July 29, 2010

All you need to do is read this article from Bloomberg:

Fallen Soldiers’ Families Denied Cash Payout as Insurers Profit

and you will understand the headline I typed above. The banksters and insurance companies by and large are run by the lowest life forms on our planet. Enough to make one realize that if they could prostitute their mothers, dead or alive, they would if they could earn 3.2% profit. From the article:

“I’m shocked,” says Lohman, breaking into tears as she learns how the Alliance Account works. “It’s a betrayal. It saddens me as an American that a company would stoop so low as to make a profit on the death of a soldier. Is there anything lower than that?”

Millions of bereaved Americans have unwittingly been placed in the same position by their insurance companies. The practice of issuing what they call “checkbooks” to survivors, instead of paying them lump sums, extends well beyond the military.

Yes, you read that correctly. They are avoiding the traditional life insurance lump sum model and profiting on the deaths of our fallen soldiers. Prudential, in this case, is putting the money into their general corporate account which earns them a 4.8% profit but is not FDIC insured so when we have another 2008 style financial crisis, which is any day now, the beneficiaries could lose everything as the accounts are not backed by anything other than a derivative filled promise. Meanwhile as they earn the 4.8% interest on their account, they generously pay the beneficiaries a whopping 1%.

It doesn’t get any lower than this.

For those who engage in these practices like Prudential, be they a defense contractor who pumps our boys full of experimental drugs, test questionable if not ineffective weapons systems in combat, or government bureaucrats who exploit these brave men and women financially, just know that one day you’ll have to answer for your crimes. If I were a customer of Prudential, I would cancel my policy (or policies) immediately and all investment accounts and transfer them to a more reputable institution that does not profit on the death of our friends and neighbors in overseas wars.

To listen to “The Voice of Galt’” tune in at 8 p.m. Eastern time and you can click on the web link here:

www.BlogTalkRadio.com

to listen to the program.

Your participation in this program is encouraged and the chat room will open up at 15 minutes before the show begins at the BlogTalkRadio link. Emails to johngaltfla@yahoo.com are also encouraged as well as your telephone calls to:

(347) 994-2798

Or you can click on the player or button below to link to the program: Listen to internet radio with Johngaltfla on Blog Talk Radio

Drink of the night:
BOOMERANG!

You’ll need a 48 Qt Igloo ice chest.

1 750ml bottle of vodka

6 pack Budweiser Beer, 16 oz.

6 Frozen Minute Maid Limeades

1 bag of ice

Mix Vodka, beer and limeades at bottom of cooler until the limeades melt. Pour ice into cooler, shut, let it distill for one hour.
Pour from spout at bottom of cooler. Enjoy and duck when it comes back and hits you. (Grain alcohol can be used instead of vodka)

APPETIZER:

Shrimp with Smoked Andouille Sausage

4 large shrimp, peeled and deveined

6 1-inch slices of andouille sausage

1 tablespoon olive oil

6 mushroom caps quartered

1/2 cup Worcestershire sauce

1/2 cup heavy cream

Salt and pepper to taste

Chopped Fresh parsley for garnish

Saute shripm and sausage in oil in a saucepan until shrimp turn translucent in color. Remove shrimp and sausage. Add mushrooms to saucepan and cook 1 minute. Add shrimp, sausage, Worcestershire sauce, and cream. Simmer 3 minutes or until sauce thickens. Season with salt and pepper. Garnish.

From the book: Calypso Cafe by bob T. Epstein

July 23, 2010

Ann Arbor, Michigan is spending $850,000 for some art.

What does that have to do with a city dying, municipal bond default, or taxpayer revolt?

Read this article in its entirety:

The Art of the Ann Arbor City Budget

Then draw your own conclusions.

This excellent article by Tom Gantert from Michigan Capitol Confidential speaks volumes about the mentality of numerous civil servants and abusive imperial acting bureaucrats who think they are beyond the supervision of the citizens nor have any obligation to observe the ideals of common sense and saving the citizen’s tax dollars for a future, yet undefined critical need. This is how Vallejo, CA went bankrupt. This is how Harrisburg, PA is teetering on the edge of Chapter 9 bankruptcy. This is how Jefferson County, AL will soon vote on the option of Chapter 9 bankruptcy.

