Alfred Woody's Kewl Blog [ 椼森 ]: May 4, 2013

Saturday, May 4, 2013

The FED: Celebrating 100 Years of Stealing From You Every Day

(Miss American for FederalJack)   So the gun grab finally has your attention? I thought we were going to have to wait for the ground to be smoking under your shoeless feet before you woke up and looked around you! I’m sorry, but the people who have been observing the take down of our country for many years now, don’t have time to bring you up to snuff at this point. Basically it’s Paul Revere time for us. There have been so many assaults committed by stealth against Americans of good faith, and carried out so slowly and incrementally, that you have actually been ambushed. Now I’d advise that you prepare for the sucker punch.   Yes, we were the richest and most prosperous nation on earth. Yes, a majority of us lived a lifestyle unprecedented in human history, but does the farmer not fatten up his pigs for the slaughter?? We have been a naive and trusting population. But it’s time to face the ‘opposite day’ world we now find ourselves in.

Unfortunately, people who had a keen understanding of human nature designed a Madison Avenue society that kept the masses well preoccupied with ‘if you work hard enough, you can achieve the American Dream’, while they did their dirty work. And we were preoccupied, mesmerized by a televised induced spell in fact! But all the while, the same group we threw off our backs in the American Revolution, never gave up their rabid desire to control our country. They merely decided to use deception, subversion and the age old power of greed and fear to conquer us this time. We, along with 99% of the rest of the world have fallen into the hands of the international Jewish mafia banking cartel.   They have lusted for world domination for centuries, and have killed millions upon millions of people in their quest.

However, in spite of warnings throughout recorded history, and even from our country’s own founding fathers, in 1913 President Woodrow Wilson committed what was destined to become the gravest act of treason ever, when he signed into law the Federal Reserve Act. With that signing, he essentially burnt down the country, and eventually the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the Declaration of Independence went down in flames with it. Jesus Christ threw the moneychangers out of the temple, as did many after him, but Wilson opened the door wide and welcomed them back in.   What has ensued ever since, is the wholesale theft of everything America was, and all that Americans cherish and love.

With the ability to print money from nothing, and control it’s ebb and flow, the criminal Federal Reserve Jewish Mafia and Israeli dual citizens in high places of U.S. government, have been able to infiltrate and control every facet of our federal, state and local government, our military industrial complex, every educational, medical and research institution, every meaningful business possible including energy, all news media, publishing, agriculture, manufacturing, and pharmaceuticals.   They control all manner of entertainment including sports, Hollywood, gambling, illegal drugs, and pornography. These parasites upon humanity have also cast their dark shadow over us with:

Nuclear power plants built on the earth’s fault lines and permitted far past their pre-planned life.
Radiation from bomb testing.
Military waste in corroding drums from bomb making tossed into oceans.
Depleted uranium used in war weapons and unleashed on our own soldiers.
Industrial waste illegally dumped in streams, rivers, bays and oceans.
The sexualization of our children.
DNA corrupting genetically modified crops and animals.
MRSA infested meats used for food and 99% uninspected food imports.
Radiation filled fish from Japan is just fine for US consumers thanks to Hillery Clinton.
Known poisons added to thousands of foodstuffs and municipal water supplies.
Human trafficking and sex slave operations.
Illegal organ harvesting.
Pedophile procurement rings.
Snuff films, violent movies and video games.
Gov. lab created bio-warfare germs accidentally and purposefully released on an unsuspecting public.
Deadly, crippling, and ineffective vaccines, never tested for eventual cancer or disease causation.
Disabling and violence inducing brain drugs prescribed to millions of children.
Deadly pharmaceutical drugs ‘fast tracked’, then allowed to remain on the market as people drop
dead by the thousands.
Daily spraying of heavy metals into the sky by the military and private entities.
Control of 90% of the mainstream media which demonizes anyone who exposes truth or logic.
Unsafe government ‘limits’ of microwave and radio frequency radiation from wireless technologies.

These sub-humans have even created fake environmental groups to convince us that humanity is a scourge on the earth, or that a blind salamander has more importance than people. They even pay these groups to sue the government or ‘federal agencies’ to enable their hidden agendas such as land grabs or oil monopolies. It’s called controlled opposition and they are experts at working both sides on any issue.   Funny how these same environmentalists (called ‘tree huggers’ by their handlers) are mum on the actual atrocities being committed against mother earth!

Our country, which once had morals, values, pride, love, the rule of law, and faith in our future, has disintegrated in front of our eyes. Many are too blinded to see, so stuck in front of the TV they are with its false propaganda, lies and assurances that everything is just fine (and pay no mind to those enemy combatants, the conspiracy theorists!). The television has absolutely been the downfall of our society, a powerful and hypnotizing mass control tool of the devils. Research the flicker rate of high definition TV and its effect on the brain. Have you ever wondered why everyone had to transition to HDTV?

These are the people running the American show now. Our ‘Republic’ has been stolen by stealth. By bribe or threat they now create our legislation. They’ve turned all our federal agencies into draconian rogue forces that terrorize and swat team us without explanation or charges. They are controlling what we can and can’t eat, and want to take vitamins and natural health treatments away from us. We can’t drink organic milk, but they want to force us to roll up our sleeves so they can inject their idea of good health into our veins. The CIA is their assassination and terrorist recruiting arm, and the IRS will now police health care. The CPS, APS, and the courts abduct children and the elderly for incentive federal money and theft of estates. They are forcing school children into mental evaluations so that they can force drugs on them. They are doing the same to our veterans (of their wars) to take away their right to own arms, because if you went to guard Afghani poppy fields, surely you have PTSD!   Maybe you have taken notice how our former ‘protect and serve’ police forces have turned brutal, impulsive, and merciless!   Many have been trained in Israeli policing methods. They have long ago re-written the history books so citizens won’t learn American history, or understand world history. In many countries you cannot talk or write about what really happened (or didn’t), concerning Hitler’s so-called death camps in Germany during WW2, or you will be guilty of ‘hate speech’ and go to jail. Americans will be next. To find out who controls you, ask who you cannot criticize.

These Moneychangers have created the financial take down of the world in order to bring in their New World Order with a total technocratic control grid in which every facet of life will be under their boot. It’s full blown Communism along with unaccountable rendition and extermination of any resisters. Yet even to this day, most people have no idea who ‘they’ are, so presidents, congressional minions, and police will be left holding the blame bag. And they are to blame! Anyone who lived to see JFK killed knew what was involved if they went down the road of American politics. They are vetted well before a serious run for office to make sure they will be loyal to our best enemy Israel and the Rothschild, Morgan, Goldman Sachs banking cartel. If they aren’t, they will be gone, one way or the other. At the very least they will be vilified and forever trashed by the totally controlled TV, print or internet media. This also happens to honest scientists, doctors, or any credible or well known public figure who speaks the truth, or threatens to expose their crimes or agenda.   This is why you do not see smart, ethical, intelligent, sensible, logical, red-blooded Americans seeking high office in our country. JFK was the last of them.

