The Euro Just Tanked

The euro just fell to its lows of the day.
According to Bloomberg, the ECB is saying that European banks will be repaying just €61.1 billion worth of loans from the second tranche of the long-term refinancing operations (LTRO). These are the loans that were offered starting in 2011 to troubled eurozone banks to boost liquidity in the banking system.
Estimates for repayment were for around €122.5 billion, reports Bloomberg's Mike McKee.
Here's a chart of the euro against the U.S. dollar from Finviz:

Finviz

SEE ALSO:  10 Things You Should Know About The LTRO >

The Fed is Now the Fifth Largest Country in the World

by Phoenix Capital Research

With QE 3 and QE 4 firmly in place and the Fed’s balance sheet over $3 trillion, Idecided to go back and count the recap the Fed/Feds’ interventions since the Great Crisis began in 2007.

Here’s a recap of some of the larger moves made during the Crisis:

• Cutting interest rates from 5.25-0.25% (Sept ’07-today).
• The Bear Stearns deal/ taking on $30 billion in junk mortgages (Mar ’08).
• Opening various lending windows to investment banks (Mar ’08).
• Hank Paulson spends $400 billion on Fannie/ Freddie (Sept ’08).
• The Fed takes over insurance company AIG for $85 billion (Sept ’08).
• The Fed doles out $25 billion for the automakers (Sept ’08)
• The Feds kick off the $700 billion TARP program (Oct ’08)
• The Fed buys commercial paper from non-financial firms (Oct ’08)
• The Fed offers $540 billion to backstop money market funds (Oct ’08)
• The Fed agrees to back up to $280 billion of Citigroup’s liabilities (Oct ’08).
• $40 billion more to AIG (Nov ’08)
• The Fed backstops $140 billion of Bank of America’s liabilities (Jan ’09)
• Obama’s $787 Billion Stimulus (Jan ’09)
• QE 1 buys $1.25 trillion in Treasuries and mortgage debt (March ’09)
• QE lite buys $200-300 billion of Treasuries and mortgage debt (Aug ’10)
• QE 2 buys $600 billion in Treasuries (Nov ’10)
• Operation Twist 2 (Nov ’11)
• QE 3 buys $40 billion in Mortgage Backed Securities every month from now on (Sept. ’12)

That’s one heck of a list. And the worst part is I know I’ve left something out somewhere.
And yet, despite all of this…

1. Median income today is lower than it was during at the end of 2009 (when the recession supposedly ended)
2. The percentage of Americans on food stamps has increased from 11% to nearly 15%
3. The average unemployment duration has increased from 30 weeks to nearly 40 weeks
4. The civilian employment to population ratio hasn’t budged

My question to everyone, especially the political class: at what point do we start calling BS on the Fed’s claims that it has a clue how to improve the economy?
Seriously, how many trillions of Dollars are we going to let the Fed spend? The Fed balance sheet is now over $3 trillion… making it larger than the GDP of France, the UK, or Brazil. Indeed, if the Fed’s balance sheet were a country, it’d be the FIFTH LARGEST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD.
While the Fed has failed miserably to improve the economy in the US, it’s done a bang up job of letting the inflation genie out of the bottle. As Zerohedge recently noted, commodity prices have never been this high at this point in the year before.
So, the Fed has failed to improve the economy… but it has unleashed inflation. This is called STAGFLATION folks. And the fact the Fed thinks the answer to it is printing more money tells us point blank: things are going to be getting a lot worse in the coming months.
Indeed, it is now clear, via QE 3, that the Fed has gone “all in” in its commitment to money printing. QE 2 put food prices to record highs… what to you think QE 3 (which is unlimited) will do to the cost of living?
The time to start preparing is now. The printers are running. The Great Currency Debasement has begun. Some folks will walk out of this mess winners. Most will walk out as losers.
On that note, if you’d like more information on inflation and protecting yourself from it, we feature a FREE Special Report detailing the threat of inflation as well as two investments that will explode higher as it seeps throughout the financial system. You can pick up a FREE copy of this report at:
http://gainspainscapital.com/gpc-inflation/

Best Regards,
Graham Summers

40% of Americans Now Make Less Than 1968 Minimum Wage

Source: The Contributor

You may have seen charts like the one to the right from the Economic Policy Institute, showing how working people’s wages stopped going up along with productivity gains.
This means the gains went…somewhere else. See if you can guess who got them? (Hint: it’s the 1 percent; this is one driver of the terrible income and wealth inequality.) This breakoff of wages from productivity growth is partly the result of trade agreements that pit Americans against exploited workers in non-democracies. This weakened the bargaining power of unions, moved factories and industries out of the country, devastated entire regions of our country — and gave the giant multinational corporations, Wall Street and the billionaires the leverage they needed.
Economist Dean Baker describes one effect of this in Minimum Wage: Who Decided Workers Should Fall Behind?

“If the minimum wage had risen in step with productivity growth [since 1968], it would be over $16.50 an hour today. That is higher than the hourly wages earned by 40 percent of men and half of women.”

