RSS Feed for This PostCurrent Article

Batchelor & Constable: Through the Looking Glass

By John Batchelor on April 9, 2009 at 1:30 AM in Banking Institutions, Economic Stimulus, Economy, TARP

SP500apr709.jpg

Batchelor & Constable: Through the Looking Glass.

     Simon Constable and I make no sense of the senseless news from the worldwide financial crisis — the Great Depression in Denial.  From banks buying each other’s junk competitively to a bullish call by hedgies and funds guys meeting in a super secret location west of the Sierras, we can find no confidence, just schemes,  manipulations, delusions, the emptying of the modern mind and then refilling it with popcorn.

The sanest group in the asylum looks to be the American consumer with a new report that credit card use dropped sharply in February.  The bankers and the hucksters want the American consumer back in the shop.  Not happening, and this must stand for the good news of the moment.  For the markets (left), there is the necessary rite of retest of the March 9 low, one hundred and fifty S&P 500 points below here (1300 Dow points below here).  The test line is the Devil’s own 666.79 on the SPX.  Boo!

::::::

From The John Batchelor Show (on which Larry Johnson appears every Sunday night)

  • viking

    This video clip surprises me not at all. I was as unfamiliar with the concept of credit default swaps as the temperature on, say, Saturn until last September. It didn’t take all that much to educate myself on what the hell was going on then and since.

    The abyss is still there. Place as many happy, smiley faced buttons at the edge of it as you want, but its still there.

    I don’t remember the name of the guy on CNBC (probably over a month ago now) who said paraphrasing ‘If an ax murderer comes into your bedroom and you pull the covers over your head, the ax murderer is still there!

    NO S#!&… DUH!

    • TeakwoodKite

      Monster Inc.

  • bayareavoter

    Thank you for your perspective.

    Very worrisome for the ordinary taxpayer like me who has no idea of how to fix this mess and has no confidence in the crooks in charge.

  • mountainaires
    • oowawa

      OMG mountainaires–this reads like a novel. I can understand why the MSM takes a pass on investigating these guys.

  • oowawa

    So Wells Fargo comes out with a very bullish report and the stock market trips all over itself in surging upwards. Market analyst Karl Denninger puts it this way:

    It must be nice to be able to keep loans on the books at whatever price you feel like, receive billions of taxpayer money including “assistance” in rolling up Wachovia, and then turn out to not need it, right? . . .

    This leads one inescapably to the following:

    * Either Wells is lying (obfuscating losses through unrealistic marks, etc) OR
    * These “bailouts” were no such thing – they were a simple and transparent looting operation by the banks that is now showing up directly in “earnings” (and will shortly show up in the bonuses of executives too!)

    http://market-ticker.denninger.net/archives/948-JamJob-Wells-Fargo-And-More.html

    Folks, the American Taxpayer is getting screwed to benefit the biggest bankers in the world.

    • Docelder

      American Taxpayer is getting screwed to benefit the biggest bankers in the world

      O.K. but let’s not stop at the obvious here… What is this “payoff” really about? Is there not some emerging “partnership” of sorts developing between these banks and government? Why “can’t” the banks who want out just repay the TARP money and get out? None of this is new to the world, we have seen this before. The “f” word comes to mind here… but not the swear word… but “fascism”.

      • oowawa

        Why “can’t” the banks who want out just repay the TARP money and get out?

        Ummmm . . . because trying to repay the TARP money is like trying to resign from the Hells Angels? “When you’re a Jet, you’re a Jet all the way.”

        Your point is well taken, Docelder.
        We’re in trouble here, aren’t we?! “Fascism” is about right.