'I'm basing this on one, and only one, criteria – the rate of acquisition of new accounts is slowing. That's all I need to know and it should be all you need to know – the company filed the S-1 as soon as they detected this slowdown in December. In addition participation is narrowing; there were 1.74 users monthly per daily user in 2011, but 1.86 a year prior. These are potential signs of leveling off. The company identifies no particular need for the capital; it has cash. This strongly implies that the only reason to IPO is for the insiders to monetize their position.'

'Was this all the "free market" at work? Absolutely not! Here’s the question when you get down to it: Do you want to fix this or not? If you do then the demand is not for “single-payer health care” or “free college educations” or “debt forgiveness.” Those demands, if you succeed in obtaining them, will make the problem worse. You will become more of a slave through those demands, not less. The demand you must issue is that all the special protections that are currently afforded by government are to be dropped. The government props under home lending are taken away. The government mandates that people be treated medically irrespective of ability to pay and are able to cost-shift their care to others go away. The non-dischargable nature of student loan debt goes away. You can’t fix this any other way folks. I am well-aware that this goes against the grain of “I need it right damn now” that has imbued our society, but mathematics simply doesn’t care about whether you agree or disagree. It just is.'

'Germany is rumored to have ordered printing plates to resume printing Marks, and is intending to walk. ...playing the bailout game is a tax exactly identical to the impact of that stronger currency, and the bailout game costs you the decision-making power you retain when you are the one in control of your own destiny. The German people are tired of the crap and with good reason. There is a political limit to how far you can go with these acts before the people act in whatever manner is necessary to put a stop to it, and the Germans have a long and painful history of what popular tolerance of political stupidity leads to. Whether Germany actually goes ahead and does it likely depends on whether there is a further contagion - and I think there will be. ...I have a nasty suspicion that Europe will ultimately "resolve" this problem the way Europe has in the past - via the business end of a bunch of hot lead-chuckers.'

'There is no escaping the arithmetic.' -- Left + Right = Collapse

'Remember, Wikileaks was supposed to release a big "bank leak" before the end of January. This was the promise and claim. One has to wonder - was there some insider trading going on? Trading on a rumor you yourself create, or by confederates?' -- Mmhmm

'@Wikileaks Liar liar panties on fire: Where's the bank leak you FRAUD? Assange: Go to prison and rot in Hell you disinformation conduit.'

'You like being sheep? Government property? Your own children no longer have a right to be with you because some TSA goon wants to get cute and play God? Now here's the kicker. Look at the date on the original story. It's more than a year old. Yep. Congratulations America - it took being grabbed in the nuts to get you pissed - some "faceless" woman having her baby stolen wasn't enough.'

'The TSA is not going to do sex to me.'

What have you bought into; how much will it cost to buy you out?

'Does America want "Tea"? No: America wants JUSTICE. And we're hearing nothing about justice. Both political parties are equally-guilty in the **** of this nation's citizens. You have been stripped to the bone. The evidence is right in front of you. Since the "corporatists" took over the Tea Party, starting with their bull**** invasion funded by the Kochs and the Palin clan, there has not been one word from ANY of them about bank fraud, wire fraud, corporate executives, Federal Reserve Chairmen and Treasury Secretaries STEALING the wealth of Americans. NOT ONE TIME HAVE YOU HEARD "STOP THE LOOTING AND START PROSECUTING" - OR ANYTHING THAT CAN BE REASONABLY CONSTRUED AS EXPRESSING THAT SENTIMENT. Instead we are back to the same old crap that was run during the 2000 decade when Bush and Gore, and then Bush and Kerry were at it in their respective races: Guns, Gays and God. Wake the hell up America! You're being lied to.'

'...homes being literally stolen, bank employees breaking into occupied dwellings to change the locks on houses they had not yet foreclosed on, multiple sales of the same property, improper foreclosures on houses where there was no mortgage at all, service of process that never happened and was attested to, literal forgery of court documents (e.g. process service filed that pre-dated the lawsuit itself) and other outrages. If this is not stopped immediately there is every reason to believe that the people of this nation will come to the conclusion that the bedrock of society—private property ownership—has been intentionally destroyed by a band of brigands with the explicit cooperation and permission of the government. Should that conclusion be reached - that our government has conspired with private parties to expropriate the homes of the citizens—history says that the outcome is likely to be extremely unpleasant and irreversible. We are running out of time to do the right thing.'

