Work is for suckers: NPR story on disability benefits in America … or how the Feds hide the unemployed.

Brand new story from NPR as of March 22, 2013; a well-researched and all-around epic investigation into how the Feds are hiding the unemployed:

“Scotty, I’m gonna be honest with you,” the guy told him.

“There’s nobody gonna hire you … We’re just hiding you guys.”

The staff member’s advice to Scott was blunt: “Just suck all the benefits you can out of the system until everything is gone, and then you’re on your own.”

http://apps.npr.org/unfit-for-work/

First [...]

Stocks still a sucker’s bet?

With corporate profits at record levels and stocks regaining the ground lost during the financial crisis, Wall Street anxiously anticipates the return of the individual investors to equity markets. It may be a long wait, because the little guy may have concluded stocks are a sucker’s bet.

Investors, as opposed to traders, buy stocks in companies whose profits they expect to rise. The conventional wisdom says stock prices will follow profits [...]

Feinstein bill update!! M14, Mini-14, M1-Carbine, KSG = banned. Unlimited power for the ATF!!

This is nuts.

http://sipseystreetirregulars.blogspot.ca/2013/01/a-little-inside-glimpse-from-feinsteins.html
Just received this from a reader:

Mike,

I just got off the phone with Feinstein’s office. . . I’ll give you a rundown of what I learned:

* Semi-auto, fancy hunting rifles are on the exemption list. Staffer said he’d used one last time he went hunting–so much for the idea that politicians and judges that hunt with semi-autos will oppose the ban.

* He specifically brought up the Kel-Tec KSG as [...]

The perfect man DOES exist … in fact there are FIVE of them out there!

Women aged 18-24 are suckers for six packs
25-34 value career driven men
35-44 are happy to date a man 5 years older
Women over 45 often date younger men
55+ women still value sexual compatibility and are pickiest daters

 

Many of us look back on our dating past and wonder how on earth we could ever have considered romancing men so incompatible.

But new research has found that this is perfectly normal, revealing that women’s [...]

Live Streaming Election 2012 Coverage – All Day – OBAMA RE-ELECTED!

breaking

Many stations will begin theirs starting at 5pm est.

CSPAM – live now
http://www.c-span.org/Live-Video/C-SPAN/

WSJ (wall st jerks)
http://www.youtube.com/wsj

PBS (paid for by suckers) live now
http://www.ustream.tv/election2012

ABC (all bullshit channel)
http://abcnews.go.com/Live/

politico 7pm
http://www.politico.com/livestream/

brietbart 7pm
http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-TV/2012/00/Live%20Streams/ABC-News-Election-Live-Stream

ABC on YT 4pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iECaw3i7HAE&feature=lb

NBC (nuthn but crap) 4pm
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/49079105#.UJhH0Wl26GM

CBS (constant bs station)
http://www.ustream.tv/cbsnews

CNN (communist news network)
http://live.cnn.com/

HuffPoo begina at noon est
http://live.huffingtonpost.com/r/segment/50804ca4fe3444331a000055
HuffPoo 8pm
http://newsblogged.com/live-streaming-video-super-tuesday-2012-republican-gop-presidential-candidates-primary-election-results

washpost
http://www.ustream.tv/washingtonpost
video2vote all day
http://www.ustream.tv/user/videothevote

Live Election Tracker

As the first exit polls start trickling in, readers can keep track of the live action with the following handy maps, selected from [...]

iPad Mini buyers are ‘suckers’: Jimmy Kimmel

You can judge for yourself here.

 

The ECB – EUR22 Trillion Is Missing!!!

The ECB: The Missing Assets/Liabilities

“To treat your facts with imagination is one thing, but to imagine your facts is another.”

                        -John Burroughs

Yesterday I published the assets/liabilities of the European Central Bank as provided by them. I provided some analysis that I thought was relevant as I also asked all of you to look at the numbers yourself. To be quite open; I was stunned by the data they provided and [...]

Obama’s War Against America’s Jobs Continues! Over 1,600 Coal Layoffs In the Last 48 Hours!

HOPEY-CHANGEY, SUCKERS….
The UMW actually SUPPORTED OBAMA, and gave him over a MILLION DOLLARS of members money in 2008. Talk about the chicken voting for Colonel Sanders!!

