TGIF

HOW BOUT THEM CARDINALS!

That win last night was fitting since it seems they've played the whole season like that.  I think Freese's triple in the 9th was really the hit of the game.  Here it is from a fan's point of view.

Yesterday was a big rally.  In fact, this is looking to be the best October in history for the market.  Which is nice since we had the one of the worst Augusts.  Certain sectors of the economy are doing fantastic.  Company balance sheets are strong.  I wish they would start spending some of that money.  Americans still need jobs.  Unfortunately, government policies and taxation are keeping some of that from happening.

I think we will see a positive market through the end of the year.  I also think you will see gold, silver, oil and other commodities rise.

Enough about the markets.  It's Friday and we all need to relax.  Plus, I'm tired since I had to stay up late watching game 6...

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Tim Tebow is a polarizing figure.  I never rooted for him because he was a Gator.  I don't think he's an NFL QB, but he sure has a knack for finding a way to win.  There is actually a website dedicated to TeBowing.  Hilarious...

TEBOWING

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You may have heard Steven Tyler fell in the shower.  It looks more like he went a few rounds with Tyson.  Or went to Capt. Jack Sparrow's makeup artist.

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This isn't a funny clip but OTL did a great special on the Joplin Eagles.  Knowing what some of my friends in Joplin went through, this brings a tear to your eye.



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I love movies. My friends, family, and myself quote them all the time.  I'd say it's a daily occurence.  This contains some strong language but hilarious.  Seriously, if you don't like bad language, please don't watch this.  The 100 best movie insults!

Part 2

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Have a great weekend.  GO CARDINALS!

It's Over!

Not really.  I'm speaking of the Euro debt mess.  They decided to print a trillion euros instead of 250 billion.  They are supposedly cutting the Greek debt by 50%.  I have a short article to address that.  This doesn't really address Italy.  Oh wait, Italy said they are going to raise the retirement from 65 to 67, in 15 years.  That should do it, HAHA.  Ok, enough sarcasm for today.

Here's How the Greek Haircut is Really 28%

Just the math, something Europe is unable to do:

• Greece has €350 billion in total debt including about €70 billion in Troika "post-petition" loans; these are untouched.
• Of the €280 billion, roughly €75 billion is held by the ECB: this, like the Troika loans, will be untouched.
• This leaves just ~€200 billion in actual debt to undergo a haircut.
• Apply a 50% haircut to this debt (ignoring the fact that of this about €35 billion is held by Greek pension funds, and once the realization that Greek pensions have been cut in half dawns upon the population, the result will be the biggest riots ever seen in Athens yet).
• Total debt to be cut: just about €100 billion.
• Hence, of the total €350 billion, just €100 billion is eliminated, most of it used to backstop and service Greek pension and retirement obligations
• €250, or the residual, of €350, the original, means 72%, or a 28% haircut.
• Greek GDP was €230 billion on December 31, 2010 and declining fast.
  

• And that is how a 50% haircut is "cut" almost in half 

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I was actually really surprised this many Americans owned a gun.  I'd like to see a stat on how many of those people own more than 1.  And this survey isn't counting the felons, I'm guessing.

Gun Ownership Soars To 18 Year High: 47% Of Americans Admit To Owning A Gun


Americans may be fleeing from stocks in droves, but they sure aren't shy about rotating the resulting meager liquidation proceeds into weaponry. According to Gallup, "Forty-seven percent of American adults currently report that they have a gun in their home or elsewhere on their property. This is up from 41% a year ago and is the highest Gallup has recorded since 1993, albeit marginally above the 44% and 45% highs seen during that period." Considering the social situation "out there", and the fact that the world is one badly phrased or translated headline away from a complete HFT-facilitated market collapse, this is hardly all that suprising.


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So we shipped $40 billion in cash to Iraq, but we're not sure where it went.

NY Fed's $40 Billion Iraqi Money Trail 

It has been called the largest airborne transfer of currency in the history of the world. But finding out what happened to all the money involved has become one of the biggest financial mysteries of all time.


Source: CNBC Sources
US troops get ready to unload cash transported inside Iraq by helicopter.

Beginning in the very earliest days of the war in Iraq, the New York Federal Reserve shipped billions of dollars in physical cash to Baghdad to pay for the reopening of the government and restoration of basic services.

The money was packed onto pallets inside a heavily guarded New York Federal Reserve compound in East Rutherford, New Jersey, trucked to Andrews Air Force Base outside of Washington, and flown by military aircraft to Baghdad International Airport.

By one account, the New York Fed shipped about $40 billion in cash between 2003 and 2008. In just the first two years, the shipments included more than 281 million individual bills weighing a total of 363 tons. But soon after the money arrived in the chaos of war-torn Baghdad, the paper trail documenting who controlled it all began to go cold.

Since then, investigators have spent years trying to trace what happened to the enormous amount of money shipped in the frantic days of the occupation of Iraq. Although there have been hundreds of pages of reports, Congressional hearings, and inquiries from Washington to Baghdad, no one in Congress, a special inspector general’s office, the Department of Defense or the Iraqi government itself can say with certainty what exactly happened to all of that money.

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Here is another story in my fast food violence chain.  What is wrong with these people?




Cops Hunt Man Who Firebombed Taco Bell Because His Chalupas Had Too Little Meat

Georgia police are hunting for the aggrieved Taco Bell customer who threw a Molotov cocktail at the restaurant’s drive-thru window after phoning in a complaint that there was not enough meat in the chalupas he had purchased.
The bizarre incident occurred around 5 AM Sunday at a Taco Bell on North Slappey Boulevard in Albany. The small blaze did not cause injuries or damage to the building.
According to a police report, Taco Bell manager Cynthia Thompson told cops that, shortly before the firebombing, a man called the restaurant to complain about a reported meat shortage in his “two XL Chalupas.” The caller told Thompson that “after getting home realized that there was not enough stuffing inside of his chalupas, and demanded his order be corrected.”
When Thompson explained that she “could not accommodate him because the business was closing,” the man replied, “You must be one of them niggers up there.” He added, “That’s alright, I’ll just come and redecorate the place.”
Thompson said that shortly after the call she and other Taco Bell employees “could smell gasoline but was unaware of where it was coming from. They then realized the fire outside of the drive thru window.”
Investigators found the makeshift incendiary device--a “melting plastic bottle with a liquid substance still inside”--outside the Taco Bell, where a large sign beckons patrons to “Come Try The New XXL Chalupa. Bigger Is Better.”
The search for the firebomb suspect has been hampered since the video feed from the drive-thru window was of poor quality, cops reported.

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This kid won't get to 18 fast enough.  I hope he's homeschooled.

Parents Name Child Adolf Hitler

Heath and Deborah Campbell, who named two of their children Adolf Hitler and JoyceLynn Aryan Nation, are claiming that a court vindicated them of all abuse allegations last month. But after 33 months in foster care, the children are still not home.

New Jersey Family Court officials had no comment Tuesday.

