Karl Denninger, "ANOTHER 20 Point Overnight Range"

"ANOTHER 20 Point Overnight Range"
 by Karl Denninger

"You cannot be an "investor" in this market. Today marks yet another 20 point S&P (and near 200 point DOW) overnight range. This has been going on now for a couple of weeks, and it makes actual investing impossible.  You wake up and are up or down 2% or more, and there's absolutely nothing that a prudent investor, acting in the cash markets, can do about it. Oh sure, the days when your account is up make for smiles with your morning coffee.  The others feel like you were violated in your sleep - because you were.

Trading is ok in a market like this, even if I should change my schedule and become nocturnal.  Safety demands that I not hold positions overnight and trade only futures.  That kinda sucks.  Since I have other obligations than trading, I get to play only during normal hours and thus miss a huge part of these moves. So be it, but my liquidity is mostly sitting on the sidelines too, because this sort of crap makes it impossible to determine even a reliable a short-term direction and thus on days like this you either chase (and take a big risk of loss) or sit it out.  Fine by me; just as the government can't force me to start a business with my capital, it also can't force me to expose myself to a 2% buttrape overnight due to it's refusal to rein in the thieves guild.

All of this is coming from Europe, and our politicians and so-called "regulators" are explicitly to blame for all of this impact on our markets, because they have utterly refused to force those financial institutions that wish to operate here - and that would be virtually all of them - to comply with reasonable safety and soundness laws in order to hold a US banking license. To put this in perspective the DAX, the German stock index, is down something like 25% this month.  It "flash crashed" yesterday with a roughly 4% swing in minutes and is down another 3% as I write this, yet their big banks operate here in the United States with impunity and one of them, Deutsche Bank, is even a primary dealer and privileged to bid on Treasury auctions!

Has our government made clear that this crap is not going to be allowed to stand?  Nope.  Not a damn peep out of them.  Not one word out of Ovomit and the Democraps or the Rethuglicans and the so-called "Tea Party", all of whom seem to think that it's no big deal because the markets are only down "a few percent" and thus "there is no crisis."

Oh really?  Have you looked at some individuals stocks?  You know, things like Caterpillar, Cummins, Alcoa and other similar institutions?  Many are down 30 or 40% - and some more - from their peaks just a few months ago.  That's approaching half of their value lost, and if you hold those stocks, your 401k has been similarly trashed.  Have you taken a look at your account lately? Or how about Greece's 2 year bond?  It is trading at nearly fifty percent (interest) at present.  That's not a coupon payment (nobody borrows at 50% interest) it's an implied recovery on a default the market has now said is not only inevitable but imminent.  Yet we continue to pretend this is all "no big deal" and we can "put off our own fiscal consolidation"?

That's utter and complete crap.

Let's not even talk about financials like BAC.  While I'm sure that people think that Buffett buying preferred might "instill confidence" it did no such thing, as Bank of America had just got done telling us that it didn't need capital, then it took capital at thirty times the price it would pay for overnight money from The Fed plus a giveaway of warrants!  Buffett, for his part, claimed he dreamed all this up in his bathtub and did his diligence on the bank and it's financial condition within less than 48 hours? Who believes that crap - and why is it that after the debacle with Bear Stearns and Lehman, not to mention Paulson and Bernanke's long-nosed lies in 07 and 08, isn't this outrageous load of rotting dead fish spewed upon the airwaves viewed as a public fraud and worthy of indictment?

This is the same pattern we followed in 2008.  We had individual names down 20, 30, 40% while the market itself was down 10 to 15 percent.  Bank CEOs came on CNBC (along with Tangelo - remember him?) and said they were "well-capitalized" and "taking advantage of the situation." Then the holdouts cracked, the frauds played upon the public exposed and the entire market collapsed; in point of fact the only thing "taken advantage of" was you!

It's going to happen again, and when it does, I'm willing to bet that you will NOT eject both the pachyderms and jackasses from Congress and the White House, as both are responsible, and both demand and elect a third party.  I would not be surprised to see a loss that reaches sixty to eighty percent in the markets and the collapse of every public and private pension fund.

This time, there will be no bailouts because there can't be.  There's no money.  Good luck with your belief in the candy-crapping Unicorn America.  He's not going to appear.

You won't act to stop it, will you?

You won't rise and demand real change, not the promise of Unicorns, will you?

You know, something that would make a difference like STOP THE LOOTING AND START PROSECUTING?

Not even as your jobs disappear, the economy collapses, and your pension funds that you counted on - you know, you teachers, firefighters, cops and the rest - claim you're entitled to be paid - disappear?

Yeah, that too.  It's coming ladies and gentlemen.

Seniors?  You won't throw the bums out either.  Not even when Medicare and Social Security stop on the back of having your savings income utterly destroyed over the last two years via zero interest rates.

Young people?  Enjoy your college debt.  There are and will be no jobs.  But you won't rise up now and demand the thieves be tossed and jailed.  Oh no, that would require actually doing something constructive, instead of sticking your hand out and whining.

Me? I'm headed for the bunker when it happens. Because if we don't cut this crap out right now - it will - and I've seen zero evidence that our nation is full of anything other than sheep. You've been shorn three times in ten years - 2000, 2007 and now again, and this time you're being skinned as well - and yet you stand still and let it happen."

"Baaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh!"

Strong language alert of this video, with no apologies.

- http://market-ticker.org/

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