Financial topics

[aedens]

I agree Higg, Ford was an employeee also....

Although the CRA was signed into law by Jimmy Carter, two other important acts the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) and the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) were signed by a republican, Gerald Ford. The talk show hosts also state that Bill Clinton was responsive for the expansion of CRA and forcing the banks to make bad loans. However, the two major changes in the CRA occurred in 1989 with the passage of the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act (FIRREA) and the Federal Housing Enterprises Financial Safety and Soundness Act of 1992. Both were signed into law by George H. W. Bush. Under FIRREA, the reporting requirements of CRA compliance were expanded. The latter act required Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to support affordable housing by purchasing CRA-qualifying loans. Even though the talk show hosts have said that up to one half of Fannie and Freddie loans were CRA loans, the act suggests that by the year 2010, that one-third of their purchases be affordable housing loans.

If there were pressures to expand CRA lending, it came in part from the banks themselves. As a result of the Riegel-Neal Interstate Banking and Branching Act of 1994, signed into law by George W. Bush, CRA ratings became an important factor in determining if banks could merge or acquire across state lines. Because advocacy groups would use CRA ratings as a protest against the banks in order to get additional CRA lending, the banks greatly expanded these types of loans. I recall going to a Fed Atlanta conference on CRA lending, compliance and enforcement. A banker told me that the Feds never pressured him into making a bad loan. However, because they wanted to expand into other states, they had instituted a more liberal CRA lending policy. So the truth is that if there is blame to be handed out for a misguided CRA policy, it has to be laid at the feet of the republicans and the banks. Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton are convenient whipping boys and are well deserving of other blame but CRA lending is not one of them.
Dr. Black blogs at - Caveat Emptor -

update notes 4 me: http://www.power-eng.com/webcasts/2013/ ... -epa-.html

http://spikejapan.wordpress.com/a-city-on-the-edge/

[aedens]

Oxford Martyrs, Ridley, Latimer and Cranmer, were burned at the stake, not blinded; although if the rhyme was made by crypto-Catholics,
the mice's "blindness" could refer to their Protestantism. For the record.... the Intoxication of Power also noted by Lord David Owen
Hubris, the divine order violated some note also. Aristotle (in Politics 5.1311b), Artabanus killed Darius first and then killed Xerxes. After Artaxerxes discovered the murder he killed Artabanus and his sons. Participating in these intrigues was the general Megabyzus, whose decision to switch sides probably saved the Achamenids from losing their control of the Persian throne.

Syria is no different than any thought or view in time.

meanwhile http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?opt ... mival=2091 PEPE ESCOBAR, SENIOR ANALYST: or this watered down garbage
called press here. http://www.salon.com/2013/08/21/thanks_ ... s_concept/

Risk= Planting, Harvesting, Selling, Exploitation, Gaming, Manipulating, Hedging, Printing = nafta and Article 70 for them since the world only allows it.
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/world-w ... 0465003136

All sides also played both sides. http://www.themoscowtimes.com/opinion/a ... 61795.html
Its not over and wake up

It is a damned shame that our once proud system of financial markets, the envy of the civilized world, has been reduced to a quivering blob of Jello, sitting at the feet of the FOMC like some sort of lap dog begging for scraps of food from its master. I for one wonder how historians are going to record this period and whether or not they will chronicle this as just one more step down the path towards mediocrity and decline in our nation. Personally, as someone who loves the markets and the study of fundamentals upon which solid investment decisions were once made, it disgusts me to witness this unseemly beggary and sycophantic attitude. Since when did the well being of our markets become so utterly dependent on the vicissitudes of 12 men and women sitting on a committee? This is not the capitalism that made our nation the marvel of the world. h/t td
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doKNr52rHdk

[Higgenbotham]

Stocks might make a high tomorrow if turns continue to be on the 23rd of the month. Bad things sometimes start in late August, as Carl has also been noting for some time (and I recall him saying he read The Emergence of Lincoln).

"On the morning of August 24, 1857, the financial community of New York was horrified by the announcement of president Charles Stetson that his city branch of the Ohio Life Insurance & Trust Company had suspended payments. Men quickly learned that the house, which did a heavy business in western investments, had liabilities of from five to seven millions - and that its assets had been largely embezzled by the cashier. The economic situation had been uneasy. A panic now struck, sudden and devastating as a tornado. Stocks fell to incredible levels; commodity prices sank; bankruptcy followed bankruptcy."

"During the spring and summer of 1857, talk of an imminent financial crash had spread throughout the country. Bankers and tradesmen discussed it; the press was full of it. "A Coming Crash" - such was the title of an editorial in the New York Tribune of June 25. The London Economist echoed the dark prognostications of the New York Shipping List.