Alpha closing 8 mines, cutting 1,200 jobs in all
Coal producer Alpha Natural Resources said Tuesday it was cutting production by 16 million tons and eliminating 1,200 jobs companywide, laying off 400 workers immediately by closing mines in Virginia, West Virginia and Pennsylvania.
http://seattletimes.com/html/nationworld/2019187163_apusalphalayoffs.html

Patriot Coal cuts more [...]

China’s shadow banking system is collapsing

by Mike “Mish” Shedlock, Global Economic Trend Analysis

 

A collapse of property schemes, commodity schemes, and other investments schemes in China is well underway. The Ponzi schemes all had one thing in common: they needed an ever-growing pool of suckers to pay the returns promised to investors.

Well, the pool of greater fools finally ran out, and Shadow Bankers Vanished Leaving China Victims Seeing Scams

 

 

“China’s slowest economic growth in three years and a slumping [...]

Controversial post: The only thing stopping the “End of America” from happening right now

From The Burning Platform:

… Not only are our recent booms and busts not unique, but they have a common theme with all previous busts – greedy bankers, excessive debt, non-enforcement of regulations, corrupt public officials, rampant fraud, and unwitting dupes seeking easy riches.

Those in the know use their connections and influence to capture the early profits during a boom, while working the masses into frenzy and providing the excessive leverage [...]

A warning for anyone who owns bond funds

From The Big Picture:

So I am still catching up with some of the more interesting reads from while I was away, and THIS damned cover made me fall off my chair:

BARRON’S: WHAT’S THE BEST BOND FUND FOR YOU?

A few words about this: The classic magazine cover contrary indicator is a non-business press issue. This is because by the time a specific financial issue reaches the cover of a mainstream media, [...]

Tomatoes – to prune or not?

As far as pruning is concerned, it depends on two things: what kind of plant you have, and whether you want to. Studies have not conclusively proved that pruning increases yeilds ..

There are two basic types of tomatoes: determinate and indeterminate. A determinate tomato fruits all at once; an indeterminate one fruits continuously. You should never prune a determinate tomato; pruning the “suckers” off an indeterminate tomato might increase yields.

Determinate [...]

JPM-Hit by the limits of statistics?

By thetrader.se

 

 

We are amazed by the many articles discussing (and giving advice)  the JPM “perfectly hedged” trading CIO book, by mainly journalists that don’t understand risk, trading nor (the) greeks. JPM, claiming to have one of the world’s most sophisticated risk management, has apparently lost at least 2 billion USD. What actually happened will probably never hit the media. While journalists debate whether or not to drop VaR as a risk measure, we think [...]

In the 21st century it looks like debt pump & dumps is how bankers are grabbing people’s wealth…

Let’s see now, in the ’90s it was the tech stock bubble, and lots of people got wiped out when it burst.  In the ’00s it was the mortgage loan bubble and lots of people got wiped out when it burst.  Now it’s the student loan bubble and lots of people will get wiped out when it bursts.

In the 20th centrury stock pump & dumps were how bankers grabbed people’s [...]

A Sucker Born Every Minute: The Franklin Mint Ripoff

billhicksisdead.blogspot.com/2012/04/sucker-born-every-minute-franklin-mint.html

This probably doesn’t need to be said around here, but beware of buying “silver” coins that are not really silver.

Dear Mr. Berko: During the past 25 years, I purchased more than $47,000 in collectible silver coins and beautiful non-silver coins from the Franklin Mint for my retirement because I thought the scarcity and limited-edition minting of these coins would drive up their value over the years and because I believed the [...]

People lined up over ten hours to get their hands on that brand spanking new iPad which is same as the old iPad but with better screen resolution and better processing.

They cheered as they were allowed to be the first to fork out $900 and hold that precious new iPad.

We are far from being done. The banking filth, their propaganda whores and the snake-oil peddlers have YOU, yes that’s YOU exactly where YOU need to be.

GULLIBLE, DEPENDENT, MINDLESS, SHIT WITH GIGGLES HAPPY TO ADD TO THEIR WEALTH.

