Rep Paul Ryans pwns MSNBC hack "anchor"

Skeletor Villifies Insurance Companies, Pot and Kettle watch in Shock

Pelosi lashes out against insurance companies

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday ramped up her criticism of insurance companies, accusing them of unethical behavior and working to kill a plan to create a new government-run health plan.

"It's almost immoral what they are doing," Pelosi said to reporters, referring to insurance companies. "Of course they've been immoral all along in how they have treated the people that they insure," she said, adding, "They are the villains. They have been part of the problem in a major way. They are doing everything in their power to stop a public option from happening."

So she and other politicians are always saying how these evil corporations are making billions of dollars at the expense of the insured's health. However, if these insurers were cutting corners and denying necessary procedures, etc, how would they even stay in business? Wouldn't we rush to the provider that actually treats our claims? But I digress.

Let's look at what kind of obscene money these guys are making:

United Health
Wellpoint
Aetna

Good Lord! These companies are making BILLIONS! And at a profit margin of...wait for it...a WHOPPING 4%!

Compete with Goldman, Go to Jail

Imagine you work for Goldman Sachs. You are a quant genius that makes hundreds of millions of dollars for them. Your code writing skillz are awesome, and your algorithms in the black boxes pwns all other black boxes. But you get a puny seven figure bonus, when you clearly deserve eight figures.

So you decide to leave and join a smaller shop to build your own team and amass a fortune so you can finally afford some decent living, the 2000 sq ft Park Ave $10 million apartment you've been eyeing on craigslist.

Stop. Do not pass go. Go straight to jail.

Goldman effectively front running trades, dubbed "high-frequency trading"

Check out the Graphic on the left first.


Stock Traders Find Speed Pays, in Milliseconds

In high-frequency trading, computers buy and sell stocks lightning fast. Some marketplaces, like Nasdaq, often offer such traders a peek at orders for 30 ms before they are shown to everyone else.

Former chairman of NASDAQ said on Bloomberg TV, high frequency trading makes up 73% of daily volume and is done by 2% of the market. Hmmmm. Goldman, SAC, Citadel and other major banks. This game is so completely rigged it's beyond belief. Although I am not "shocked" per se at this, but I am surprised it is so blatant with complicity from the exchanges. But then again, not surprised at the exchange's behavior considering all these extra trades equals revenue. A symbiotic relationship, and definitely a conflict of interest.

As I heard from someone, this pretty much dispels the myth that "program trading" is all about index arbitrage. And no doubt you will get Goldman alums adamantly denying that high-frequency trading is equivalent to front running trades. Yes, I get that front running usually involves your own brokerage. What this does is EFFECTIVELY allow Goldman to front run the entire market, but with smaller margins.

The same Goldman monkey will then say that anyone can pay the exchange and have access this data. But with the caveat that you need massive capex and expertise to build the systems you will colocate on the exchange, a quant team that you will be paying 8 figures to support, and bazillions of dollars in capital to trade with. That's of course you're assuming that you'll even be able to entice a quant nerd to work for you instead of Goldman.

Oh yea, did I mention, if you break off from Goldman to start your own shop, they will go after you and put you in jail?

Most Cruel Parents Ever

Note the CHP Officer's name

Person found dead in submerged vehicle
July 29, 2009 11:36:00 AM
Appeal-Democrat

A person has been found dead this morning in a vehicle pulled from a canal east of Gridley.

The car was submerged near the intersection of Richards and River avenues. A witness reported the sunken vehicle to the California Highway Patrol at 6:09 a.m., according to the agency.

Crews from Cal Fire and the Butte County Fire Department joined the search for the vehicle, which a tow truck pulled from the canal shortly after 8:20 a.m.

A second person had been inside the vehicle but managed to escape, CHP Officer Tag Euritt said. How the car went off the road was not immediately clear.

CHP did not release the victim's name, pending notification of relatives.

Well it makes sense why he is a cop, you never laugh at the guy with a gun.

Big Spin: The Stimulus is creating jobs for Oregon

No, I'm not talking about the the lottery. Oregon Democrats are taking credit for a remarkable feat: creating 3,236 new jobs in the program's first three months.

But those jobs lasted on average only 35 hours, or about one work week. After that, those workers were effectively back unemployed, according to an Associated Press analysis of state spending and hiring data. By the state's accounting, a job is a job, whether it lasts three hours, three days, three months, or a lifetime.

What a joke. I wonder how many jobs the stimulus "saved" according to Oregon.

Interactive NYC homocide chart/map

Murders: New York City

A few obvious conclusions I got out of this:

1) The NYT is racially profiling and is racist
2) Asian people don't get murdered much, which obviously means they all know kung fu
3) The NYT is sexist. Look at how under-represented women are
4) 69% of the murders are committed with firearms. Clearly, NYC's gun ban isn't strong enough. They need to ban it more AND send an effective message to the criminals that it is ILLEGAL for them to own a gun.

CA drunken spending congress syndrome spreads to AZ

State of Arizona to do a sale leaseback on capitol buildings

Call it a sign of desperate times: Legislators are considering selling the House and Senate buildings where they've conducted state business for more than 50 years.

Dozens of other state properties also may be sold as the state government faces its worst financial crisis in a generation, if not ever. The plan isn't to liquidate state assets, though.

Instead, officials hope to sell the properties and then lease them back over several years before assuming ownership again. The complex financial transaction would allow government services to continue without interruption while giving the state a fast infusion of as much as $735 million, according to Capitol projections.

For investors, the arrangement means long-term lease payments from a stable source.