'That so-called "trust fund" is a fraud. It does not exist. Here's what actually happens (and Krugman knows this, which makes him a damned liar besides): #Your tax dollars go to Treasury. #Treasury keeps them and issues "special" Treasury bonds to the Social Security "trust fund." #Treasury counts these tax receipts against the federal deficit, making it look (much, until the last year) smaller than it really is. Note the slight-of-hand here. Social Security gets an alleged "bond" but they can't sell it to anyone but the Treasury. That is, legally it is an IOU, not a bond. The problem is that Treasury spent the money and thus doesn't have anything with which to redeem the IOUs! So in order to redeem these alleged "bonds" Treasury will have to sell more bonds - this time to the general public (foreign governments, people, etc) who have actual capital surplus, because Treasury doesn't - it blew that surplus on social spending programs right here and now.' -- Ponzi is as ponzi does

'Gee, you think the market is crooked? This is a video that should go VIRAL and be posted EVERYWHERE.' -- A bot-mediated reality.

'It's unlawful to enter an order into a securities market for the purpose of attempting to manipulate the price - that is, to express other than a genuine intent to buy or sell. It happens every day. But tonight, it's especially blatant, so I captured it and present it here for you.'

'Hope you're ready... the market is rhyming with the 2007 top. Beware.' -- ALGORITHMIC TRADING IS ALGORITHMIC

'Now I have seen it all - "inflation is the solution to all problems" Pritchard has officially capitulated in print! "Personally, I have changed my mind on Greece. My initial reaction earlier this year was that it had to be saved to avoid a sovereign Lehman. Many posters on this blog cried “shame”, saying it was just another moral hazard rescue for bankers. They were right. I flagellate myself and wear a dunce’s hat." -- My God, one of the chief money-printing apologists for the world has finally woken up and discerned that it won't work because it mathematically can't! Here's reality folks - despite the "monetarist" view that nations can spend whatever they wish by borrowing it and "deficits don't matter", in point of fact they do matter. Eventually people discern that you're unlikely to pay in full and the interest rate demanded goes up.'

'I've said for a long time that one of the reasons our consumer spending numbers have been "reasonably good" the last six months or so - and have been improving - is that people haven't been paying their mortgages. We have a new bubble ladies and gentlemen, and this one is the alleged "consumer recovery" coupled with the alleged "banking system recovery." Both are bogus, yet both are also intertwined; banks not foreclosing for more than a year, allowing people to live free in a house, gives the consumer faux spending power and at the same time enables the bank to claim "assets values" that in fact don't exist. As with all such deceptions and the economic bubbles they produce this game will continue until either the outright fraud is stopped by regulators or a cash flow shortfall forces recognition of the deception. The damage when this unwinds, if it is not contained now by regulatory force, is going to be horrific.'

'That's a 3-month yield of about 15% - an inversion that says that Greece blows to beyond the orbit of Mars within the next 90 days. If there's any validity to this they're done, probably this weekend or some time next week, when they have an auction they have to roll. Everyone who has bought their recent auctions has been trashed within days, with yields backing up almost immediately. That is, people have been railroaded into dramatically overpaying as a consequence of jawboned "confidence measures" that in point of fact are not worth a warm bucket of spit. Greece needs to pull out of the Euro now and take the hit. PPS: Bloomberg is apparently reporting news of a bailout. Just remember that the media has reported this "news" continually for the last month and yet no bailout has materialized. That's because if they do, Spain and Portugal is right behind Greece, shortly followed by Ireland and Italy. There is no capacity, irrespective of political will, to bail them all out.'

'Note that Greece's deficit this year as a percentage of GDP is about equal to ours in the United States. Washington, listen up - our debt ratios may look "better", but only barely and only because you're holding a bunch of stuff off-balance sheet (that is, you're lying.) Greece was lying too - to the EU, to themselves, to investors. When they got outed, this was the result. How long before someone bangs the drum on America?'

