Students are paying high prices for a terrible service

Kirk Here.  Jain is right again "These two areas are also the biggest contributors to over-all inflation in America."   How many realize that Tough to get into schools are more "gating functions" to identify who has the will AND ability to succeed... having MORE schools doesn't change the number who have the will AND ability to succeed.  You need changes at the root for this, the parents.

-------- Original Message --------

Subject:	FWC: Students are paying high prices for a terrible service
Date:	Fri, 29 Apr 2011 08:17:50 -0700
From:	Jas Jain

FWC: Students are paying high prices for a terrible service

"…that students are paying ever-higher prices for ever-shoddier education, and that the main culprits are administrators, pestilential creatures who pursue goals that have little to do with education (fancy new buildings, attention-grabbing victory in sporting events, etc), and who, according to official statistics, will be as numerous as actual teachers on America's campuses by 2014."

"Education" and sickness-care in America are the best pieces of evidence of financial bloodsuckers in-charge of the economy and the govt polices. These two areas are also the biggest contributors to over-all inflation in America. There is no business like financial bloodsucking, e.g., mortgage fraud and student loans, with the blessing from the govt. Only collapse of the current econo-political system can pull Americans from the jaws of financial bloodsuckers, human sharks.

Jas

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

·         The higher-education bubble

Students are paying high prices for a terrible service

Apr 29th 2011, 10:10 by Schumpeter

YET another fascinating article on the higher-education bubble. Malcolm Harris argues, in N+1, a politics and culture magazine, that the bubble is huge, that students are paying ever-higher prices for ever-shoddier education, and that the main culprits are administrators, pestilential creatures who pursue goals that have little to do with education (fancy new buildings, attention-grabbing victory in sporting events, etc), and who, according to official statistics, will be as numerous as actual teachers on America's campuses by 2014. Here are two extracts:

Since 1978, the price of tuition at US colleges has increased over 900 percent, 650 points above inflation. To put that number in perspective, housing prices, the bubble that nearly burst the US economy,  then the global one, increased only fifty points above the Consumer Price Index during those years. But while college applicants' faith in the value of higher education has only increased, employers' has declined. According to Richard Rothstein at The Economic Policy Institute, wages for college-educated workers outside of the inflated finance industry have stagnated or diminished. Unemployment has hit recent graduates especially hard, nearly doubling in the post-2007 recession. The result is that the most indebted generation in history is without the dependable jobs it needs to escape debt....

 Today, student debt is an exceptionally punishing kind to have. Not only is it inescapable through bankruptcy, but student loans have no expiration date and collectors can garnish wages, social security payments, and even unemployment benefits. When a borrower defaults and the guaranty agency collects from the federal government, the agency gets a cut of whatever it's able to recover from then on (even though they have already been compensated for the losses), giving agencies a financial incentive to dog former students to the grave.

Gold / Silver Price Ratio Just Below 30-Year Low

Ackerman and David Rosenberg —Capitulate

-------- Original Message --------

Subject:	Rosenberg and Ackerman -- Re: SPX 1356-57 . . .
Date:	Thu, 28 Apr 2011 10:03:47 -0700
From:	Jas Jain <jas_jain@hotmail.com>

To: jas_jain
Subject: Re: SPX 1356-57 . . .
Date: Thu, 28 Apr 2011 09:21:25 -0700

 

http://pragcap.com/david-rosenberg-turns-bullish

Short!!! :-D

 

This week we have seen two weak souls— Ackerman and Rosenberg —capitulate. I feel even better about my positions than I did last week. How much upside Rosenberg sees for the Scam Market (3-5%?) and how much downside he is risking to his reputation? Hyperinflation is impossible before the collapse of the American econo-political system and attempts to prevent the collapse (huge cuts in spending by the govts at all levels) would naturally lead to deflation.

Weak people should not be in the business of forecasting economy and financial markets. Attacks (arguments?) from born-and-bred dopes are not easy to take. They should get into political propaganda business where there is no downside.

Jas

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

http://pragcap.com/david-rosenberg-turns-bullish

DAVID ROSENBERG TURNS BULLISH….

