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The Science of Getting Rich: CHAPTER VII [excerpt] by Wallace D. Wattles #Gratitude

--- Gratitude THE ILLUSTRATIONS GIVEN IN THE LAST CHAPTER will have conveyed to the reader the fact that the first step toward getting ...

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

The #consumer since 2008 has been fantastic!

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From Investopedia

Definition of 'Consumer Goods'
Products that are purchased for consumption by the average consumer. Alternatively called final goods, consumer goods are the end result of production and manufacturing and are what a consumer will see on the store shelf. Clothing, food, automobiles and jewelry are all examples of consumer goods. Basic materials such as copper are not considered consumer goods because they must be transformed into usable products.

Investopedia explains 'Consumer Goods'
The measurement of consumer goods sales is important in the assessment of gross domestic product and in determining the health of the overall economy. Demand for consumer goods indicates whether consumers are willing to part with cash. Items are only counted as consumer goods once - if they are resold, they will not be included in economic calculations.

So.. in 2008 I bought what?

Well for one thing I bought SZK - ProShares UltraShort Consumer Goods (ETF)

Because I thought we were toast.. economically speaking..

Turns out the American consumer between 2008 & NOW has never been in better shape!

At least according to this monthly chart.. (Mentioned ProShares UltraShort Consumer Goods SZK (ETF))

Click for larger image


So who TF needs to "help" the middle class?! Apparently they have done just stupendously since 2008..

That is unless you believe short ETFs were targeted by the Federal Reserve bank & government of the United States..

The Mother of all short squeezes?

I still think we're toast..

Greg

Monday, January 21, 2013

Failing to Break Up the Big #Banks is Destroying #America via @ritholtz blog

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The Size of the Big Banks Is – Literally – Destroying the Rule of Law

Pulitzer prize-winning journalist Ron Suskind quotes Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner as saying:

The confidence in the system is so fragile still… a disclosure of a fraud… could result in a run, just like Lehman.

In other words, Geither said that the big bankers are “too big to jail”, because disclosing any portion of their massive fraud would cause bank runs.

Former IMF economist Simon Johnson notes:

The main motivation behind the administration’s indulgence of serious criminality evidently is fear of the consequences of taking tough action on individual bankers.

***

The message to bank executives today is simple: build your bank to be as big as possible – and then keep growing. If you manage to become big enough, you and your employees are not just too big to fail, but also too big to jail.

Glenn Greenwald notes:

To justify this lack of accountability for the nation’s wealthiest lawbreakers, the all-too-familiar excuses long used to shield the politically powerful are trotted out on cue. Once again, we are told that prosecutions are too disruptive; that it’s more important to fix the system than to seek retribution for the past; that because the wrongdoers’ reputation is in tatters, they have already suffered enough; that we need the goodwill of financial titans to ensure our common prosperity; and so on.

Continue reading on ritholtz blog

Closed #market #fun research day #Anunnaki #Nephilim #Nibiru

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While this sort of "research" can be difficult I find it very enjoyable in my "spare time" ;)

Greg

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What the bible says about the "sons of Anak" or the Anakims, which, to me anyway, at a glance seem very close to Anunnaki's / Akkadians.

At the very least the "sons of Anak" seem to be portrayed quite differently than the rest of us in the bible.

Num_13:22 And they ascended by the south, and came unto Hebron; where Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the children of Anak, were. (Now Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.)

Num_13:28 Nevertheless the people be strong that dwell in the land, and the cities are walled, and very great: and moreover we saw the children of Anak there.

Num_13:33 And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.

Deu_9:2 A people great and tall, the children of the Anakims, whom thou knowest, and of whom thou hast heard say, Who can stand before the children of Anak!

Jos_15:13 And unto Caleb the son of Jephunneh he gave a part among the children of Judah, according to the commandment of the LORD to Joshua, even the city of Arba the father of Anak, which city is Hebron.

Jos_15:14 And Caleb drove thence the three sons of Anak, Sheshai, and Ahiman, and Talmai, the children of Anak.

