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In This Issue
2009 Outlook, Part 4: Toxic Cocktails
Introduction
I must apologize for the delay in getting this missive out, but I am just
now emerging from the fetal crouch I have been in as I have watched the events
of the last two weeks unfold. My plan was to cover the commodity markets this
week, but instead I am going to go into a fundamental analysis because the
marketplace tells me to do so. A lot of wonderful work by many people (make
sure you review the work on the links in this newsletter) has been published
in the last three weeks and I am going to touch on a lot of it; when it is
woven into a broad canvass it offers a lot of thoughts which we must consider
as we maneuver through what I believe will ultimately become the end of the
line for the public servants, crony capitalists and their handmaidens and partners
in crime in the banking and financial systems.
I have bad news and good news. Whenever someone says that to me I ask for
the bad news first: The world economy is firmly in the grips of a DEPRESSION,
as defined by a peak to valley fall in world GDP of at least 10%. Do not look
for a recovery for at least a year, and possibly up to 2-3 years of contractions
interrupted by occasional blips higher (dead cat bounces). Everybody expects
things to bounce back as the have since WWII, but this time IT'S DIFFERENT.
HOPE is not a strategy and anyone who supports the President and his 535 partners
in corruption is about to learn this.
A hyperinflationary outcome is INEVITABLE because the "something for nothing" public
will DEMAND they do something about the collapsing incomes and economies --
and they will. As one government program after another fails, as THEY ALWAYS
DO, they will just create more programs WHICH WILL AMPLIFY previous failures.
As my friend Clyde Harrison says: "there will be deflation in everything
you own and inflation in everything you use", and I believe he is right.
My new number for losses in the G7 banking systems over the next 2-4 years
is now 25 trillion Dollars on top of the 15 trillion Dollars already implemented.
This DOES NOT include all the government social programs and deficit spending
for KEYNESIAN stimulus, which will entail more deficit spending in the next
20 months than we saw in the last 8 years. Furthermore, we will see bigger
budget deficits in the next 4 years than all budget deficits since the beginning
of America, over 200 years ago COMBINED. Since, eventually, no one in their
right mind would loan the G7 governments this money, of course they will "print
the money"!!! Ob@ma says his second, Joe Bid@n, will make sure waste fraud
and abuse never happen. How much time do you think he spends on this each day
-- 10 minutes (his attention span), 1 hour? We can rest assured our trillions
of Dollars is well spent with this guy at the wheel! I think not...
The Good news: EVERYTHING is mispriced for what is unfolding. Stocks,
Bonds, currencies, natural resources, precious metals, real estate are
ALL set for massive VOLATILITY and "volatility is opportunity" for the
prepared investor. Markets are going to ZOOM up and down and provide you
with EXCELLENT investment opportunities if you are properly prepared. Buy
and hold is DEAD except for the precious metals. Absolute Return Alternative
Investments are the way to approach this.
The flocks of BLACK swans just keep on emerging in market after market since
the last newsletter: the Eastern European currency and credit crisis, 50-year
lows in industrial production and exports in Japan, and the Pacific Rim for
that matter. We have seen the worst February in history in many stock markets
in the world.
The US government now owns or supports the biggest insurer in the world AIG
($150 billion bailout, headed to $450 billion, and a disguised bailout of BIG
BANKS), it supports ZOMBIE auto makers GM and Chrysler ($25 billion bailout
asking for another $25 billion WITHOUT any plans for profitability), the largest
mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac ($100 billion so far and headed
for $800 billion from prior bad lending, and this amount is set to skyrocket
as these POLITICALLY directed bad practices are to be expanded into FUTURE
bad lending to rescue the unrescueable and irresponsible homeowners who are
now in trouble), Citigroup (now under $1 a share, soon to be joined by Wells
Fargo, Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase and many others). Note: For the entire
hullabaloo surrounding corporate jet use by insolvent companies, Speaker of
the house Nancy P@losi is jetting back and forth from San Francisco on a private
Jet, the cost of which exceeds $400,000 a MONTH on average. Of course the government
is more fiscally and morally bankrupt, just as the rescued companies are!
