The Devil's Christmas Letter - by Charles Hughes Smith

http://stockmarketchartanalyst.blogspot.com/2010/12/devils-christmas-letter-by-charles.html

The Devil pens a Christmas letter...

Through means I am unable to disclose, I have obtained a copy of the Devil's Christmas letter. Yes, Satan too sends a Yule letter, and no, I was not on his mailing list. I think Satan's Holiday cheer should give us all pause.

To my fallen angels Beelzebub, Lucifer and Leviathan, princes of Hell's demons, and to my minions, lackeys, toadies and sycophants on Earth:

As you know, this time of year usually finds me quite despondent, as the Prince of Peace's influence waxes most atrociously around his birthday. But this year I am in fine spirits, nay, let me even declare myself absolutely giddy, for the destruction of the United States of America draws ever nearer.

Though my minions have long sown festering seeds of hate and disharmony in that now-benighted land, only recently have my favored weapons of destruction--leverage, debt, half-truths and endless, preening justifications for greed, sloth, lust, pride, envy, anger and gluttony--have been unleashed to worm their way into the stricken heart of that Republic.

My most treasured hopes of destitution and conflict in the U.S.A. are nearing fruition.

First, my minions in the Federal Reserve--such loyal servants!--and the Federal government have unleashed a veritable orgy of leverage and debt upon the land, spreading ruination under the false guise of prosperity. What a delicious irony, that the fools doomed to eternal damnation in my Empire believe themselves prosperous as they absorb the poison of exponentially rising leverage and debt.

They have made a mockery of the rule of law, openly flouting it by letting financial crimes go not just unpunished but rewarded. The blatant injustice that roams the land like a foul, slobbering beast--there are two sets of laws and two sets of books now, one for the financial Elites and their political toadies, and another one for the tax donkeys beneath them--this will eventually ignite the firestorm I seek.

American extravagance has surpassed even my highest expectations, as purveyors of luxury goods reap record profits, and the childish desire for instant gratification has become the unspoken ruler of the land. Convenience is now worshipped as a god, sitting triumphant beside entitlement, greed and willful ignorance.

Convenience is, as you all know, the name of a peculiarly slick slide into Hell.

One of my favorite sins, gluttony, is running amok, with half of the people groaning under their own weight, sickened and weakened. My loyal minions in the fast-food and packaged food industries have followed my plans to perfection, and my lackeys in the marketing and media have fueled the instant gratification and ignorance which insidiously undermine even the greatest empires.

Pride--oh, how the Americans excel at hubris and pride! The Federal Reserve chairman, bless his doomed soul, has declared himself 100% confident about an economy that is nothing but a confidence game. Oh, what joy to hear his lies spoken with such confidence!

The mere thought of the word greed cause me to chuckle delightedly, as the U.S. excels as a haven for greed without bounds, a greed so boundless that the entire universe would be insufficient to satisfy its bankers, hedge fund managers, high-frequency traders, Imperial factotums and politicians. How happy I am to see their greed grease their way into Hell.

I feel like dancing a jig when I hear the unbridled sense of entitlement which has poisoned the American spirit. Yes, let greed and avarice be cloaked with rationalizations--"I was promised," "It's my right," "I deserve it," "it's in our contract"--it is wondrous indeed how my secret invention, "free money," debilitates once-independent souls.

Anger is now overflowing everywhere, building my empire with every thoughtless word. Politicians rage against each other, the people rage against the politicians, and behind the scenes my servants in the political action committees feed the anger with billions of dollars in campaign donations. How amusing to see the politicos lay claim to noble ideals even as they scramble on their knees to collect the millions tossed at their feet to do my bidding.

Oh yes, my bidding, for their greed, pride and anger are my bidding. By all means, politicians, do my work: give tax breaks to the ultra-wealthy, let financial crimes go unpunished, allow the financial Elites' looting to go unhindered, transfer the wealth earned by the citizens' sweat to the financial Elites when their trillion-dollar bets go bad--fuel the anger which will tear you from power, and tear the country apart.