Jos_21:11 And they gave them the city of Arba the father of Anak, which city is Hebron, in the hill country of Judah, with the suburbs thereof round about it.

Jdg_1:20 And they gave Hebron unto Caleb, as Moses said: and he expelled thence the three sons of Anak.

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Also the book of Genesis speaks about "fallen angels" who "came in unto the daughters of men". And, in fact, that the offspring of these unions were giants. (The book of Enoch elaborates this point in history in even more detail.)

Genesis 6:4 (Original KJV):
There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that,
when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and
they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which
were of old, men of renown.

Bible Probe Note: Note the words; "and also after that". This
probably tells of two "irruptions" by Satan's seed. One before Noah's
time and another after the flood. They were called “The Watchers” in The Book of Enoch.

[More on this link on the Nephilim]

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There are some to wish to believe human history is full of nothing but fantasy, mythological stories..

Who are the Anunnaki?

as well as those with a more "open mind" as to the history of humanity..

Anunnaki & Nibiru The Return - A PUFOIN Perspective

Whatever the case may be I sure love looking at the puzzle!

;)

Greg

A few things the good book says we should #remember

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Deu_8:18 But thou shalt remember the LORD thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant which he sware unto thy fathers, as it is this day.

Deu_32:7 Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations: ask thy father, and he will shew thee; thy elders, and they will tell thee.

Job_4:7 Remember, I pray thee, who ever perished, being innocent? or where were the righteous cut off?

Job_7:7 O remember that my life is wind: mine eye shall no more see good.

Job_10:9 Remember, I beseech thee, that thou hast made me as the clay; and wilt thou bring me into dust again?

Job_11:16 Because thou shalt forget thy misery, and remember it as waters that pass away:

Job_14:13 O that thou wouldest hide me in the grave, that thou wouldest keep me secret, until thy wrath be past, that thou wouldest appoint me a set time, and remember me!

Job_21:6 Even when I remember I am afraid, and trembling taketh hold on my flesh.

Job_36:24 Remember that thou magnify his work, which men behold.

Psa_20:7 Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the LORD our God

Psa_22:27 All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the LORD: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee.

Psa_63:6 When I remember thee upon my bed, and meditate on thee in the night watches.

Psa_74:18 Remember this, that the enemy hath reproached, O LORD, and that the foolish people have blasphemed thy name.

Psa_74:22 Arise, O God, plead thine own cause: remember how the foolish man reproacheth thee daily.

Psa_77:11 I will remember the works of the LORD: surely I will remember thy wonders of old.

Psa_89:47 Remember how short my time is: wherefore hast thou made all men in vain?

Psa_89:50 Remember, Lord, the reproach of thy servants; how I do bear in my bosom the reproach of all the mighty people;

Psa_103:18 To such as keep his covenant, and to those that remember his commandments to do them.

Psa_143:5 I remember the days of old; I meditate on all thy works; I muse on the work of thy hands.

Pro_31:7 Let him drink, and forget his poverty, and remember his misery no more.

Ecc_11:8 But if a man live many years, and rejoice in them all; yet let him remember the days of darkness; for they shall be many. All that cometh is vanity.

Ecc_12:1 Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them;

Isa_43:18 Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old.

Isa_43:25 I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins.

Isa_46:9 Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me,

Commentary: Isaiah 46:9

Remember the former things of old
The things that were from the beginning, or the ancient things done by the Lord, whether as the effects of power, wisdom, and goodness, or in wrath, or in mercy; such as the creation of the heavens, and the earth, and all things in them; the destruction of the old world, and of Sodom and Gomorrah; the bringing of Israel out of Egypt through the Red sea and wilderness, to Canaan's land, and all the wondrous things then done for them; which are so many proofs of the true deity of the God of Israel, in opposition to the idols of the Gentiles: for I am God, and there is none else; as he must needs be what did the above things: I am God, and there is none like me; for greatness or goodness, or that has done the like things; not one of the gods of the Gentiles.