Yet to most Americans, confident in their resources and energy and encouraged by favorable crop reports, the blow that fell in August was stunning. Till the middle of the month the stock market remained fairly vigorous. At home, hopes of peace in Kansas remained high; abroad, the only serious trouble was the Sepoy revolt. On August 11, one of the oldest flour and grain houses of New York, NH Wolfe & Co., failed. Then came the Ohio Life & Trust crash, and alarm became universal."

[aedens]

We are wasting as we know. I do think the forum has produced some quality views from many and I thank you all.

http://voiceofrussia.com/news/2013_08_2 ... ened-5549/

No way we can know or want to know anyway for now. I seen another unconfirmed scrubbed account and noted the date.

Anyway must end watermelon http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-08-2 ... ary-market

http://www.kxly.com/news/spokane-news/e ... index.html
I will buy the rope.

[Higgenbotham]

We are wasting as we know. I do think the forum has produced some quality views from many and I thank you all.

There were some here who had an accurate view as to how the can kicking could be extended beyond all previous precedent into this time frame. As you note, holding the system together is not without the consequences of wasting, which will give the system less ability to deal with the full brunt of the crisis when it hits past the due date. Strauss and Howe had about 2005 for the onset of the crisis. For one thing, the bulk of the population (peak birth years of 1957 to 1961) is 8 years older (average age 54 versus 46). This will not be helpful. Better for a lot of 46 year olds to pitch in to get through a crisis than a lot of 54 year olds.

The biggest error in my thinking was that I did not believe Germany would play along until 2013 or later. Or that a lot of other key players would play along. Almost everybody has been very agreeable and civil for far longer than seemed plausible to me. In the good old USA, not even an assassination or a riot Watts or LA style. And the people are much worse off today. Is it because big brother is watching? Or is it because people understand what such a thing could trigger?

It's totally beyond my ability to comprehend why this has happened. I guess soon we will see what the consequences are for all the children who played so nicely together for so long.

It's possible that once things get rolling, massive violence will erupt "all at once". History shows this is not uncommon and I've posted examples previously.

Thu Jan 31, 2013 8:49 am

a, I believe that you are correct; in this environment it is not predominantly about stock market valuation or growth, etc., but about internal looting and warfare also known as the 14th Century model or the wasting process.

When the bones of one sub population have been picked clean, they move onto the next. The pie can only get smaller through this process - the power structure is making the pie "larger for me and smaller for you", or "if you think they are out to get you, you are correct", or "that thing on your back that your wife says looks like a target really is a target - she is not hallucinating".

The smaller the pie is getting the more ways will be devised to make you the target.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russo-Crimean_Wars#1571

To date, the population still seems A-OK with having their bones picked clean by the looters.

Martin Armstrong has been writing extensively on this theme as of late. His thinking is along the lines of, "When they get done with you, you'll be praying for hyperinflation."

When there is “credit” then government FIRST tries to keep the game afoot and that means the bankers threaten they will collapse unless debt is serviced. This is why the FIRST response is all out financial war against the people.

Literally, you will PRAY for only hyperinflation. Society CAN survive that. It cannot and has NEVER survived an all out Sovereign Debt Crisis. I hope to have a book out this year on this subject covering NOT my OPINION, but uncovering every event and how do empires, nations, and city states die. There is just too much bullshit out there. There is a danger that unless we turn back, we could end up in World War III and a new Dark Age.

The part about PRAYING for HYPERINFLATION is simple because there you retain your freedom it is simply money under attack. What we face is worse – STAGFLATION meaning prices rise (inflation) with declining economic growth. You will PRAY for the HYPERINFLATION scenario because these guys historically always get aggressive and as they lose power, they come after you.

The hunting down of capital has had a massive contraction in the VELOCITY of money. The liquidity and trading volumes of global markets are down by about 50% from 2007 levels. This is part of the STAGFLATION trend – rising prices, no growth, and escalating debt. Grover Cleveland got that one right.

Why people refuse to accept anything but HYPERINFLATION when they cannot point to a single incident of a major economy collapse in such a manner, I am not sure. For this propaganda tends to imply no civil unrest. Sorry – there is no case of any empire ever collapsing in such a manner. They ALWAYS turn inward against their own people.

http://armstrongeconomics.com/2013/02/2 ... inflation/
http://armstrongeconomics.com/2013/06/24/12703/

Once the world powers of first the US and Germany, then Japan decided to destroy their bond markets, then the world economic and political system was finished. We will go like Rome, with looting on the one hand and civil unrest on the other, never stopping until total collapse is complete and the economic and political systems revert to their most basic forms. I would consider the Hutterites to be a model of such a future sustainable sytem.

http://www.hutterites.org/

Sustainable and debt free.