“Actually, the judge and DYFS told us that there was no evidence of abuse and that it was the names! They were taken over the children's names,” Heath Campbell told NBC 10 Tuesday.

Court records last year stated that the children were not removed from the home because of their names, but because of tangible evidence of abuse or neglect.

Protesting the fact that they still don't have their kids, the Campbells picketed with three other people outside of child services offices in Flemington, N.J. Tuesday. The couple spoke exclusively to NBC 10, saying that the state has no right to keep their children away from them now that the court allegedly ruled that the kids were taken away without cause.

State Debt and Dangerous Swings

In today's earnings news, results were mixed.  I have a feeling that is how this quarter is going to go.  3M and Netflix missed, but Dupont had some positive things to say.  Speaking of  Netflix, I'm glad I avoided that stock.  Remember how the talking heads like Jim Cramer said it was the hottest stock in the world. BUY BUY BUY!  That was at $200 and the stock got as high as $304.  At the open today, it will be trading in the $70s.  Yikes! 

Everyone talks about the Federal deficit, but the states are in serious trouble as well.

US States Facing Debt of $4 Trillion

The total of U.S. state debt, including pension liabilities, could surpass $4 trillion, with California owing the most and Vermont owing the least, a new analysis says.


The nonprofit State Budget Solutions combined states' major debt and future liabilities, primarily for pensions and employee healthcare, unemployment insurance loans, outstanding bonds and projected fiscal 2011 budget gaps. It found that in total, states are in debt for $4.2 trillion.

The group, which follows state fiscal conditions and advocates for limited spending and taxes, said the deficit calculations that states make "do not offer a full picture of the states' liabilities and can rely on budget gimmicks and accounting games to hide the extent of the deficit."

The housing bust, financial crisis and economic recession  caused states' tax revenue to plunge, and huge holes have emerged in their budgets over the last few years. Because all states except Vermont must end their fiscal years with balanced budgets, states have scrambled to cut spending, hike taxes, borrow and turn to the federal government for help.

Taxpayers are worried the states' poor fiscal health will persist for a long time and some Republicans in Congress have questioned whether the situation is worse than the states say.

State Budget Solutions relied on financial reports and income tax rates provided by the Federation of Tax Administrators in determining its rankings.

The true debt totals may be lower, though, because the group also used the highest estimates of pension gaps. The conservative think tank American Enterprise Institute says public pensions are short $2.8 trillion.

Others, including the nonpartisan research group Pew Center on the States, put total unfunded pension liabilities at around $700 billion.

The wide range is based on different assumptions of the returns of pension fund investments, which provide the bulk of money for benefit payments. Conservative economists say the investments will have annual returns of around 4 percent, while many funds expect returns in line with the average of the last 20 years — closer to 8 percent.

Using the higher pension gap number, State Budget Solutions said California is in the biggest financial hole — with total debt of more than $612 billion. New York follows with $305 billion of debt, and then Texas, with total debt of $283 billion. Vermont has the lowest amount of total debt at just over $6 billion.

The group also looked at the financial shape of states using the Pew pension projections. It came up with a total debt of $2 trillion for all states.

California still owes the most under the alternative computation, but the state's total debt drops significantly, to $307 billion. With the Pew numbers, New Jersey follows with $183 billion of debt and Illinois is next at $150 billion.

According to the analysis, California has also borrowed the most from the federal government to pay for unemployment benefits, $8.6 billion. Michigan was next, taking out $3.1 billion, and then New York, borrowing $2.9 billion.

As unemployment shot up, some states could not pay for the surge in demand for jobless benefits. The federal government loosened its lending rules to keep states from having to cut other areas of their budgets. But last month the U.S. government again began charging interest on the outstanding loans and may levy extra taxes on businesses in states with outstanding loans.

Looking at just state annual financial statements, the group found Connecticut has the highest debt per capita, at $5,402, and nine states have debt of more than $3,000 per capita.

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Who needs enemies with friends like this?  I mean the guy had to lube himself to get into the swing.  I can't believe he would surprised he got stuck.

Friends Leave Man Stuck in Swing

A Vallejo man was found in a child's swing Saturday morning after reportedly being stuck for about nine hours, police said.
At about 6 a.m., a groundskeeper of Blue Rock Springs Park heard a man screaming when he arrived at work. He then called the police to investigate.

Upon arrival, police found a 21-year-old man stuck in a child's swing, which has two leg holes.

The man told police that he had been stuck in the swing since 9 p.m. Friday after he allegedly made a $100 bet with his friends. He proceeded to lube himself with laundry detergent to get into the swing, police said.

The friends then reportedly left him swinging through the night.

Vallejo firefighters then were called to rescue him by cutting the swing chains off. He was then transported to Kaiser Permanente Vallejo Medical Center, where firefighters used a cast cutter to cut the swing off his body, firefighters said.

He sustained non-life threatening injuries.

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Mexican IDs Now Accepted in Sonoma County

In Sonoma County, a California driver's license is accepted as valid identification -- but so is a card issued by the Mexican consulate.

Mexican nationals will be able to give their country's state-issued identification cards as valid ID to Santa Rosa police officers and Sonoma County sheriffs, the Santa Rosa Press Democrat reported.

The idea is to reduce the immigration-related duties of local cops, the newspaper reported. Accepting Mexican consulate-issued cards will reduce the number of people booked into jail for lacking ID, and ergo, will reduce deportations from Santa Rosa County Jail, the newspaper reported.

"Today is a great day," Sonoma County Assistant Sheriff Lorenzo Dueñas said. "We're now going to accept the matriculár consular ID."

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Advocates for immigrants point out that almost half of the 921 immigrants turned over to ICE authorities by the jails had not committed a crime, and another third had committed minor offenses, the newspaper reported.

Multimedia

Mexican nationals will need to apply to the consulate for such a card. The consulate will likely set up shop in the area to both issue cards and instruct people how to do so, the newspaper reported.

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These weather related disasters really seem to be picking up in frequency.  One third of Thailand is currently under water.

Thai Floods Reach Northern Bangkok

Thailand’s worst floods in half a century have reached the capital Bangkok, as officials struggle to control a torrent of water that is threatening to engulf the nation’s political and economic heart.
City officials ordered the evacuation of six northern districts as the floodwaters approached.

Yingluck Shinawatra, Thailand’s recently elected prime minister, said on a visit to the government’s flood relief operations centre on Monday that she hoped the water level in the capital would not rise above one metre.
But, with Ms Yingluck having consistently taken a more optimistic tone than the governor of Bangkok, who represents the opposition Democrat party, residents said they were preparing for the worst and have been stocking up on food and water. Some supermarkets have run out of supplies.
At least 350 people have been killed, several million forced out of their homes and big industrial estates and key infrastructure destroyed. Monsoon rains have pounded south-east Asia since July, wiping out large swaths of rice crops and raising the spectre of “serious food shortages”, according to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation.