The minimum wage would be $16.50 an hour — $33,000 a year — if it had kept up with the growth of productivity since 1968. To put the effect of this a different way, 40 percent of Americans now make less than the 1968 minimum wage, had the minimum wage kept pace with productivity gains.
To put this even another way, the average American’s living standard would be much, much higher today if wages had not decoupled from productivity gains – with the gains all going to the 1 percent instead of being shared by workers. If wages had kept pace we wouldn’t feel the terrible squeeze that everyone in the middle class is feeling.
Read More...

Madoff Emails CNBC From Prison, Accuses JPM Of Fraud

Madoff is now second guessing his guilty plea.
Scott Cohn on Madoff's missives from prison.
'Frustrated' Madoff Now Second-Guessing His Guilty Plea
Quote:
"You should be aware that I have continued to offer Picard information concerning the complicity of the banks.  I was the only person in my firm that dealt with the officers that handled my account.  Not Frank (DiPascali, a Madoff lieutenant who has pleaded guilty to fraud charges) nor anyone else.  I have little doubt that the information I could provide would clearly demonstrate the vital role JPMorgan and other major banks played in carrying out my fraud, including their role in handling the accounts of my major customers.  The ball is in his court."

---
The interview that set the chain of events in motion:

 


Madoff and big banks complicit in fraud.

Update - Money to Be Returned to Madoff Investors Tops $5 Billion

Background
Madoff: Banks Knew I Was a Crook (NYT Interview)
Madoff Trustee Sues JPMorgan: "They Were At The Very Center Of Madoff Fraud"
Bernie Madoff, Allen Stanford Tried To Ensnare Libya's Gadhafi In Ponzi Scheme
The Madoff Liquidator - 60 Minutes
Citigroup Saw Warning Signs, Knew Of Madoff Fraud; Picard Suit Wants $430M
Harry Markopolos On 60 Minutes
Harry Markopolos: “Don’t Trust Your Government”
JPM Did A Cost-Benefit to See If It Was Worth Keeping a Ponzi Schemer As a Client

RED ALERT: Federal Government Could Possibly Be Preparing For An Economic Rollover!

440 Banks Have Going Under since the Big Bailout that was supposed to save us all. One Bank every week Fails, and the FDIC doesn’t have the money to save the system it’s only a matter of time.

http://offgridsurvival.com/economiccollapse-preparingfinancialarmageddon/

Ex-Feds & Wall Street Execs Are Going Into Hiding-Why?
From Dave Hodges …
In my role as a talk show host, I have been approached by individuals who claim to have “insider information” about what is coming, and according to these individuals, what is coming is very bad. Most credible sources demand complete anonymity. As a result, I have found myself in a position to try and evaluate whether to write about and broadcast some very controversial information. Sometimes, my insider information turns out to be stunningly accurate as evidenced by the Chris Stevens murder story which was spot on. My information on theAurora Batman shootings  has also proven to be very accurate.
http://www.stuartwilde.com/2013/02/elite-in-hiding/

And Now, Here's What A 300 Euro Bottle Of Water Looks Like

There can't possibly be a crisis here in Italy.
That's because at upscale Milan grocery store la Rinascente, we came across a 300 euro bottle of water.
For those unemployed or just poor, there's a cheaper 89 euro option.
Anyway, here's a bottle of XMAS FANTASY GOLD bottle water, which costs 300 euros, and which you're not allowed to touch.

Joe Weisenthal / Business Insider

In case you don't believe that that's water, here's a closeup of the inscription: Limited edition springwater.

Joe Weisenthal, Business Insider

And the aforementioned, cheapo 89 euro kind. It's called Bling, of course.

Joe Weisenthal, Business Insider

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/and-now-heres-what-a-300-euro-bottle-of-water-looks-like-2013-2#ixzz2LhY3qCPK

17 Of The Most Mysterious Corporate Labs

Wikimedia Commons

The term "skunk works" comes from a tiny Lockheed Martin facility run by chief engineer Kelly Johnson in the 1940s, which started in a tent next to a malodorous manufacturing plant. That tiny space designed and built America's first jet fighter in just 143 days, and created a philosophy for rapid innovation which companies copy to this day.  Now, as more companies have to do more with less, many are moving away from giant research centers and towards building something like a lean startup inside their companies. Others have the luxury of a different model, where secretive labs work on projects that may never see the light of day.
Skunk works can refer to following a set of 14 rules and restrictions set out by Johnson, but we're using a broader definition. These are the places where some of the world's most talented thinkers and engineers are given time and freedom to create something fascinating.
Everyone from giant defense contractors to retailers like Walmart and Nordstrom are putting their brightest minds in dedicated labs to attempt to jump ahead of the competition. Here's where they do it.

Click here to see the Skunk Works and labs>

View As One Page

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/coolest-skunk-works-2013-2?op=1#ixzz2LhXrFeAQ