All combined, these ZOMBIE companies ( and many more will join them
in the future) will cost US taxpayers trillions of Dollars as NONE of them
produce more than they consume (black holes of capital and business models
which are FATALLY flawed) and have trillions of Dollars of losses yet to
be realized and accounted for. Why is this being done by the US government?
These are the epitome of crony capitalist, politically-supported oligarch
industrial companies, and not to mention huge campaign contributors!!!
Taxpayer be damned! Do you realize that a trillion Dollars is: it i a million
million? An inconceivable sum to you and me... $11.6 trillion Dollars is
the tally so far and the main bank recapitalizations are still left in
the future.
In Europe the story is no better, in fact for the financial and banking systems
it is WORSE than the US, and therefore the nascent EURO currency is now FATALLY
flawed. In an excellent piece on the state of the Euro Zone banking system
by Gary North entitled: "The Looming Collapse of European Banking" at http://www.lewrockwell.com/north/north689.html we
learn about the true state of European banking, and it is as MUCH worse than
expected with $25 Billion of BAD paper of one sort or another.-- Hi ho hi ho,
it's off to the printing press they will go. The Euro zone banking system is
also DEAD men walking, just as the US and UK.
I spoke of a potential for a crash several weeks ago and it has materialized,
signaling the nightmare economy into which we are descending. My short-term
target for the S&P 500 is now 550. Here is the weekly chart of the S&P
500 illustrating the current breakdown and short-term projections:
S&P 500 Short-Term Target
This
market is breaking down and out of a pattern built since the initial crash
in September and October 2008; this is a HIGH energy break down after a consolidation
which lasted 5 months. The most frightening thing about this technical pattern
is EVERY major stock index in the world is a CLONE or MIRROR of this: FTSE.
CAC, DAX, HANGSENG, NIKKEI, Dow Jones Eurostox 50 and others are signaling
the economic destruction unfolding. This is a deadly chorus.
This is a powerful picture of the economic future because these patterns
represent MILLIONS of investor's' collective beliefs about the future of
these economies. And they are PUTTING their money where their collective
thoughts are directed; it is a collectively BLEAK picture of the economies
and the collective actions of public serpents', er servants'.
Longer term targets for the S&P 500 have now gone to 200 to 300. In the
4th quarter of 2008 the S&P 500 had NO EARNINGS for the first time since
the mid 1930's, can you say "another black swan?" The 1st quarter of 2009
will be no better; we can see the Wolfe Wave of COLLAPSING income at work (see
Tedbits Archives about the Wolf Wave). Excellent fundamental earnings research
has been made by John Mauldin and I urge you to read it at this link: www.frontlinethoughts.com/pdf/mwo022709 ,
showing a PE of over 50 signals and a decline of at least 60 to 80% FROM
here. OUCH. As I said weeks ago: Sell into rallies andif it's a big rally get
short for ANOTHER crash.
When you see his numbers, think about all the G7 and the ability to REPAY
bondholders and lenders of all stripes. Huge blood is on the horizon for
corporate bondholders and lenders, the bomb, er, bond market IS NOT A PLACE
TO HIDE, GET OUT! Don't let your broker FOOL YOU! GET OUT of Municipal and
State Bonds as well as they have borrowed for CONSUMPTION and have FREEFALLING
receipts to pay them. Sell any rally.
In one fell swoop the democratic supermajority is totally remaking the economy
in the US, back to the BAD old days of the Carter Administration, and going
even farther, in effect: High unemployment, high inflation, runaway regulation,
no incentives to produce/innovate or invest, confiscatory tax rates and collapsing
income from reduced business activity and inflation. These people are ECONOMIC
IGNORAMUSES and they are in the process of NATIONALIZING the DOMESTIC energy,
insurance, mortgage, banking, automobile and healthcare sectors for starters.
Not much left after that is there?