Excerpts  like this illustrate the arrogance of these individuals:

Fraser noted that the public art dollars did not come from the city’s general fund, which is used to pay salaries and benefits, and that less than $6,000 of the art money came from the general fund.

The art projects also must have a “thematic connection” to the source of funding, Fraser wrote. The $850,000 art project is water-themed, because the money came from storm water funds.

So as long as the “theme” relates to the funding allocation it is within their purview to allow critical employees like fire fighters, solid waste management personnel, or other public safety items to be laid off or neglected so they can satisfy their own glorified goals to build monuments to their stupidity. That is why I maintain that the upcoming secondary downdraft in the nation’s economy, the parallel of sorts to the 1931-1934 secondary decline during the Great Depression, will bring this nation to ruin. There is neither the character of our public officials nor desire to avoid corruption of our souls which will prevent the most drastic of results as this economic downturn accelerates during the next twenty-four months.

Municide will become a common public term referring to bankruptcy and mismanagement and cities like Ann Arbor, MI deserve any of my help as they abuse their own citizens. With examples like this in plentiful display from sea to shining sea, including my home town of Sarasota, FL, the Federal government will have to become the largess of last resort so these career politicians can continue to pillage and spend like drunken Pelosi staffers. Otherwise Chapter 9 Bankruptcy will become a virus spreading far and wide engulfing tens of billions of dollars in municipal bonds and destroying the pension system as we know it in our nation.

Doc is an experienced journalist, two time award winner in the state of Mississippi, and yes, in the past has worked in the oil industry. His insights last time stirred literally thousands of listeners so expect a busy feed this coming Friday night and please keep your questions and comments to the point so we can get to all of them. We will discuss the Gulf Disaster, Energy preps, and quite a bit more as time permits.

To listen to “The Voice of Galt’” tune in at 6 p.m. Eastern time this Friday night and you can click on the web link here:

www.BlogTalkRadio.com

to listen to the program. Your participation in this program is encouraged and the chat room will open up at 15 minutes before the show begins at the BlogTalkRadio link. Emails to johngaltfla@yahoo.com are also encouraged as well as your telephone calls to:

(347) 994-2798

Or you can click on the player or button below to link to the program:

Listen to internet radio with Johngaltfla on Blog Talk Radio

July 21, 2010

The headline from Reuters might get one excited:

US home loan demand jumps; purchase demand rises

This quote from the story might make you think all the talk about a housing bottom is a given now:

“The strength in purchase applications comes from government loans, likely indicating that prospective buyers are drawn by the lower downpayment requirements,” Michael Fratantoni, the MBA’s vice president of research and economics, said in a statement.

The reality though is quite different. The numbers area actually easier to accept when you read the story from the Mortgage Brokers Association website and their story linked here:

Interest Rate Drops Spur Refinance Applications in Latest MBA Weekly Survey

Although the media might want you to think that the housing bottom is place, the reality of yesterday’s housing numbers from the Commerce Department should alert one that we are still seeing data points unseen since Ike was our President. Add in this quote which will be conveniently overlooked by the Bubblevisions and MSM today from the MBA version of the story:

The unadjusted Purchase Index increased 15.3 percent compared with the previous week and was 35.7 percent lower than the same week one year ago.

In other words, the numbers do not indicate a recovering market and as we keep looking for honest statistics which go beyond applications and actually display net approvals, then and only then will the markets have the ability to realize a true bottom in housing and recognize that the worst is over. In reality, we have a lot further to drop as long as unemployment remains at record levels which we have not seen since the Great Depression of the 1930′s.

July 21, 2010

I could not go to bed without commenting on the report from today’s Financial Times and the news that poor old Satan, the Angel of Death, Sin, and majority shareholder at the Federal Reserve Bank of the United States, did not quite perform up to snuff:

Goldman profits plummet by 83%

Before you shed any tears, they still made a profit. But this sentence should tell you a lot about the economy, from the FT story:

No corner of Goldman posted a steeper or more surprising revenue shortfall than equity trading, which plummeted 89 per cent to $235m.