Yes, I realize there have always been despots, ruthless dictators, and psychopaths on this earth with us, and narcissistic men filled with hubris who want to murder millions so they can run the world. But the Zionist Jew and his endless myriad of paid off minions have a particularly heartless, barbaric and sadistic signature.   Read history books on how they have treated ‘the Goyim’ (anyone not a Jew) through the centuries. They deeply believe the ‘goy’ are merely put on earth to serve them. In fact they have killed their own if it was in the interest of their plan. When you encounter them, you can almost feel your blood run cold. You can sense their lack of a soul. You can feel the presence of the devil. They thrive on blood, guts, torture, and destruction.   It just takes a short look at how they slaughter their cattle to convince you this is true. And who invented circumcision, the butchering of God’s creation? Their modus operandi is to destroy families, morally bankrupt societies, introduce multi-culturalism (everywhere but in Israel) to dilute nationalism, create distention to divide groups, glorify deviance, demonize cultures and religions, and shove their beliefs down our throats. At this point, it looks as if it has worked quite well. America has bought into the plan, hook, line and sinker and it appears that we’ve passed the point of no return. There is no white horse on the horizon. We have but one savior left. Witness the big push for people to accept and welcome gay lifestyles, and the soon to be pedophilia normalcy bias. And just so you know, they will do anything it takes to accomplish what they think is their God given right to achieve. Open hypocrisy, lies, subversion, slow kill, murder, and murder disguised as suicides or accidents are their calling card. The list of extinguished souls is endless.

Personally I have never had prejudice against anyone’s race, religion, or color. When I grew up we were not allowed to use racial slurs in our home. I never knew anything negative about Jewish history until I began to search for who was doing this to us and why.   Why were our leaders turning on us? Why is everything they do the wrong thing for America, or morally wrong toward people? Why have they turned us into the enemy? Why was patriotism turned into terrorism? Why do they despise and have contempt for us? I got tired of hearing about ‘globalists, the New World Order, and the Illuminati’! I wanted to know WHO it is that thought up all these brutal things being done to our country and our people. Could there be that many people with such devious diabolical minds? I’m a registered independent, but I voted for President Obama (alias Barry Sotoro), so desperate I was for ‘change’ and some ‘hope’ that our country would not continue to head for the dirt nap. (Never mind that voting for the traitor Mr. McCain wasn’t even on my radar).   Is there anyone who voted for this imposter that doesn’t feel like a real sucker and a totally betrayed fool?? I see now that the controllers are moving in for the kill, dropping their masks, and taunting us to protest or resist. They will not stop until they have stolen every last vestige of the life we had. They don’t care if we know what they’re doing. They are laughing at us. To be this obvious and this much in our face is not a good omen. They have been amazingly genius at keeping everyone in the dark until the big boot was all polished and ready to stomp, using printed trillions out of thin air to enslave us. They must be ready to pull the plug.   Imagine, all the wars having been fought to guarantee them the right to counterfeit money to infinity. All wars are banker wars! Now the big question is, who among you will be brave enough to print this truth telling ‘hate speech’? Who is strong enough to tell the masses who their real enemy is, as Henry Ford did way back in the 1920’s?   In this case, it’s the Jewish mafia moneychangers dummy. How could we not have questioned and thrown out, the counterfeiting Ponzi scheme that is the banking system?

Oh….. don’t forget to observe The Federal Reserve’s Centennial Birthday: ‘Celebrating 100 years of stealing from you every day’! Why did we ignore the warning signs? Why didn’t we learn from the brutal murderous trail the moneychangers had already laid? By not learning from history, we are now doomed to repeat horrific episodes of the past.

News that a research laboratory in China is deliberately engineering new hybrid strains of bird-flu virus and human influenza which could cause a pandemic has some experts alarmed.

RT
May 3, 2013
Lord May of Oxford, former president of the UK’s Royal Society, has denounced the results conducted by a team under Professor Chen Hualan, the director of China’s National Avian Influenza Reference Laboratory.
H7N9, most commonly referred to as bird flu, has been making headlines around the world recently after China confirmed 126 cases which had killed 24 people as of May 1, 2013. That virus, however, has not yet been confirmed to be human-to-human transmissible, which would greatly increase the risk of a pandemic.
That missing leap into human contagion is precisely what scientists as Harbin Veterinary Research Institute in China were interested in experimenting with, which ultimately led that laboratory to produce new viral strains by mixing the H5N1 bird-flu, which can be lethal, but is not easily transmitted between humans, with a 2009 strain of the H1N1 flu virus, which is highly communicable between humans.
According to Lord May, who spoke with The Independent, the experiment represents a breach of safety.

“The record of containment in labs like this is not reassuring. They are taking it upon themselves to create human-to-human transmission of very dangerous viruses. It’s appallingly irresponsible,” said May.
The research was conducted by Chen’s team within a laboratory with the second highest security level to prevent the virus escaping containment. According to results published by the periodical Science on Thursday the study produced 127 different viral hybrids among H5N1 and H1N1, five of which demonstrated airborne transmission between guinea pigs test subjects.
According to Chen, the value of what some experts seem to think is an unnecessary risk is to observe these human transmissible strains to head off a potential pandemic.
“High attention should be paid to monitor the emergence of such mammalian-transmissible virus in nature to prevent a possible pandemic caused by H5N1 virus,” Chen told The Independent.
Others viral experts are less than enthusiastic about Chen’s work, however. Professor Simon Wain-Hobson, a prominent virologist at the Pasteur Institute in France, lauded the work, but also questioned its usefulness.
“It’s a fabulous piece of virology by the Chinese group and it’s very impressive, but they haven’t been thinking clearly about what they are doing. It’s very worrying,” said Wain-Hobson to The Independent.
“The virological basis of this work is not strong. It is of no use for vaccine development and the benefit in terms of surveillance for new flu viruses is oversold,” he added.
A similar H5N1 experiment published in March was conducted by virologist Ron Fouchier of Erasmus Medical Centre in the Netherlands. That experiment led scientists to impose a year-long moratorium on hybrid viral experiments due to the belief that safeguards were insufficient for that type of work.
Microbiologist Richard Ebright of Rutgers University, who was critical of Fouchier’s work, was equally skeptical of the Chinese laboratory’s research.
“The sole major difference is the use of guinea pigs in this paper and ferrets in that paper,” said Ebright.
“In my assessment, neither paper contains substantive new information that justifies the risks posed by the research,” he told Wired.
According to Wain-Hobson, hybrid viral experiments such as Chen’s could not, in the end, be extrapolated to determine the danger to humans.
“We don’t know the pathogenicity [lethality] in man and hopefully we will never know. But if the case fatality rate was between 0.1 and 20 per cent, and a pandemic affected 500 million people, you could estimate anything between 500,000 and 100 million deaths,” Wain-Hobson said.