'If repos are being yanked from Greek banks they're finished. This is the overnight lending market and that, coupled with depositor runs (which, as soon as Greeks figure this out, will accelerate dramatically) will drive a stake through the heart of these institutions. The simple fact of the matter is that Greece, like Lehman and Bear, came out into the market and lied about both their position and ability to manage what was going on. The lies of past years become the inevitable consequences of the present time. We won't learn anything from this, will we? We won't stomp on the banks here that are right now, today, lying about THEIR asset quality and values, will we?'

'The clue-stick coming to whack these folks upside the head just as did the people who said "I don't have to worry about putting gas in my car or paying my mortgage!" will lead to some rather extreme emotions, I suspect, when the truth becomes apparent.'

'The fine is 1/5th or less the cost of the "insurance." Screw the government. They are the ones who set the standards - we simply have to live with them, and this is the only logical action to take given what they have just done. Is there a risk in this strategy? Sure. You could have a "zero notice" catastrophe before you (or someone with a power of attorney) could buy a policy. So you have to be able to survive that sort of "short-term" event - but remember, you're going to be banking $10-20k per person during the time you're running "naked." This, by the way, will bankrupt the insurance companies in the end. ...this is the end of the health industry in America... The intention of The Democrats (and liberals generally) in this legislation is clear and impossible to hide - they intend to completely destroy private health care in favor of a fully-government-run single-payer system. The efficient market guarantees this outcome given the law they passed, and they know it.'

'Politics must give way to mathematics. The Truth is that we now require about $5 of debt to generate $1 of GDP. To halt this process we must take the following actions now: ... '

'And surprise-surprise, it has nothing to do with the Euro - it is, once again, to bail out bad speculative bets made by banks: "If the country is not stabilised, the next problem will be the banks," Ackermann [Deutsche, CEO] adding that German banks had "billions in the fire." So once again we have banksters literally putting a gun to government heads and threatening them. When does this stop? It's not like Deutsche Bank (and the rest) didn't know Greece was cooking their books and holding debt off balance sheet! They sold them the swaps to enable the deception! These banksters knew damn well that the nation was in trouble long before there was any public notice of it. So why were they buying Greece's debt? Why didn't they sell it? Why are they stuck with it? Is it because their intention was to shove a gun up the nose of the governments in the Euro Zone - just as our banks did here - and threaten to shoot unless they get bailed out?' -- Classic Tiger Kidnapping scheme.

'...despite record incentives (such as the "homebuyer tax credit" and similar games) there are simply no more people who are willing and able to gorge themselves on more debt. The cash-out refinance is dead, as there's no equity to extract. The use of the home as an ATM machine powered the last "expansion" in our economy, but that was a false expansion - it was not made up of production increases and general wealth, but rather with debt. There are millions of Mikes who have been seduced by the dark side of credit and then serially abused by the banksters and their minions. Until the market clears these moribund consumers' debt from the system, an act that can only occur two ways (through the passage of the aforementioned forty years - or bankruptcy of both borrower and lender) we cannot have sustainable economic recovery. Our government has committed itself to the balance sheet lies and screwing Mike - as many times and as roughly as they can get away with.'

"A Republic, if you can keep it." -- Benjamin Franklin

'As early as July 31st it appears Citibank knew that Lehman in fact had no cash - nor any liquid collateral to post for repo transactions. Lehman was functionally bankrupt at that particular instant in time. It was trying to post less than $4 billion in collateral and couldn't come up with anything acceptable. Would you press a short bet knowing this? You damn sure would. Indeed, you'd be insane not to. -- By allowing this trash to remain on balance sheets with fantasy marks FASB and our government has set up a potential Lehman in every one of our large financial institutions. How long will it be before the next large financial institution goes to post a repo and has no good collateral? I have no idea. If we have another Lehman, we won't be able to cover it. The cost of a disorderly event will easily exceed $1.5 trillion for depositor claims alone, and we simply don't have the money and won't be able to raise it.'

