Friday, October 31, 2008

CITIGROUP

I guess a lot of people read us. No one saw it coming before I did. Here's some more Citigroup updates. It's only a matter of time now.

As always, the sooner the better.

http://www.reuters.com/article/bondsNews/idUSBNG39268320081031

http://www.fool.com/investing/dividends-income/2008/10/31/worlds-scariest-stock-citigroup.aspx

This weekend I am going to go and blast a lot of holes in some paper targets that never did a thing to me...

And pray we make it till Tuesday. It's too late for an October Surprise now, but Pakistan is probably going to get out of hand within the next two months.

Let's get through the election.MCR

13 comments:

sunrnr said...

Did you happen to notice the second link takes you to the Motley Fools' page? Towards the bottom there's an ad for their report on the only three companies that know how to retrieve the 2 trillion barrel oil reserves in the US (the largest reserves in the world!).

If you believe them, then you'll get the inside scoop on who they are and will make lots of money!

It's true "There's a fool born every minute ...." Yikes

namaste

A peon said...

Have fun this weekend Mike,and remember the Gunslingers' mantra:

"I do not aim with my hand;he who aims with his hand has forgotten the face of his father.I aim with my eye.I do not shoot with my hand;he who shoots with his hand has forgotten the face of his father.I shoot with my mind.I do not kill with my gun;he who kills with his gun has forgotten the face of his father.I kill with my heart." - Roland of Gilead aka Stephen King

Its from his "Dark Tower" series.Remembered from the days I was able to enjoy reading good fiction,which I once read that a teacher of Stephen King's instructed him,is the truth inside the lie.The exact quote I believe was "Fiction is a lie.Good fiction is the truth inside the lie."

Rice Farmer said...

Bank of Japan May Be Heading Back to `Zero Interest-Rate World'
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=av2VQkhpqdhc&refer=home

Tyler Havlin said...

Doing the numbers: what you need to know about oil depletion

http://www.energybulletin.net/node/47068

Earlier this week, the Financial Times leaked the International Energy Agency’s figures that show the rate of decline in production of the 400 largest oilfields in the world - and they concluded that without large scale, above normal investment, the annual decline will be 9.1%.

It is hard to understand how important that number is, particularly given the situation we are in right now. In an excellent essay on the subject, Richard Heinberg observes,

“Considering regular crude oil only, this means that 6.825 million barrels a day of new production capacity must come on line each year just to keep up with the aggregate natural decline rate in existing oilfields. That’s a new Saudi Arabia every 18 months.”

D! said...

Every time I go to add my own two-cents here I feel overwhelmed with contempt. I just see the same cycles happening over and over again. The same discourses over and over again. The same reactions to worsening problems - from all sides.

I keep guarded a very sincere hope that one day we will all apply what we have learned. But it is all too painfully obvious we as a people are not there yet - not even close. Everyday that passes we jeopardize the chances that we still have - and that causes me great personal pain when it is all put into the grand context.

DurangoKid said...

Is this the banks crashing the economy in the wake of Peak Oil? Of the $700 billion, half is going to stock holders and 10% more is going toward executive compensation. The $700 billion is a joke on us and Congress. Seriously, is the financial community going through a top-down shake out in preparation for an era of debt bondage and peonage? Much of what is happening is consistent with Bill Still's "The Money Masters". Consistent to the point of frightening. Get hold of some gold and/or silver. Prepare to be an outlaw. It's gonna get strange.

We're all in it togther, kid. -Harry Tuttle

NB Patton said...

I wish I had the time to kill paper and cans today too. Maybe next weekend if we aren't in internment camps. ;)
Only .22 for me though, anything more expensive is just too valuable to me at this point to burn. I figure I can maintain my fundamentals at minimum expense that way.

Have fun and be safe. (Remember to always buy 1.5 times more than you shoot!

Andrea Muhrrteyn said...

D!,

Excellent (well undoubtedly in the view of the Political Correctness Cult of 'Sanity/Political Correctness') passsive aggressive expression of your 'anger'!!

You sound a little like those people who read the news -- you know about a plane crashing, and or the world trade towers coming down, and there's very little emotional tone in your words...

But this is exactly as TPTB want it; and as those who carry out their 'Cult of Sanity' -- don't rock the boat by providing an avenue for people to vent their rage, in a holistic manner (i.e. their language and emotions all in sync)..

If people want to be a bunch of passive aggressive gutless cowards too petrified to express their emotions and their honest feelings honourably... you can -- as I do -- attempt to provide them with an example of someone who doesn't give a flying fu**ing rats ass about attempting to impress anyone; whose only goal is to be brutally honest to friend and foe in the moment..

And as such every day i live is in freedom to be who I am; and those who appreciate blunt moment to moment honesty appreciate it; and those with fragile ego's hate me.. And those inbetween... pretend they don't know me; or avoid CROSSING THE RUBICON...

But if or when I die, I know for at least since my first radical honesty workshop, ever moment of every day since then I have lived a totally free life, and totally honest and honourable brutally honest life to friends and foes...

What more out of life can you ask than that???

How more true can you be to yourself and anyone else than that?

If you can't be true to yourself; who can you be true to?

My two cents.

ES355GIBSON said...

CITIGROUP is mutating into a modified ENRON day by day.

Damn controlled media is spinning them like it's Disneyland.

Don Hynes said...

Here's a very good analysis and preview of what will occur when the surreal values of gold paper are suddenly eclipsed by the real value of gold.

Upcoming Gold Default
http://www.financialsense.com/fsu/editorials/willie/2008/1030.html

A peon said...

U.S. Treasury Wants To Borrow Record $550 Billion

Andrea Muhrrteyn said...