28 April 2011 by Cullen Roche

After trying to call the top in equities every other week for the last two years, David Rosenberg has finally thrown in the towel on the bearish calls.  In his Wednesday research report he detailed why he believes equities have achieved a "holy grail" and should continue to move higher:

"On a very near-term basis, and despite my long-standing macro concern list, which has not gone away, it does look like the market is set to rise further.  The technicals are suggesting as much, though I do await what Walter Murphy may have to say on the matter.  I had said before that a breakout to new highs led by higher volume would be an important technical signpost.  Well, we achieved that Holy Grail yesterday – both in level terms and with respect to the change.  This is not throwing in the towel, it is an acknowledgment of what the market internals are flashing at the current time from a purely tactical and technical standpoint….

…All that said, we had a breakout to new highs yesterday and this time, the volume rose on the major exchanges, not to mention rising above the 50 DMA on the Nasdaq, which is a clear sign that the big boys are putting money to work.  This market continues to impressively climb a wall of worry.  Market internals are too strong to ignore right now – the NYSE advancers beat decliners by a 3 to 1 ratio yesterday; the Dow transports soared 1.9%; and the small caps beat their major benchmarks.  My overall macro concerns have not gone away, but these market facts on the ground are tough to ignore."

These permabears have been an important brick in the wall of worry.  Richard Russell threw in the towel earlier this year and now Rosenberg appears to be throwing in the towel (despite his comments to the contrary).  And that might be one reason to actually worry….

  Survey Survey Best CD Rates

The top CD annal percentage yield (APY) this week is at Discover Bank for a 10-year certificate of deposit currently paying 3.00%.

With the 10-year US Treasury paying 3.36%, there is little incentive to lock up money for 10 years at banks.   For shorter periods, like one to five years, you do better with bank CDs.  For example, the Pacific Mercantile Bank currently pays 1.26% for their 1-yr CDs while the 1-YR US Treasury only pays a minute 0.20%.

With rates so low, banks will try to sell you their annuity products. Make sure you read my article: Beware of Annuities.

1-Month CD Daily Chart

More Americans on the gov't dole than ever in US history.

-------- Original Message --------

Subject:	RE: More Americans on the gov't dole than ever in US history.
Date:	Wed, 27 Apr 2011 08:29:54 -0700
From:	Jas Jain

To: jas_jain
Subject: More Americans on the gov't dole than ever in US history.
Date: Wed, 27 Apr 2011 08:03:43 -0700

http://www.usatoday.com/news/usaedition/2011-04-26-transferpaymentsnew_ST_U.htm

 

That is what makes America "the greatest and freest country in history?" The Republican Party had done nothing to curb the welfare state and has been funding the welfare with huge increases in deficits and not by taxing the super rich. It is patently unfair to ask a young working family (not on welfare), with median income for the area it lives in, to fund welfare for the poor and the old. Either eliminate the welfare (refund the money collected for the future welfare with interest) or raise taxes on the super rich to the same levels as in 1950s (marginal rate of 89%). Welfare and low tax rates for the rich don't mix well.

The American political system is already broken and nothing can prevent full-fledged depression when more than half the population would be on food stamps and those who have work would mostly be earning the lowest real wages in their lifetime. Economic slavery would be rampant in "the greatest and freest country in history."

The question is: Who are responsible for this? Without finding the correct answer to this question there cannot be any solution. Propaganda makes sure that the correct answer is not arrived at. Americans have been bred to be dopes for a reason.

Jas

Marc Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Larry Ellison, Steve Jobs, etc are Jerks Says Jain

Kirk here: Takes one to know one is what I suspect they would say if they care....

-------- Original Message --------

Subject:	"The Jerk Factor" In Silly.con Valley
Date:	Mon, 25 Apr 2011 12:08:17 -0700
From:	Jas Jain

"The Jerk Factor" In Silly.con Valley

CNBC did a segment on the Jerk Factor and commented that the latest poster child is Marc Zuckerberg. Bill Gates (not in Silly.con Valley), Larry Ellison, Steve Jobs, etc. are all part of the success by being jerks. Nice guys do finish last in the System of the Crooks and jerks and other type of crooks, e.g., John Chambers, rise to the top. It is all part of a culture that worships success at any cost, but success for whom and at whose expense? These are the questions that are not asked.