'...the so-called "stimluls" didn't do much in the US. Why not? It stimulated China! In point of fact, that 1603 "green" recovery act stuff has, thus far, diverted eight out of ten dollars outside of the United States. This belies the real issue that underlies all of this.' -- Creditors get paid back first. -- 'We've offshored our production, by and large, to places like China. What has replaced these jobs are positions in finance, which is a parasitic enterprise... Such a shift is inherently destabilizing. We made up for it by running our credit cards to the moon, both figuratively and literally. The error in Krugman's analysis is that he believes that all this "pump priming" will do the job and the economy will recover, allowing us to pay back what he avers is an effective loan. My question to Paul and all those like him: How? The liberals are always quick to pull out the national credit card. They've been doing so for the last 30 years.'

'Public sector employees are inherently parasites. It cannot be otherwise. The policeman, fireman and teacher do not directly produce anything. Their employment and the wages and benefits they can collect must therefore inexorably track the actual productive output of the nation. -- You cannot continually offshore your better-paying labor to China for the purpose of being able to have a $30 DVD player, destroying the $40/hour skilled job base and replacing it with $7/hour burger flippers and espresso-shot-pullers, and maintain the ability to commit compound annual growth rates of 5, 6, 7% or more to public-sector employees. Doing so inevitably destroys the tax base necessary to meet those commitments, and once the destruction has occurred it cannot be un-done. You cannot falsely-report "growth" that is in fact no such thing, but rather is simply the addition of more debt, thereby creating false demand that never existed on an organic basis, and continue this process forever.'

'The implication is that if one has inflation then the repayment of debts is "easier". But as I will explore and explain here, that premise is dangerously false. -- Let's assume that Joe has $5,000 in credit-card debt. He makes $30,000 a year. Bernanke "decides" he is going to implement a policy of debasing the currency by 5% to try to "help" the economy by making it easier to pay debts. What happens to Joe? Joe's employer makes widgets. These widgets have raw materials, energy and labor as inputs and are sold on the marketplace. When Ben implements his policy the single-dimensional view of the world is by devaluing the currency by 5% means that Joe now "makes" $31,500 a year instead of $30,000, and thus has an "extra" $1,500 to make his debt payments with. But that sort of single-dimensional view is in fact wrong! When Bernanke implements his policy the following things happen: ...' -- That which is not seen

'...we fail to teach the fact that any time two or more exponents are in play, one of them always "runs away" from the other. We fail to teach the fundamental truth that you can never let this happen. Anywhere. Because if you do, it is simply a matter of time before wherever you let that happen with comes to ruin. -- ...[they] do not teach our children that such a pattern in the growth of government, in the growth of money, in the growth of energy consumption, in the growth of population - all will eventually lead to the same ruin and for the same reason. Why do they fail in this regard? I'll tell you why. Because if they didn't our teens - our high school graduates - might literally be rioting in the streets and burning those school boards and governments to the ground. They would raise hell, and in doing so would be both justified and appropriate in their actions.' -- "Pull it."

'Max Keiser and co-host Stacy Herbert report on the scandals of George Soros and the IMF shaking out the gold market; US bank lending falling at the fastest rate in recorded history; and the trickle up unemployment pyramid. Keiser also speaks to The Market Ticker's Karl Denninger about CDOs, synthetic CDOs and hiding Greek debt.'

IRS Kamikaze? -- 'CNBS is reporting that there is "no indication that this was an act of terrorism or otherwise intentional." Oh really? Then how come CNBC is claiming on-air that the man involved set fire to his own house first? Oh, and Fox News just stated that the name of the pilot was.... Mr. Joe Stack. Uh.... what's this? >> "I am finally ready to stop this insanity. Well, Mr. Big Brother IRS man, let’s try something different; take my pound of flesh and sleep well." << Eek. That's a homicide note folks, as distinct from a suicide note in that he has declared that the acts to follow are intended to kill others. Let me make myself clear: this sort of "political statement" is exactly what this nation does not need. I have repeatedly warned about the probable response if the population decides that the government is a felon instead of the cops.'

