of Kynikos).

People Fighting they Conspiracy as cited by Deepcapture article:

Patrick Bryne (CEO of overstock.com), thesanitycheck.com, Charles Gasparino (cnbc ), Liz Moyer (writer), Gary Matsumoto (writer), Dennis Kneale (editor), Gary Aguire (SEC attorney), Senator Orrin Hatch

and me capN

Mom&Pop Stuff:
Tax Rebate:

Yesterday, 5.7.08, the first of two expected deposits from Uncle Sam arrived electronically in the amount of $600. I thought it would be interesting to keep an account of what the Bonanza was spent on and if our Prez, Ben & Hank were correct about this extra lucre helping the nation out of the difficult times or rough ‘patch’ we have encountered.

5.7 Beginning total------------------------$600.00
5.8 Gas fill up for Vehicle # 1:
Ford Pick-up---------------------------------80.48
5.8 Gas fill up for Vehicle # 2:
Oldsmobile-----------------------------------50.74
5.8 County Tax Collector: Licence tag
stamp for Vehicle # 3: Pontiac---------------37.09

Balance on hand----------------------------$431.69

All vehicles are 14 years or older, the Pontiac can be classified as an antique.

So far it looks like Big Oil and Government have reaped the benefits of the rebate. Maybe disbursements will be more in line to help the economy in the next outing.

Good list Cap'n. I too read the article - and it makes me sick to read of this stuff.

It's amazing how many of the people listed are writers and journalists. I guess the pen is mightier than the sword...

Dave

Scottraders:

Can anyone find the symbol that Scottrade uses for the short Oil/gas "SNPIX" (Profunds) position
in DavidB's post above.

I can't find it.

zeto - should be "SNPIX" but Scottrade may not present that fund to you. DUG is a 2X inverse oil etf that appears to track very well (albeit 2x) with SNPIX
Dave

Re: Short On Oil

It might be a little soon to be sitting on an ETF shorting oil.

Having read Patrick Byrne's article on short selling, I have to conclude that the Sith-Lord is CRAMER!!!

That was about 6 hours of work to do my part for Bill and the community. If Bill says it is the most important thing we can read to see how the markets are against us, I will do my part.

We can keep an eye out for those names to try to figure out what they are up to. If there is that much collusion the only way I see to win is to trade with them or put them in jail? Naked shorts and bear runs are undoubtedly the biggest crime of the century. This really throws some light on what really happened to bear stearns .... the biggest bank robbery in history all in plain public view.

DaveB

Thanks!

FranSix - agree that it may be early to short oil, but then again it may be right. Really hard to tell on these bubble-runs, but DUG has some really interesting looking positive divergence, and a nice-looking double bottom formation so that's why I'm entering.

I will exit if the double bottom isn't.

Dave

Guess who makes the most money on high gas and oil prices?

The Oil Companies? No Higher energy costs squeezed their margins according to XOM in the conference call.

Refiners? No Look at VLO, it can hardly make money at these crude prices

Big Government? Yes!! The government would like nothing more than to have crude and gasoline stay at these levels. You see, they charge a percentage of tax on each gallon of gas. So, the higher the price goes the higher $ amount they collect.

And they have the nerve to make the oil companies testify in front of them and call for windfall profit taxes on companies with 7% profit margins.

Does anyone ever ask the government if their take on a barrel of Crude is over 7%?

Rob.

great point Rob!

Dave

CapN i have been trying my best for a couple years now to try and get folks to bring attention
to this crime.
i got started in it because my broker denied me selling stock that i had bought and held for months.
they said i didnt own them.
loss 154k
i am determined to get answers as to why i was robbed and who allowed it.
and i want those involved brought to justice.
that list ^^^ up there??? the long list???
thats a good place to look.
the short list(no pun intended) are the good guys i support them.

AIG reports 7.8bln quarterly loss, will raise 12.5bln capital
not good

Is Barron's part of the conspiracy? They had a front page story on how AIG's stock was cheap and headed higher a few months ago which caused a large but fleeting pop in the stock.

If the Wall Street Journal money section is than I'd bet Barron's is too as they are it is a WSJ publication.

[Bill Cara note: Makes one wonder...

WSJ NEWS ALERT: AIG Posts Steep Loss, Plans to Raise $12.5 Billion in New Capital

May 8, 2008: American International Group reported a $7.81 billion first-quarter loss and announced plans to raise $12.5 billion in new capital. The insurance giant, which has been battered by soured investments on credit-default swaps and other mortgage-related investments, plans to sell new shares, equity-linked securities and fixed-income securities with a large equity component included.]

AIG records a large loss, intention to raise $12.5 billion, and simultaneously boosts its dividend by 10%? That is quite a rabbit hole they are taking the company down.

This is not the only company to do something so absurd.

"Big Government? Yes!! The government would like nothing more than to have crude and gasoline stay at these levels. You see, they charge a percentage of tax on each gallon of gas. So, the higher the price goes the higher $ amount they collect."

Sorry, FL, I'm not buying that argument. Government may benefit from higher gasoline prices, but they have no control over oil prices aside from the negative effects of inflationary monetary policy.