Jer_3:16 And it shall come to pass, when ye be multiplied and increased in the land, in those days, saith the LORD, they shall say no more, The ark of the covenant of the LORD: neither shall it come to mind: neither shall they remember it; neither shall they visit it; neither shall that be done any more.

Eze_6:9 And they that escape of you shall remember me among the nations whither they shall be carried captives, because I am broken with their whorish heart, which hath departed from me, and with their eyes, which go a whoring after their idols: and they shall lothe themselves for the evils which they have committed in all their abominations.

Eze_16:63 That thou mayest remember, and be confounded, and never open thy mouth any more because of thy shame, when I am pacified toward thee for all that thou hast done, saith the Lord GOD.

Eze_20:43 And there shall ye remember your ways, and all your doings, wherein ye have been defiled; and ye shall lothe yourselves in your own sight for all your evils that ye have committed.

Eze_23:27 Thus will I make thy lewdness to cease from thee, and thy whoredom brought from the land of Egypt: so that thou shalt not lift up thine eyes unto them, nor remember Egypt any more.

Eze_36:31 Then shall ye remember your own evil ways, and your doings that were not good, and shall lothe yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities and for your abominations.

Luk_23:42 And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.

Luk_24:6 He is not here, but is risen: remember how he spake unto you when he was yet in Galilee,

Joh_16:4 But these things have I told you, that when the time shall come, ye may remember that I told you of them. And these things I said not unto you at the beginning, because I was with you.

Act_20:35 I have shewed you all things, how that so labouring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive.

Rev_2:5 Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.

Rev_3:3 Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee.

Saturday, January 19, 2013

#Taxpayers again aid #banks

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Link to source
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WASHINGTON — Consumer advocates have complained that U.S. mortgage lenders are getting off easy in a deal to settle charges that they wrongfully foreclosed on many homeowners.

Now it turns out the deal is even sweeter for the lenders than it appears: Taxpayers will subsidize them for the money they're ponying up.

The Internal Revenue Service regards the lenders' compensation to homeowners as a cost incurred in the course of doing business. Result: It's fully tax-deductible.

Critics argue that big banks that were bailed out by taxpayers during the financial crisis are again being favored over the victims of their mortgage abuses.

"The government is abetting the behavior by not preventing the deduction," said Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa. "The taxpayers end up subsidizing the Wall Street banks after the headlines of a big-dollar settlement die down. That's unfair to taxpayers."

Under the deal, 12 mortgage lenders will pay more than $9 billion to compensate hundreds of thousands of people whose homes were seized improperly, a result of abuses such as "robo-signing." That's when banks automatically approved foreclosures without properly reviewing documents.

Regulators reached agreement this week with Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. Last week, the regulators settled with 10 other lenders: Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citigroup, MetLife Bank, PNC Financial Services, Sovereign, SunTrust, U.S. Bank and Aurora. The settlements will help eliminate huge potential liabilities for the banks.

Many consumer advocates argued that regulators settled for too low a price by letting banks avoid full responsibility for wrongful foreclosures that victimized families.

That price the banks will pay will be further eased by the tax-deductibility of their settlement costs. Companies can deduct those costs against federal taxes as long as they are compensating private individuals to remedy a wrong. By contrast, a fine or other financial penalty is not tax-deductible.

Taxpayers "should not be subsidizing or in any way paying for these corporations' wrongdoing," said Phineas Baxandall, a senior tax and budget analyst at the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, a consumer advocate.

Spokesmen for several of the banks in the mortgage settlement didn't immediately respond to requests for comment. Bank of America and Citigroup declined to comment.

In some rare cases, federal regulators that have reached financial settlements with companies have barred them from writing off any costs against their taxes, even if they might be legally entitled to do so. The Securities and Exchange Commission did so, for example, in 2010 in a $550 million settlement with Goldman. That case involved civil fraud charges over the sale of risky mortgage bonds before the financial crisis erupted.