I laughed with glee when One Beholden To Me announced that he was doing "God's work"--how I love twisting together irony and lies! He fooled no one, of course, for even the most deluded souls know he is doing My Work, not the Lord's, but they are too distracted by games and ginned-up contests to care.

Not caring is doing my work, too, of course.

The nation bleeds itself with unwinnable wars, sacrificing its best youth on the altar of endless war--how can I not rejoice at this orgy of death, destruction and sowing of hate? The feeble liars at the nation's helm print endless sums to fund war and to prop up vile tyrants, but offer nothing for libraries or literacy or the curing of malaria. How can I not rejoice at a nation which finds trillions for war and next to nothing to fight the diseases of the poor residents of former colonies, including that Prince of Disease, ignorance.

As for sloth--that millions are being paid to sit around watching television instead of being productive creates the perfect breeding ground for resentment, malice and envy. How perfect to pay people to sit at home and rot away, with only their discontent and despair for company.

As you know all too well, idle hands end up doing my piecework for free.

It was almost beyond my dreams to find the nation's wealth and politics so dominated by a tiny handful of wealthy financial plutocrats--they are doing my bidding without hindrance, though I see by their troubled sleep that they know where their greed and rationalizations are taking them. To channel the nation's wealth to a few hands--what better way to nurture envy and anger?

If ignorance were treasure, the American political class must be declared wealthier than Midas, for its ignorance has reached a pinnacle I can truly admire. Ensnared by their lust for power, blinded by their greed for fame and perquisites, they look no further than the next election cycle, dooming their nation to division, disharmony and the desolation of permanent conflict over the dwindling productive assets of this once-great nation.

The people cry out to be saved by the government, as if it was a Savior instead of a vast combine chewing through the wealth of the nation, "investing" it in corruption, parasitic financial Elites, military misadventures, Homeland "Security"--ha, isn't that a jewel, as the nation withers from within--and the steady, unyielding oppression of the remaining productive members of society.

When the people cheer "We're number One," I cheer with them, for pride goeth before a fall. When they believe the half-truths, the illusions, the mispresentations, the misdirections and yes, the outright lies of the ruling class repeated by their toadies in the media, I can no longer restrain my delight, for lies and half-truths are my favored weapons of destruction. The leaders are themselves leaderless, blank, hollowed-out souls doing the bidding of their parasitic masters, focused only on keeping the corrupt and venal status quo together for a few more months, never looking out ten years.

I delight in that shortsightedness, that abject fear of change and transformation, that clinging to failure and pride, that refusal to face reality.

For the U.S.A. is now an Empire of Debt and Lies, its fraudulent financial system built on misrepresentations of risk and value, and its "economy of confidence" a con game based on illusory wealth, parasitic skimming, government gaming and tax donkeys paying for their Financial Masters' idiotic mistakes.

This adolescent desire to believe the lies, because in believing the lies then nothing need change--this might be my most powerful destructive tool.

A hunger for fantasy and illusion, a fear of adaptation, a childish demand for instant gratification--these are forces I can rely on to lead the once-great country to absolute ruin.

And here is the beautifully evil part, my minions--no external enemy is required. The Americans are destroying themselves with their reliance on leverage, debt, denial, half-truths and overflowing servings of the Seven Deadly Sins, all of which they have elevated to "assets" in their hopelessly twisted values. To be supremely unproductive, a churner of lies and financial trickery, is now the most rewarded and admired state in America.

The spiritual rot is now so deep and pervasive that the people no longer even recognize the decay --they have been lulled into a false belief that this culture of fraud, embezzlement, manipulations, propaganda and parasitic financial Elites has always held sway. This is precisely how a people act when they have lost their way, spiritually and morally: they elevate sins to virtues, and forget the lessons of their past.