I don’t think there’s ever been a time in the history of mankind where [...]

Internet Bubble, Housing Bubble, and Education Bubble: No one in America takes responsibility for your bad investments

Internet Bubble: How hard was it not buy AOL when it was going up 50% a year? Don’t people know all bubbles end badly?
- That was stupid
Housing Bubble: How hard was it not buy a house with 0% down, on a 1 year ARM, with a mortgage you couldn’t afford unless your it appreciated 20% in a year?
- That was stupid
Education Bubble: Not just law school but the entire for [...]

Surviving the First Week of 2012

Surviving the First Week of 2012

Courtesy of Phil of Phil’s Stock World

Yay, we made it!

Last Friday the Dow closed at 12,200 and Monday we started the new year at 12,450 and yesterday we closed at 12,415 so all the people who caught that move in the futures between 6am Tuesday morning and 10:05 Tuesday morning had a great week and the rest of you can go suck eggs.

What an appropriate way [...]

FORMER HARVARD PRESIDENT DEVELOPED A GREAT FRAUD USED TODAY BY GOLDMAN AND JPM and the REST TO ROB $BILLIONS!

LARRY SUMMERS Corporate Fraudster on a HISTORIC LEVEL!

Wall Street uses Fraud and Asset Bubbles as TOOLS of HARVESTING Suckers!

Asset Bubbles is what Larry Summers wrote his 1989 article on – How to PUMP and DUMP the SUCKERS and NOW it is in SOFTWARE developed Go1dman’s Market Manipulati­on Software.

http://www­.economics­.harvard.e­du/faculty­/cutler/fi­les/Specul­ative%20Dy­namics%20a­nd%20the%2­0Role%20of­%20Feedbac­k%20Trader­s.pdf

Here are links: Market Manipulati

­on and Front-Runn­ing Software SCAMS G0LDMAN uses:

SCAM 1:
Go1dman $100 Million Trading Days [...]

The Definition­ of A Ponzi scheme

“DEFINITION­: A Ponzi scheme is a “Fraudulen­t Investment Operation” that pays returns to investors from their own money or money paid by subsequent investors. Run by Criminals out to loot the investors (like Wall Street), the Fraud is new investors are offered extremely high short term returns that are unusually far too LARGE and CONSISTENT payments to be BELIEVED. The Fraudulent Perpetrato­r(s) skims [...]

A Question on Risk: Part one of three

by JM

A Question on Risk: Part one of three

The common belief is that long bond holders are suckers that always lose money.  But there is no denying their raw total return generating power.

Question 1:  Total Return, various asset classes: How can the long bond outperform the other, more risky competitors here?

Source:  Distressed Debt Investing

Possible answers:

Inflation risk is overpriced… that doesn’t really explain the BarCap Aggregate underperforming SPOO and [...]

Karl Denninger’s practical advice for the upcoming financial collapse

Ten Things Update – 2011

If you think that Bernanke, Obama and the rest have “fixed” the economy or the banking system, stop reading now and check into the nearest mental institution for evaluation. I’m quite serious about this; given what we now know about securitized mortgages, debt in Greece and elsewhere along with 12% of GDP being literally borrowed up and spent by the government [...]

Our taxes poorly spent

by SiriuslyLong

So raise them………… Haven’t you heard? We are un-taxing ourselves into a third world nation……………. Perhaps the government needs to get out of the incentive business and simply tax income, earnings, profit on a progressive, but flat basis (i.e. more income, earnings, profit pay a little more…..). The rich would have no “loopholes” work…. Companies like GE would have [...]

Cloud computing internet bubble II

by LFM

Many people may not want or even be able to afford to pay money to store all their data in the cloud, also trusting privacy online and huge transfers of data over the internet, when there are now relatively cheap, quit possibly cheaper than using the cloud, large hard drives and backups.

Also the new dot com bubble, with over-valued new dot coms, such as [...]

Financial markets have been too good to be true, and when that happens we usually come falling back to earth.

by PozzKarma

Everyone has their own way of navigating financial markets to include technicals, fundamentals, witchcraft, astrology, dart throwing and so on.

I use moving averages because it’s logical and it works for me. Moving averages screen out the noise and give you the price action straight up.