'This sort of [fraudulent] conduct has become literally embedded in virtually all forms of our lifestyle, and I would allege that a big part of "why" is that it is almost never punished. It is one thing to place a bet in a casino knowing that the "rake" guarantees the casino will make money over time, but it is quite another to wonder whether the dice are loaded, the cards marked or the railbird behind you is secretly communicating your hole cards to the guy on the other side of the table. We cannot have a strong economy that is, at its core, all about trying to screw people. If that's the premise on which your business rests, whether you're a commercial bank, Wall Street investment house or any other business then YOU SHOULD BE CLOSED DOWN. -- REFUSE to do business not only with any firm that pulls this crap, but any firm that does business with those that do! We the people can stop this - if we care to - it starts and ends with us.'

'Greece is in this mess due to out-of-control spending on pensions, public employee wages and "social" benefit programs. Are you hearing the whines of "oh but it's for the chiiiiiilllllddddreeeeen!" yet? No? Oh wait - they just went out on strike! You have to love the insanity of governments generally - those workers who are bankrupting the government go out on strike to.... wait for it now.... make sure they can keep bankrupting the government! God help them if someone like me was in charge - I'd simply tell 'em "thank you for solving my problem - you're fired!"' -- From the cradle of democracy to the deathbed of entitlement.

'Someone forgot to tell the market pumpers (along with those who started buying Euros and Pounds against the dollar) that Greece is a bit player in this mess. What 'ya gonna do about Ireland - a nation that has enough out there in bank debt to make Iceland look like a Girl Scout picnic? Or Spain? Portugal, which has had an actual failed bond auction already? Oh, Germany is going to bail them all out eh? With what? The German people's good looks? This is truly laughable. It is like arguing that "we can bail out California" but forgetting that as soon as you do Florida, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana and Arizona will instantly appear with their hands outstretched. -- This is, thus far, yet another rumor used to gas the market, burn the shorts and especially fry the currency traders, who have piled in short in a serious way on the Euro in the last couple of weeks. I'm sure there will be more than a couple of FX traders who play "Russian Roulette" with six loaded this evening...'

'Our President can, with the wave of a pen, reduce our outstanding Federal Debt by a trillion dollars. He can issue an executive order that declares that every bond the Chinese Government holds is worthless. What are you going to do about it? You don't seem to have any of these: ' -- <haha>Jingoism</haha> -- 'Face the facts you blubbering bags of pus: '

'Can someone revoke this jackass' degree?'

'In our zeal to "welcome" Ponzi finance we seem to conveniently forget that for every bankster there are 1,000 policemen, firemen, teachers, hair stylists, deli operators, taxicab drivers, bank tellers and subway operators. -- It would be nice to see people wake up, but so far I see precious little evidence of it. Everyone wants to talk about "politicizing The Fed" and other BS, when the real issue is far simpler - we have built a Ponzi finance system that relies on ever-increasing levels of debt in the system, and we hit the wall in terms of being able to pay. Instead of doing the right thing we decided to paper it over because it was "easier", but all that has done is make the problem worse, and the "leakage" in areas such as this will continue to show up until finally, at long last, the bright light of recognition shines through.'

OBVIOUS FRAUD IS OBVIOUS

'NOW IS YOUR OPPORTUNITY. GET ON THE PHONE NOW and call your Senators. Tell them: VOTE NO ON BERNANKE OR YOU'RE FIRED; INSTEAD, BRING BACK PAUL VOLCKER! We need an adult in the room.'

'Politicians cannot take from this win that either party is "safe" or "has favor" with The American People. This win was about one thing above all others: WE THE PEOPLE HAVE HAD ENOUGH OF THE DUPLICITY, LIES AND CON JOBS, AND IF YOU DO NOT LISTEN TO US AND STOP IT - BOTH IN WASHINGTON DC AND ON WALL STREET WE WILL THROW YOU OUT ON YOUR ASS. DO YOU HEAR US NOW WASHINGTON? IF YOU DO NOT WE ARE COMING FOR YOU ON NOVEMBER 2nd 2010 - THAT'S A PROMISE.'

'This means no more Chinese access to our networks. It means no more purchases of Chinese goods. It means no more Chinese anything. And it means DEMANDING that the United States Treasury VOID all Chinese-held Treasury Debt as liquidated damages for the theft of our military secrets and civilian intellectual property. From this American to China: SCREW YOU.'