And of course everyone claiming that there is no spiritual vacuum sucking the nation dry, that the status quo is simply "business as usual"--they are doing my work, too, for habituating to all that is corrupt and reprehensible, all that is lacking in integrity and honesty, this is doing my work most admirably.

Americans no longer hate me, they hate sacrifice, with a passion that enlivens my enthusiasm for their self-destruction.

How can I not be pleased this season? At long last, the destruction of the United States by its own citizens is close at hand. Give me two years, minions, no more than four, and I shall insure they will finally begin reaping what they have sown. Ignorance, my poor dear Americans, will not save you, nor will your endless parade of excuses, justifications and rationalizations. Indeed, they are my weapons which you drive deeper into your nation's heart with every lie, every excuse, every frantic justification for your own entitlement.

I await 2011 with high expectations.

Most sincerely yours,

Satan

http://www.oftwominds.com/blogdec10/Devils-Christmas-Letter12-10.html

On More Stimulus Spending – by Dr. Ron Paul

http://stockmarketchartanalyst.blogspot.com/



Faced with continuing economic decline and an impending election, the administration, predictably, is entertaining the idea of another stimulus package. To explain why the last one didn't work, adherents to the Keynesian economic philosophy are claiming that they actually did work – it just looks like they didn't because we don't realize how much worse off we would be right now without trillions of dollars of public spending. The last administration bought into Keynesianism just as much as this one does, unfortunately. Until we have leaders who understand that debt is not the way to prosperity, there will be no stopping runaway government spending.

While it is nice to hear about business tax breaks, the positive results of these tax cuts will be dwarfed by its negative effects. First of all, $200 billion or so in temporary tax cuts and credits to businesses are nothing compared to the $3.8 trillion in tax hikes that will hit the economy like a ton of bricks on January 1, 2011 if the Bush tax cuts are not extended by Congress.

Second of all, businesses are reluctant to hire and invest, not because they are looking for temporary credits, but because of future uncertainty; they simply don't know what the government is going to do next and how future government policies will affect decisions they make now. What new costs and regulations will be placed on them with healthcare reform and financial services reform? Will Congress convene a lame-duck session this winter to pass cap-and-trade and other destructive legislation? What will the cost of compliance be for hiring new employees, and will that force them to simply lay off anyone they hire now? Worse, will the government come up with fines or additional costs if businesses have to lay people off in the future? Right now, the safest thing for businesses to do is nothing. Until we regain respect for the rule of law and remove some of this uncertainty, I'm afraid none of these temporary promises, made right before an election, will do much towards any economic improvement.

The other glaring problem with this proposed stimulus package is that it couples tax cuts with spending increases, which makes no sense when we are already heavily indebted to foreign countries. We should be cutting taxes and slashing government spending dramatically. The private sector simply cannot bear the burden of our engorged public sector. In fact, one reason earlier stimulus programs did not result in any private sector growth is because large amounts went to the public sector. Indeed, the spending that the administration is now proposing arguably constitutes a bailout of the public sector and various union allies of the administration.

This administration is falling into the same dangerous trap we fell into during the Great Depression, as did the Germans leading into their hyperinflation of the 1920's. The temptation is to do something, anything, proactive to attempt to stimulate the economy, but history has shown us that governments cannot spend their way into prosperity. The best thing government could do is get back to its Constitutional limitations and let the economy stabilize, heal and recover without the crushing burden of government holding it back.

http://www.thedailybell.com/1375/Ron-Paul-On-More-Stimulus-Spending.html

NEWS - From "Alternative" Sources - NOT the Mainstream Propaganda Machine...

http://stockmarketchartanalyst.blogspot.com/

Here are a number of articles I read this morning, from my favorite "alternative" news sources:

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Shadow Government Statistics:
Analysis Behind and Beyond Government Economic Reporting

http://www.shadowstats.com/

If you've watched my last few updates on the market, you'll notice that I'm quite cynical when it comes to any economic report put out by the government (and I'm also very skeptical that earnings reports aren't continually being fudged. Just look at the recent SEC case against Dell as an example). This site gives you the REAL scoop when it comes to the government's reports of economic data...