Despite initial attempts to divert the flood waters around Bangkok, which accounts for about 40 per cent of Thailand’s economic output, the government is now attempting to drain the huge volume of water south into the sea through the city’s canals and its main river, the Chao Phraya.
Moody’s, the credit rating agency, estimated on Monday that the floods would cost Thailand more than Bt200bn ($6.5bn), or 2 per cent of gross domestic product. But it predicted that while state finances would suffer, “the government will have ample fiscal space to absorb flood-related costs without prompting a permanent deterioration in its debt ratios”.
Thailand’s industrial heartland, to the north of Bangkok, has already been deluged by the surging waters, forcing the closure of more than 1,000 factories and leading to the loss of more than 600,000 jobs. Japanese carmakers, many of which have set up regional manufacturing bases in Thailand, have been badly hit as well as hard-disc drive producers, leading to a global shortage of a key component in computers.
On Monday, Mazda and Toyota, the Japanese car makers, and Toshiba, the Japanese electronics maker, become the latest in a long and growing list of major manufacturers to extend production shutdowns at facilities that have been affected by the floods.
Ms Yingluck, a political novice who became Thailand’s first woman prime minister in August, has come under increasing political pressure from critics who say her populist government has lacked co-ordination and released inaccurate information, particularly about the fate of Bangkok.
But analysts believe that the first crisis of her term in office has also given Ms Yingluck the opportunity to demonstrate her leadership.
Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a political scientist at Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University, argued that the scale of the flooding, ineffective state agencies and poor long-term planning have hindered Ms Yingluck’s ability to respond.
“She is obviously doing her best but the question is whether her best is good enough,” he said. “The people who did not support her from the outset will seize on the deluge to destabilise her rule.”
However, analysts believe Ms Yingluck’s opponents in the Democrat party, which was previously in power, are playing a dangerous game as they must also take the blame for the long-term planning failures that have exacerbated the flooding and the damage has that followed in its wake.
“There has been a much broader political and administrative failure in terms of the management of water, the management of dams and the building of suburbs and factories on wetlands so that the drainage that Thailand has relied on in the past is not available any more,” said Michael Montesano, an expert in Thai politics at Singapore’s Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.

Floating Rate Notes and a McD's Beatdown

I hope everyone had a good weekend.  In case you haven't heard, they still haven't come up with a plan in Europe (Sarcasm).  I'll just get to the news of day.

Since, the Treasury knows that they need to find a way to sell more debt, they have come up with the idea of floating rate notes.  How about we quit spending a trillion dollars a year more than we bring in?

US Treasury Considers New Debt Instrument

The US Treasury and Wall Street dealers are set to discuss whether to introduce a new debt security to help finance the country’s mounting budget deficit in the coming years.
Topping the agenda of a meeting on Friday between Treasury officials and dealers, who underwrite US government debt sales, is the possible introduction of floating-rate notes.
In contrast to normal fixed-rate Treasuries, which pay the same coupon throughout their lifespan, the payment to investors from floating-rate notes would go up or down as the Federal Reserve changed short-term interest rates. That could make them attractive to investors who think that Treasury yields have hit a floor and are set to rise in the coming years.
“We think the case for diversifying the Treasury’s funding sources by introducing [floating rate notes] is very strong in light of the prospect of persistently large budget deficits in the years ahead,” said Lou Crandall, economist at Wrightson Icap. “They would give the Treasury an additional tool for meeting unexpected increases in borrowing needs that would neither place upward pressure on long-term rates nor add to the government’s near-term rollover needs.”

News, data and opinions on central banks around the world

But the discussions may not herald the imminent introduction of such securities. The Treasury has asked similar questions in the past and is conservative about changes to debt issuance. The last new Treasury issuance product it introduced was inflation-protected securities in the late 1990s.
According to the agenda for the meetings, the Treasury will ask dealers about the “optimal structure” for floating rate securities, how they “would affect Treasury’s overall cost of borrowing”, and whether there would be “robust market demand” for such debt.
“There would be demand for floating rate Treasuries,” said Rick Klingman, managing director at BNP Paribas. “From my perspective I would rather own floating-rate than fixed-rate debt over the coming years.”
With the prevailing view in the bond market that Treasury yields have set their lows and will gradually rise in the coming years, issuance of floating-rate debt could prove more costly for US taxpayers.
As it stands, the US Treasury is locking in funding over the next 30 years at record low yields. This month the sale of $13bn 30-year bonds came at a yield of 3.12 per cent – well below the 4.75 per cent level the issue was sold at in February.
Regular sales of floating rate notes would help meet the expected demand for safe securities to be placed on bank’s balance sheets under proposed tighter capital standards under Basel III and as collateral in derivatives trading.
“The need for safe, short-term dollar-denominated assets is likely to exceed the supply for as far as the eye can see,” says Mr Crandall.
One drawback for the Treasury is that it is intent on extending the average maturity of its debt from around its current age of 62 months. Should the Treasury sell three-year $20bn in floating-rate notes per month, the monthly rollover burden would reach that figure once the issues began maturing.
While the Treasury could sell longer-dated FRNs of up to 10 years, extending the maturity beyond three to five years may not attract investors who would be the target market for the product, says Mr Crandall.

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I don't know what it is about fights in fast food restaurants, but it seems to be occurring at a rapid pace.

McDonald's Cashier Beats 2 Customers


An argument  between a cashier and two irate customers at a Manhattan McDonald’s turned violent, leaving both customers injured and all three facing charges.
The entire incident, which was captured on video, happened Thursday morning at a McDonald’s on West Fourth Street in Greenwich Village, CBS 2’s Chris Wragge reports.
It appeared to have started when two female customers argued and yelled obscenities at the cashier when he questioned a $50 bill they gave him.
One of the female customers then slapped the cashier. A woman is then seen jumping over the counter while the other woman goes behind the register.
That’s when the cashier can be seen on the video disappearing into the back of the fast-food restaurant. He comes back with a metal rod and begins hitting the women.

Other customers watched in horror as McDonald’s workers tried unsuccessfully to stop the violence.
One female customer had a fractured skull that required surgery and a broken arm. The other has a deep laceration.
Rayon McIntosh, 31, was arrested and charged with two counts of felony assault and criminal possession of a weapon.

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Conspiracy theories seem to be everywhere right now.  Which isn't too surprising since 99% of us feel like we've been lied too repeatedly.  One that I believe in, is the manipulation of certain markets.  Here is another piece about the metals market manipulation.

FT's Tett Says "Foolish Simply to Deride or Ignore GATA"

Tett is an award-winning journalist and author and is the US managing editor of the Financial Times. She has been positive regarding gold and gold prices for some time due to the degree of financial and economic uncertainty in the world.

Tett wrote in Saturday’s FT that it would be “foolish” to “deride or ignore” GATA and their allegations, not regarding manipulation in the silver market, but manipulation of the gold market.

In an article entitled “Is there a shadowy plot behind gold?’ (see commentary), Tett wrote that “the idea of a central bank manipulating world markets packs an increasingly powerful emotional punch with voters.”