COPY FYI:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mr. Rockwell,
Speaking of Liberty

CC: Chuck Baldwin, Brad Blanton, Nouriel Roubini, Jim Willie, Simmons Intl, Constitution Society, Ms. Kwiatkowski & Missouri Libertarians

RE: Why Austrian Economics Matters More Than Ever, by Lew Rockwell Jnr.

Hi. Enjoyed your aforementioned article, and setup a copy [here].

Two questions: -- perhaps stupid, but nevertheless, but would be great if you could find one of your writers to address in any upcoming Rockwell or Mises articles.

Question One:

The role of the legal power of corporations within Austrian Economic Theory; namely what do Austrian Economists see as the ideal legal status of corporations.

The following are essentially plausibly socio-political opinions, or just 'the people' sick and tired of corporate fascism, would perhaps be more accurate.

This from (Radical Honesty) Brad Blanton, who ran for Congress in Virginia on the Green Independent Party Ticket (got 25% of the vote, on a very small budget):

Amend the U.S. Constitution to clarify that a corporation is not a person and does not have all the legal rights of a person. Also, any corporation that clearly and persistently violates laws should be routinely relieved of its corporate charter by the state that granted it. All this is necessary to make clear that a corporation is given its incorporation to be a servant of the people, not an underhanded dictator of the whole society. Fining and or jailing the officers of a corporation that violates the law, rather than fining the corporation itself.

The following from a listener to the debate between Presidential Candidates Chuck Baldwin (Constitution Party) and Ralph Nader :

Daily Paul - When it was Nader's turn to ask Baldwin a question, I was FLOORED by his choice! (paraphrasing from memory):
"What is your opinion of the Civil War era Supreme Court opinion that gave corporations the same rights as individuals, thus perverting the legal definition of the word "person"?"


Chuck's answer that he was in complete agreement with Ralph that this is one of THE major issues of our times.

Question Two:

Abolishing the Fed would put a huge brake on the planning state. Without the ability to expand the money supply at will, the federal government would become about as threatening as state or local government. That is to say, the federal government would still be an intolerable imposition on life, liberty, and property. But we wouldn't be worrying about hyperinflation, large scale bubbles in specific sectors, crazy business cycles, trillion-dollar bailouts, controls that reach into every nook and cranny of our lives, a cradle to grave welfare state, or a global empire that invades any and every country at will, and makes America the enemy to whole regions of the world.

That's only the beginning of what the end of the Fed would mean. It would dramatically change the political culture in this country. Bureaucracies would tumble. Trade would stabilize. The investment-risk calculus would accord with the free market. The left could no longer live out its pipe dreams of socialist utopia at our expense. The right would have to give up its wacky notion of a world police state. The power ambitions of whole sectors of society would be scaled back.

Since no economists address the current reality of the power ambitions, not to mention the consequences of their actions of INTELLIGENCE AGENCIES involvement in takeover bids, and Stock Market Manipulation, and Insider Trading, generally almost always on behalf of the richest Fortune 500 Multinational Corporations, at the expense of smaller businesses, let alone small 'village or town street' businesses; should those of us aware of these realities conclude:

A. Silent Economists are ignorant (lack of due diligence in research), or like Kenneth Deffeyes says "The economists all think that if you show up at the cashier's cage with enough currency, God will put more oil in the ground." -- Kenneth Deffeyes

B. Silent Economists are in denial of the consequences of their silence - like pretending their isn't a fox in the henhouse, when anyone taking a look into the henhouse can clearly see there are plenty of foxes in the henhouse!

C. Silent Economists are academic and intellectual cowards or prostitutes (petrified of being scapegoated for pointing out realities; and Alice in Wall Street Wonderland are not known for their courage in public recognition of reality; they are the proverbial sheep, or worse, as exemplified in Stanley Milgram's experiments, the emotional, intellectual and psychological cowards)

D. Silent Economists are complicit

Hopefully if and when we abolish the Federal Reserve, we may come up with some ideas about what to do about Intelligence Agencies, shall we say 'out of control'?

Respectfully,

Lara Braveheart

D! said...

Andrea -

If everyone here were able to read my countless deleted postings, or more accurately my thoughts I would probably be 86'd for "trolling" or some such nonsense. At this point I feel like I know more than I want to about TEOTWAWKI or TSHTF, but I have been trying to focus much more on learning valuable skills - I have been for years. Since I first saw MCR speak in 2003 I have followed up and followed through. My attention since that year has been focused primarily on what is described in a vague term as "Permaculture."

I am not an idealist, far from it. I am not afraid of offending anyone, I just don't care. I flat out have lost the will to even consider helping those that lack the inclination to help themselves thus far by even looking into unfolding events. Seriously, why should people here even bother? You all KNOW what is happening, just handle it. Why stroke ourselves off while beating a dead horse? It's sick addiction on my part to be honest, one of several I am trying to break. Part of me is just looking for that piece of news that screams "RED FLAG!!!" so I know when to put certain plans into action. How many people here actually know how to plant a friggin' potato bed or propagate plants and trees? How many here know how to make their own soap or even lye? Build shelters? I have no wealth so talk of precious metals is gloating in my opinion - what the hell is it with the human predisposition towards greed? "Must have money..." WTF? My income bracket may place me in the "dispensable" column, but I definitely possess more USEFUL skills than most people I know save maybe three. I am happy to know that I have surrounded myself with the people that understand what an enormous undertaking a self-sufficient community will be.

Again, these are just the frustrated ramblings of an uneducated and disgruntled 25 year-old, so to many they are probably quite easily dismissed. Judge for yourselves.

D!