That’s right boys and girls, the HFT gyrating bullcrap machine has limits. And that is not a huge confidence booster for the 3rd and 4th quarters of this year when everyone realizes what the Bush tax cut expiration and FinReg really means. My advise to the Obama administration:

Quit pissing Satan off.

He can destroy our monetary system with one massive flaming breath or chili dog induced flatulent.

July 21, 2010

The Los Angeles Times article says it all with just the headline:

Is A City Manager Worth $800,000?

Yet people wonder why I say “Municide” is unavoidable for so many communities and counties.

If the suburb of Bell, Ca if not indicative of corruption and taxpayer rape, I do not know what is as the first paragraph from the newspaper’s story tells quite a bit as to what is next:

Bell isn’t a big town, or a wealthy one. But some of its top officials are paid two or three times as much as their counterparts elsewhere

July 15, 2010|Jeff Gottlieb and Ruben Vives

Bell, one of the poorest cities in Los Angeles County, pays its top officials some of the highest salaries in the nation, including nearly $800,000 annually for its city manager, according to documents reviewed by The Times.

In addition to the $787,637 salary of Chief Administrative Officer Robert Rizzo, Bell pays Police Chief Randy Adams $457,000 a year, about 50% more than Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck or Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca and more than double New York City’s police commissioner. Assistant City Manager Angela Spaccia makes $376,288 annually, more than most city managers.

Let us all review this in line item fashion one more time:

CAO: $787,637

Police Chief: $457,000

When one considers the insanity of California’s state government all but demanding a handout from the rest of the United States via taxpayer extortion or better phrased as “if you don’t save our butts, we’ll collapse everyone” type of mentality, then you have to review this particular story, that of Vallejo, CA and the larger municipal bond issues into context. The response from those in charge is not shocking:

Bell Mayor Oscar Hernandez defended the salaries. “Our city is one of the best in the area. That is the result of the city manager. It’s not because I say it. It’s because my community says it.”

So let me get this straight; the ‘community’ who has no clue what you clowns due in private because I’m willing to bet you operate in a non-sunshine law meeting environment were able to screw the taxpayers why?

Bell made headlines in recent weeks when the city of 37,000 agreed to take over operations of the neighboring city of Maywood, which fired most of its employees and disbanded its police department when it could not obtain insurance.

Located about 10 miles southeast of downtown Los Angeles, Bell has a population that is about 90% Latino and 53% foreign-born. Its per capita income is about half that for the U.S.

Yup, you guessed it. The L.A. Times resorted to using the code words to cover up the number of illegals residing there plus obscure the corruption in that suburb. Of course that little town in the Midwest with the corrupt political system only has $216,210 budgeted for his salary. Perhaps the Mayor of Chicago should import about 34,000 illegals to justify a pay raise to match the stress filled position of the City Administrative Officer of Bell, CA.

And you people wonder why I think our nation is about to see a municipal bond collapse that will make the stock market crashes of 1932 and 2008-2009 look like a church social.

July 20, 2010

Uh, hello? Is anyone paying attention?

Money Magazine just published an interview with Bill Gross and so I do not get accused of taking the interview out of context, here is the question and Mr. Gross’ answer in its full glory:

You’ve recently shifted money back into Treasuries. What changed?

We’ve recognized that there’s a flight to quality, to safe-haven assets. That’s because of very slow growth worldwide and financial market chaos. We’re having a mini-replay of 2008. Money is fleeing from countries like Greece. Everyone is trying to find what we call the least dirty shirt. And the U.S. is the least dirty shirt. As Will Rogers said, “I’m not so much concerned about the return on my money as the return of my money.” In this market, return of money is beginning to become a dominant theme.

Knock-knock?

Who’s there?

Reality, bitch.

Reality bitch who?

WHACK!