Tett acknowledged that central banks intervene in and manipulate interest rates and her article explored whether central banks might also be manipulating gold prices.

“For my money, though, I think there are at least two reasons why it would be foolish simply to deride or ignore Gata, “ Tett concluded.
Tett acknowledged that some of GATA’s points “have at least a grain of truth”.

“Even if you find it hard to believe that central bankers would be dastardly enough to create a plot – or competent enough to do what Gata claims – the fact is that global commodity markets are pretty murky, central banks are often opaque and western rhetoric about “free” markets is often hypocritical. Those issues merit far more debate, not just among journalists, but central bankers too.”

She concludes that “whatever the “truth” behind these plot tales, the one thing that is clear is that these accusations are unlikely to disappear soon. Not, at least, while the world’s economy remains so unstable and terrifying for ordinary mortals. Or, possibly, until that gold price really soars.”

Tett’s FT article may signal the beginning of a real debate about the allegations that GATA has made and that have yet to be rebutted.

It is an important debate as increasingly governments and central banks are distorting financial markets and the free market through constant interventions in markets.
In the western world, we have seen interest rates cut close to zero, capital injections and bailouts, lending guarantees, saving and deposit guarantees, favouring certain banks and institutions over others,  banning short selling and now the latest intervention is the absurd - consideration of banning sovereign credit ratings.

At the same time competitive currency devaluations are taking place globally with central banks debasing currencies and outright intervention in currency markets in order to lower the value of national and supranational currencies.

Japan is the glaring example of this and Switzerland’s recent ‘pegging’ of the Swiss franc was in the same vein.

With governments surreptitiously and openly manipulating their currencies, it would seem like the logical that some governments might have an interest in not seeing gold and silver prices soar.

Surging gold and silver prices are a vote of no confidence in fiat paper currencies and government and central banks stewardship of these currencies. This is especially the case with the US dollar as the global reserve currency and all governments have an interest in maintain faith in the dollar and in fiat currencies which is a possibly motive for intervention in the gold and silver markets.

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In business news, Caterpillar had fantastic earnings.  They are expecting 20% growth for 2012.  Earnings have been pretty decent for most companies this quarter.  The big question is, when are they going to start hiring again?

Wal-Mart has decided to offer a "Christmas Price Guarantee".  If you find an item at a lower price anywhere, they will issue you a gift card for the difference.  The promotion will run from Nov. 1- Dec. 25.

Cigna bought Healthspring for 3.8 billion dollars.  They hope it will help jumpstart their business of selling Medicare to the elderly.

The Teleprompter in Chief will also be out today to announce a plan to deal with the housing crisis and student loans.  I'll be glued to the TV...

TGIF

Ok so, usually I try to keep it light on Fridays.  I have a few serious topics first, then I will end with some funny. 

Here is the latest post from Mike Krieger:

Rogue Government Traders
Everything that is happening around the world right now reminds me of the  movie “Rogue Trader.”  In case you haven’t seen it, it is the 1999 film where Ewan McGregor plays the role of Nick Leeson, the Barings Bank trader whose trades gone bad brought down Barings Bank, the oldest merchant bank in London at the time.  The reason why this story is so compelling and why I recommend everyone go watch it is because it demonstrates what can happen when a small loss or mistake is ignored and then covered up in a futile attempt to get back to where you were.  In this case, Nick Leeson started losing money trading futures in Singapore and rather than cutting his losses he kept trading more and bigger.  Pretty quickly, the losses became so enormous he knew he would be forced to close them out if someone noticed and he might even be fired.  So what did he do?  He decided to transfer the losses to a hidden account.  The 88888 account.  He figured he would hide the losses there and then close the hidden account when he got back to even.  He never got back to even and Barings went bankrupt.

Any of this sound familiar?  Yes of course it does.  Unfortunately for all of us, he story of Barings bank and Nick Leeson is merely happening on a global scale.  However, rather than one trader making bad bets what we are dealing with is a gigantic credit bubble ponzi scheme created by TBTF banks, or as Bill Black more appropriately refers to them, Systemically Dangerous Institutions (SDIs) that now needs to be covered up.  This ponzi first started unraveling back in 2008 and rather than deal with it the best we could, global “leaders” decided to bail them out with taxpayer money and guarantees.  What did we get for this act of kindness?  A dead economy, monstrous unemployment, 15% of Americans on food stamps and a frightening reality that shows Americans are having a much harder time than the Chinese putting food on the table.  See this article http://www.shtfplan.com/headline-news/startling-survey-americans-are-struggling-more-than-chinese-to-put-food-on-the-table_10152011.  Meanwhile, what did the banksters get?  They consolidated even more power over their Washington D.C. puppets because now establishment politicians are “in” the doubled down Nick Leeson bet with Wall Street and of course they got record bonuses and no one was prosecuted.  

So here is the world as I see it at the moment.  You have a gigantic credit/derivatives ponzi scheme created by SDIs that cannot be settled or unwound without a lot of pain.  The banks know this but of course they don’t tell the serfs.  They did tell the governments this back in 2008, but with the caveat that if the politicians saved them they would save the economy and be considered heroes.  Given the financial ignorance, stupidity and massive egos floating around that cesspool called Washington D.C. they fell for it line hook line and sinker.  Well, nothing improved except for bank bonuses and now people are unsurprisingly out in the streets all over America.  Now what?

Well since the politicians are now “in the bet” with the banksters they are just doubling down and doubling down on past mistakes and making things worse and worse.  Except this time they won’t just blow up an old bank.  They will blow up the entire planet.  I mean did you see what Bank of America just did?  They purposely moved their derivatives in with the FDIC insured deposits subsidiary and away from the Merrill unit.  The FDIC is apparently not into this but the FED thinks it is a good idea.  They are purposely putting a nuclear bomb in bed with customer deposits so they have a gun to the head of everyone again.  Aren’t you glad we bailed them out?  Read this http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-10-18/bofa-said-to-split-regulators-over-moving-merrill-derivatives-to-bank-unit.html and this http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/10/bank-of-america-deathwatch-moves-risky-derivatives-from-holding-company-to-taxpayer-backstopped-depositors.html.

No Solution Announced in Europe.  Why?
One of the most hilarious and disturbing things that has dominated market related news lately is the lack of any “solution” in Europe but rather commentary/rumors every other day about some master plan that is to be unveiled any moment.  Of course nothing is ever unveiled and then they say oh it will be “next week.”  It’s always next week.  Just like every bankrupt country on the planet is supposedly going to have miraculous budget surpluses in 2020.  They are lying folks.  No solution has been announced in Europe because there is no solution.  I think it is actually pretty simple.  The extent of the debt problem is so enormous when you include Italy (which you need to do as yields reach back up to 6% on the 10 year bond and people are getting violent in the streets) that any “solution” would have to be so huge and involve a lot of new money/credit creation in the Eurozone that it would pass the buck entirely to Germany and lead to extremely high inflation in the Eurozone.  This is why Germany rightly has not agreed to the bazooka approach that France and Tiny Timmy Geithner is trying to shove down their throats.  While things may not be great in Germany, I don’t think they want a situation where their people have a harder time eating than the Chinese.  That is what Americans have gotten as a reward for pulling out the bazooka in 2008 and bailing out the criminals at the government-ward banks.

