Cardinal Krout Court Kabosh……………Evil Plan 81.0 (by BDI)

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Well, my fellow Slope-a-Dopes, here we are precariously perched like racecar red cardinals contently chirping away on towering tree tops. Will we boldly soar to new heights into the red, white & blue yonder, emulating the magnificent majestic bald eagles we once were?  Is American exceptionalism going to unfold its fantastic feathers in all their spectacular splendor, like a proud peacock strutting its stuff down the captivating catwalk?  No way…..no how, you dubious demented dodo birds!  Look up at the sick sinister sky silly! What you are seeing is a gaggle of grey geese heading south for the Winter.  Brace yourselves for an awful Autumn, as the black swan is about to make her long awaited rabid grim reaper reappearance. The only question that remains is which rotten bastard big bird egg will she be hatched out of?  Let us examine the sulfur smelling stench of one such possibility:

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QE Pathology

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We live in insane times. I mean this sincerely.

The reason they don't seem insane is because we have been led here, bit by bit. We are like the proverbial frogs in the pot full of water; the temperature has been turned up very gradually, and we don't notice what a dire situation we're in.

Let's just step back and look at the facts: the entire financial world is breathlessly awaiting the words of a lifelong academic who couldn't successfully manage a Burger King. The most powerful position in the financial universe has been given to The Bearded One, and while all the chatter this week is going to focus on whose Jackson Hole is going to get reamed, the real fireworks will be on September 13th.

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Monetary Minefields…………Evil Plan 79.0 (by BDI)

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Well well well, my fellow Slope-a-Dopes, we find ourselves here once again, comfortably floating just above the 1400 water level for the third time since Mayday….Mayday….Mayday.  Blissfully bathing in the calm, warm, inviting aqua blue waters of the Med, or should I say Fed.  Apparently, many avid Wall Street sailors are looking forward to further fair weather cruising ahead. The well paid crews are pulling up anchors & hoisting mainsails, in anticipation of more delightful sailing in the balmy, "easy money" late Summer breeze. Unfortunately for them, lurking just below the smooth surface in the darker blue water directly ahead, await numerous nefarious naval mines. These lethal, man made, mechanical sea urchins, are about to detonate against the unsuspecting bulls' boat hulls, sending their party yachts plunging deep into the chilled murky abyss, 10,000 feet below the bliss.  Something is clearly amiss amongst the jellyfish……

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Octopus – the Awesome, Mind-Boggling Tale of Sam Israel

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I just finished reading Octopus by Guy Lawson, and it's one of those rare books that fit the "I Couldn't Put It Down" category, much like Den of Thieves, published in 1992. It is the tale of Sam Israel, whom you may remember in 2006 was on the lam from his failed hedge fund/Ponzi scheme. He faked his suicide, was captured, and is now hanging out for the next couple of decades (with none other than Bernie Madoff) in a state prison named, of all things, Valhalla.

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Deflation: As Good As Gold?

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It has been a year since gold began its downward biased consolidation out of the acute phase of the Euro meltdown and resulting hysteria.  In that time, the deflation case was released from the jail that had been a heightened public fear of inflation (the pinnacle of which was in spring of 2011, a time when bond king Bill Gross was very famously short long-term US Treasury bonds).

 

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