For the record so I am not accused of taking “things out of context” as other blogs are often accused of, the portions that are in italics and bold are mine. The bolded portion is the question originally from CNN-Money and it is of such importance it received actually zero coverage from Bubblevision as iPadorgasms took over the mainstream Bubblevision media discussions. As I review the quarterly reports, I shall return to my commentary on the reality of the garbage I am seeing. And it is not pretty. Thus why when you take into account what Mr. Gross just said above AND the horrid technical condition of the equity markets plus the message our Treasury markets are sending, you might want to dig that bomb shelter deeper and pray your preps have you ready for what is next.

Because this is far worse than 1932.

Unless you were in Munich.

Stay tuned for a 1-3-6 update….

July 19, 2010

Last night I posted one of my favorite indicators that the counter-rotating electrically powered air deflection device might see some impact from incoming bovine scatology. This  chart of the Austrian Wiener Bourse from today’s trading should remind everyone of the fun, fun, fun days of 2007 and 2008:

This is nothing new to those who follow this hidden problem however, as the fine people at FT/Alphaville did a piece back in June of 2009 titled “Who’s Exposed to Hungary” with this fantastic chart with data from JP Morgan on the largest banks in Europe and their exposure to the Hungarian market:

The article above was referenced by a recent posting from The Prudent Investor via iStockAnalyst.com which reminded everyone of the exposure of the Austrian banking system to the Hungarian problem titled Austrian Banks Have Biggest Exposure In Hungary – Top Bankers Meet In Vienna from June 10, 2010 where he posted this chart from BNP Paribas highlighting the liability: As you can see, the problem could trigger the proverbial dominoes, especially when you start to study the stock charts for the various Austrian banks, keeping in mind that some of the smaller regional banks trade with very thin volumes. With that in mind, let’s take a look at the two largest banks referenced in the JP Morgan data above.

When you review the three year chart of Raiffeisen, the first thing you notice is a pattern quite similar to a lot of major U.S. institutions, especially the February technical pattern now popularly referred to since the S&P copied the move with ye old “Death Cross” which 80% of the time is indicative of another major move down in the stock price. Based on the last cross of this type, that pattern would be somewhat ominous for this bank and a crisis in Hungary could easily take another 50% off the 2009 highs if not cause the ECB to arrange a strategic takeover should the Hungarian government elect to default, rather than follow Greece into managed oblivion. Erste Group Bank AG does not fair much better:

The charts are trying to tell the markets something as investors are realizing that the European real estate and sovereign debt crisis is neither contained nor likely to be limited to the impact on Austrian banks as 54% of Hungarian real estate loans are in Swiss Francs, which will require a massive drain of that nation’s reserves to convert them into the domestic, non-Euro currency. Add in the fact that these banks have a sizable portion of their portfolios tied into the Hungarian markets and a repeat of the Hungarian political crisis of 2006 a long with the economic downturn and these banks may require massive ECB intervention to save or seize them. Osterreichische Volksbanken is also exposed to this problem as they have divisions and branches in Hungary plus Slovakia, Slovenia, the Czech Republic, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Romania, and Italy; hardly paragons of responsible capitalist activity.

The long elegant swan dive of this equity only indicates that fewer and fewer investors have any faith, nor reason to, in the future of investing in a bank that gambled on 2nd world economies, except for the Czech Republic and Italy, and lost. Thus just from this cursory look, it is not much of a leap to understand that the real risk of a default by Budapest could cause a series of dominoes to fall that the ECB may have great difficulty in managing, not to mention finding a nation to backstop, as banks throughout Western Europe would begin to fail or simply stop withdrawals by customers to preserve the institution and stop the Eastern European emerging economies from destroying the ECB as a whole. The next 48 hours will be telling as meetings are still in progress over the problems with the IMF and ECB stopping the remaining $25 billion in support for the Hungarian government. Stay tuned and watch those stocks at the Wiener Bourse for a clue as to what happens next.

Myself, I’m heading into my kitchen for some Vienna Beef Hot Dogs because all this has me starving.

Pass the mustard and sauerkraut, I’m hungry now!

July 18, 2010

Stay tuned. Tomorrow and Tuesday could be as interesting as the good old days of 2007/2008.