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Show Me the Recovery:
While second-quarter sales increases are encouraging, weak cash generation is worrisome.

http://www.cfo.com/article.cfm/14522495

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Claims of Recovery But Results Nowhere To Be Found:
A weekly excerpt from the subscription issue of The International Forecaster, taken from Bob Chapman's weekly publication.

http://theinternationalforecaster.com/International_Forecaster_Weekly/Claims_of_Recovery_But_Results_Nowhere_To_Be_Found

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Economists Cut U.S. Growth Forecast - AGAIN!:
Projected U.S. economic growth for the rest of this year and next was revised down for a third month in a row by a panel of about 50 economists.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Economists-cut-US-growth-rb-1119878296.html?x=0

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Hell Yes It’s Class Warfare! Part 1:
There is an intentional misconception out there in the market place of talking points and political discussion – it is that liberals are waging class warfare on the wealthy.

http://cons-lie.com/2010/09/07/hell-yes-its-class-warfare-part-1/

Hell Yes It’s Class Warfare! Part 2:

http://cons-lie.com/2010/09/08/hell-yes-its-class-warfare-part-2/

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The Wholly Fallible Ben Bernanke:
Despite three crucial errors at the Federal Reserve, its chairman is still revered as if he is the pope – while we pay the price.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/sep/08/ben-bernanke-federal-reserve

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Rome is Burning:
There is a critical point that I fear the commentariat is just not getting.

http://modeledbehavior.com/2010/09/07/rome-is-burning/

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In The Headlights:
The toils of summer are bygone now. The days grow shorter and America stands in the darkling road of its own prospects like a dumb animal frozen in the blinding light of approaching fury.

http://www.kunstler.com/blog/2010/09/in-the-headlights.html#more

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Death By Globalism:
Have economists made themselves irrelevant? If you have any doubts, have a look at the current issue of themagazine, International Economy, a slick publication endorsed by former Federal Reserve chairmen Paul Volcker and Alan Greenspan, by Jean-Claude Trichet, president of the European Central Bank, by former Secretary of State George Shultz, and by the New York Times and Washington Post, both of which declare the magazine to be “ahead of the curve.”

http://www.counterpunch.org/roberts09012010.html

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And finally, the winner of the "Doom and Gloom Award" goes to this piece, which I found to be a fascinating read...

Doomsdayers Not Cynical Enough:
[Like your editor, Rick’s Picks forum regular Wayne Razzi (aka “Red Will”) is a veteran floor-trader who grew up in South Jersey. When I asked him if he would like to contribute a guest commentary, I was not expecting the provocative tour de force that unfolds, step by step, below. In the essay, Will asserts nothing less that that the impending collapse of our economic system was meticulously engineered by financial and political sociopaths. Let me attest that his is not some whack-o conspiracy theory; rather, it is the closely-reasoned argument of a highly intelligent person who values truth sufficiently to have searched for it, in the form of an answer to a profoundly disturbing question, for many years. Judge for yourself whether his conclusions tally with your own thoughts as to why the American Dream is about to go bust. RA]

http://news.goldseek.com/RickAckerman/1284012060.php

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That's it for today...
I hope you enjoy reading these articles as much as I did!

Happy Trading!...
the zigzagman

Fix America? = Fix the Politicians!...

By Dylan Ratigan - July 4th, 2010, 2:00PM

http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2010/07/fix-america-fix-the-politicians/

Today we end Fix It week on my show, although we hope to keep this recurring theme. But the largest hindrance to solutions for all of the problems we’ve discussed – be it the Deficit, Energy, Education or the Wars – goes back to one place: the current Political Process in our country.