Jas

Tax Bracket Rates

US Federal tax rates for 2011
 
US Federal tax rates for 2010

$200 oil - new low in NDX and SPX

Crude Oil Price Charts

-------- Original Message --------

Subject:	RE: Jeff Rubin: $200 oil?
Date:	Wed, 20 Apr 2011 15:18:02 -0700
From:	Jas Jain

To: jas_jain
Subject: Jeff Rubin: $200 oil?
Date: Wed, 20 Apr 2011 13:27:07 -0700

$200 oil would be equivalent to US oil consumption as a pct. of today's private GDP of 15-16% (roughly equal to the US gov't fiscal deficit today) and gasoline at $5.50-$5.75/gal.

A rise in the price of gasoline by that much would be a hit to US household spending of a MASSIVE 4-4.25% nominal since '10 (5-6% hit to GDP), which is almost TWICE the hit that occurred in '80-'82 and '08-'09.

 

IOW, the only net incremental growth in the US economy to date is nominal spending for gasoline and oil-related expenditures and gov't spending (20% annualized in Q1), including direct and indirect transfers to households and firms, not the least of which is from war spending.

Yet, the stock market is levitating as if business as usual continues. Amazing . . .

 

It is the same game being played over and over again in the Scam Market. I am loving it because I need to load up on puts. Please, Scam Market god, continue the rally to 1400 in SPX and 2500 in NDX. Bloodsucking by Corporate Crooks of America must continue as along as there is enough blood left. 2010s would make 2000s look like a walk in the park for the eCONomy and for the Scam Market. At least three recessions and multiple new low in NDX and SPX.

Jas

Crude Oil ETFs

Review of Movie "Atlas Shrugged"

Kirk Here:   P.J. O'Rourke and Jas Jain are 100% correct about both parties of the government going after the middle class... that is where the easy pickings are!

Cisco Charts and Quotes

-------- Original Message --------

Subject:	FWC: "But these days big government has made its peace with big business…"
Date:	Wed, 20 Apr 2011 10:09:18 -0700
From:	Jas Jain

FWC: "But these days big government has made its peace with big business…"

"But these days big government has made its peace with big business, garlanding it with honours and stuffing it with tax breaks, and has decided to go after small business, instead. John Galt has gone downmarket."

Does a born-and-bred American dope understand how financial bloodsucking of the working middle-class is done with the help of the Government of the United States of America? I think not. Go and look at the chart of CSCO for the past 12 years; the Scam has sucked some $200B and no one has gone to jail. Hack, the culprits are admired and called philanthropists! System of the Crooks is firmly entrenched. This would continue until the private economy is reduced to a skeleton and the govt economy would dominate. Can any American dope answer a simple question: Why would the next ten years for the US not be worse than the last ten years? We are in the Greater Depression and we can thank the Federal Reserve and the USG for that. Does Warren Buffett understand this? I think not. He is whistling past the graveyard.

Jas

PS: When I use the term born-and-bred American dope I am trying to be polite. We are dealing with a dumber animal.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

·         P.J. O'Rourke reviews the movie version of "Atlas Shrugged"

Atlas and the common man

Apr 19th 2011, 16:51 by Schumpeter

 P.J. O'ROURKE makes a sharp observation in his review in the Wall Street Journal, of the film version of  "Atlas Shrugged" ("Atlas Shrugged, and so did I"). For Ayn Rand, the put-upon wealth creators were all business tycoons. But these days big government has made its peace with big business, garlanding it with honours and stuffing it with tax breaks, and has decided to go after small business, instead. John Galt has gone downmarket:

An update is needed, and not just because train buffs, New Deal economics and the miracle of the Bessemer converter are inexplicable to people under 50, not to mention boring.  The anti-individualist enemies that Ayn Rand battled are still the enemy, but they've shifted their line of attack.  Political collectivists are no longer much interested in taking things away from the wealthy and creative. Even the most left-wing politicians worship wealth creation—as the political-action-committee collection plate is passed.  Partners at Goldman Sachs go forth with their billions.  Steve Jobs walks on water. Jay-Z and Beyoncé are rich enough to buy God. Progressive Robin Hoods have turned their attention to robbing ordinary individuals.  It's the plain folks, not a Taggart/Rearden elite, whose prospects and opportunities are stolen by corrupt school systems, health-care rationing, public employee union extortions, carbon-emissions payola and deficit-debt burden graft.  Today's collectivists are going after malefactors of moderate means.