Factory Orders -4, Exp. -2%, Non-MFG ISM 53.1, Exp. 54.0, Last 54.4!!! March Durable Goods revised from -5.7% to -5.8%!!! AND THE DOW SOARS!!!

zerohedge‏@zerohedge2 min
Factory Orders -4, Exp. -2%, Non-MFG ISM 53.1, Exp. 54.0, Last 54.4
lemasabachthani‏@lemasabachthani4 min
*U.S. MARCH FACTORY ORDERS FALL 4%; EX-TRANSPORT DOWN 2%
siness Insider‏@businessinsider4 min
MISS: Factory Order Fall By 4.0% (Est. -2.9%)
http://www.businessinsider.com/march-factory-orders-report-2013-5
Business Insider‏@businessinsider5 min
MISS: ISM SERVICES FALLS TO 53.1 (Est. 54.0)
http://www.businessinsider.com/april-ism-services-report-2013-5
AND, THE DOW SOARS!!!
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324266904578460573639253306.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_LEFTTopStories
zerohedge‏@zerohedge1 min
March Durable Goods revised from -5.7% to -5.8%
Business Insider‏@businessinsider1 min
Anyone Who Says There’s A Manufacturing Revolution In America Needs To Look At This Chart
http://www.businessinsider.com/manufacturing-job-creation-vs-total-job-creation-2013-5
zerohedge‏@zerohedge1 min
Non-Manufacturing ISM, Factory Orders Both Miss Expectations, Drop To 2012 Levels
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-05-03/non-manufacturing-ism-factory-orders-both-miss-expectations-drop-2012-levels
zerohedge‏@zerohedge2 min
Dow 15,000
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-05-03/dow-15000

Luisport

here Is The Recovery? This Is The First Time In The Post-World War II Era That The Employment-Population Ratio Has Not Bounced Back After The End Of A Recession

By Michael
Where Is The Recovery?

If you think that the latest employment numbers are good news, you might want to look again. In April 2013,58.6 percent of all working age Americans had a job. But three years ago, in April 2010, 58.7 percent of all working age Americans had a job. Well, you may argue, that is not much of a difference. And that is precisely my point. The percentage of Americans that have a job fell like a rock during the last recession. It dropped from about 63 percent all the way down to below 59 percent, and it has stayed below 59 percent for 44 months in a row. So where is the recovery? This is the first time in the post-World War II era that the employment-population ratio has not bounced back after the end of a recession. So anyone that tells you that we are experiencing an employment recovery is lying to you. Yes, the U.S. economy added 165,000 jobs last month. But it takes nearly that many jobs just to keep up with population growth. The truth is that we are just treading water.
So why has the unemployment rate been going down? Well, it is because the government has been pretending that millions upon millions of unemployed Americans “don’t want jobs” anymore. In fact, an astounding 9.5 million Americans have “left the workforce” since Barack Obama took office.
Some in the mainstream media have started calling them “missing workers”. But whatever label you want to use, the reality of the matter is that they are really hurting. They are part of the reason why food stamp enrollment has soared from 32 million to more than 47 million while Barack Obama has been in the White House.
If you still believe that the employment market is getting better, just look at the following numbers. The percentage of working age Americans with a job has been sitting at about the same level for four years in a row…
April 2008: 62.7 percent
April 2009: 59.8 percent
April 2010: 58.7 percent
April 2011: 58.4 percent
April 2012: 58.5 percent
April 2013: 58.6 percent
So why is everyone getting so excited over the latest numbers? When you step back and look at what has happened to the employment-population ratio over the past decade it really is quite horrifying…

So exactly what part of that chart are we supposed to get excited about?
Yes, I suppose that we should be thankful that the percentage of Americans with a job has not continued to decline over the past few years. Unfortunately, the next major wave of the economic collapse is rapidly approaching and that is going to make our employment crisis far worse.
A recovery was supposed to already happen by now. Now we are running out of time before the next major downturn strikes.

And things have been particularly hard for our young people. Even if our young people do go to college, there is a very good chance that good jobs will not be waiting for them once they graduate.
According to Accenture’s 2013 College Graduate Employment Survey, 41 percent of all Millennials who graduated from college during the past two years are working in jobs that actually do not require a college degree.
And a different survey conducted a while back found that 53 percent of all college graduates under the age of 25 are either unemployed or underemployed.
Perhaps you have noticed this. Perhaps you have noticed that there seems to be large numbers of young people that are living with their parents or that can’t seem to get their lives started.
It is because the economy is not producing enough jobs for them.
We have shipped millions of good jobs overseas, we have replaced millions of jobs with technology, and we have created an economic environment that is murdering our small businesses.
Sadly, the future does not look bright for the American worker. The big corporations that dominate our society are feverishly trying to increase profits by getting rid of as many “expensive” American workers as possible. That is one of the reasons why corporate profits as a percentage of GDP are at a record high, but wages as a percentage of GDP are at an all-time low.
At this point there are more than 101 million working age Americans that do not have a job, and that number is going to go a lot higher in the years ahead.
But the financial markets seem to be absolutely thrilled with the present state of affairs. The latest employment numbers caused the Dow to shoot past 15,000 and the S&P 500 to push past 1600.
Of course stocks have become completely and totally divorced from economic reality, but this does happen from time to time and it never lasts forever. At some point there will be a rude awakening.
And I anticipated that we could potentially see the Dow hit 15,000 before it finally crashed. Back in February, I made the following statement…

Right now, everyone seems to be quite giddy about the fact that the Dow is marching toward an all-time high. And I actually do believe that the Dow will blow right past it. In fact, it is even possible that we could see the Dow hit 15,000 before everything starts falling apart.

Well, now we have seen the Dow hit 15,000. But that doesn’t change any of the long-term trends that are absolutely eviscerating our economy.
So enjoy this bubble of false hope while you can.
It will not last much longer.

Ron Paul: “It’s A Worldwide Phenomenon; A Lot More Chaos Yet to Come” Video

Mac Slavo
May 3rd, 2013
SHTFplan.com

On the heels of a scathing assessment by Nigel Farage on the economic conditions in Europe which he says will ultimately lead to violent revolution, former US congressmanRon Paul and well known investor Jim Rogers weigh in on the discussion.
Undeterred by those who fail to heed his warnings, Dr. Paul suggests that global economic conditions, spearheaded by out-of-control government policies in the United States, will continue to deteriorate until such time that the whole system comes unhinged.
With financial markets hitting all-time highs, jubilation spreading throughout Wall Street, and average Mom & Pop Americans wondering if it’s time to plunge back in to stocks, Paul sees no reason for celebration.

