Thought for the day:
Happy ride to the abattoir.
The Chairman of the Federal Reserve and the Secretary of the US Treasury have credible threats to their tenure in office. MOPE has you convinced it means nothing to the US dollar.
Consider what would happen to any other currency on the planet if the same were true.
Tell the lie loud and long enough, and the populous will believe it UNTIL the real downside pain of the fundamental implications are felt.
Most people forget to quote (paraphrased above) the second part of Goebbels’ key lesson on the value and application of state propaganda (MOPE).
Sleep on Sheeples as you take the happy ride to the abattoir.
Second Thought For The Day:
Remember what happened to the US dollar versus the Swiss/DM when people started to realize the quality of leadership under the Carter Administration?
Reputation of management has a lot of input to a currency’s value.
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
Here is a dollar bull chart reader not concerned about anything.
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
Hello, I am from the Federal government here to help you with your mortgage.
450,000 at risk in foreclosure-prevention program
By Tami Luhby, senior writerJanuary 23, 2010: 7:25 AM ET
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Hundreds of thousands of troubled homeowners who are making lower mortgage payments on a trial basis are at risk of being kicked out of President Obama’s foreclosure-prevention program.
Companies that service the mortgages have until Jan. 31 to review all trial modifications that have been underway for several months under the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP), according to a Treasury Department guideline issued late last month. The Treasury Dept. said it would issue new guidelines next week, but wouldn’t give details.
During the review period, servicers must determine whether borrowers have made all their payments and have handed in all the necessary paperwork. Those who haven’t will get letters giving them 30 days to comply.
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
Another bankruptcy that has guaranteed all and any comers. Now they are trying to close the barn door after the cows have gotten out, thereby adding complications to an already complex economic problem.
Failure of a sustained economic recovery here is another bailout target.
FHA raises fees, tightens loan standards
Agency trying to shore up finances, prevent possible need for bailout
updated 2:11 p.m. ET, Wed., Jan. 20, 2010
WASHINGTON – The Federal Housing Administration is raising fees and tightening lending standards to shore up its strapped finances and avoid a taxpayer bailout.
The government agency has seen its losses rise with the foreclosure rate. Its reserves have sunk below the minimum level required by Congress. A healthy FHA is vital for the housing market because it insures roughly 30 percent of new loans, and is the largest backer of mortgages to first-time buyers.
The changes, which will go into effect in the first half of the year, "are among the most significant steps to address risk in the agency’s history," FHA Commissioner David Stevens said in a prepared statement.
The FHA does not make loans, but rather offers insurance against default. Borrowers are willing to pay for the insurance because FHA loans only require down payments of 3.5 percent of the purchase price — and that didn’t change.
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
For what it is worth, from panic city.
Axelrod: No White House shake-up in the works
Sunday, January 24, 2010; 9:42 AM
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama’s top political aide says there’s no White House shake-up in the works even as Obama’s campaign manager is given a greater role in the administration.
David Plouffe (pluhf) will deal mainly with this fall’s elections involving Congress and governors as reeling Democrats try to rebound after last week’s shocking Senate defeat in Massachusetts.
Obama’s chief political strategist, David Axelrod, says Plouffe will take a more active role. But Axelrod says don’t expect a staff shake-up. He says "nothing gets Washington more excited than someone losing their job."
Obama’s spokesman, Robert Gibbs, calls Plouffe as smart as anybody "ever seen in politics."
Axelrod appeared on CNN’s "State of the Union." Gibbs was on "Fox News Sunday."
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
In the US Wal-Mart is the Economic Indicator.
Wal-Mart cuts about 11,200 Sam’s Club staffers
By MAE ANDERSON, AP Retail Writer – 39 mins ago
NEW YORK – Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said Sunday it is cutting about 11,200 jobs at its Sam’s Club warehouse division as it outsources in-store product sampling to marketing company Shopper Events in an effort to win more customers and boost lagging sales.
The terminations represent about 10 percent of the warehouse club operator’s 110,000 staffers across its 600 stores. About 10,000 members of the demonstration department, most part-time workers, were let go. The company also cut its new business membership representative positions, affecting about 2 staffers per store, or about 1,200 staffers in total.