------------------------------------------

Ayn Rand the Propagandist—FWC: Taxes and government

In a fully free society, taxation—or, to be exact, payment for governmental services—would be voluntary. Since the proper services of a government—the police, the armed forces, the law courts—are demonstrably needed by individual citizens and affect their interests directly, the citizens would (and should) be willing to pay for such services, as they pay for insurance.

Extreme views on econo-political systems play a very important role in American propaganda, be it Krooksman, or Limbaugh, who would lose their following if they moved towards the center. Their job is to breed a certain type of dopes. Ayn Rand was a supreme propagandist. Russian Jewish immigrants, in particular, and East European Jewish immigrants, in general, and their descendents play a very dominant role the in American propaganda machine today. Ayn Rand was their leader and she showed the way.

Jas

Atlas Shrugged

Influence of Money On Elections

Tax Day Spending Compromise is a TRAVESTY!

-------- Original Message --------

Subject:	American Dope Complaining About Influence of Money On Elections
Date:	Mon, 18 Apr 2011 11:10:06 -0700
From:	Jas Jain

American Dope Complaining About Influence of Money On Elections

MarkThoma It's depressing that any dumb-ass with enough money can have so much influence on elections.

http://economistsview.typepad.com/economistsview/2011/04/money-elections-and-lack-of-coffee.html

 

This guy is a born-and-bred American dope who happens to be an economist (former chair of economics dept ay U Oregon). Hey, dope, dumb-asses are the voters who get nothing for their vote! Also, since you are such an ignoramus about the reality in America you probably don't know that buying elections is legal in America. It is very very legal in India. Reagan was bought and paid for by the super rich who knew that born-and-bred American dopes are hooked to entertainers.

A dope like you hasn't yet figured out the true nature of Anglo-American democracy (also copied by India)—Domination of Money. As long as there are elections people with money would own the govt. Got it? Now, go to your room and stand on your head for an hour.

Is there any treatment for detoxifying the American head?

Jas

Price of Gold Best Measure of Global Uncertainty

US Treasury Rate Quotes

US Treasury Rates at a Glance

-------- Original Message --------

Subject:	The Price of Gold In USD IS the Best Measure of Global Uncertainty
Date:	Mon, 18 Apr 2011 07:03:12 -0700
From:	Jas Jain

The Price of Gold In USD IS the Best Measure of Global Uncertainty

Both in the economies and political systems. A bad econo-political system in the US, rule of the proven financial bloodsuckers, debt pushers, under the guise of democracy (how did Goldman Sachs get to control the US govt policies?), guarantees a bad outcome. Nothing can prevent global Greater Depression, worst in centuries. Democracies would fall like flies when financial bloodsuckers and corrupt politicians have done all the looting they can get away with. In America and India, thus far, they have been able to get away with lot. Breaking point would be reached lot sooner that people think. Indian govt would be in no position to control and chaos would result.

Jas
PS: Equating democracy with freedom is the biggest snow job in history.

Gold Charts

Gold ETF:  GLD Price & Charts

The higher-education bubble is “worse than the housing bubble”!

Kirk Here:   This is so true but few see it.  The government subsidizes education so of course whole "education industries" pop up to take advantage PLUS the popular for profit schools raise prices to offset the subsidy since they can charge what the market bears... so the education industry get richer, parents who work hard and save so they are without financial aid scholarships pay more, tax payers pay more and politicians can tell everyone how they are for higher education.  All garbage!

Also note how many over paid government workers use their education to justify their salaries.  Some of these government workers post all day on my message boards or watch porn at the SEC.  I'd like to see them get away with that in private industry that values results more than education!

On 4/16/2011 8:45 AM, Jas Jain wrote:

FWC: The higher-education bubble ["worse than the housing bubble"!]

