I'm pretty mad but, fortunately, Keith Olbermann is madder so watch this:
There, now I can move on and discuss other things as we discussed how our leaders have sold this Country down the river in Member Chat and, frankly, the only thing we can do now is make a lot of money and make sure we stay in the top 1% because the bottom 99% in this Nation (and soon to be Globally) are simply screwed. As Barry Ritholtz says:
You can count on idealogues to do the wrong thing at the worst possible moment, and this time is no different. The Austerians are not satisfied with producing a government induced recession in Europe through severe cost cutting at a time of weak growth and low employment, they have brought their brand of lunacy to the States as well.
If the Federal Government accounts for 20-25% of the US economy, and we shrink that to 15-20%, guess what? You just reduced the overall size of the economy by 5%. The private sector will not magically create demand for that missing piece. Hence, an increasingly likely economic slowdown or outright contraction by philosophy.
I keep saying I am not a Democrat because I have no idea what their economic policy is, and I am not a Republican because I know EXACTLY what their economic policy is. That is our policy choices: Inept cluelessness on one side, and hapless fantasy-based lunacy on the other.
Like ruthless Barbarians walking a battlefield and crushing the skulls of any enemies that are still breathing, we are witnessing the coup-de-grace of the top 1% in America, as they put their boot on the throats of the poor and the middle class who survived the 2008 crash (and subsequent wealth transfer) under the guise of austerity (to pay for the wealth transfer without taxing the wealthy), dooming this country to decades of despair. At this point, all we can do is make sure we don't end up being one of those hapless suckers at the bottom and, fortunately, the top 1% is a very easy club to get into – all you need is MONEY.
Money is, fortunately, very easy to make. All you need is money (and who doesn't have that?) and some free time (again, plenty of it when you are in the investing class) and you can make more of it by taking advantage of the 270M people right here in this country who have neither time nor money. One of our favorite ways to make money screwing over the poor is through organizations like our sponsors, the Predatory Lending Association:
That's right, stocks are for wimps when money is scarce. Just like any good drug dealer, we and our Bankster friends got all the kids in the neighborhood hooked on spending and easy credit and now we've completed step one (dry up the supply and eliminate the competition), step two (hoarding and controlling the supply – with $1.6Tn in excess assets accruing to the Banksters since TARP and a record $2.5Tn in cash sitting on Corporate Balance Sheets), step three (cutting off our users – voted in last night) and now it's time for the good part – the part where we force the bottom 90% (if you are in the top 10%, there is some hope) to pay through the nose for the rest of their lives for access to money!
Oh well, screw those losers, right? That's the message out of Washington this week and if you are not going to join Keith Olbermann and put on a sackcloth and shout on a street corner then you'd better make damned sure that you are part of the group of 1%, whose share of the National income has more than doubled since Reagan and NOT part of the bottom 90%, whose income has fallen 25% over the same period of time because – with no taxes on the rich and drastic austerity programs for everyone else – the next time you see this chart, those two lines may be crossing!
So wealth is now a GROWTH INDUSTRY in America. Look how easy it is to get more money – the bottom 90% ONLY have to give up 25% of their income for us to double up! They STILL have almost half the money left so what are we standing around for? No need to grow the pie while those guys still have a slice! By the way – side note to the top 0.1% – once we get the top 10% to screw the bottom 90% with us, it will be like taking candy from a baby for us to turn around and screw the top 10% the same way. Then we can double up while they slip into the abyss, but – shhhhhhhhhhhh – don't tell them! Not that they can stop us but we don't want to spoil the surprise…
Another growth industry in America, not at all coincidentally, is Politics. Look how much it costs our little pawns to get elected these days – the economy may have been soft but the soft money was flowing in the last election as $3.7Bn was dished out to make sure we got the best Government money could buy and last night our Congressional tools came through and passed a bill that – get this – authorizes $2.4Tn worth of debt increases that will be paid ENTIRELY through CUTTING Government spending and, read my lips, NO NEW TAXES!