You can also fault government for their moronic ethanol subsidy. But working to raise gas prices to generate more tax revenue? Nah.

anyone else thinking gold is setting up for a moonshot soon? if so, what are you trading? i'm looking at buying oct/dec calls in miners...particularly ABX, NAK, and AUY.

One of the problems with oil is that it is based in U.S. dollars and China has over a trillion of U.S. dollars. Then you have to add in Japan..etc.

Oil makes the world go round and there is plenty of money out there to buy it at these prices.

CapN,

In the long list of names compiled from Mark Mitchell's "Deep Capture" article "Betty Quick (cnbc producer)" actually should be Becky Quick.

Anyone see this comment on the
"Wallaston Investments" web page today?
[http://wallastoninvestments.com/]

"An interesting post by reader at Worden tells how he believes that the 200 day moving average is now serving as resistance for higher prices: I took a look at how SPY acted in the last bear market. It was apparent that the 200-day moving average acted as overhead resistance in that bear market, so I went to a daily chart with a 200-day moving average and was amazed by what I saw. The periods of interest (tantamount to sell signals) are Nov 00, early Feb 01, May 01, Dec 01, Jan 02, Mar 02 and Dec 02. To generalize, if the SPY price gets close to its 200-day moving average, look out below! Of the above events, the trickiest one was the Dec 01, Jan 02 and Mar 02 combination which comes across as a triple top. By May 03, it was obvious we had a different animal–one that snorts rather than growling. Anyhow, take a look at the SPY and its 200-day moving average right now."

chart: http://tinyurl.com/592ann

Looks like tomorrow could be another sell off.
Comments?

Let's see...included in the list of people "fighting the conspiracy" are Dennis Kneale and Charlie Gaspirino... Are they friggin' serious? If so, then Deepcapture lost me right there.

Hi folks,
Been a while since I had time from work to spend good quality time here :-) Only been able to lurk a bit an catch Bill's daily reports.

Anyway, in light of the discussion on Deep Capture, I'd like to suggest folks take some more time (2hrs) and watch the video linked below, called "Zeitgeist the Movie".

http://tinyurl.com/2zfgcb

WARNING: Many folks will consider this movie to be the very definition of "tin foil hat" B/S. The first two parts of the movie require a VERY open mind regarding Judeo-Christian religion and the US Government. Very controversial claims are made, but worth listening to, even in disbelief or disagreement.

Part three relates directly to our finance system, and the social/political/financial engineering we see, fight against and by which we are daily enveloped.

Cheers everyone and best to you all!
PS (happy to be back & sorry if the movie offends anyone)

[Bill Cara note: I hope I don't regret what you've done here, reenzo. I have no time to watch movies, and I hope this isn't about Jews and banking. If there are complaints, from anybody, please send them to me at bill [at] billcara.com, and I'lll take them into consideration. I do not want any flame wars. I've had a good day relaxing around the pool. I hope my evening with dinner and friends around the pool is also a good one.]

regarding Zeitgeist:

ive seen it several times, its been out for a while and i think a 2nd edition was recently released.

Bill i didnt find anything in it prejudicial towards jewish people, it examines the pagan basis for most modern monotheistic religions and western culture, and implicates the "illuminati" and other such global conspiratist groups in their attempts to take over the world.

it takes a stab at the federal reserve as well,
the only people the movie would offend are deeply religious people who take offense to critical analysis of their religion. (which in a shame becuase if you believe your religion to be a statement of truth, it should stand up to the test of critical examination, not be an exalted set of claims beyond rational challange... in a respectful way of course.)

Zeitgeist movie,
I good friend asked me to come over and see this "great" movie that her music industry boyfriend showed her and some of his friends. After her synopsis of the 2 hr. movis, I said no thanks. It is about the idea that the US government and George Bush actually were part of the 911 event. I tore her story to bits. They claim that there were blasts inside the buildings and that people could see the blasts. That the buildings went down like a planned skyscraper demolition. Of course, anyone in construction knows what happens when elecric transformers get to hot; they explode. Also the firemen inside the buildings never expressed to their fire captains that any blast of the type portrayed in the movie ever happened. It is a "great" movie if you hate the current administration but it is for "entertainment" purposes only. I'm not ignorant enough to watch it, thank you!

I told you guys a few days ago that WGW had broken support and would see 2.25 which was it's close today.

India has halted futures trading in four of five commodities until September. wtf?

$2.99 per gallon guaranteed for 3 yrs!

Buy a new dodge and they guarantee you wont pay more than $2.99 per gallon for the next 3 yrs and up to 12k miles per yr.

How ugly it must be at dealerships now.

http://tinyurl.com/3ww2zh

I wonder if the gas companies subsidized Dodge's promo or if they're just doing some naked short selling of gas futures?

The Cramer Conspiracy is a great story... but there's always 2 sides. Doesn't Sam Antar have any credibility left?

Say it ain't so, Sam. :)

Sam isn't done with Overstock yet...
http://tinyurl.com/5nodep

If naked short-selling happens, doesn't that mean that share buybacks are being trampled by phantom share sales? Could raising the dividend by 10% be a defense against this practice, or is it the same as dumping $130 billion of liquidity into a plummeting market?