Education is a bubble in a classic sense. To call something a bubble, it must be overpriced and there must be an intense belief in it. Housing was a classic bubble, as were tech stocks in the '90s, because they were both very overvalued, but there was an incredibly widespread belief that almost could not be questioned — you had to own a house in 2005, and you had to be in an equity-market index fund in 1999.
Probably the only candidate left for a bubble — at least in the developed world (maybe emerging markets are a bubble) — is education. It's basically extremely overpriced. People are not getting their money's worth, objectively, when you do the math. And at the same time it is something that is incredibly intensively believed; there's this sort of psycho-social component to people taking on these enormous debts when they go to college simply because that's what everybody's doing.
It is, to my mind, in some ways worse than the housing bubble…

I have thought so for years. I once met an American regular white woman who complained that her daughter who has two masters degrees was able to only get a job that paid in 20s. Rerurns on technical education in China and India are much higher, maybe 100:1, than the same in America. More than half the college degrees in America, especially those earned by women, are totally useless. An American is an easy victim to the "higher-education bubble." He, or she, was also an easy victim to the housing bubble ("they are not making any more land"! Land shortage in America?). A born-and-bred American is an ideal candidate for propaganda, no? And propaganda is central to bubbles.

Jas

PS: Peter Thiel is among a rare breed of born-and-bred Americans who are not dopes. There are less than 25 such animals, presently. The odds are more than 10,000,000 to 1 against!

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

 

·         The higher-education bubble

More on Peter Thiel

Apr 13th 2011, 19:50 by Schumpeter

I'VE just come across a rather better interview with Peter Thiel than the one in TechCrunch. It is in the National Review online, and covers all sorts of exciting stuff, from seasteading to net neutrality, as well as higher education.

Here's the profile of Thiel that begins the interview:

Peter Thiel may be most famous for his role (portrayed by Wallace Langham in The Social Network) as the venture capitalist who gave "The Facebook" the angel investment it needed to really launch. Before that, Thiel was known in Silicon Valley circles as the "Don of the PayPal mafia," (his official role at the e-commerce site was founder and CEO), and more generally for his centrality as an investor in tech startups. Now, Thiel serves as the president of Clarium Capital, a hedge fund that (though it has suffered recently) made extravagant gains by betting against the housing market in 2007.

Though he's primarily a businessman, Thiel has dabbled in libertarian activism. Most recently, he caused a stir by establishing the Thiel Fellowship, which will select 20 college students under the age of 20 and pay them $100,000 each to drop out of college and embark on entrepreneurial careers. Thiel is also an intellectual of astonishing breadth and depth who finds time, while running a major hedge fund, to produce thought pieces that survey the Western Canon, the geopolitical landscape, and financial economics at a gallop (such as this one for the Hoover Digest).

And here are some highlights of his discussion of higher education:

Education is a bubble in a classic sense. To call something a bubble, it must be overpriced and there must be an intense belief in it. Housing was a classic bubble, as were tech stocks in the '90s, because they were both very overvalued, but there was an incredibly widespread belief that almost could not be questioned — you had to own a house in 2005, and you had to be in an equity-market index fund in 1999.

Probably the only candidate left for a bubble — at least in the developed world (maybe emerging markets are a bubble) — is education. It's basically extremely overpriced. People are not getting their money's worth, objectively, when you do the math. And at the same time it is something that is incredibly intensively believed; there's this sort of psycho-social component to people taking on these enormous debts when they go to college simply because that's what everybody's doing.

It is, to my mind, in some ways worse than the housing bubble. There are a few things that make it worse. One is that when people make a mistake in taking on an education loan, they're legally much more difficult to get out of than housing loans. With housing, typically they're non-recourse — you can just walk out of the house. With education, they're recourse, and they typically survive bankruptcy. If you borrowed money and went to a college where the education didn't create any value, that is potentially a really big mistake.

There have been a lot of critiques of the finance industry's having possibly foisted subprime mortgages on unknowing buyers, and a lot of those kinds of arguments are even more powerful when used against college administrators who are probably in some ways engaged in equally misleading advertising. Like housing was, college is advertised as an investment for the future. But in most cases it's really just consumption, where college is just a four-year party, in the same way that buying a large house with a really big swimming pool, etc., is probably not an investment decision but a consumption decision. It was something about combining the investment decision and the consumption decision that made the housing thing so tricky to get a handle on — and I think that's also true of the college bubble.