If a market is going to roll over, then it will do so sequentially in time frames. I break it down into hourly, daily [...]

The Great Depression: history repeats itself 80 years later in the autumns of 2008 and 2010.

by LFM

Shoe shine boys have been giving stock tips all over again

October 29th,1929 Wall Street crash and again in 1930 after suckers rally reached a peak on hope and propaganda they’d saved the economy, but they hadn’t and the reality was the Great Depression. Wall Street had become disconnect from Main Street and continued to rally on no fundamentals, then reality hit, the bubble burst, with [...]

Shoe shine boys giving stock tips

by LFM

1929 Wall Street crash and again in 1930 after suckers rally reached a peak on hope and propaganda they’d saved the economy, but they hadn’t and the reality was the Great Depression. Wall Street had become disconnect from Main Street and continued to rally on no fundamentals, then reality hit, the bubble burst, with panic on Wall Street and the biggest crash ever, so far in 1930 to 1932 [...]

Party party party, like there’s no recession or rather depression, the Emperor’s New clothes.

Partying like its 1929, 1930 or 1999. This time it’s different mantra, this time fundamentals don’t matter, unemployment and foreclosures don’t matter, poverty doesn’t matter, free funny money printed off of the presses until all th epape rin the world runs out together with all the ink in the world, given free to banksters to party with and pay the biggest bonuses ever, whilst the real poor starve still, inflation [...]

Insider Selling Outpaces Buying By Over 650-To-1 In Past Week

According to Bloomberg, for the week ended September 10, corporate insiders bought $0.5MM in shares in 4 different companies. This was offset by sales of $332MM in 72 different companies, a ratio of 651 of sellers to buyers. At least companies are making their opinions known on the viability of the latest bear market rally. The suckers? All those who are still not involved [...]

Home owners are now nothing more that a cash cow for government and state taxes!!!

In my area the banks are holding big portfolios of foreclosed homes which are NOT showing up on the market. Slowly, they have been manipulating the market by “feeding foreclosures” onto the market, trying to give the impression homes are in short supply, thus luring in the suckers who think they had better get in quick before prices start rising (quickly). Here’s the REAL situation:

The unemployment picture will not change [...]

Prices for stocks and houses are grossly inflated and have no place to go but down.

There is nothing of any substance to support prices for either and plenty of items of substance to support their decline. Cash, gold and silver (in the hand) rules, always has, always will. Time to stampede to the exits before the next lemming beats you to the punch or you will be crushed. This is moving from fear to panic very quickly so know it!. A dead cat bounce suckers [...]

Warning: Crash dead ahead. Sell. Get liquid. Now.

Prices for stocks and houses are grossly inflated and have no place to go but down. Cash, gold and silver (in the hand) rules, always has, always will. Time to stampede to the exits before the next lemming beats you to the punch or you will be crushed. A dead cat bounce suckers rally is expected each week and will be your signal to bail out of the downward spiral [...]

QUOTE: “”The economy is spinning into toilet”"

But the media spin machine is in high gear…

This morning Yahoo Headlines….

India’s economy grows at fastest pace in 2 years

Poland’s economy grew 0.5 percent in 1st quarter

Japan factory output up for second straight month…

Looks like the world economy is recovering quite nicely even though NO POLICY changes have been made that will fend off the inevitable….(Apparently it’s OK for the suckers to jump back in (everything is gonna be alright)

A [...]

US should warn citizens to prepare for a possible great depression.

A lot of people sold off near to the bottom, when things seemed so bad for the economy in early 2009 into what seemed like a bounce before falling lower, but this reflected the reality of the economy, but most didn’t anticipate the extraordinary measures and willingness of just about all governments to print and borrow to bail out the bank sand give them a blank cheque to spend, which [...]

The Greater Fool Theory is at work as usual.

Stocks are worthless pieces of paper, unless someone buys it from you. Yes, if everyone wants to sell, the price will plummet to zero.

But Wall Street doesn’t want you to know this. They have done everything possible to maintain the facade of security, -Ben Bernanke is helping too! With all the ‘free money’ he is giving banks, the market has re-floated to bubble level again.

Wall Street wants most people to [...]