The cuts represent about 10 percent of the warehouse club operator’s 110,000 staffers across its 600 stores. That includes 10,000 workers, mostly part-timers, who offer food samples and showcase products to customers. The company also eliminated 1,200 workers who recruit new members.
Employees were told the news at mandatory meetings on Sunday morning.
"In the club channel, demo sampling events are a very important part of the experience," said Sam’s Club CEO Brian Cornell in a phone interview with The Associated Press. "Shopper Events specializes in this area and they can take our sampling program to the next level."
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
Jobs via QE to infinity:
Obama Moves to Centralize Control Over Party Strategy
By JEFF ZELENY and PETER BAKER
Published: January 23, 2010
WASHINGTON — President Obama is reconstituting the team that helped him win the White House to counter Republican challenges in the midterm elections and recalibrate after political setbacks that have narrowed his legislative ambitions.
Mr. Obama has asked his former campaign manager, David Plouffe, to oversee House, Senate and governor’s races to stave off a hemorrhage of seats in the fall. The president ordered a review of the Democratic political operation — from the White House to party committees — after last week’s Republican victory in the Massachusetts Senate race, aides said.
In addition to Mr. Plouffe, who will primarily work from the Democratic National Committee in consultation with the White House, several top operatives from the Obama campaign will be dispatched across the country to advise major races as part of the president’s attempt to take greater control over the midterm elections, aides said.
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
More fodder for the chart dollar bull.
Debt Burden Now Rests More on U.S. Shoulders
By FLOYD NORRIS
Published: January 22, 2010
THE United States government borrowed more money than ever before in 2009, but its largest lender — China — sharply reduced the amount it was willing to lend.
The United States Treasury estimated this week that during the first 11 months of last year China raised its holdings of Treasury securities by just $62 billion. That was less than 5 percent of the money the Treasury had to raise.
That raised its holdings to $790 billion, leaving it the largest foreign holder of Treasury securities — Japan is second at $757 billion and Britain a distant third at $278 billion. But China’s holdings at the end of November were lower than they were at the end of July.
Not since 2001, when China was still a relatively minor investor in Treasury securities, had the country shown a decline in holdings over a six-month period.
During the full year of 2009, the volume of outstanding Treasury securities owned by the public — as opposed to United States government agencies like the Federal Reserve or the Social Security Administration — rose by $1.4 trillion, a 23 percent gain, to $7.8 trillion. In dollar terms, that was the largest annual increase ever, but as a percentage increase it slightly trailed 2008.
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
You ask why the world hates Banksters?
Wall Street pros always support exactly what is NOT in the public’s best interest. The only people who are worse are those members of the world’s oldest occupation, experts that will testify to whatever you pay them to testify to, the economic professors.
The uptick rule, as it was, is not in the interest of the banksters, it was in the public’s interest.
SEC May Approve Restrictions on Short Sales When Stocks Plunge
By Nina Mehta
Jan. 23 (Bloomberg) — Concern that short-sellers accelerate stock declines may prompt the Securities and Exchange Commission to adopt a rule next month aimed at curbing bearish bets when equities are plunging.
The regulation would require the trades be executed above the best existing bid in the market when shares fall 10 percent in a day, said Brian Hyndman, the senior vice president in transaction services at Nasdaq OMX Group Inc. In a short sale, an investor borrows an asset and sells it, hoping to profit from a decrease by repurchasing it later at a lower price.
Forcing short sellers to wait for a stock to rise above the best price bid may prevent them from flooding the market with sell orders and causing losses to multiply. Some exchange officials say the restrictions known as uptick rules don’t work, citing studies that show they may be less effective during panics that drive prices down and volatility up.
“There is no empirical data to support the introduction of a new rule,” Hyndman said yesterday at a securities industry conference in Chicago. “But this is the least intrusive of the proposals the SEC was considering.”
Hyndman expects the SEC to adopt a so-called alternative uptick rule that includes a 10 percent trigger, changing regulations that were eliminated from U.S. markets in 2007. The commission asked the public last April to comment on strategies to cushion the impact of short selling following criticism that hedge funds and other speculators used trading tactics to deepen market retreats that began in 2008.