You know, we've looked at the math on this, and I estimate that 70 to 80 percent of the colleges in the U.S. are not generating a positive return on investment. Even at the top universities, it may be positive in some sense — but the counterfactual question is, how well would their students have done had they not gone to college? Are they really just selecting for talented people who would have done well anyway? Or are you actually educating them? That's the kind of question that isn't analyzed very carefully. My suspicion is that they're just good at identifying talented people rather than adding value. So there are a lot of things about it that are very strange.

The Great Recession of 2008 to the present is helping to bring the education bubble to a head. When parents have invested enormous amounts of money in their kids' education, to find their kids coming back to live with them — well, that was not what they bargained for. So the crazy bubble in education is at a point where it is very close to unraveling.

Housing Values In the US 1890 to 2010

-------- Original Message --------

Subject:	A Picture Worth a Thousand Words--Housing Values In the US 1990-2010
Date:	Sat, 16 Apr 2011 09:10:10 -0700
From:	Jas Jain <

A Picture Worth a Thousand Words--Housing Values In the US 1990-2010

The projected value does not account for the Greater Depression led by debt deflation. In 90%+ of zip codes in the US the PPSF (price per square foot) would fall below $100. That includes the "core area" of  Silly.con Valley.  3-4 bedroom boxes in Los Altos would go for $150-200K, i.e., down 90% from the peak. They would follow CSCO! The foundation of the Bay Area's economy has been built on Scam Options. What the Scam Market giveth the Scam Market taketh away!!

Jas

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

Source:

• Tax Breaks and Tax Credits For Homeowners
• Best Mortgage Rates
• Libor Rates
• Libor Rates at at Glance

Direct quote from Kirk Lindstrom's Investment Letter:

"A terrible thing happened. I realized I'd joined the wrong mob."

Mobster Lucky Luciano said that after he visited the floor of the NYSE where someone explained to him the role of the floor specialist.  We can avoid repeating Luciano's mistake by owning XLF!
(XLF is an ETF that I have bought and sold for nice profit over the years.)

-------- Original Message --------

Subject:	FWC: Goldman Sachs Ripped Off And Misled Clients, Senate Report Says
Date:	Sat, 16 Apr 2011 06:32:08 -0700
From:	Jas Jain

FWC: Goldman Sachs Ripped Off And Misled Clients, Senate Report Says

"Goldman's conduct in the two years leading up to the near-implosion of the financial system show a firm dedicated to "sticking it to their own clients," said Senator Carl Levin, a Michigan Democrat who chairs the panel that produced the report. "Goldman gained at the expense of their clients, and used abusive practices to do it.""

First, thank you, Sen. Levin, for digging the dirt on the most powerful fraudster in America, Goldman Sachs (I coined the term Goldchain Silverknife, based on the history of the firm, when America's Financial Fuehrer, Robert Rubin, became the Treasury Secretary). The very fact that it is referred to as "Government Sachs" on CNBC tells you how corrupt the American econo-political system has become. Those bred in the culture of deception, fraud, and manipulation feel right at home at GS, e.g., Jim Cramer. And if one is not bred in that culture, he, or she, is trained in the art to succeed at GS. Making money honestly is for simpletons and not for the "smart" folk in Ameirca. When Lloyd Blankfein, a face of evil in America together with Ben Bernanke, claims to "do God's work" you know what he really mean (the art of deception)—Satan rules over America unopposed. Systemic financial bloodsucking is their favorite pastime.

Jas

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/15/goldman-sachs-levin-investigation_n_849708.html

 

Goldman Sachs Ripped Off And Misled Clients, Senate Report Says

 

Goldman Sachs, the nation's fifth-largest bank by assets, systematically misled clients, sold them financial instruments it knew to be junk, bet against them and profited off of their losses, according to a Senate report released this week.

The report, the product of a two-year investigation, paints the firm as Exhibit A of Wall Street's evolution from a place that raises and deploys capital to worthy businesses into a vulturous creature that preys on unwitting investors.

Goldman's conduct in the two years leading up to the near-implosion of the financial system show a firm dedicated to "sticking it to their own clients," said Senator Carl Levin, a Michigan Democrat who chairs the panel that produced the report. "Goldman gained at the expense of their clients, and used abusive practices to do it."

In 2006 and 2007, Goldman recorded more than $21 billion in profit thanks to a strategy that ensured earnings as the housing bubble inflated and then popped. It also dodged a loss in 2008 -- one of the few firms to do so -- during a year that saw the demise of three of its direct competitors.