'Look folks, this is really quite simple. Economic Stability and Recovery = Credit Expansion. We cannot recover until we purge the excess debt from the system, and the longer we take to do that, the longer the pain will last and the worse it will be. President Obama and Tim Geithner know this - that's why they are constantly harping on banks to "lend more." Well, they may want banks to lend more but the people are fed up with being debt slaves and are borrowing less. -- Consumer recovery? There is none! It is axiomatic that you can pump yourself full of speedballs (e.g. government spending) and stay up for days at a time. It is also true that if you do too many speedballs you will have a heart attack and die, and there is no way to know precisely which is the "one too many" until you shoot it - at which point it's too late to change your mind!'

'Effectively, what the financial system has done is siphon off an increasing portion of the rents charged for various activities while justifying the increasing prices (that is, lower risk and therefore less reserve against "adverse events") through concealment via bogus "risk-shifting" and "risk-management" that in fact never really occurred. -- ...all the financial system has done is find ways to increase the amount of rent that lands in the financial system itself - instead of being distributed to the actual owners of the capital that is being lent out! -- The only way that one can "deal in" CDS and make a profit, as the banks have done, is if someone is willing to sell you protection at less than the true risk-adjusted cost, or you can manage to sell it at higher than the risk-adjusted price. Both require that someone be deceived - that is, that someone intentionally misrepresent either by commission or by intentional concealment of material facts. This is the definition of fraud!'

Peak Greater Fool? -- 'This morning there's a nasty rumor on the wire - that Japan may be intending to sell US Treasuries. Their purported reason for this, of course, would be to weaken the Yen. Selling Treasuries would have this effect since it would strengthen the dollar, and in a fiat monetary system all values are relative. Here's the problem: The first seller wins in these circumstances, since price is essentially "coupon x duration." If Japan starts selling in size rates on the long end will go materially higher. This will whack the daylights out of the cash price for these bonds. Who else has a lot of these things? China. Stampede risk here? Yep. Danger to our government's ability to finance its profligate spending? Uh huh.'

'We have fixed exactly nothing in the world of finance over the last two years. We have in fact squandered the opportunity to put in place global economic and financial system reforms - enforced mark-to-market, enforced capital requirements (one dollar of capital for each dollar of unsecured lending), enforced leverage limits and ring-fencing governments while allowing those who do dumb things to eat the consequences. We did none of the above and instead played "liquidity games", patting ourselves on the back for having avoided "Armageddon." We in fact have avoided nothing - we, as a world of fools drunk on excessive leverage, grabbed another case of Jack Daniels and downed it as a means of avoiding the DTs of withdrawal - but we're still drunks!'

'... since we have emails now apparently documenting an attempt to "paper over" temperature decreases in recent years, and we also have claims of "lost" data, one wonders - was the data really lost, or was it intentionally deleted or withheld from other researchers who asked for it, as providing it would show that measurement uncertainties were not carried through computationally - and if they were, the claimed results in the so-called "peer reviewed" paper would be impossible to validate? Without hard proof of whatever answer is propounded to that question we as the people of this planet must insist on a full stop for all purported "climate amelioration" efforts, as there is every possibility that the entirety of this so-called science in fact proves exactly nothing ... Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof, and from the released set of data that proof is, quite simply, not present and accounted for.' -- Ruining the good name of science. Back to the dark ages we go.

'There's enough evidence in there, in my opinion, of outrageously fraudulent conduct to make this the scandal of the 20th and 21st century.

'#The government cannot make up for the contraction in private credit. The Government's continued mendacity in this matter is leading to the destruction of the Dollar and, potentially, our economy and government funding mechanisms. The credit system is functioning only in places where tens or even hundreds of billions in printed money are being used to "purchase" worthless (or nearly-so) loans. Fannie, Freddie and now the FHA have become embroiled in a futile attempt to prop up residential property markets, which in turn has led banks to withhold foreclosure actions as a means of hiding losses. This in turn has trapped millions of homeowners in underwater property, preventing them from moving to seek better employment opportunities and creating artificial shortages of housing in some MSAs as inventory is "locked up" by banks as a means to avoid recognition of losses that have already occurred.'