The taxman in disguise is appearing in the fight to combat CLIMATE change
(so the PUBLIC SERPENTS and non-governmental organizations are correct either
way the wind blows, no longer is it global warming as it has been definitively
DEBUNKED but the media WILL NOT report it). Cap and trade is nothing more than
a TAX on an imaginary BOOGEYMAN, to save you and give politicians the cover
to nationalize and terrorize broad swathes of the economies which still produce
profits.
This amounts to $640 billion of profits from the oil and energy sectors and
their PRIVATE shareholders (your neighbors, pension funds, institutions, endowments
and charities) and their transferring it to themselves and their CAMPAIGN contributors/special
interests in the BELTWAY. They know how to spend it better than YOU! The energy
proposals -- rather than FUND research to make environmentally-friendly energy
AFFORDABLE, -- tax the affordable and practical energy to unaffordable levels
to make environmental, politically correct sources practical. This is exactly
backwards of what must be done and it is capital destruction on a grand scale.
ECONOMIC ignoramuses!
First off, let's start with comments on the new Barack "Pinocchio" Ob@ma
Administration and the public servants inside the beltway of WASHINGTON
DC. Several words and comments come to mind: Morally and fiscally bankrupt
and absolutely corrupt. Their betrayal of doing what is good for their
constituents/country and creating the conditions for economic growth versus
doing what is good for their political ambitions and power over the economy
is on PLAIN display in their activities and proposals.
Contrary to their words, their actions can only lead to one conclusion:
They are PURPOSELY driving the economy off a cliff to gather power in the
UNFOLDING crisis by destroying every corner of what is still working at
the public's expense and MISERY. Please notice how they IMMEDIATELY jump
on any public figure who murmurs anything contrary to the headline illusions.
The only reason they are reducing the deduction for charity for those
earning over $250,000 dollars, at a time when we need charity more than
in the last 70 years, is so the people relying on charity will have to
rely on government.
The more the public servants take over broad swathes of the economy, the more
opportunities there are for them to collect rents from campaign supporters
in exchange for FAVORS; expanding opportunities for corruption, as if we did
not already have enough. They now and in the future have a lot more inventory
to SELL so the corruption is only set to skyrocket. It is sooooo much easier
for crony capitalists to buy markets through legislation than to build and
compete for market share. Mal Investments are set to explode. If you think
CORN based ethanol was a nightmare, think of it multiplied by 10 as new energy,
global climate change (tax man in disguise) and health care initiatives bury
capital in unproductive but politically correct BOONDOGGLES!
As I mentioned in previous newsletters, the stage is set for the emergence
of a new dictator, and my bet is that we shall see Ob@ma and the gang of 535
morph into it over the next two years. Two recent articles have caught my eye,
both are about Narcissism; one is by Dr.Ali Sina entitled "Understanding Ob@ma:
The Making of a Fuehrer at http://www.faithfreedom.org/obama.html (here's
a video from you tube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVnRzn4rjbY )
and another is by Dr Sam Vaknin at http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/vaknin.asp.
I STRONGLY urge you to watch/read these articles. They are absolutely FRIGHTENING
when you think about the consequences for us all. Unfortunately, the whole
US government and much of the G7 is in the hands of these monsters, the GANG
of 535 known as the US Congress, Judicial and Executive Branches and many in
Europe are undoubtedly cats of the same stripe.
Why do you think that many of the appointees of the OB@MA Administration are
being called Czars? Do you know the definition of CZAR? Look it up. It is a
dictator and that is what they will be, not public servants as they swear to
be. Public servants in the G7 have been CZARS for quite some time, only
now are they brazen enough to call themselves this in the MEDIA for all to
see.
Wait until you see what is in the cards at the EPA (Environmental Protection
Agency). Carol Browner (Al Gore protégé) is going to TOTALLY
rock your world? For the worse... to SAVE you...no, it's to destroy YOU! This
is a new Pandora's Box wrapped with a bow on it. Wait until you open it and
see all the gifts from the PUBLIC SERPENTS that comes from it...
