Yes he is stuck but it is the "past" that is controlling his future.    If we look to our failures of the past to design our new world economy, we will soon be living in huts.      jmo

Now, instead of just a guy down the street, imagine a large public pension fund.  They are already underfunded when they base their calculation on an expected 6-8% investment return.  Cut that in half or less based on the current reality and there is no way they can meet the obligations.  The guy down the street is not the only one that will not be going on vacation in retirement.

Central banks keeping interest rates low so sovereigns can finance deficit spending is only going to destroy the economy for everyone. 

Not only will lawyers and investigators find damning, new information on LIEbor, it is inevitable that they will also unearth information regarding the decades of fraudulent and deceptive bullion banking activities.

seriously - WTF.  Don't we already know what's going on? And now we'll wait another 4 years for nothing to happen. 

Here we go - a good move in the deadly serious global chess game that one side (us) doesn't even know it's playing. Imagine, 15 billion in fiat currency for a massive set of Canadian/North American resources.

"The Chinese state oil company, CNOOC, which offered a 61% premium to Nexen’s Friday stock price, already has interests in Canada – including oil sands operations in Alberta, and shale gas in British Columbia – as well as extensive exploration and production holdings in the North Sea, Gulf of Mexico and offshore West Africa. Nexen, Canada’s sixth-largest independent oil explorer and producer, also operates in the Gulf of Mexico, Colombia, the North Sea, Yemen and offshore West Africa.

A big step for China is that the Nexen offer is for the entire company. In the wake of Unocal, many Chinese buyers have chosen to buy stakes in overseas companies rather than attempt full takeovers."

Scientists at Nasa admitted they thought satellite readings were a mistake after images showed 97% surface melt over four days

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• Suzanne Goldenberg US environment correspondent
• guardian.co.uk,
  Tuesday 24 July 2012 17.48 EDT

The Greenland ice sheet on July 8, left, and four days later on the right. An estimated 97% of the ice sheet surface had thawed by July 12. Photograph: Nasa

The Greenland ice sheet melted at a faster rate this month than at any other time in recorded history, with virtually the entire ice sheet showing signs of thaw.

The rapid melting over just four days was captured by three satellites. It has stunned and alarmed scientists, and deepened fears about the pace and future consequences of climate change.

In a statement posted on Nasa's website on Tuesday, scientists admitted the satellite data was so striking they thought at first there had to be a mistake.

"This was so extraordinary that at first I questioned the result: was this real or was it due to a data error?" Son Nghiem of Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena said in the release.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/jul/24/greenland-ice-sheet-th...

what will they do with 300M of us? 

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/07/24/Gov-t-Healthcare-VA-A...

According to CBS13, numerous clerical errors have “killed off” living veterans, which then triggered notification letters to their families.

Kate Owens, according to CBS13, discovered her VA account had been deleted when a letter addressed to her husband announced she had died. Now, Owens has to submit documents proving she is not dead in order to continue receiving her benefits by the end of the month. 

CBS13 found other incidents where veterans have been accidentally deleted from the database. Army veteran Jerry Miller of Palm Bay, Florida told CBS13 the same mistake has happened to him four different times since 2010.

@tyberious

I wouldn't trust Suzanne Goldenberg or the Guardian on anything, least of all the funding-fest of global warming. For a less alarming view, try

http://wattsupwiththat.com/2012/07/24/greenland-ice-melt-every-150-years...

Just my attempt to contribute to the fascinating controversies on this site!

Incidentally, did anyone else spot this item from Seeking Alpha:

"11:01 AM The Pentagon reportedly will send a squadron of Lockheed Martin's (LMT) F-22 fighter jets on a flight to Japan, indicating the F-22's problems are being solved and that restrictions on the plane's use likely will be lifted. The Air Force says breathing problems experienced by the planes' pilots were due to a lack of oxygen provided to pilots."

lol.

....the fed will be audited, let's hope so and see what turns up in those books....

http://dailybail.com/home/ron-pauls-audit-the-fed-bill-on-track-to-pass-house-vote-sch.html

"To anyone having a problem with the removal of Joe Paterno's statue on the Penn State campus - just look away and pretend it didn't happen."

Ca Lawyer

Good stuff

1. Bonds 2012 = dotcom stocks 1999.  Barton Biggs stated he was befuddled in June of 1999.  The dotcom boom was senseless to him.  Yet, it kept on truckin’....The valuations were detached from their worth.  It is beyond illogical to “hope” that US govt bonds and muni bonds will somehow behave differently than the bonds of the Europeans.  We do the same thing...how could we expect a different result?

1. The winners in 1999 were those that got out and stayed out.  Your money has to go somewhere.  Back then it was from equities to bonds.  Today?  Out of bonds and where to?  Equities?  no.  real estate?  I am floored by the lack of good options.  There are two very important realizations and they are both connected by size.  The first is that the debt explosion has distorted GDP.  It has both pulled forward demand AND created fictitious demand (like it did in housing in 2002-2007).  What will GDP be when this plays out?  A lot less.  Simply assuming that good companies will navigate this is foolish - they can’t swim in a current of contracting demand.  This was a big mistake folks made after the dotcom boom....there was so much demand pulled forward that profitability was destroyed FOR YEARS in the industries supporting the boom...take JDSU or PMCS as examples (on 15 year charts...)

The second point is this....if bond money flows out of bonds - where can it go?  farmland?  diamonds?  art?  metals?  This is like the Hoover dam being emptied into a backyard kiddy pool.  The only way to resolve insane demand and limited supply is madness.  I doubt it gets resolved in price alone.  Folks like your next CA guv would have no problem exercising a heavy hand.  We kind of saw this with MF Global....BK distributed assets illegally and unfairly....and the gubmint did nothing to protect those that owned the assets....not a lot different than the gubmint stealing it themselves.  JPM is a gubmint agent, of course...

1. It is an incredible time to be alive.  I lived the dotcom boom, toiling in the mines of sili valley.  I remember a couple of thoughts I had....1) disbelief during the boom phase....During the first quarter of 2000 I thought, “what will new college grads have to look forward to?  all the money has been made?”  2)  During the end of the crash a couple of years later, “15 more days like today and the nasdaq will be at zero”...(took care of thought number 1)

Oh, the gold to dow ratio peaked less than 20 trading days after Biggs “Befuddled” statement.....just sayin’...that was not a little peak...it was a centuries in the making peak...I here is words of 1999 in David Stockman’s today...

For the last three years our local ethanol plant has had me come in and help during harvest.  I usually fill tank cars or load out wet cake.  This facility has around 3 million bu of corn on hand most of the time and uses around 100,000 bu/day.  When the price of corn gets to high for the profit margin they just shut down and sell the corn.  Last fall they were shipping straight 200 proof alcohol that all went to a chinese contract.  Other options they have is to make vodka.  Most in the midwest are not set up to utilize switch grass or beets.  So the mandates would affect the states but not always the ethanol plants.

Stated that money is now looking for an "assured" return, even though negative.
The Black Hole theory makes perfect sense.
Keep stacking.
This winding road will end at our doorsteps.