[Carl Lieberman]

Yes Higgy, I did read The Emergence of Lincoln (at your suggestion). I'm vacationing down under and spent the day snorkeling at the Great Barrier Reef. This has the feel of the onset of the storm. So many things are coming together in Sept. The Fed, The Congress vs. the President, the German election. But the wild card may be Syria. Since everything relates to everything it may be hard to discern a linear causality. The NASDAQ crash was a hint of how the system will not be able to handle the tidal wave of selling as everyone heads for the exit simultaneously. I too follow Martin Armstrong. Not to be too repetitive, but I think the world is too complex and chaotic to follow any formulaic cycle. What I like about GD is that it does not try to be too precise. Armstrong's abuse at the hands of the authorities has focused him on the monetary implications of the growth if the surveillance state. Coming out of this with any substantial cache of financial assets will be very difficult. Really, we'll all do well just to survive and still have some semblance of life choices at our disposal. I get how John must feel as the gloomiest man in the world. Almost everyone is completely unaware of the collapse that is coming. This level of denial must be intertwined with the dynamics of systemic collapse. I just hope that Higgy is overstating the case with his call of a new centuries long dark age. I do feel like an animal sensing a tectonic movement.

[aedens]

The family farm has already forwarded its futures contract. This is done with a hand shake and a delivery date. Difference in strike tonnage is settled later over tea and apple pie
most years. Our creator has blessed this region with ample rain for the apples, blueberry's and our gardens this year, as we second only to California in crop diversity in
the regional context. As conveyed our produce of well being this year was first offering to others as goods supplied as we go along to assist getting to and from as we say here.

We are pushing on string and I do not see much of a bounce, other than sideways and drift down. I have noted on basket (a) three times bouncing bottom
and a lesser high so I will study the CAGR and beta closer to consider if this is my outlier of effect. After India wasting over forty percent of currency I anticipated more contagion
so as I conveyed ROC was more important to study. I did not ignore the 50 ma but focused on intermediate cycles as we discussed earlier. I did not pull the trigger on 2x long 1x vix
partial basket for now to limp past this window until sept6 as discussed. I will go back to area of our peak to peak discussion in a looser context to draw from.

To whom the Gods wish to destroy. A certain general culture, consisting mainly in mere cleverness of style and rhetoric,
and derived chiefly from the sophists, aggravated the universal confusion and instability of mind by the deceptive appearance of solidity.
From these blighting influences even the better natures, men morally and mentally superior to their fellows, could not wholly escape.

I remember the ghosts when I was young and the world they new and told us of. Sat Dec 08, 2012 8:51 pm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvMS_ykiLiQ I remember the men who knew that corn was burned for heat as the coal people went hungry and not a finger was lifted. Locally we are doing what we can since it is what needs to be done. We watch these arrogated people on a dialog on a fiscal cliff and we wonder how they can even look at themselves in the mirror. I am not a democrat or republican given the mindset and context of Dr. Carrol Quigley but I hope republican are extinct for a hundred years and liberty is more than they can currently understand.

Winters coming you poor bastards

[at99sy]

http://www.kxly.com/news/spokane-news/e ... index.html
I will buy the rope.

and I will gladly tie it on and kick out the chair!

[at99sy]

We are wasting as we know. I do think the forum has produced some quality views from many and I thank you all.

There were some here who had an accurate view as to how the can kicking could be extended beyond all previous precedent into this time frame. As you note, holding the system together is not without the consequences of wasting, which will give the system less ability to deal with the full brunt of the crisis when it hits past the due date.

Higg- The ptb cannot stop the can kicking. This is beyond all previous human history and has surpassed all levels of risk. I think they are aware of this and are going to keep pushing the string until it coils back around and strangles them. Or they will attempt to unravel it and it turns out to be not a string but a fuse which will lead to what we all expect will occur at some point. The inevitability of one or the other is 100% certain. The timing is all that remains a mystery. We will have internal social disasters before the financial disaster hits us. That way the big O can blame others as he is often inclined to do. "They acted stupidly" comes to mind.

cheers

sy

[Higgenbotham]

This is beyond all previous human history and has surpassed all levels of risk.

Almost everyone is completely unaware of the collapse that is coming. This level of denial must be intertwined with the dynamics of systemic collapse.

I think they (the authorities) are aware of this and are going to keep pushing the string until it coils back around and strangles them.

I think the denial aspect was indeed very powerful in going down that path that surpassed all levels of previous risk. The Western Baby Boomers were protected and distanced from hardship perhaps more than any other generation in the history of the world. They continue to want to avoid any immediate hardship at the cost of greater future hardship.