Here is the other problem with the whole thing.  Germany seems to be pushing for greater private sector write downs on Greek debt.  The number floating around is 50%.  While this is the responsible thing to do it isn’t really workable as a “solution.”  Why?  Because why would ANY other nation ever perform austerity and agree to pay their debt burden after that?  They just saw that all you have to do is cheat and riot and the EU will give in because they will to do anything to save their precious little Euro project.  So if Greece gets away with not honoring its debts no nation will ever honor them and then you will either see the biggest chain reaction of debt default in human history or the biggest money printing episode since Zimbabwe.  This is completely binary and there are no good outcomes.  That is why nothing has been announced.  I still think the chance of Germany pulling itself out has a much higher probability than people realize.  To see some of the friction between Germany and France read this quick piece from yesterday http://www.cnn.com/2011/10/18/business/france-euro-summit/.

Life in a Looted United States of America
Let this message serve as a warning to Germany.  If you follow the path to mutually assured destruction with the rest of Europe you will end up with what we have here in America.  In a post looted America, the landscape is dominated by criminal oligarchs running around spouting lies via the media to the ignorant sheep.  You see states like Louisiana apparently banning cash for certain transactions  http://dailyreckoning.com/louisiana-law/.  You see Washington D.C., home of nothing productive or creative but rather a nest of immoral parasites take over as the highest household income from San Jose, home of companies like Apple and Cisco.  You have the only good news from our Nobel Peace Prize winner President this year being the murder of two people.  Osama Bin Laden (which I believe was a totally fake story) and now today Gadhafi.  Wow, America really is number 1.

This is how a nation descends from one of productivity and innovation to ruthless, corrupt feudalism in a very short period of time.  My message for Americans follows up from my email of two weeks ago.  The reason the liberal mainstream corporate media demonized the Tea Party is because it threatens the status quo.  The reason the conservative corporate mainstream media demonizes Occupy Wall Street is because it threatens the status quo.  These are textbook divide and conquer strategies being used on the American people.  Do not fall for it.  Yesterday I read a really interesting gallup poll that stated: “Not surprisingly, Americans who consider themselves supporters of the Occupy Wall Street movement (26% of all Americans) are more likely to blame Wall Street than the federal government for the nation's economic problems. Supporters of the Tea Party movement (22% of Americans) are overwhelmingly likely to blame the government.”  What is most compelling to me is that 26%+22% = 48% so basically almost a majority.  All we need to do is teach people that Washington D.C. and Wall Street are now the same corrupt entity.  They are one gigantic rogue trader sucking the lifeblood out of America.  If we can unite these forces, which I can say with certainty agree on the important issues, we can put an end to the status quo and free ourselves of this bondage.

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I really like statistics.  You have probably figured that out by now.  While they can be manipulated, see the inflation stats, they usually paint a very true picture.  For everyone who thought the bailout helped the American people, the numbers prove otherwise.  Here is the most recent example.

If you work hard, you can live a richer life than your parents did. That's the American Dream. But thanks to reckless government policy, that dream is in peril. The average individual has $1,315 less in disposable income than he or she did at beginning of the subprime crisis in 2008 – though the recession technically ended in mid-2009.

Per-capital disposal personal income peaked in spring 2008 at $33,794 of after-tax income. As of the second quarter of 2011, that's down to $32,479 – nearly a 4% drop.

The decrease in the standard of living reflects three main factors: Stagnant wages (real median income is down 9.8% since the beginning of the recession through June), falling net worth (home prices and investment portfolios are down), and inflation (consumer prices are up 3.25% since mid-2008). The largest of these three problems is the decline in real estate prices. Before the crisis, Americans could tap the equity of their home for extra cash. But since 2007, Americans' collective net worth has fallen $5.5 trillion – more than 8.6%, according to the Federal Reserve. Remember… this is a government-reported number, meaning the actual numbers likely far worse.

Currently, 64% of Americans worry they won't be able to meet their expenses at least some of the time, according to a survey completed in mid-September by the Marist Institute for Public Opinion. And of those surveyed, one-third say they have chronic financial problems.

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Now it's time to lighten up.  If you don't think gold is important, check out what this crazy Irishman did to come up with his own gold.


Man jailed after trying to turn feces into gold

A man from Northern Ireland has been jailed after an experiment in which he attempted to turn his own feces into gold went wrong and started a fire in a block of flats.

Paul Moran will now serve three months in jail and a further 12 months on license after the failed experiment caused a fire at his Housing Executive home in Derrin Park, Enniskillen.

Moran admitted arson and endangering the lives of others in the fire, which reportedly caused over £3,000 worth of damage.

It is thought that as part of the bizarre experiment Moran left his faeces, along with other waste products such as fertiliser, on a heater.

In his ruling Judge McFarland told Moran: “Rather bizarrely you were attempting to make gold from human faeces and waste products.

“It was an interesting experiment to fulfil the alchemist’s dream, but wasn’t going to succeed.”

Moran’s barrister mentioned that his client was a man of ‘considerable intellectual ability’ but that he had problems battling drug abuse.

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My generation grew up on the movie, The Goonies.  Chunk was the funniest character, in my opinion.  I have a friend who even calls his fantasy football team, The Truffle Shuffle.  This was Chunk's signature dance.

Well it turns out, Chunk founded his own firm in 2002.  His real name is Jeff Cohen.  He wrote an artcile for CNBC the other day.  You can read it here.

He doesn't look like Chunk anymore.  People can change, no way I would have recognized him.

 

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I'm sure everyone has their own memories of red solo cup.  We used them for pong games in college.  Probably not our finest hour, but it sure was fun at the time.  Here is Toby Keith in his ode to Red Solo Cups.

 

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The Hogs take on our former coach, Houston ClownShoes Nutt, this weekend.  This was the moment I realized he had to go.  We had just barely beat the worst team in our division.  I calling it Hogs 38 - Hooty's Bears 14.

Irrational Markets

"Sometimes the market can remain irrational longer than you can remain liquid." - Warren Buffett

This is what I think of when I look at metal/mining stocks.  Some of them are trading at multi-year lows while their underlying metals have more than doubled.  I wish I had a better reason to explain it.  I think it's manipulation, plain and simple.  In this current market, if you fall out of favor, you get hammered.  Fundamentals don't really matter.  However, I will use another Buffett quote to how I am looking at these investments.
"I never attempt to make money on the stock market. I buy on the assumption that they could close the market the next day and not reopen it for five years.  If the business does well, the stock eventually follows."
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This leads me to this daily discussion about Europe.  How do you think they are going to get out of this mess?  PRINT MONEY!  They aren't suddenly going to find a way to bring in more revenues.  Here is some info from Stansberry Research.  It was written a month ago.