I think that if you analyze the financial statements of any public company (or private, for that matter) you will always find something wrong if you are looking for it.

But since we trade prices, not companies, does it really matter who's name is on the baseball card and whether the stats are correct, or how many cards are in circulation?

Ponzi's probably laughing from his grave over how his SEC "oversees" some of the largest pyramid scams in history.

Anybody want some swampland in Florida? It's not protected any more...

"On March 25, the national board of directors of the Sierra Club voted to suspend its Florida chapter for four years -- an unprecedented move for an organization with a long tradition of democratic management from the grassroots up. The move meant the immediate ouster of the state chapter's 27-member executive committee -- which had been elected by Florida Sierra Club members to oversee statewide activist efforts and manage paid staff -- plus the suspension of other state-level committees. "

http://tinyurl.com/67mmtz

Why the fuel price protection program is a lot like an extended warranty... you just shouldn't buy it.

http://tinyurl.com/6ku29d

Number2son,
Sorry, I didn't mean that the government was behind high oil prices. What I meant was that they have no reason to want them to go lower. Actually they have all the reasons to want them to go higher.

Rob.

[Bill Cara note: Yes, inflation does mean higher taxes. But it also means higher rates of debt service, and since most of the Treasury debt is now owned by foreigners, those higher taxes paid by Americans are then transferred to investors abroad. Does anybody really win with inflation?]

You're right Bill, no one wins with inflation. But like you point out mostly foreigners hold our debt and we need them to buy much more weekly forever.

So, maybe we're inflating to save the bankers and to prevent a bond market collapse. If the current holders decide to stop buying more bonds, we're screwed so they need every incentive to keep buying until we can get someone in there with fiscal sanity.

Also, I think the current SEC proposal to have banks and brokerages reveal their assets and how they value them will really help to restore trust in the marketplace if the SEC follows through and forces the banks and brokerages to comply.

Rob.

My wife has a friend that owns a couple of gas stations and she was saying that lately people have been coming in furious when they pay for gas and some of them literally throwing their money on the counter.

Doesn't that say something about who has been bailed out and supported lately and who has been left out in the cold.

Rob.

UXG update:
http://tinyurl.com/49ucrm

ALOHA !!

I for one doubt the US government wants higher gas prices! Higher gas means the following for the US government:

- Higher cost to keep US military going
- Higher costs to fund Fed, State, local governments
- Higher debt costs
- More companies fail meaning more unemployment and welfare and food stamp and corp bailout costs
- Attitudes of citizenry becomes more desperate
- Crime rises
- Scarcity

Like Bill says ... nobody ever really benefits from inflation yet we continually vote for it for many decades now!

We Americans are already paying an overall average DIRECT tax rate of 52%. Add in the tax of inflation and we are well above 60%!!! You know what? IT FEELS LIKE IT TOO!!! Its absurd that We The People keep accepting this as our destiny!

YOU GET WHAT YOU VOTE FOR!!

ALOHA !!

In Hilo, Hawaii premium grade gasoline is now $4.03USD per gallon! My first glimpse of the "4" handle ...

ALOHA !!

PRAXEOLOGY ...

Well, I believe

[Bill Cara note: Please contact me. Thanks.]

"In Hilo, Hawaii premium grade gasoline is now $4.03USD per gallon! My first glimpse of the "4" handle ..."

Meh, in the SF Bay Area regular is going for $3.95-98. ;)

About a month ago my wife, a teacher, started car pooling 1 day per week with another teacher to help reduce their driving costs. This week they started doing it 4 days a week.

This and the high cost of food is really starting to hurt people where it counts. I don't see how wage inflation doesn't start accelerating.

I remember when prognosticators were saying that the U.S. economy couldn't tolerate $100 oil. With some now confidently predicting $200 oil by the end of the year, the inflationary effects will certainly lead to major social disruptions. And none of the babbitry on CNBC or elsewhere in the media is talking about that.

About 2-3 months ago, suggested when at a petrol stop, gas station, to check the sales prices on other pumps to see if others were filling up or just buying what was needed for a short time ($10-$20 ourchases). Also mentioned not to do this on interstates where long distance travel was the norm.

Now, I heard on the radio this week where station owners are reporting most are NOT filling up but making minimal purchases to get by for a day or two. Sign of the times--Suspect this trend will continue.

Typo in prior--($10-$20 ourchases) should be purchases--apologies.

Seamus, I think soon that switches to buying bulk and stocking up on gas at discounts when possiblefor those that can afford it.

Remember the last time we had gas issues and John Denver was telling folks to use less gas while he was installing a storage/dispensing station on his property? I know a few people that had tanks installed on their farms.

I'm filling up/topping off at Costco as that is the cheapest gas and it makes for less stops/fills/more savings. Oh and a few % back.

If everyone wants to see why inflation is in the system....look at diesel prices. Everything is transported with diesel.

BTW, you know who installs those gas tanks, pumps, etc and keeps them topped off?

CHSCP.....Cenex.