It was the largest amount ever paid by a Wall Street bank in an SEC case. But the SEC defined nearly all the $550 million as a civil penalty. That meant it couldn't serve as a tax deduction for Goldman. The agency cited "the deterrent effect of the civil penalty."

In that case, the SEC appeared to want to send a message at a time of public anger over Wall Street excess, said James Cox, a Duke University law professor and expert on the SEC. Cox noted that when they negotiate financial settlements, companies consider whether they can deduct some of their costs.

Similarly, when BP agreed in November to plead guilty and pay a record $4.5 billion in the 2010 Gulf oil spill disaster, the Justice Department got BP to agree not to deduct the cost of the settlement against its U.S. taxes.

The total BP will pay includes about $1.3 billion in fines. But it also includes payments of $2.4 billion to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and $350 million to the National Academy of Sciences. Normally, those payment would have been tax-deductible.

The banks that just settled with regulators over their mortgage abuses are getting off lightly, Cox suggested. When the amount companies must pay in a settlement "is just the cost of doing business, there's not very much deterrence value there," he said.

At least one lawmaker, Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, wants regulators to bar the tax deductibility of the lenders' costs. Brown made his argument in a letter to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, U.S. Comptroller of the Currency Thomas Curry and other top regulators. The Fed and the comptroller's office, a Treasury Department agency, negotiated the foreclosure abuse settlements with the banks.

"It is simply unfair for taxpayers to foot the bill for Wall Street's wrongdoing," Brown wrote in the letter dated Thursday. "Breaking the law should not be a business expense."

Unfair, too, in the eyes of Charles Wanless, a homeowner in the Florida Panhandle who is fighting his lender over foreclosure proceedings. As Wanless sees it, the government is giving help to banks that it refuses to give to troubled homeowners, who still must pay their full share of taxes.

"The government comes after us for every little bit of money we have," Wanless said.

Bryan Hubbard, a spokesman for the comptroller's office, declined to comment on Brown's letter. Fed spokesmen couldn't immediately be reached for comment.

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

$GBPJPY Daily chart & analysis

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As I have been saying I think the tops are in on yen crosses for now.. The chart attempts to demonstrate why.

$EURJPY & $GBPJPY bouncing off daily 13 eMA

Click for larger image


Greg

Monday, January 7, 2013

Too-Big-To-Fail #Banks #Gamble With #Bernanke Bucks

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Bill Frezza

Fellow, Competitive Enterprise Institute; Venture Partner, Adams Capital Management

Link to source

As Congress and the President wallow in finger pointing and fiscal gridlock, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke plows ahead with his plan to disguise the country's economic ills by carpet-bombing us with freshly printed money. Aided and abetted by the gnomes in the Bureau of Labor Statistics -- who are doing their best to convince us that inflation remains at historic lows -- Ben has promised to conjure up $1 trillion a year out of thin air until unemployment returns to a politically acceptable 6.5 percent.

Where is all that new fiat currency going, and why haven't we seen it show up in double digit inflation? The answer should frighten you.

The narrative being promoted in Washington is that Helicopter Ben's money is being loaned to businesses so they can expand and hire more people. Oh yeah, and it's also supposed to finance cut-rate mortgages to help stabilize the housing market. Achieving both of these goals will supposedly goose up "aggregate demand," the magic elixir that purportedly makes economies grow. Mainstream journalists, who blithely call a reduction in the rate of growth of government spending a "budget cut," dutifully parrot the party line.

It's a great story except for one problem: There is no evidence it is true.

According to the astute number crunchers at Zero Hedge, total issuance of commercial loans since September of 2008 has gone down by $120 billion. Think about it -- who wants to lend money when the government artificially sets inflation-adjusted interest rates below zero? Spend two minutes in the real world and you can see the consequences for yourself. At a recent meeting between a local banker and a client of mine the banker complained that, "There are now 10 pecker-checkers for every pecker in the loan department!" Compliance paperwork has become so burdensome, and risk aversion so high, that only corporations that don't need loans can get them. As a result, small businesses, the classic engine for job growth, go begging while Fortune 500 companies park record levels of cash on the sidelines.

