Missed Payments

Fact vs. Fiction on Today’s Economy

There is a lot of “noise” being tossed out by the politicos and their preferred pundits about how the U.S. economy is on the mend. Thus it is important to try and separate fact from fiction about where things really stand.

FICTION: Though sporadic, the U.S. economy will continue to improve.
FACT: The U.S. is headed for a currency crisis.

While having learned to cover their butts by adding some modest modifiers to their generally rosy forecasts, the administration’s shills (Geithner, Bernanke, Summers, et al.) are unified in telling us that the worst is over.

The fact is that the U.S., nay, the world, is headed for fiat currency crash. Let me push forward some evidence in support of that contention. (more)

Nouriel Roubini -Double Dip Recession 5 20 2010 CNBC

Burden of Irish debt could yet eclipse that of Greece

OPINION: What will sink us, unfortunately but inevitably, are the huge costs of the September 2008 bank bailout, writes MORGAN KELLY

IT IS no longer a question of whether Ireland will go bust, but when. Unlike Greece, our woes do not stem from government debt, but instead from the government’s open-ended guarantee to cover the losses of the banking system out of its citizens’ wallets.

Even under the most optimistic assumptions about government spending cuts and bank losses, by 2012 Ireland will have a worse ratio of debt to national income than the one that is sinking Greece. (more)

Gerald Celente with Max Keiser on the Edge PressTV 05/18/2010

Chart of the Day

Comments On This Week’s COT Data

For the past two weeks I have been observing a divergence from what has been a fairly reliable pattern involving the Swap Dealers and the big Commercials (Producer/User/Merchant/Processor) category. I remarked about this last week in my comments and mentioned that we would be watching to see if this divergence looks like it might be more than perhaps a one or two hit wonder.

This week’s report now shows the 3rd consecutive week in which the Swap Dealers have gone the opposite direction of the other big commercials. What makes this so noteworthy is that by simply looking over the chart, you can see that for the most part these two giants have been pretty much marching in lock step with each other. As the net short commercial position increases, the swap dealer net short position generally increases as well. When it decreases, so too does the Swap Dealer’s. (more)