[T]he European situation is still deteriorating daily. Late yesterday, Standard & Poor's downgraded Italy's credit rating from single-A-plus to single-A. And the agency maintained a negative outlook on the debt. On cue, the European Central Bank stepped into the market today to buy Italian bonds. (It's been buying Spanish and Italian debt for weeks.) The yield on 10-year Italian government debt dropped to 5.603% in early trading today, down from an earlier high of 5.67%. Despite the government intervention, credit default swaps on Italian government debts are at all-time highs.

There's simply no way Italy can finance its debts… It must refinance 192 billion euro this year, 168 billion euro next year, and another 100 billion euro in 2013. Italy is the world's third-largest sovereign borrower with public debt of 1.7 trillion euro. And it runs a 3.9% annual GDP deficit. While it's not as far gone as Greece, Italy's time is nigh… And the ECB will continue pumping cash to delay the problems. That's why we're still bullish on gold and silver (and hedging our portfolio with short sales) 

There were multiple downgrades on debt about the same time this was written.  As we all know, once the downgrades come, it's already to late.

Yesterday, Germany tried to sell 5 billion euros worth of bonds, but only received 4.5 billion in bids.  The market is worried and it should be.  The bailout of the Euro falls squarely on Germany.  They are the only ones with any money left.  You know where it falls next?  The US Federal Reserve...
 
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We should all be rooting for the Cardinals.  Every time the Cardinals have won the World Series, the market has been up an average of 13% the next calendar year.  That's better than any other team in baseball.

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This is wild.  They couldn't live without each other.

Married Couple of 72 Years Die an Hour Apart


On the day she graduated from high school, Norma Stock promised to spend forever with Gordon Yeager. The couple got married on May 26, 1939 in State Center.
"They're very old-fashioned. They believed in marriage til death do you part," said son Dennis Yeager.Dennis Yeager was the youngest of four children born to the couple. His sister Donna was first born."Staying together for 72 years is good, I'd say that's exceptional," said daughter Donna Sheets.The way the kids tell it, dad was the life of the party while mom kept everything together.

Yeager Family

"Anybody come over -- she was the hostess with the mostest. She just seriously -- the more she did -- the more she smiled," said Dennis Yeager. "Dad would be the center of attention, like, 'Weee look at me,' and mom was like 'get him away from me!' You know we even got a picture like that." (picture, right)Norma didn't really want the distance, and family said she hardly left Gordon's side for 72 years."They just loved being together. Everybody argues once in awhile, but they still, he said 'I have to stick around. I can't go until she does because I have to stay here for her and she would say the same thing,'" said Dennis Yeager.Dennis Yeager said the couple left home last Wednesday to go into town, but they didn't make it.At the intersection of Highway 30 and Jessup Avenue just west of Marshalltown, state troopers said Gordon pulled in front of an oncoming car. The Iowa State Patrol crash report said the other driver attempted to avoid the crash but was unable to stop in time."I rushed from Des Moines where I was working and saw them in the hospital," said Dennis Yeager.

Yeager Family

In the intensive care unit of Marshalltown's hospital, nurses knew not to separate Gordon and Norma."They brought them in the same room in intensive care and put them together -- and they were holding hands in ICU. They were not really responsive," said Dennis Yeager.Gordon died at 3:38 p.m. holding hands with his wife as the family they built surrounded them."It was really strange, they were holding hands, and dad stopped breathing but I couldn't figure out what was going on because the heart monitor was still going," said Dennis Yeager. "But we were like, he isn't breathing. How does he still have a heart beat? The nurse checked and said that's because they were holding hands and it's going through them. Her heart was beating through him and picking it up.""They were still getting her heartbeat through him," said Donna Sheets.At 4:38 p.m., exactly one hour after Gordon died, Norma passed too.

Yeager Family

"Neither one of them would've wanted to be without each other. I couldn't figure out how it was going to work," said Donna Sheets. "We were very blessed, honestly, that they went this way.""They just loved being together," said Dennis Yeager.At their funeral on Monday, Norma and Gordon held hands in their casket. Family said they will be cremated and their ashes mixed together.

 

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Unemployment numbers don't really factor in the underemployed.  

26 Million Americans are Underemployed

While the number of unemployed workers has held steady at around 14 million in recent months, another telling measure of frustration in the labor market—the number of underemployed individuals—rose for a third consecutive month in September, by almost a half of a million people. Almost 9.3 million Americans are considered underemployed, defined by the Bureau of Labor Statistics as working part-time for economic reasons, such as unfavorable business conditions or seasonal declines in demand.
That's up from just over 8 million in July, but down from a peak of about 9.5 million in September 2010. In addition, about 2.5 million individuals are considered "marginally attached to the labor force," meaning they were not in the labor force, wanted and were available for work, and looked for a job sometime in the prior 12 months. (They are not counted as unemployed because they had not looked for a job in the past four weeks prior to the survey.)
Put together, almost 26 million Americans are either unemployed, marginally attached to the labor force, or involuntarily working part-time—a number experts say is unprecedented.

Earnings Season

Earnings are dominating the headlines this morning.  So there isn't much other news.  China's inflation is still cruising along.  Euro is still broke and it looks like they are going to continue to drag out their "fix".  For some reason, Gold and Silver are correlated with equities, which is not the norm.  That should remedy itself in the medium to long term.

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More stimulus coming to the jobs bill


Despite the failure of President Obama’s jobs bill in the Senate last week, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Monday that Senate Democrats will continue to “pursue” $30 billion in education stimulus spending included in the bill, along with $5 billion to “retain” police, firefighters and first responders.


“State and local budget cuts could cost as many as 280,000 teacher jobs next year unless we do more,” Reid said on the Senate floor. “That’s why President Obama proposed we invest $30 billion as part of the American Jobs Act to keep our schools well-staffed to ensure our children are well-educated.”
“Democrats will pursue the President’s plan to keep nearly 400,000 teachers and support staff where they belong — in the classroom. A $30 billion investment, fully paid for, will help school districts not only avoid layoffs, but also rehire tens of thousands of teachers who have already lost their jobs because of budget cuts.”
“We will also commit $5 billion to retaining the police, firefighters and first responders who work so hard to keep our communities safe,” Reid continued, ”and to rehiring those who have already been laid off in these tough economic times.”

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The human race doesn't really surprise me anymore, but this was real close.

Drunk Dad Let's 9 Year Old Drive Van

A father, suspected of being intoxicated, was arrested after police found his 9-year-old daughter behind the wheel of his GMC van being driven on King Road near Dean.

A motorist called police at about 2:45 a.m. Oct. 8 and said he believed he had seen a child driving a van and it looked like the passenger was intoxicated.

According to police, the motorist followed the van from a gas station at Telegraph and West roads to Beech Daly and King roads.

The witness stayed on the telephone with a dispatcher until an officer arrived.

The child could be seen driving the van, with the father in the passenger’s seat, police said.

After an officer activated his overhead lights, the van was stopped and the father jumped out, according to police.