The economy worldwide, certainly in the States, is a lot weaker than they tell us.
I believe that the unemployment rate in the United States is over 20%.
I think there’s still inflation with the dollar… Everybody knows that they’re printing $85 billion a month… that could be considered inflation.
You still have inflation, and that’s distortion… you have malinvestment… so you still have the built in problems, and we have plenty.
I would expect that there’s going to be a lot more chaos yet to come. It will not be limited to Europe. I think it will be a worldwide phenomenon.
That states won’t escape it either because there are so many gross distortions throughout the world….
We disobeyed economic law… and you can’t do that, no matter what Bernanke tells you.

Sourced via Steve Quayle, Infowars, ZeroHedge

Jim Rogers, also a featured speaker at the Sovereign Man offshore tactics workshop, joins forces with Ron Paul and suggests that those very policies implemented by Ben Bernanke and his global banking cohorts, are the problem, not the solution.
Rogers cites a previous exchange between Ron Paul and Fed chief Ben Bernanke, in which Bernanke outright declared that gold is not money, further cementing his reputation as nothing more than a monetary charlatan:

The present head of the central bank does not understand economics, he does not understand finance, he does not understand currencies. All he understands is printing money. His whole intellectual career has been devoted to the study of printing money. And, as you know, we have given him the printing presses.

That strategy, of course, will be disastrous. It’ll further impoverish Americans by reducing wages relative to rising prices for essential goods, while increasing the national debt to unmanageable levels.
What comes next, according to Rogers and Paul, will take the majority of the population by surprise because most people simply can’t fathom the possibility of such a thing ever happening in the Land of the Free:

Rogers: They will take our retirement accounts. They will take our 401k’s. They will say, ‘you’ve all been having such a hard time earning money in your 401k’s, so what we’re going to do is we’re going to save you.’
Paul: I don’t doubt it for a minute. They’ll do what they think is necessary. and they’ll use force, and they’ll use intimidation, and they’ll use guns. Because, you can’t challenge the state and you can’t challenge the State’s so-called right to control the money… I think that’s very possible at that time when things get a lot rockier than they are now.

There are well informed students of economics, financial markets and history. They understand that global governments, especially in Europe and the United States, have bitten off more than they can chew. And they see a continuation of the same policies that have led to the worst economic conditions since the Great Depression.
Moreover, they understand, like many other concerned and informed Americans, that when the real crash comes it will be worse than anything we’ve ever experiencedbefore.

Gary Gibson, McDonald’s CEO, & Peter Schiff: Rising House Prices Are A Central Bank Scam. ‘We’ve Seen Starts and Stops of a Recovery’ in US. 2/3 of America to Lose Everything!!

Economic Recovery Is Illusory, A False Sense Of Prosperity.

Sen. Paul: I’m a little worried that some of the economic recovery, if we’re getting it, is illusory, in the sense that it’s coming from quantitative easing. It’s coming from this false sense of prosperity you get when new money comes into the system, but then once it chases goods long enough, prices rise, and there was an illusion of gain, an illusion of profit, but its not really there. So I think it’s still very tenuous. I think there is great pent-up prosperity that could come from the marketplace, but the way to do it is not by printing more money and not by creating more debt.
Economy May Stink; the Market Doesn’t Care.

RISING HOUSE PRICES ARE A CENTRAL BANK SCAM

It’s odd, but Americans get happier when the roofs over their heads get harder to afford. Over the past hundred years or so, Americans have come to see houses not just as another commodity which should be getting cheaper over time thanks to market forces, but as a government-aided “investment” that makes them better off by getting more expensive!
But the unadulterated truth is that housing is just another basic appliance, like a washing machine or a car, but more essential. Society grows richer when the market’s efficiencies makes appliances more affordable, not when government intervention makes them harder to afford.
Here is a brief list of things that make our life better when they become cheaper relative to incomes:
Gas
Electricity
Clothing
Designer clothing
Shoes
Healthy groceries
Gourmet food
Restaurant meals
Cars
Luxury cars
Cell phones
Smart phones
Desktops
Laptops
Information
Housing belongs on this list, too. Yet only one in a hundred million people understands that. That’s because government has had a decades-long indoctrination program that has taught its citizens to look at homes for personal use as “investments” instead of a consumption. And as with “education”, government has been artificially inflating the cost of housing in a mix of propaganda and easy lending policies….

McDonald’s CEO: ‘We’ve Seen Starts and Stops of a Recovery’ in US

The U.S. economy is going through a bumpy rebound, making things difficult for retailers, says McDonald’s CEO Don Thompson.
“I think what we’re seeing relative to the U.S. is that we’ve seen the starts and stops of a recovery,” he told CNBC.
The Commerce Department Friday reported that gross domestic product (GDP) grew 2.5 percent in the first quarter, buttressed by consumer spending.
…
“We saw some good resilience from the consumer, particularly given all the headwinds,” Michael Feroli, chief U.S. economist at JPMorgan Chase, told Bloomberg.
“The weakness in government spending is an issue. It’s going to be tough to repeat the first-quarter performance this quarter.”

CHART OF THE DAY: Corporations Are Now Growing Profits As Sales Actually Fall

Here’s the chart from FactSet. The green line shows how Q1 sales growth expectations have only deteriorated.

FactSet

Dallas Fed Implodes: Biggest Drop And Miss On Record Send Market To Intraday Highs
Why the Jobs Outlook Just Got a Whole Lot Worse

With the April unemployment report coming Friday, weak corporate top-line growth is likely to spell an equally troubled bottom line for the unemployed.

Recovery for the 7 Percent — Paul Craig Roberts

Since the recession was officially declared to be over in June 2009, I have assured readers that there has been no recovery. Gerald Celente, John Williams (shadowstats.com), and no doubt others have also made it clear that the alleged recovery is an artifact of an understated inflation rate that produces an image of real economic growth.
Now comes the Pew Research Center with its conclusion that the recession ended only for the top 7 percent of households that have substantial holdings of stocks and bonds. The other 93% of the American population is still in recession. http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2013/04/23/a-rise-in-wealth-for-the-wealthydeclines-for-the-lower-93/
The Pew report attributes the recovery for the affluent to the rise in the stock and bond markets, but does not say what caused these markets to rise….
QE Effect: U.S. And Euro Area Savings Rate Drops To Record Low, Incomes Disappoint, Corporate Cash Accumulation Starting To Slow