Yes, mortgage rates have hit rock bottom. But underwriting standards have gone through the roof. My wife and I -- she's a doctor; I'm a venture capitalist -- recently refinanced the mortgage on our condo. It took three months to get approval, despite the fact that the loan amount was for less than 30 percent of the condo's appraised value and we have perfect credit scores and no other debt -- and this only after we provided every bit of documentation short of proctology exams. What chance does a first-time home buyer have in a market like this?

So, where is Ben's money actually going? The data show that it is being stuffed onto the balance sheets of the Too-Big-To-Fail (TBTF) banks, some of which only became "banks" overnight when their brokerage businesses faced imminent collapse. Recapitalizing these "banks" after their housing market malinvestments and the crash of their derivatives casino -- the inevitable outcome of Alan Greenspan's money printing to fuel Fannie Mae's doomsday machine -- has been the principal goal of both the Bush and Obama administrations.

With the boundaries between Goldman Sachs, Treasury, the Fed and the administration virtually disappearing; the big banks' Democratic and Republican handmaidens running interference; and the media distracted while pursuing pissant stories about debit card fees, consumer protection rules, and shareholder gadfly proxy access; all is hunky dory in TBTF land.

But what happens to all that freshly printed money after it gets parked on bank balance sheets if it's not loaned to businesses and consumers? Perhaps we could sleep at night if it just sat there, as a cushion against the recession that lies ahead. But unfortunately, the "banks" appear to have flocked back to the derivatives casino, confident that as officially recognized TBTF institutions they are free to privatize gains, gorging on bonuses while the sun shines, knowing they can socialize their inevitable losses.

To see how much of your money they are playing with, take a look at the scariest economic chart of 2012.



"Banks" are supposed to be chartered to take in deposits and use them to make loans. Under the magic of fractional reserve banking, only a percentage of the deposited money needs to be retained as ready reserves, while the rest is put to work in the real economy. And yet here we have a "banking system" that for the first time in history has $2 trillion more in deposits than outstanding loans!

If you think this makes the banks less vulnerable to shock, think again. Much of this balance sheet cash has been hypothecated in the repo market, laundered through the off-the-books shadow banking system. This allows the proprietary trading desks at these "banks" to use that cash as collateral to take out loans to gamble with. In a process called hyper-hypothecation, this pledged collateral gets pyramided, creating a ticking time bomb ready to go kablooey when the next panic comes around. (They don't call it gambling, they call it "hedging," which is a legitimate investment function, but I defy you or any regulator to define the difference.)

Remember JPMorgan's London Whale, the character that racked up $6.2 billion in trading losses before he was shown the door? Like cockroaches, you can expect more where he came from.

We have learned nothing. The Dodd-Frank bill enacted to make sure "this never happens again" has accomplished nothing. The Sarbanes-Oxley bill enacted after the last crisis to make sure "this never happens again" accomplished nothing.

Well, nothing except grind the wheels of legitimate commerce to a halt while crony capitalists with the right connections in Washington party like there's no tomorrow.

And who can blame them? Anyone who believes our innumerate Congress and the career civil servants who staff our regulatory agencies can outsmart the wizards of Wall Street is dreaming. These government buffoons couldn't catch Bernie Madoff even after someone shoved a roadmap to his fraud scheme in their hands, or find a way to prosecute Jon Corzine when he was caught red handed looting client accounts.

So buckle up for the next roller coaster plunge, followed by the inevitable rush in Washington to "do something," namely bail out the same banking potentates that trashed the economy last time. Naturally, this will require tiding the economy over by printing even more money -- all of which will explode into double digit inflation the moment key players realize that money at rest quickly evaporates if left at rest under an inflationary regime.

And when all of this comes to pass, like clockwork journalists and pundits will be sure to blame it on capitalism! As if real capitalism could exist when investors aren't obliged to bear the risk of their own losses. Foisting losses on taxpayers, then debauching the money supply to cover it up, is not capitalism. Alas, it has become business as usual.