The "abusive" tactics the firm employed helped gain those winnings, according to the report by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. While Goldman was betting -- or "shorting," in Wall Street parlance -- that securities would collapse, clients were on the losing end.

--  

Investors' Intelligence Bull Bear Survey

More at

• II-BBS:  Investors’ Intelligence Bull Bear survey:  II Charts and Info

-------- Original Message --------

Subject:	Level of Foolishness Not Seen Since October 2007
Date:	Wed, 13 Apr 2011 16:23:27 -0700
From:	Jas Jain

Level of Foolishness Not Seen Since October 2007

Please see the attached graph. Remember what followed October 2007? "I feel capital" about my short Scams and long Treasuries positions. They are headed towards the end of August 2010 some time over the next 6 months. Dopes that listen to Buffett and Gross are going to be misled, once again.
Jas


Key sentiment indicators for stock market technical analysis

• AAII: American Association of Individual Investors Bull/Bear Index:  AAII Charts and Info
• II-BBS:  Investors’ Intelligence Bull Bear survey:  II Charts and Info
• ISE (International Securities Exchange) Sentiment Index:  ISE Charts and Info
• State Street Investor Confidence Index State Street Charts and Info

PIMCO is short Treasuries Betting Against U.S. government debt

US Treasury Rate Quotes

US Treasury Rates at a Glance

-------- Original Message --------

Subject:	RE: PIMPco is short Treasuries
Date:	Mon, 11 Apr 2011 07:32:09 -0700
From:	Jas Jain <jas_jain

Date: Mon, 11 Apr 2011 07:08:07 -0700
Subject: PIMPco is short Treasuries
To: jas_jain

Jas,

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/PIMCO-goes-short-US-rb-3790514655.html;_ylt=AoRic7sEXrk6b1hqULcgRD67YWsA;_ylu=X3oDMTE1MTJrM282BHBvcwMzBHNlYwN0b3BTdG9yaWVzBHNsawNwaW1jb2dvZXNzaG8-?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=main&asset=&ccode=

It looks like Gross and El-Arian are heeding the advice of Alan Greensham.  Why anyone would listen to Greensham is beyond me - talk about a CONundrum! 

Greensham is completely delusional and clueless.  That's why he was chosen and allowed to be Fed chairman for so long.  Clueless and ideologically delusional eCONomists grease the skids for financial looting.   A checkbook money system layered on top of the duplicitous myth that falling prices are harmful make financial fraud a sure thing!

Only highly leveraged and incompetent financial institutions cannot withstand falling prices.  It's the leverage, stupid!

 

I love it. I like to bet against the Crooks. These guys have faith in their own kind--Ben Fraud Bernanke. They are convinced that Bernanke would succeed in inflating. There are morons in America who believe that what Fed wants Fed gets, i.e., if the Fed wants higher Scam Market it gets it; if the Fed wants higher inflation it gets it; and if the fed wants no depression the fed succeeds in averting depression. But for how long?! These morons have full faith in economic manipulations to lead to the results desired by the manipulators. Beware of morons among economic and financial manipulators in the forecasting business. The record of the fed and other financial manipulators is abysmal, no?

Jas

US Federal tax rate brackets for 2011

US Federal tax rates for 2010

Fwd: Would the Chinese be In the Mood to Forgive and Forget?

Asian Markets at a Glance
China, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia, Japan, S. Korea, Taiwan etc.

-------- Original Message --------

Subject:	Would the Chinese be In the Mood to Forgive and Forget?
Date:	Wed, 6 Apr 2011 16:21:07 -0700
From:	Jas Jain

Would the Chinese be In the Mood to Forgive and Forget?

California, in general, and the Bay Area, in particular, has been home to big-time corporate crooks since the conquest of the state by the US. Among them were Crocker, Hopkins, Huntington and Stanford who built the Central Pacific railroad by plundering of massive resources (huge amount of Northern California land!) and public money (US govt paying for most of the cost and the crooks owning the railroad). This from The ASSOCIATES by Richard Rayner talking about the building of the railroad when they couldn't find many whites to work as laborers and hiring of the Chinese became an absolute necessity (otherwise, they would have lost it all), my emphasis:

"So deep was the hostility against the Chinese that it was necessary to give them military protection until their own growing numbers enabled them to defend themselves."