Peter Schiff: 2/3 of America to Lose Everything Because of This Crisis

…
“The crisis is imminent,” Schiff said. ”I don’t think Obama is going to finish his second term without the bottom dropping out. And stock market investors are oblivious to the problems.”
“We’re broke, Schiff added. ”We owe trillions. Look at our budget deficit; look at the debt to GDP ratio, the unfunded liabilities. If we were in the Eurozone, they would kick us out.”
Schiff points out that the market gains experienced recently, with the Dow first topping 14,000 on its way to setting record highs, are giving investors a false sense of security.
“It’s not that the stock market is gaining value… it’s that our money is losing value. And so if you have a debased currency… a devalued currency, the price of everything goes up. Stocks are no exception,” he said.
“The Fed knows that the U.S. economy is not recovering,” he noted. “It simply is being kept from collapse by artificially low interest rates and quantitative easing. As that support goes, the economy will implode.”
…

El-Erian: Fed must let markets work on their own, Chances U.S. will hit real growth 50-50

The chances that the U.S. will achieve genuine growth right now are 50-50, Mohammad El-Erian, chief executive of Pimco, said Monday. Speaking at the Milken Global Conference here, El-Erian said the key is that the Fed eventually needs to let markets work on their own without government assistance. Further, concerns remain that resources are being misallocated and that there are market bubbles forming, he said. “The excitement in the marketplace is being accompanied by anxiety,” El-Erian said.

International Money Flow Is Tightening

image source

Kevin Brekke
Casey Research

The EU continues its chainsaw juggling act. The austerity pledge from France is holding about as well as its Maginot Line, while Greece has sworn to meet its fiscal targets in ~~2014 2015 2016~~ soon, and the Italians promise they're going to kick some serious fiscal butt as soon as the country returns from holiday.

Spain reassures that it will squarely confront its need to raise worker productivity whenever the unions call an end to protests against austerity. And the Portuguese high court ruled it is unconstitutional for civil servants to work for less than twice the wages of their private-sector counterparts.

This chronic "the sky is falling" in the EU had induced investor news-cycle fatigue and rendered last year's black-swan threat level from red to this year's collective yawn…

… until Cyprus tossed another chainsaw into the act. The Cyprus looting of private wealth was a cold-shower reminder of the tenuous security of assets that are concentrated within reach of a single government – doubly true of nations in a desperate fiscal situation whose financial sector is about to topple.

~~Depositor~~ Creditor

The blatant theft of depositor money in Cypriot banks was at first peddled as a one-off emergency measure. Then a Freudian slip by the head of the Eurogroup finance ministers, Mr. Dijsselbloem, suggested this would be the new pattern for similar future events. Much back-pedaling and "clarification" ensued.

But don't bother squinting as you try to read the lips of mumbling bureaucrats. Just follow what they're doing and you won't get blindsided.

What have they been up to? In October 2011, the Financial Stability Board (FSB) – a tentacle of the Bank for International Settlements, the central bank for central bankers – released a report that proposed a new regime to resolve financial-institution instability.

In the report, the FSB calls for solvency support for banks without taxpayer exposure and the allocation of losses to shareholders and unsecured and uninsured creditors. Deposits at a bank are considered a loan, and if a bank fails, its depositors become unsecured creditors for amounts that exceed the insurable limit.

It gets worse. To protect the integrity of the financial system, controls on both endogenous (the bank itself) and exogenous (other firms and cross-border cooperation) capital movement can be implemented. This is exactly what happened in Cyprus. To prevent capital flight out of the banking system, the movement of money out of or between banks was restricted, as well as capital sent outside the country.

The G20 has fully endorsed the plan, and its implementation is complete or under way in member jurisdictions. The US is a G20 member, so don't kid yourself into believing it can't happen in America. It can and will. The Cyprus event has been carefully framed as an anomaly when in fact it is part of a well-orchestrated script.

In the Year of Our Overlord 1 AF

January 1, 2014, will mark the start of Year 1 AF – "after FATCA." In the run-up to the US reporting regime's full implementation, many foreign banks have opted not to accept US persons as clients, and we can see why. FATCA is a huge burden on foreign financial institutions in terms of time and resources needed to identify, track, and report on their US clients.

Today, it is nearly impossible to find a foreign bank that will open an account for an American without them visiting the bank and delivering a stack of notarized paperwork to prove they are who they say they are. Other banks that had welcomed US persons have suspended doing so in anticipation that further demands on their time will be announced.

In fact, one bank we spoke with during our research on internationalization has done just that. Lloyds TSB has stopped opening accounts for Americans, pending a review of FATCA later this year. Our contact at the bank did not sound optimistic that the policy would be reversed. This is a trend we expect will gain traction.

And as if Americans seeking to internationalize weren't already facing stiff headwinds, a recent leak of internal documents linked to offshore entities will likely add some force. In early April, millions of emails and other records were leaked with information on thousands of account and company owners in the British Virgin Islands, a popular offshore banking center. The leak exposed several high-profile clients that are allegedly "hiding" assets from their home tax authorities.

This is just the kind of news that will embolden the offshore-means-tax-evasion governmenteers to twist the reporting screws a little bit tighter.

When Is Now

The incremental creep of crises continues to aggravate the financial landscape and provokes increasingly desperate responses from Western governments, particularly the US.

Yet in spite of all the words unleashed and regulations imposed against offshore investing, it remains unquestionably legal. How long it will continue to be legal is questionable.

Is it easy? No. But neither is getting your luggage and shoes through airport security. The situation for the easy movement of capital and assets across borders is dire, but it is not hopeless if you have the right information.

FATCA has effectively acted as stealth capital controls, as the regulations dissuade foreign financial institutions from doing business with Americans, discouraging all but the most persistent investors from pursuing an international wealth preservation strategy.

As the pieces come together, a clear picture emerges: Americans are just one financial crisis away from triggering the provisions of the G20-backed FSB financial resolution regime. And that almost certainly will include restrictions on the movement of capital. Once your money is trapped inside the US, any type of concocted emergency "tax" can be imposed on your wealth.

Additional taxes are just one of many steps your home government can take to grab a share of your hard-earned wealth. Wise investors disperse their assets internationally to minimize this risk, and though it's getting late in the game, there's still time for you to join them.

You can learn about moving your cash offshore... setting up an offshore LLC... investing in international stock markets... and internationalizing yourself, including getting a second passport. It's all available in an information-packed special report titled Going Global 2013. You won't find a better resource for internationalizing your life and your assets. Get started today.

Historic Day on Wall Street: S&P Breaks 1600, Dow Touches 15000 on Jobs Report

Stocks closed out the week with a bang, with the S&P 500 finishing above 1,600 and the Dow briefly topping 15,000 for the first time, as Wall Street cheered a better-than-expected April nonfarm payrolls report.
All three major indexes logged sharp gains for the week.
(Read More: Big, Round Numbers Fall; 'Speed Bump' Could Be Next)

Adam Jeffery | CNBC

"We put two weeks together in a row to the upside in about eight weeks…so that' the good news," said Art Hogan, managing director at Lazard Capital Markets. "But the bad news is that we've run out of catalysts next week—earnings season is virtually over and the macro is very quiet."