There is no containing the corruption that can be implemented with the near
supermajority democrats (they only have to bribe 2 Republican senators with
EARMARKS and then we are all DONE). There is an old saying that power corrupts,
and absolute power corrupts absolutely; tthis is where we have arrived inside
the beltway, and once passed into law and implemented, never to be repealed.
With one stroke, The United States is being transformed into the equivalent
of the worker's paradise of FRANCE or WORSE, where anyone making over 4,000
Euros a month is rich. France is the epitome of what the US is set to become.
As you look at the basket-case economies of New York, New Jersey, Michigan,
Ohio and Illinois just know that this is the destination the rest of the country.
I have commented on the stimulus package which is an undisguised expansion
of the government of about 8%, as a percentage of GDP, and a permanent baseline
expansion in the government budget of over 25%. This is only the beginning;
in one fell swoop they are nationalizing the energy and healthcare industries
either through taxation or new programs, expanding not only the federal government
but also the state and municipal governments. The rest of us have to cut back
while our new rulers raise their pay and increase their take for redistribution
to their special interest CAMPAIGN supporters from us all.
I am a small business operator, I have two employees and in February added
a 3rd, as I try to expand. I learned last week that for my efforts in creating
jobs for myself and 3 others I will be rewarded for this. My reward from Ob@ma
unveiled his omnibus budget proposal for this year -- 8,700 earmarks (is this
the change we expected?) and budgets DEFICITS for the next several years, and
if carefully added up, my taxes will be going from a rate of 35% to over 60%
by the end of next year. I am by no means RICH.
I started in my profession over 25 years ago and gradually worked myself to
my present level. I have not accumulated a large retirement account as I am
now entering my peak earning years, but these new tax proposals transfer my
future savings to the government to support people who have not worked hard,
studied, taken the risk of starting a business, etc. I have worked 60 to 70
hours a week for as long as I can remember, I did not buy a house I could not
afford, I have paid my taxes in full, I support charities and lead a lawful
existence; for this I am a bad man and I am being punished to save people who
have not lead responsible lives. I am an evil RICH guy, or a patriot as Jumpin
Joe Bid@n says.
Why are they doing this? Michael Boskin, economic professor at Stanford University
sums it up quite nicely in a recent article in the www.wsj.com:
"New and expanded refundable tax credits would raise the fraction of taxpayers
paying no income taxes to almost 50% from 38%. This is potentially the most
pernicious feature of the president's budget, because it would cement a permanent
voting majority with no stake in controlling the cost of general government.
From the poorly designed stimulus bill and vague new financial rescue plan,
to the enormous expansion of government spending, taxes and debt somehow permanently
strengthening economic growth, the assumptions underlying the president's economic
program seem bereft of rigorous analysis and a careful reading of history.
Unfortunately, our history suggests new government programs, however noble
the intent, more often wind up delivering less, more slowly, at far higher
cost than projected, with potentially damaging unintended consequences. The
most recent case, of course, was the government's meddling in the housing market
to bring home ownership to low-income families, which became a prime cause
of the current economic and financial disaster.
On the growth effects of a large expansion of government, the European social
welfare states present a window on our potential future: standards of living
permanently 30% lower than ours. Rounding off perceived rough edges of our
economic system may well be called for, but a major, perhaps irreversible,
step toward a European-style social welfare state with its concomitant long-run
economic stagnation is not."
The public serpents now have the MOB behind them. The mob is impoverished
from the public servants' policies and DO NOT understand that it is the public
servants, nanking systems, crony capitalists and governments they are supporting
who are actually the cause and perpetrators of their MISERY!
John Williams at www.shadowstats.com (I
urge you to subscribe to this excellent source of truth and honest economic
reporting) is reporting that unemployment levels, as measured before the government
defined away the definitions of the true measure, are now over 19%. NON massaged
numbers put it at 812,000. Question: What was the only sector to GAIN jobs?