We practically all share the same list of problems, regardless of ideology: The undue influence of moneyed interest, the focus on inane Culture Wars instead of proper governance, the low quality of our politicians coupled with their high incumbency rates, the lack of ethics, disclosure etc. The only question left is how to fix them and then, how do we muster the will?

These are the questions we will address for my entire show today – and just to get the ball rolling, here are four of my favorite solutions:

1. ONE FOR ME, ONE FOR YOU:

I don’t have to explain to anyone why we need to fix the campaign finance system. The question is how do we do it fairly. Publicly financed campaigns are one solution, but they seem to go against our very nature as Americans. After all, who wants to be forced into having their tax money going to politicians they don’t like? Meanwhile, infringing on the amounts people can donate gives an advantage to wealthy candidates. But I think there is pretty easy solution to this:

I propose that we make a law that charges 100% fee on all political spending, with the that fee going into a public campaign financing fund that given solely to candidates with low campaign coffers on a per petition signature basis. This means that if a well-moneyed candidate like Barack Obama wants to spend $740 million of campaign donations, $370 million of that can go to his campaign and the other half to public campaign fund.

Even better, if a wealthy person like Michael Bloomberg wants to spend $108 million of his fortune trying to get elected, half goes to other, less-moneyed candidates. As far as those “poorer” candidates go, the more valid petition signatures they have, the more money they should get from the fund.

In addition to curtailing the power of the dollar in elections, this would especially help new candidates take advantage of modern marvels like social networking etc. to jumpstart a serious challenge to more-moneyed opponents.

And if you don’t want your money going to candidates you don’t like, then don’t get in to the game in the first place.

2. DISCLOSE EVERYTHING TO ALL:

It is a sad state of affairs when corporations, who clearly don’t work for us, are forced to disclose more to than Politicians who do (or at least are paid by us). We need to put the legal onus on Politicians to disclose every single potential conflict of interest, be it an invite to a BBQ or getting their nephew a job with a contractor. This means that if it could in any conceivable way be considered a conflict, it’s on them to disclose it even if there is no specific rule against it. Then, if they are found being negligent of material disclosure, they need to be fired, fined and possibly jailed.

Finally, this information MUST be updated weekly into open-source searchable databases. There is no shortage of smart, patriotic Americans who can take it from there.

3. COOL YOUR HEELS FOR SEVEN YEARS:

The revolving door from Politics to corresponding positions of undue influence in the private sector has to be stopped. There needs to be a seven year cooling off period for all Politicians, staffers and regulators from working in any related industry or lobbying their former colleagues.

While this might sound draconian, ask yourself, do you really think we are getting high quality public servants with the current incentive structure? I am betting we will get much more capable public servants once we hinder their ability to get rich off of their service.

4. END THE LEFTY-RIGHTY FACADE:

As far as I can tell, at this point the major differences in the traditional Political Parties has basically become their stance on gay marriage – and even that looks pretty similar once they are in power. Both like to give away money they don’t have and are unwilling to stand up to the special interests that fund them.

Furthermore, the false choice of “Republican” or “Democrat” is keeping some of the best candidates from making it to the general election. If politicians want to align themselves into two Political Parties, that is their right. But the government shouldn’t allow them to hold separate primaries. Hopefully this recent move to open primaries in California will take off across the country.

The question now is how do we get these same complicit politicians to make the fundamental changes that we need to the system. My hope is that in the coming years, we will see more and more people deciding that they have had enough and will enter into the political spectrum or push their neighbors and friends to do so.

Also, I am waiting patiently for serious candidates in the United States to sign a legally binding contract guaranteeing that they will support initiatives like the ones outlined above. Don’t laugh, it’s already on its way across the pond.

Politicians held personally liable for breaking their promises to the voter? That’s change we all could believe in.

Follow Dylan Ratigan on Twitter: www.twitter.com/DylanRatigan