"But those that have been looking for a pullback, we've tried to give catalyst to this market to pullback and it hasn't worked," said Hogan, noting that the market has yet to see declines of greater than 3 percent this year. "That tells us that 'sell in May' is not going to work this year and I Think we're going to continue this grind higher."
(Read More: Stocks Soar on Jobs Data, But Economic Dangers Lurk)

U.S. Major Index Performance

	Last	Change	Today's % Change	1 Week % Change	YTD % Change
Dow	14,973.96	142.38	0.96%	1.78%	14.27%
S&P 500	1614.42	16.83	1.05%	2.03%	13.20%
NASDAQ	3378.63	38.01	1.14%	3.03%	11.89%
Russell 2000	954.42	14.57	1.55%	2.05%	12.37%
CBOE VIX	12.84	-0.75	-5.52%	-5.66%	-28.75%

The Dow Jones Industrial Average shot up 142.38 points, or 0.96 percent, to close at 14,973.96, propelled by Caterpillar and Alcoa, earlier crossing above 15,000 for the first time. It took the blue-chip index nearly six years to cross 15,000 after it first topped 14,000.
The S&P 500 soared 16.83 points, or 1.05 percent, to finish at 1,614.42. And the Nasdaq rallied 38.01 points, or 1.14 percent, to end at 3,378.63. The CBOE Volatility Index (VIX), widely considered the best gauge of fear in the market, slumped below 13.
For the week, the Dow jumped 1.78 percent, the S&P 500 advanced 2.03 percent, and the Nasdaq surged 3.03 percent. Microsoft was the best weekly performer on the Dow, while Merck lagged.
Among the key S&P sectors, techs led the weekly sectors gainers, while utilities weighed.

Play Video

Will Stocks Continue Rally?

Discussing whether stocks will continue to move higher, with Peter Schiff, Euro Pacific Capital, and Michael Farr, Farr, Miller & Washington.

U.S. employers added 165,000 jobs in April, according to the Labor Department, while the unemployment rate fell to a four-year low of 7.5 percent. Economists in a Reuters poll expected a reading of 145,000 and unemployment to hold steady at 7.6 percent. Non-farm payrolls came in at a disappointing 88,000 in March.
(Read More: Jobs Report: That Was Embarrassing...)
But the unemployment rate remained well above the 6.5 percent level at which the central bank has said it will start raising interest rates. On Wednesday, the Fed said it was prepared to "increase or reduce" the monthly pace of its $85 billion in bond purchases, depending on economic conditions.
"The [jobs] number beat consensus and also importantly, the revision from last month tells the story of a not-as-sluggish labor market," said Troy Logan, managing director and senior economist at Warren Financial Service. "However, the unemployment rate is still high. So that tells us that the Fed is going to continue with its accommodative policy–that means we have Fed support, which is good for asset prices and a jobs market which is not getting worse."

(Read More: Roubini: Fed Risking Sequel to 2008 Financial Crisis)
"Adding to that, earlier this week, we saw that housing price levels have actually gone up," said Logan. "So in our view, the U.S. real estate market bottomed in 2012 and we're clearly on an upward trend in 2013."

And global markets cheered the employment report, with European shares turning decisively higher and the dollar jumping against the euro and the yen. Oil prices rallied, while gold, often viewed as a safe haven, slid near $1,460 an ounce. Treasury prices also declined.
(Read More: Gold Is Still Vulnerable: Analyst)

Play Video

Is There Room to Run Higher?

Insight on the day's market rally and whether there's more room to run, with Dan McMahon, Raymond James; Donald Hodges, Hodges Capital; Stephanie Link, TheStreet; and CNBC's Jeff Cox.

Mining stocks including Freeport McMoRan were among the biggest gainers, as copper prices posted the strongest daily gain in almost 1-1/2 years.
However, other economic reports were not as encouraging. The rate of growth in the U.S. services sector slowed in April, according to the Institute for Supply Management, hitting its weakest pace in nine months. And factory orders posted their biggest decline in seven months, according to the Commerce Department.
But Wall Street largely shrugged off both weaker-than-expected data.
Among earnings, AIG rallied after the insurer reported earnings that exceeded Wall Street expectations, while revenue missed slightly.

LinkedIn posted quarterly results that topped expectations. But shares of the social-networking giant plunged after the company projected current-quarter revenue below consensus, disappointing analysts who expected growth to continue at its recent pace.

(Read More: Cramer: Here's Why LinkedIn Is Getting Creamed)
Earnings from Berkshire Hathaway will be in focus after the closing bell.
More than 80 percent of S&P 500 companies have posted quarterly results so far, with 68 percent topping earnings expectations and 21 percent missing forecasts, according to Reuters. If all remaining companies post numbers in line with estimates, earnings will be up 5.2 percent on last year.
But on average, sales have come in 1 percent below estimates, with only 46 percent of companies beating their revenue projections.

With earnings season coming to an end, Walt Disney is the only Dow component slated to report next week. Other notable S&P 500 companies expected to post results include Electronic Arts, Whole Foods, Dean Foods, Activision Blizzard, Nvidia and Priceline.com.
—By CNBC's JeeYeon Park (Follow JeeYeon on Twitter: @JeeYeonParkCNBC)
On Tap Next Week:
MONDAY: Flash crash anniversary; Earnings from Sysco, Tyson Foods, Anadarko, First Solar
TUESDAY: 3-yr note auction, consumer credit, Noka annual mtg; Earnings from HSBC, DirecTV, Discovery Comm., Walt Disney, Electronic Arts, Marathon Oil, Symantec, Trip Advisor, WholeFoods, Live Nation, WebMD, Zillow
WEDNESDAY: MBA mortgage applications, Fed's Stein speaks, oil inventories, 10-yr note auction, BofA shareholder mtg; Earnings from Toyota, Liberty Interactive, Liberty Media, AOL, Sodastream, Wendy's, Activision Blizzard, Green Mountain Coffee, Groupon, Monster BEverage, NewsCorp, Tesla Motors, Transocean
THURSDAY: BoE announcement, Fed's Lacker speaks, jobless claims, wholesale inventories, natural gas inventories, 30-yr bond auction, Fed's Plosser speaks, Fed balance sheet/money supply, Barclays's investor mtg, Ford annual mtg, weekly rail numbers, chain store sales; Earnings from Dean Foods, Dish Network, Sony, Nvidia, Priceline.com
FRIDAY: Fed's Evans speaks, Bernanke speaks, Fed's George speaks, Treasury budget, G-8 mtg; Earnings from ArcelorMittal, GoldFields