 

At the time California Chinese were despised and had few rights. They could not go to public school, vote, or testify in court. In his inaugural speech as governor, Leland Stanford has previously called them the "dregs of Asia" and "that degraded race." Crocker's construction superintendent… said: "I will not boss the damned Chinaman. He is strange. He smells. He eats disgusting things. He is not a mason."

 

…Crocker [desperate when he couldn't find enough Irish, and whatever he could find fled to take silver mining jobs] pointed out that the Chinese in fact had built the Great Wall. Moreover, they were prepared to work for $35 a month, as compared to$3 a day for the Irish [cheap labor is music to the ears of any good capitalist]. At first only 50 were hired… Then another fifty were hired. Within months… 5,000 were at work and Stanford sent to China for thousands more [he knew a good deal when he saw one], as if he were ordering barrels of nails… Stanford, ever a politician, then changed tack, and started calling his Chinese employees "the Asiatic contingent of the great army of civilization."

 

Isn't it amazing all the complaints one hears from the blacks and Jews about their historic treatment at the hands of white Christians and very little from the Chinese and the Japanese in the US, who have been here since 1800s, and Indians, who worked in railroads in South Africa and on plantations in many British islands?

 

When the Chinese takeover California, economically, it would be a sweet revenge indeed. Pride cometh before the fall! Do Americans know how far they need to fall to arrive at a new equilibrium among the nations and the races? The Chinese would assert their superiority as soon as they are confident that they can without much resistance. Please don't tell me about the American exceptionalism and ingenuity. These things, like goddess of wealth, Laxmi, move around. Americans have blown away their great advantage by acquiring dopey beliefs and habits, e.g., actively supporting crooks and liars. Chinese are fast adapting better beliefs and habits. It is only a matter of time before the advantage crosses over. Cycles are among the constants in human history. Born-and-bred American dopes like Warren Buffett take American success for granted.

Jas

--  

Asian Markets at a Glance
China, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia, Japan, S. Korea, Taiwan etc.

Jain Predicts China Will Win World War III

Major World Market Graphs a Glance

-------- Original Message --------

Subject:	Economic World War III: China Would Plunge the Global Economy Into the Greater Depression to Defeat the US
Date:	Tue, 5 Apr 2011 09:42:29 -0700
From:	Jas Jain

Economic World War III: China Would Plunge the Global Economy Into the Greater Depression to Defeat the US

One conclusion that I reached some 15 years ago was that the World War III, between the major powers, by definition, would be economic in nature and soon thereafter I became convinced, once I learned of very weak fundamentals of the US econo-political system, that it would be China that would come out on the top trouncing the US. Why? After gaining great economic advantage from savings (capitalism needs accumulation of capital!) China would be best positioned to benefit from the global depression! Wars cost but it all comes back with huge profits if you win! Chinese would take a page from the Anglo-American playbook!! The decisive battle of the WW III could commence at any time when China cannot avoid the capitalistic boom-bust cycle. Only fools try to time such things too closely.

 

We have arrived at a point where China can deal the fatal blow on an aging economy run by money whores, e.g., Henry Kissinger who has been on the Chinese payroll for decades. Savers survive depressions far better than borrow-and-spenders! Only dopes listen to people like Paul Krugman, the spokesperson for the Debt Pushers. We need to spend more, says Krugman's gang.

A very vulnerable American econo-political system has everything to do with it. It was easily taken over by an organized group of corporate crooks led by bankers and financiers (democracy being the preferred system of the moneyed crooks). How would democratic dopes in India survive the global Greater Depression? They wouldn't. India as a political unit, cobbled together by the Brits, would cease to exist. During the global Greater Depression, the US is already in one, the political system of modern Anglo-American style democracy, copied by Indians, would be thoroughly discredited. Blind faith in a false god has consequences. Only those who are totally ignorant of history can be made to believe that democracy is the best political system. Hack, it is not even the second best. In this regard Americans are irremediable dopes. Facts on the ground (increasing dissatisfaction with the "politicians") are irrelevant to a blind faithful.

Be Safe! And protect what you got, if you can. Only the careless get greedy at such times.

Jas

Major World Market Graphs a Glance

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