Government, what else. Take a look at the true picture of unfolding unemployment
and weep:

If the American public ever finds out about the enormity of the lies that
the government (GDP, unemployment, inflation, etc.) and the main stream media
has published without QUESTIONING as TRUTH, there would and will be wide scale
RIOTING! The problem for the main stream media and their public servant masters
is that the lies just keep on getting BIGGER and BIGGER and sooner or later
even the dumbest among us will FIGURE it out. I am surprised their noses are
not a mile long. Pinocchio where are YOU?
Economic activity throughout the US is in FREEFALL. John also reports the
false nature of the budget projections which are based on PHONY GDP growth
projections of negative 1.2 % this year, +3.2 percent next year and higher
after that. BALD lies to fool the American sheep into supporting NEW spending
and government expansion upon which there is no ability to PAY for them.
The unemployment report came out and it claims wages are up 3.6% over the
last year? Do you believe this? If falsity is on plain display, ask any one
of the 3 million newly unemployed. What's wrong with this picture?
Once they pass the programs based on these PHONY projections they will just
PRINT the money as they are VITAL government services after that point. Do
you believe in the tooth fairy? Washington DC does, as do all the G7 public
servants. They think they can write a check, guarantee a loan, give away free
ENTITLEMENTS without LIMITS and their creditors, taxpayers and the printing
press will PAY FOR IT ALL. The patsy's are quickly WAKING UP! They shall soon
find out what I learned in Econ 101:
"There ain't no such thing as a free lunch" and the tab is about to come due....
In conclusion: The policy prescriptions of the G7 are combining into a potent
toxic cocktail for the private sector. It is clear that many of the crony capitalists
who have leaned on public servants and the banksters for decades are now failing
as their business models are not providing more for less (as would be in a
capitalist economy), but now rely on government for their lofty perches. As
we watch one big company after another fall, even mighty GE is about to be
humbled, it is the entrepreneurs who will be needed to create economic salvation.
The oligarchs are falling and the G7 governments are doing everything in their
power to kill their successors.
What we see happening is the collapse of the American dream. America as we
know it and its constitution are now a corpses. Weasel words and ORWELLIAN
doublespeak are the norm. Contrary to the broad belief of the dumbed down, "functionally
illiterate" citizens of the G7, their economies are now the poorest in the
world and their debts are increasing not in a compounded manner, but geometrically.
Truth about what's unfolding is SCARCE. Leaders are only increasingly becoming
dictators and ignoramuses. The attacks on competitive tax areas (they are not
tax havens, this capital has left because it is mistreated, subject to confiscation,
overtaxed and regulated). That sucking sound you hear is CAPITAL flight from
the G7 as it is in peril; the talk about tax-competitive regions is just the
bankrupt politicians getting ready to chase it.
There are many web links in this newsletter and it is important that you review
them to PREPARE yourself and your families. It will be a lot of GOOD work.
Eastern Europe and the PIGS (Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain) are in absolute
meltdown mode. Currency, credit and a funding crisis are IMMINENT and unfolding
RAPIDLY.
Governments in the G7 have now grown faster than the respective economies
for DECADES. The G7 ability to create wealth, savings and produce more than
it consumes is now very small and in freefall. The government and elite parasites
have now outgrown the wealth creating private sectors, or "host", and are rapidly
KILLING what profitable sectors are left, so collapse is set to unfold in an
increasingly UGLY manner. The G7 are the most MASSIVE debtor nations in history
and their currencies have now inflated to the point of collapse as ASSET backed
economies and wealth creation through falsely stated inflation has now GONE
INTO REVERSE. As Von Mises stated:

The latter is where we are today. The future money printing on a simultaneous
basis will turn Dollars, Euros, and Pounds into dimes first, then worthlessness
soon after. The maximum time to FINAL meltdown in my estimation is less than
5 years. There is only one bit of good news and I laid it out at the beginning
of this missive:
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Tedbits is authored by Theodore "Ty" Andros, and is registered with TraderView,
a registered CTA (Commodity Trading Advisor) and Global Asset Advisors (Introducing
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Mr. Andros began his commodity career in the early 1980's and became a managed
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