S&P Downgrades Israel's Local Currency Rating

Finance Minister Yair Lapid

Flash 90

Standard & Poor's Ratings Services lowered on Thursday Israel’s long- and short-term local currency sovereign credit ratings to 'A+/A-1' from 'AA-/A-1+'.
At the same time, S&P affirmed the long- and short-term foreign currency sovereign credit ratings at 'A+/A-1'. The outlook is stable.
"The lowering of the local currency rating results from recent fiscal slippage, highlighting the gap between fiscal performance and other key metrics such as economic performance, external balances, and monetary policy flexibility. These continue to be relatively strong. Under our criteria, we do not distinguish between local- and foreign-currency sovereign ratings when a government's fiscal position is a disproportionate credit constraint," S&P's statement said, according to a report in Globes.
"Our affirmation of the foreign currency ratings reflects our view of Israel's prosperous and diverse economy as well as the medium-term impact of natural gas production on the external account. The stable outlook reflects our opinion that Israel's governmental consensus about containing public debt will reemerge despite current fiscal consolidation pressures,” the agency added.
"We could consider raising our ratings on Israel if it makes material progress in defusing external security risks, since such progress would have positive repercussions for domestic stability, economic growth, and investor confidence.
"Conversely, we believe that a significant setback in reducing the government's high debt burden, a decline in growth prospects, or a substantial deterioration of the security situation in Israel could put downward pressure on the rating," the announcement concluded.
Finance Minister Yair Lapid was unfazed by the downgrade, saying in a statement quoted by Globes, "The rating downgrade at this time is no surprise. This is a late response to the situation that we are now trying to correct. We have to look at ourselves in the mirror and honestly say: 2013 and 2014 are the years in which we shall close the overdraft, and as we fix it, we shall start to take off. We are now changing our order of priorities. The working person will be at the center; the cost of living will fall. Only that way can the economy grow and continue to maintain its standing.
"We are now taking responsible steps, and as long as I am minister of finance this responsible policy will be maintained,” added Lapid. “In the meeting I held yesterday with the Governor of the Bank of Israel, he repeated his support for the Finance Ministry policy that aims at a deficit target of 3% in 2014, and at the public spending framework determined by the law."
On Thursday, Lapid announced a plan to increase the deficit target from 3% to 4.9%. The increase would mean allowing Israel’s deficit to grow to an unprecedented 50 billion shekels.
The original deficit target for 2013 was 1.5%. Former Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz then raised it to 3%.
Lapid said the decision was coordinated with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, but sources close to Netanyahu said on Thursday evening that Lapid had not involved the Prime Minister in his plan. Lapid’s decision reportedly surprised Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer as well.
Lapid said shortly after entering office that he would deal with the deficit. “It’s time to deal with the overdraft. We’ll work hard, we’ll limit ourselves, we’ll reduce expenses, we will also have to cut where it’s most painful,” he wrote in a message to his supporters.
In January, figures assembled by the Accountant General's Office found that Israel's budget deficit was double than what had been expected. Instead of the 2% that Israel had been thought to be in “overdraft,” it turns out that the deficit is 4.2%.
The Treasury said that most of the unexpected deficit, about NIS 18 million, was due to lower than expected tax receipts. Spending overruns accounted for only NIS 2.2 billion of the deficit.

Ron Paul & Jim Rogers: "There's More Chaos To Come"

These are clear warnings signs that a rational person simply cannot ignore.
Bottom line, Nations are going bust. And the worse things get, the more desperate their tactics become. This isn't the first time that the world has been in this position. This time is not different. History shows that there are serious, serious consequences to running unsustainably high debts and deficits. And those consequences have almost invariably involved pillaging people's wealth, savings, livelihoods and liberties... either directly or indirectly.
What's happening right now is playing out in textbook fashion. More taxes, more debt, more printing, more confiscation, less freedom. I’m not talking about the end of the world here, I’m talking about difficult times ahead, and the things that go beyond economics. It’s time to face facts and look at how society will change (and has already changed).
Many people will resist the change and instead cling desperately to the old system - the cycle of debt and consumption that provided jobs, stability, and prosperity. These people will have their lives turned upside down because that system is gone forever. And in case it still weren't obvious, here is three minutes of clarity from Ron Paul and Jim Rogers..."I would expect that there is going to be a lot more chaos still to come." - Ron Paul; “They won’t take our bank accounts…they will take our retirement accounts.” - Jim Rogers

Via Simon Black of Sovereign Man blog,

The world is truly an enormous place... and, despite the dearth of good news and positive trends out there, I still see a lot of amazing opportunities in my travels.

But it's really important to remain grounded about the challenges that face us. As I pen this letter to you, in fact,

- The NSA's Utah data center, which will intercept every phone call, email, and tweet sent across the Internet, is nearing completion.

- The Marketplace Fairness Act, which will create additional sales taxes on US-based Internet transactions, is set to pass the Senate next week.

- The government of Cyprus just passed the final bail-in measures, officially authorizing the direct confiscation of people's savings in that country's banking system.

- The Bank of Japan recently announced its intentions to double down on their already unprecedented money printing operations.

- Not to be outdone, the US Federal Reserve just announced that they will maintain their Quantitative Easing program, which dilutes the existing money supply by more than $1 trillion annually.

- At $16.83 trillion, the US federal debt is at a record high and set to breach $17 trillion early this summer.

- President Obama recently proposed to cap the tax deferral benefit on Individual Retirement Accounts in the Land of the Free

These are clear warnings signs that a rational person simply cannot ignore.

Bottom line, nations are going bust. And the worse things get, the more desperate their tactics become.

This isn't the first time that the world has been in this position. This time is not different.

History shows that there are serious, serious consequences to running unsustainably high debts and deficits. And those consequences have almost invariably involved pillaging people's wealth, savings, livelihoods and liberties... either directly or indirectly.

What's happening right now is playing out in textbook fashion. More taxes, more debt, more printing, more confiscation, less freedom.

I’m not talking about the end of the world here, I’m talking about difficult times ahead, and the things that go beyond economics. It’s time to face facts and look at how society will change (and has already changed).

Many people will resist the change and instead cling desperately to the old system– the cycle of debt and consumption that provided jobs, stability, and prosperity. These people will have their lives turned upside down because that system is gone forever.

And in case it still weren't obvious, I'd like to present Ron Paul and Jim Rogers, speaking together at our event in Chile a few weeks ago, with their own views on the situation.