1. DEBT 2. OMG WTF 3. A BIT MORE DEBT 4. ???? 5. COLLAPSE

'While you were out playing in the back yards and playgrounds of America both Democrats and Republicans were making promises they could not keep. Instead of raising taxes right now for whatever they wanted to promise they instead decided to send you the bill, and your parents went along with it. So when you come home from school this afternoon say "Thanks" to your Mom, Dad, Grandpa and Grandma for selling you into slavery. For obligating you to pay for the stealing that has gone on for nearly ten years on Wall Street and in Washington DC. For allowing those very same lies to cost your family (or that of someone you know and love) their house, their job, and their future. And finally, make sure you thank your Teachers for not teaching you the math you need to be able to understand what is really going on with your government, so you don't get mad enough to put a stop to it - or demand that your parents do so. After all, they're right and you're wrong. They're big and you're small.'

'The people have figured it out.' -- '...this year's interest payments are likely to total some $400 billion or so, and against a GDP of $13 trillionish (down from the peak) that is roughly 3% of GDP for interest cost. Today. The sustainability of this level of debt (today) requires that interest rates not rise, for if they do so will the payments. And that's a problem because historically (over the last 100 years or so) every time a nation has gotten to around 6% of GDP for interest payments both its monetary and political systems have imploded. Argentina anyone? BUT IF WE ACTUALLY ADD 150% TO THAT $6 TRILLION IN DEBT, EVEN IF INTEREST RATES DO NOT RISE, WE WILL EXCEED THIS CRITICAL LEVEL OF INTEREST PAYMENTS BY MORE THAN 50%. INDEED, WE WILL CROSS THE 6% THRESHOLD, BY MY ESTIMATES, SOME TIME IN 2012, AND THAT EVENT HAS A HIGH PROBABILITY OF DESTROYING OUR NATION OUTRIGHT. The problem is that "hide the bad stuff" games doesn't change the outcome - it just changes the when.'

The Ticker Guy brings you math! -- 'Remember, from the above there is $2.5 trillion outstanding in consumer credit. An increase of just ten percent in the spread cost for money means that $250 billion dollars each and every year does not get spent on consumption (and employment of those who make what was consumed), it instead goes to the banks to paper over their fraudulently-marked paper! How big of a deal is this? Our economy (at present) is around $13 trillion dollars (was closer to $14, but heh, 'tis a recession, right?) This is thus a real and permanent 1.92% decrease in private-activity GDP each and every year and it will NEVER GO AWAY so long as "The Bezzle" mandates that the spread be used to cover up the fraudulent accounting at the banks and other financial institutions! Folks, if you think that this sort of game-playing is somehow "beneficial" to the economy or it is "no big deal" this ought to disabuse you of that notion RIGHT NOW.'

'Here's the issue, in a nutshell: Bernanke surmises that he wants long-term (and short-term) interest rates low to "spur borrowing" and thus attempt to kick the economy back into growth. This in turn "mandates" an extraordinarily loose monetary policy. -- The math says this is idiotic ...the market believes this policy is dangerous... -- Bernanke must withdraw the "loose money" policy *now* and allow lending rates to find their market equilibrium.. This may in turn force the bankruptcy of firms that have been artificially supported by these insanely low rates, as their borrowing costs will rise. It will force the US Government to cut back its spending to a level it can actually afford. -- If we do not withdraw the extraordinary actions and that revulsion breaks through we could easily see a technically-driven disorderly collapse in the dollar's value along with mass-selling of dollar-denominated securities. If that occurs last fall will look like a Girl Scout picnic.'

'Bernanke says he won't monetize, then gets caught doing it! How long before our foreign creditors say "NUTS!"? Will Congress EVER grow a pair and go after people who say something in sworn testimony, then do the opposite?' -- Obvious fraud is obvious

'Gee, its all green shoots eh? TIckerguy DESTROYS that argument with THE FACTS.'

Quit ya grinnin'!

'Stop asset bubbles before they form, solve the housing problem, keep the taxpayer safe and more importantly, RETURN THE ECONOMIC BENEFIT OF LENDING TO MAIN STREET! Make this video viral for America!' -- Bump!