States are basically micro versions of the federal government, except without unlimited source of capital. It is astounding that these politicians (REPUBLICANS NO LESS) are willing to do a sale/leaseback on government offices instead of cutting costs out of their bloated budgets.

So what's next when the next budget crunch hits? Auction off the Grand Canyon?

What other states are doing to fill their budget gaps:

- In Wisconsin, Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle's fiscal year 2010 budget triples the price of an elk hunting license, even though his state has no elk hunting season. Doyle also proposed a fee on for each animal slaughtered, ranging from a penny per chicken to 14 cents per pig, but that provision was shot down.

- In his 2009 budget, New York Gov. David Paterson proposed a "fat tax" that would have tacked an 18-percent tax on sugary beverages. That tax -- along with proposed taxes on manicures, health clubs and bowling -- was nixed. Next door in New Jersey, however, residents are subject to a sales tax on health club memberships.

- Some school districts in Utah have opted to shorten their school years by a few days or increase class sizes, with hopes of saving millions.

- In Virginia, the state House and Senate voted to increase inmates' daily rent by 500 percent, from $1 to $5. Democratic Gov. Tim Kaine vetoed the bill in May, requesting that the fee be capped at $3.
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- In Kentucky, new legislation puts a tax on cell phone ring tones.

The Case for Deflation and Other Considerations: Part 1

The following is an excellent case for deflation, written by my friend Toastmaster:

http://tradingwithtoastmaster.blogspot.com/2009/07/case-for-deflation-and-other.html

I would like to examine the issue of deflation and its ramifications as I believe it is the greatest and most imminent threat to our economy. The case for deflation is currently not in vogue among ordinary Americans or investment managers for good, albeit misguided, reasons. To everyday Americans, the case for deflation seems abstract and detached from the rising price they have been accustomed to their entire lives. Inflation proponents argue that, at best, we will experience a period of high inflation, and, at worst, suffer from the clutches of hyperinflation. They see high inflation as unavoidable given the amount of liquidity the Federal Reserve and our government have injected through interest rate mechanism, stimulus plans and bailout programs. These Inflationists point to the recent rally in commodity prices as confirmation of their views and have been jumping into the gold and silver trades with both feet. Unfortunately, the inflation argument is deeply flawed as it assumes away an imminent and vibrant recovery, fails to acknowledge that the addition of liquidity has not led to a rise in monetary circulation, ignores the rise in layoffs and wage reductions observed across sectors and the rise is saving rate among Americans.

The matters of inflation and economic depression are not mutually exclusive. You are either a Green Shooter and consequently an Inflationist or a Deflationist Bear. The most prominent evidence Inflationists cite to support their claim of impending inflation is the outrageous amount of liquidity the Federal Reserve has pumped into our financial systems. In general, an increase in liquidity directly leads to a rise in monetary circulation: circulation of new money is what causes inflation, not the creation of new money. Since the subprime fallout of 2007, the Federal Reserve has been injecting liquidity not to spur economic growth, but to keep up the charade that our banks are solvent and lending. Try walking into a local bank today and apply for any type of loan. More often than not, you will walk away disappointed despite your stellar credit score, ability to put up a sizable down payment or relatively low loan-to-asset ratio. Banks are not lending because they are bankrupt by every measure other than perception. They are hoarding the liquidity the Federal Reserve has given them in the event the perceptions of their solvency changes, and they were to face a margin shakedown by their counterparties and fellow banks.

Continued layoffs and wage cuts across industries has put tremendous pressure on our economy with no signs of abating. The great economist John Maynard Keynes once spoke of the paradox of thrift that ultimately leads to a vicious deflationary spiral. The cycle begins with layoffs and wage reduction, which causes a decline in demand for goods and services. This decline in demand then leads to reduction in prices. Unfortunately, not even price cuts can spur demand when people either have no job or are saving out of fear of losing their jobs. With significant decline in sales, existing debt becomes a greater burden to businesses, forcing many more into bankruptcies. A rise in bankruptcy leads to more job losses and, hence, this vicious deflationary cycle begins anew. (See picture below)



Our current economic situation is extremely dire and any Green Shooters delude themselves if they believe the worst is behind us. There are deep issues within our financial systems that have not been resolved because there simply were no good solutions. What is regrettable is the lack of courage of the Federal Reserve and our government to accept that a painful correction was needed to clean out the excesses of decades of easy credit. The question should never have been, what can we do to avoid the Second Great Depression? The question should have always been, what can we do so that we don’t prolong or exacerbate the Depression we were INEVITABLY heading into. Due to the lack of wisdom of our current Fed Chairman to see the current crisis in its proper framework, our country and our children will pay dearly for our mistakes. Intervention has not averted the Second Great Depression as Green Shooters would like to believe: instead, it will magnify and extend the economic nightmare that awaits us.

Despite the strong case for deflation, many proponents of inflation have taken steps to protect themselves from what they believe is an impending crisis of higher prices by piling into precious metals such as gold and silver. In the absence of a new monetary order where the Dollar is abandoned as the world’s reserve currency, precious metal bugs may soon find their beloved commodities free fall in value when P3 begins. Remember, gold is one of the most crowded trades and you generally can not pay for groceries, rents or mortgages in bullion. But if anything, we are in a most interesting time. In The Case for Deflation and Other Considerations: Part 2, I will examine a possible scenario where we experience deflation in real terms, but inflation on a nominal basis due to a collapse in the Dollar. In this outcome, gold and silver will break from its inverse correlation with USD and blast off to new extraordinary levels.