Can you believe it? We get to take away ANOTHER $2.4Tn from the poor while authorizing the Government to continue to fund our military/industrial complex AND to make sure they pay us in full for the money we lend them AND we get to keep ALL of our tax loopholes! I can't believe they actually went for it! Not only that but, other than Olbermann, the American Sheeple are barely even bleating. In fact, the way they rolled over and took this one – I think it's time to push for additional TAX CUTS too.
Come on guys – it's not like they can afford to elect anyone to change things. $2Bn will be spent by the two Presidential candidates next year – there's no way they get there without our support. Another $4Bn will be spent by 535 Senators and Congressmen to win their offices – an average of $7.4M per seat – who do you think is going to get elected at those prices – ONLY our team can afford to play!
By the way, note to "us" – make sure you take your private jets out of small airports this month as last night's vote cut the funding to 4,000 FAA workers who perform "critical work" as well as 90,000 contractors who, I guess, are not as critical. That should give us a nice bump in August unemployment figures (more free money from the Fed) AND lower our labor costs even more but all the whiny Democrat, Nick Rahall had to say was: "The House Republican leadership is willing to lay off tens of thousands of middle class American construction workers and jeopardize billions of dollars in airport construction simply to score a few political points for Tea Party extremists." Gosh, talk about a sore loser – let's not give him $7.5M next year and we won't have to hear that baby cry anymore…
Speaking of cry babies – did you see the Health Care sector get slammed yesterday? Down 1.3% as a sector but the companies who service the bottom 80%, who depend on Government programs to be able to afford to live, got SLAMMED as we are cutting Grandma and Grandpa off with extreme prejudice so it's goodbye HCP (down 4.4%), HCN (-6%), HR (-2.4%) and OHI (-11.8%) – serves you right for serving the poor!
Now, let's see who else are going to be THE BIGGEST LOSERS in 2012 (and for the rest of the decade):
- The Unemployed – The Dems rolled over and allowed the bill not to extend "emergency" Federal Unemployment so, on December 31st, millions will be cut off without a cent (unless they get off their lazy asses and get jobs, of course).
- Graduate Students – Title V of the Budget Control Act details reductions to federal student loan grants, subsidised loans for graduate students, and financial incentives to pay loans early.
- Our Nation's Credit Rating – According to Vincent and Carmen Reinhart, the credit rating agency would be justified in downgrading the US to AA.
- Our Debt to GDP Ratio – As I mentioned yesterday, Friday's GDP number shows that our GDP is being over-estimated by Reps and Dems alike by 10% so our current 80% debt to GDP ratio is now authorized to be well over 100% by 2012 and, oops, that's next year already. Gee how time (and money) flies!
According to the Financial Times, the big winners are, of course, Bondholders (that's us!), Millionaires (us again!) and Defense Stocks – as that sector had been beaten down as no one in their right mind thought Congress would pass a budget that didn't touch our $800Bn annual military spending (1/2 of the World's total spending) while we endanger the lives of hundreds of millions of citizens at home by gutting the FAA to pay for it. Oh yeah, I guess bat-shit craziness is another winner this week…
We went a little longer yesterday as I called the bottom at 10:40 in Member Chat and I reiterated that call on Twitter and Facebook and LinkedIn and even on SeekingAlpha at 12:23, saying: "FYI, we're taking bearish profits here and taking a few pokes at some longs but not very enthusiastic after such a train wreck of a morning." I thought that was important to mention as we had been very bearish in the Morning Post.
In Member Chat, we picked up some great long plays on the Futures (and did so again early this morning) and we actually went long on oil (/CL, USO) off that $94 line (into inventories tomorrow, then probably short again) and we took a very bullish flyer on the S&P with an SSO Aug bull call spread that will pay 19,900% if the S&P is back over 1,280 at August expiration so that one will be fun to watch!
It's going to be a crazy day and we still have to wait for the Senate to confirm our fantastic Debt Bill and I think that the EU thinks that's iffy but it's not as it costs a lot more to get elected to the Senate ($20M) than it does to the House ($4M) so, if you like the way that the House of Representatives is bought and paid for – you are just going to LOVE the Senate!
Congratulations America – well, to 1% of us anyway…