By the time the officer approached the van, the girl was in the passenger’s seat.

The officer asked the girl why she was driving the van, and she said her father always lets her drive, the report said.

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I'm glad the TSA is around to keep us safe...

The son of Los Angeles’ former fire chief, Millage Peaks, has been arrested for allegedly bribing a TSA agent to help him smuggle marijuana on board a flight.
Authorities arrested Millage Peaks Jr., 23, Sunday morning on charges of smuggling 10-15 pounds of pot on a flight from Los Angeles International Airport to Boston.
“It’s a fair amount. I think it was purchased for about $38,000 and was gonna be resold for some amount greater than that,” said Robert Little, Peaks’ attorney.
Peaks Jr. admitted he bribed a TSA agent, Dianna Perez, to let his suitcase go through security screening for an American Airlines flight. He and Perez also said that they had worked together before and that several thousands of dollars had exchanged hands.
Perez, 28, was also arrested. She was charged with accepting the alleged bribe.
Peaks Jr. has been charged with bribing a public official, according to the FBI.
The arrest came when the suitcase was searched after other baggage handlers smelled marijuana.
According to the FBI affidavit, “Peaks had arranged for Perez to help him move bags containing marijuana through airport security for a fee. He intended to pay Perez $500 for each bag that she helped bypass security.”
The FBI affidavit said Peaks claimed Perez had helped him “circumvent security nine previous times.”
Officials said Perez had denied everything at first, but later admitted to taking “big tips” for helping bags bypass security in the past.
Peaks’ father, as well as his sister, who is an LAX officer, said they did not know he was selling drugs.
“I can’t say he’s been very cooperative with law enforcement, with me, and with the process and it’s part of the reason he’s bonding out within the next few hours,” said Little.

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I pulled this from the Goldman Sachs Earnings release posted on ZeroHedge.

In a nutshell: for the first time in probably since the Lehman crisis, Goldman reported a massive loss in its prop trading division of $2.5 billion, and also based on LTM accured comp benefits and the total staff at period end of 34,200, average compensation amounted to $358,713/employee.

WOW!

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And for the Bizarre of the Day, a guy in a wingsuit.  I'm not sure why anyone would try this.

Capital Bankruptcy

This will be my last post for the week.  I'm out of the office tomorrow.

The first major city has filed for bankruptcy.  I have a bad feeling there will be many more.

Harrisburg, PA Files For Bankruptcy

Pennsylvania's capital city voted to file for Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection on Tuesday as it faced a state takeover, according to media reports.
The City Council voted 4-3 to seek bankruptcy protection for Harrisburg, which has a debt burden five times its general-fund budget "because of an overhaul and expansion of a trash-to-energy incinerator that doesn’t generate enough revenue," Bloomberg Businessweek reported.
The bankruptcy means the city will lose state aid, but that is better than the proposed recovery plans, Councilwoman Susan Brown-Wilson said, according to Bloomberg. But State Sen. Jeffrey Piccola, a Republican from Dauphin County, where Harrisburg is located, said the council's vote is against the law.
“I have been on the record as saying that bankruptcy is simply not an option. It’s illegal under Pennsylvania law, which prohibits third class cities from filing for bankruptcy,” Piccola said, according to PennLive.com.
Patty Kim, who voted against bankrupcy protection, said the city cannot afford the high cost of litigation that will likely ensue.
“The problem still exists that we still don’t have money, and we still haven’t moved one foot forward,” Kim said.

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Here is Central Planning at it's finest.  Another reason why we need to get these corrupt SOBs out of Washington.  I copied in my favorite part, but read the whole article.

Pelosi's Brother-in-Law receives Govt Funds 


The shocking scale of spending Solyndra  lavished on the factory it started building alongside Interstate 880 in Fremont, California, has been revealed.

When it was completed at an estimated cost of $733 million, including proceeds from the company's $535 million U.S. loan guarantee, it covered 300,000 sq ft, the equivalent of five football fields.

It had robots that whistled Disney tunes, spa-like showers with liquid-crystal displays of the water temperature, and glass-walled conference rooms.

John Pierce, 54, a San Jose resident who worked as a facilities manager at Solyndra, said: 'The new building is like the Taj Mahal.'

Designed to make far more solar panels than Solyndra got orders for, the site is now empty and U.S. taxpayers may be stuck with it.

Solyndra filed for bankruptcy protection on September 6, leaving in its wake investigations by Congress and the FBI.


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Dang Corn Mazes!


Couple Gets Lost in Maze, Call Police

Getting lost in a corn maze is supposed to be fun.
But it turned into a nightmare for a Massachusetts couple who got so turned around that they had to be rescued by the police.
It all started late Monday afternoon, when the couple entered a corn maze at Connors Farm in Danvers, Mass., about 23 miles north of Boston.
After about an hour in the maze, darkness began to fall. The couple, who were there with their 3-week-old baby, could not find a way out. As the mosquitoes started to descend, they placed a desperate call to 911 asking to be rescued.
The Danvers police released audio of the call. Here’s an edited transcript:
Woman in tears: "Hi, I just called. I’m still stuck at Connors Farms. I don’t see anybody. I’m really scared. It’s really dark and we’ve got a 3-week-old."
Police officer: "Your husband is with you?"
Woman: "Yes. But my baby..."
Police officer: "A police officer is on the way. Can you put your husband on the phone?"
Husband: "I see lights over there at the place, but we can’t get there, we’re smack right in the middle of the cornfield."
Woman: "I don’t know what made us do this. It was daytime when we came in. We thought if we came in someone would come in and find us... We can hear (the police officers) ... Oh, my goodness. The mosquitoes are eating us alive, and I never took my daughter out, this is the first time. Never again."
Woman: "This is embarrassing."
By the end of the seven-minute call, a K-9 unit had found the couple.
Kamille Combs, marketing director for the Utah-based company the Maize, which designed the Connors Farm maze, said the company’s average corn maze is 8 to 10 acres and it takes the average person 45 minutes to complete the maze.
She said the company usually breaks its mazes into three different phases "because some people want that ultimate challenge, and others are happy after 20 minutes."

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Ok so I'll actually post some economic news.  Jobless claims were out this morning.