“They won’t take our bank accounts…they will take our retirement accounts.” - Jim Rogers
"We are going to have a calamity in economics and political crises as economies worldwide are a lot weaker than they tell us." - Ron Paul
"I would expect that there is going to be a lot more chaos still to come." - Ron Paul
"There are so many distortions because we disobeyed economic law - no matter what Bernanke tell's you." - Ron Paul
"Bernanke's whole intellectual career has been dedicated to the study of printing money." - Jim Rogers
"I don't doubt [the confiscation] at all; and they will use force and they'll use intimidation." - Ron Paul

Three minutes of clarity...

Will JPMorgan's "Enron" Be The End Of Blythe Masters?

One year after the infamous Jamie Dimon "tempest in a teapot" fiasco, which promptly turned out to be the biggest TBTF prop-trading desk debacle in history, things were going well for JPMorgan.
On one hand, the chairman of the TBAC (and thus US Treasury advisor and policy administrator), and former LTCM trader, Matt Zames, was just recently promoted to the sole second in command post at the biggest US bank (and 2nd biggest in the world) by assets, and first in line to take over from Jamie Dimon. On the other hand, one of Mary Jo White's former co-workers, and a JPM defense attorney from Debevoise just became head of the SEC's enforcement division, in theory guaranteeing that the US government would never do more than slap the wrist of JPM in perpetuity.
And then, when everything seemed like smooth sailing ahead, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) showed up on March 13, the day before Carl Levin's committee released its latest report on JPM's prop trading blunder, and according to the NYT, alleged that JPM in the past several years, quietly became nothing short than the next Enron.

Government investigators have found that JPMorgan Chase devised “manipulative schemes” that transformed “money-losing power plants into powerful profit centers,” and that one of its most senior executives gave “false and misleading statements” under oath. The findings appear in a confidential government document, reviewed by The New York Times, that was sent to the bank in March, warning of a potential crackdown by the regulator of the nation’s energy markets.

Another "tempest in a teapot"... Or is JPM reprising the role of the most hated company from the early 2000s, Enron, now that absolutely everyone's attention is focused on its purportedly criminal activity, potentially a problematic development? It very well might be.

The JPMorgan case arose, according to the document, after the bank’s 2008 takeover of Bear Stearns gave the bank the rights to sell electricity from power plants in California and Michigan. It was a losing business that relied on “inefficient” and outdated technology, or as JPMorgan called it, “an unprofitable asset.”

Funny: another "case" that has arisen, so far at mostly in the tinfoil hat periphery of the blogosphere is that JPM also inherited some massive precious metal shorts when it was handed over Bears Stearns on a Fed-subsidized silver platter, and it is the legacy of these short positions that has encouraged various JPM employees, such as Blythe Masters for example, to not only do everything in their power to push the price of gold and silver lower, but to align directly with the Fed, which wants nothing more than to destroy every single last believer in real, not paper-based, "quality-collateral."
For now, however, let's get back to what was previously conspiracy theory, and is now fact:

Under “pressure to generate large profits,” the agency’s investigators said, traders in Houston devised a workaround. Adopting eight different “schemes” between September 2010 and June 2011, the traders offered the energy at prices “calculated to falsely appear attractive” to state energy authorities. The effort prompted authorities in California and Michigan to dole out about $83 million in “excessive” payments to JPMorgan, the investigators said. The behavior had “harmful effects” on the markets, according to the document.

Uh-oh. Sounds suspiciously close to what a certain Houston firm, once upon a time called Enron (advised by none other than one Paul Krugman) was doing to the California electricity market. And where the FERC and legacy ENRON instances arise, sparks are sure to fly.
But what is worst for JPM, and its brilliant (abovementioned) employee, often times credited with creating the Credit Default Swap product and market (simply an instrument to trade credit with negligible upfront collateral and thus allow equity option-like speculation in the credit realm), is that FERC may be seeking to throw the book at none other than Blythe Masters.

In the energy market investigation, the enforcement staff of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, or FERC, intends to recommend that the agency pursue an action against JPMorgan over its trading in California and Michigan electric markets.

The 70-page document also took aim at a top bank executive, Blythe Masters.

Blythe did a bad, bad thing. So bad she lied about it under oath.

The regulatory document cites her supposed “knowledge and approval of schemes” carried out by a group of energy traders in Houston. The agency’s investigators claimed that Ms. Masters had “falsely” denied under oath her awareness of the problems and said that JPMorgan had made “scores of false and misleading statements and material omissions” to authorities, the document shows.

Oops. And it's only downhill from here, because what follows, are the two scariest words a banker can hear in the context of a potential enforcement decision: "individually liable"

For now, according to the document, the enforcement officials plan to recommend that the commission hold the traders and Ms. Masters “individually liable.” While Ms. Masters was “less involved in the day-to-day decisions,” investigators nonetheless noted that she received PowerPoint presentations and e-mails outlining the energy trading strategies.

And some more scary words: "systematic cover-up"

The bank, investigators said, then “planned and executed a systematic cover-up” of documents that exposed the strategy, including profit and loss statements.

In the March document, the government investigators also complained about what they said was obstruction by Ms. Masters. After the state authorities began to object to the strategy, Ms. Masters “personally participated in JPMorgan’s efforts to block” the state authorities “from understanding the reasons behind JPMorgan’s bidding schemes,” the document said.

The investigators also referenced an April 2011 e-mail in which Ms. Masters ordered a “rewrite” of an internal document that raised questions about whether the bank had run afoul of the law. The new wording stated that “JPMorgan does not believe that it violated FERC’s policies.”

Looks like the FERC disagreed. But how could it? It was only a year ago that Blythe was on CNBC promising that not only she, but JPMorgan would and could never do anything wrong in the commodities, or any other, arena. Who can possibly forget her unforgettable platitude: "What is commonly out there is that JPMorgan is manipulating the metals market. It's not part of our business model. it would be wrong and we don't do it."
But... if she fabricated data, blocked regulatory investigations, and lied under oath could she possibly also have... lied to CNBC? No... that is unpossible.
So what happens next?
Well, JPM can hope that its guy at the SEC, Andrew Ceresney, who happens to be in charge of the porn-addicted agency's "enforcement" division, has just enough clout to make that other regulator, the FERC forget all about its inquiry, and its factually-justified allegations.
Or, failing that, and should justice finally prevail in this banana republic for one of the TBTF banks, what may just happen is that Blythe may end up in prison. Minimum security, of course, and for a very brief period of time, with all of her (allegedly) ill-gotten and accumulated wealth waiting for her upon reentry into society. And that's fine.
But what we hope for is that there is at least a brief period of time when Blythe's finger is not be on the gold "sell" button. Not because we want to be deprived of the opportunity to buy physical gold and silver at far cheaper than fair value prices (which, by the way, are meaningless when expressed in dying fiat), but because we are simply curious how high gold may go should JPM's commodity queen finally be put away temporarily... or permanently.
Even for a total banana republic, this does not seem like such a far-fetched request.

Alfred Woody's Kewl Blog [ 椼森 ]