Jobless Claims 1K "Better" Than Expected 405K, To Be Revised To "Miss" Next Week; Record Trade Deficit With China

In today's weekly dose of BS from the BLS, we get the previous week's massive beat of 401K revised to 405K, cutting the 410K estimate beat in half. But what is important is that the expectation for this week of 405K was massive beaten by a whopping 1K at 404K. Of course, next week this number will be revised to 408K meaning the consensus was missed but no robots will care. As for the non-noise, non seasonally adjusted claims soared by 66,442 in the week from 332,394 to 398,836. Spin cycle to commence imminently. In some modestly good news, the "cliffers", those on EUCs and Extended benefits, which have declined by 1.3 million in the prior year, increased modestly by 2K, meaning those playing Xbox and collecting benefits actually rose for the week. In other news, the Trade Balance came in line with expectations, at a deficit of 45.6 billion. However, last month's number which gave all the banks hope that Q3 GDP was going to be a whopping beat and got so many Lemmings to re-revise their GDP forecast higher, was reduced from -44.8 billion to -45.6 billion, meaning Q3 GDP is right back down where it belongs. Most notably, the Chinese trade deficit hit a politically convenient record, increasing from $27.0 billion in July to $29.0 billion in August. Exports increased $0.2 billion (primarily soybeans, fish and shellfish, and nonferrous metals) to $8.4 billion, while imports increased $2.2 billion (primarily other household goods and toys, games, and sporting goods) to $37.4 billion. Expect Chuck Schumer's head to explode in 5...4...3...
A (not so) pretty picture:

 

Hump Day

It's the middle of the week and still the financial news is dominated with Europe.  I don't like to stereotype, but I really think Europeans must be insane.  The US looks stable as a rock compared to these nutjobs.  They will say anything to keep the blame of themselves.  Here is Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi's reason for volatile markets in Europe.  They are all coked-up!

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's Undersecretary Carlo Giovanardi said the government will study if it's feasible to conduct drug tests on stock-exchange traders, with the help of the Milan Bourse and the country's market regulator. Giovanardi, who is in charge of family policy and drug prevention, said that the abuse of drugs including cocaine might explain part of recent stock volatility.

You would have to be on drugs to think these guys have any idea of what they are doing.

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It's hump day and I found 2 stories about a couple real screw jobs.  First, I think I would flip if I was told I couldn't build a tree house for my kids, ON MY PROPERTY.  Heck, I wish I could build one that looked this good.

Treehouse Faces Demolition

FALLS CHURCH, Va. - It seemed like a great idea -- build a treehouse on his property for two growing boys. But for one local man, it's turning into a big, expensive lesson in government red tape.

Mark Grapin thought his two sons would love the treehouse.

He called Fairfax County before starting to find out the rules for the Broyhill Park neighborhood in the Falls Church area of the county.

"The guy in building permits laughed me off the phone," Grapin says. He was told it's a treehouse and not built to any code.

So Grapin went to the local home improvement store, bought $1,400 worth of supplies and spent six weekends building the treehouse.

It has red clapboard siding, shingles, a slide, a pull-down ladder, two climbing ropes, closed windows and shutters.

It is wrapped around the tree but stands free, not touching the tree. It stands to the side of his house.

Grapin says his immediate neighbors had no complaints, but someone did complain anonymously to Fairfax County.

Grapin was told he had to treat it like an addition to his house and get a zoning variance. He spent more than $1,800 getting the proper forms and going through a hearing.

The home sits on a corner lot and Zoning Board Chairman John Ribble says that means what Grapin thought was a side lot is actually the front lot.

The variance was rejected.

Grapin says he has an appeal scheduled for Nov. 30, but if he loses that he will have to remove the treehouse.

"I don't have the heart for it," he says. "I'm gonna go pay some day laborers and hide in the house while they take a saw to it."

If that happens, what will he tell his kids?

"Daddy makes mistakes. We tried our best. I made a mistake by not knowing enough."

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The second story is literally a "screw job".  You know this guy is bragging to all his friends about it.

"Mind Blowing" Sex Can Wipe Your Memory Clean

A 54-year-old woman showed up in the emergency room at Georgetown University Hospital with her husband, unable to remember the past 24 hours. Her newer memories were hazy, too. One thing she did recall: Her amnesia had started right after having sex with her husband just an hour before.

While sex can be forgettable or mind-blowing, for some people, it can quite literally be both at the same time. The woman, whose case was reported in the September issue of The Journal of Emergency Medicine, was experiencing transient global amnesia, a rare condition in which memory suddenly, temporarily, disappears.

People with transient global amnesia suffer no side effects, and the memory problems usually reverse themselves in the span of a few hours. It's a rare condition, affecting only about 3 to 5 people per 100,000 each year. But what makes transient global amnesia so eerie is that researchers aren't sure what causes it, or why patients remain otherwise chatty and alert while missing large chunks of their memories.

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Now that I got that out of the way, here is a way some of you could make some money.  I can't give recommendations on how to take advantage of this move on the blog, but I can if you contact me.  This is from Stansberry Research.

And today, Jeff sent an update saying, "Let's buy some more gold." One of Jeff's favorite indicators for the gold market just reversed from "extreme oversold" conditions, creating a buy signal. This is just the third gold-sector buy signal in the past two years…

The last two times this buy signal flashed, The Gold Bugs Index (HUI) rallied 15% in one month. Take a look at the chart:



Now, Jeff's indicator is more oversold than it was on either of the previous occasions. And he expects an even bigger rally this time around.

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Lastly, here is a look ahead to today's trading.  Earnings season kicked off with Alcoa.  Hopefully, most companies will have better news than they did.

Bumpy Start To Earnings Season

If Alcoa is an indication, the earnings season could be off to a rocky start.

Pepsi [PEP  60.95     -0.92  (-1.49%)       ] is up next when it reports Wednesday morning, and traders are nervously awaiting banking giant J.P. Morgan's [JPM  32.30  ---  UNCH        ] results Thursday.

"I really think the corporate picture might even supplant the European story for the short term...For the next couple of weeks, we might see more of a focus by traders on corporate earnings," even in the bond market, said Abdullah Karatash, head of the U.S. fixed income credit trading at Natixis.

Markets have been hanging on every development in Europe's sovereign debt crisis, but now traders are looking to U.S. company forecasts to see how much a weakening Europe and the hit to confidence might affect corporate profits and the U.S. economy.

"The corporate story will give a little more clarity. Up until now, the European story has been somewhat opaque. I think clarity is lacking in the market," he said.


"Frozen by Fear"

Alcoa kicked off the earnings season Tuesday on a weak note that could spook investors. Its stock fell more than 5 percent in late trading, after it reported profits of $0.15 per share, below the $0.22 expected by analysts. Revenues increased to $6.42 billion from $5.28 billion. The company blamed its miss on lower metal prices, seasonal factors, but also softness in Europe.

Alcoa [AA  10.30     0.21  (+2.08%)       ] CEO Klaus Kleinfeld, in an interview on CNBC said the "world is frozen by fear and (it is) cooling down growth. It almost feels like we're worrying ourselves into another recession."  He said the fear can be seen in the increase in speculative short selling in Alcoa and other commodities companies' shares.

But he also stressed things are better than they were in the financial crisis and he called Alcoa a "confident company in a very nervous world."

Alcoa affirmed its forecast of a growth rate of 12 percent for global aluminum demand for 2011 and said that it expects demand to double by 2020. Alcoa's earnings report hurt sentiment in Asia, where Tokyo stocks were trading lower early Wednesday morning. U.S. stock futures were also lower in Tuesday evening trading, after stocks traded quietly in Tuesday's session. The Dow finished down 16 at 11,416, and the S&P 500 was up less than a point at 1195.

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Those Europeans do make good commercials though.