Morning Update/ Market Thread 4/5 – Bridge Over Troubled Water Edition…

Good Morning,

Equity futures are slightly lower this morning with the dollar higher, bonds higher, the Yen lower (this has been correlating to higher equities recently), oil down slightly, gold down slightly, silver down slightly after hitting another new all-time high overnight, and food commodities are mixed.

The Non-Manufacturing (service) ISM will be released at 10 Eastern this morning.

Bernanke says that the current inflation is just transitory, caused by rising commodity prices! Right, and just what is it that causes commodity prices to rise? Oh, that’s right, hot money speculation – without the hot money it couldn’t continue to run. At least he didn’t blame it on demand, that just simply is not the case – proof is the record levels of oil sitting in storage. But I think his comments about it being a temporary rise is interesting as it makes me wonder if he’s finally considering lightening up on the hot money flows? Hey, just admitting to inflation is a huge step for that narcissist.

But the Chinese aren’t waiting around like us – they just raised interest rates by another quarter percent, the fourth rise since last October. Remember, rising rates pressures bond holders and it can create flows that favor equities as long as the rates are rising.

And you have to wonder what is going on over at the NASDAQ that is prompting them to actually rebalance the NDX 100? Apple has become 20% of the entire index, and now they are simply changing the weight to 12%! Why? Well, let’s put on our narcissistic criminal mind thinking caps… we know that with such a heavy weighting that as it rises the index rises a huge amount… but as that one stock grows compared to the others, the weighting grows… the stock gets overvalued (like it is now), and they know that eventually overvalued stocks fall. Well, if that stock is 20% of the index and falls, then the index falls huge, but if it is only 12% and falls then the index doesn’t fall as much. Remember, the only thing that actually goes up in the long haul is the indices, that is because of substitution bias and because of games like this. While some are crying ‘foul’ over this, I’m willing to bet that they know something you don’t and that in the end the index will benefit for this move. The narcissists never make a move that doesn’t benefit them – and thus I’d be worried if I owned Apple, but I wouldn’t expect any news until after May 2nd, which is when this takes effect (selling of AAPL prior to then is likely).

And artificial moves like this are absolutely front run by the insiders. Regular people who consider themselves to be “investors” are simply eaten alive. I guarantee you that positions were taken well in advance of this announcement – with no fear of any regulators taking action. Complete and total market capture, complete and total government capture.

Yesterday the DOW Industrials managed to close 8 points above the previous high close to confirm the DOW Theory buy signal. The late day ramp looked contrived, once again coming on absolutely pathetic volume.

Notice how the scare you IRS audit stories hit the mainstream this time of year? How are you making it with your taxes by the way? It seems to me that as I’m now beyond the kids in the family years that I’m being forced to pay an even higher percentage in taxes and that I’m having to have more and more withheld and it’s not enough. And thus the squeeze continues… more cost for everything, higher taxes, and yet steady income. By the way, tax day this year is on the 18th because of the Emancipation day holiday in D.C., lol. This applies nationwide, so keep what’s yours as long as you can – not that you truly “own” anything in the U.S. anymore – it can all be taxed, and if you don’t pay your taxes, it can all be taken away.
“If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around [the banks] will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs.”
- Thomas Jefferson – attributed

BINGO.

The truth is that if our country created money on behalf of the people, then taxes are not even necessary! I don't mean to blow your mind, but taxes are useful only as an accounting tool - but because the private banks demand we pay interest on bonds, taxes now simply provide power and control to those few private individuals instead of for the good of humanity. And thus you see nothing but corporate/ private self-serving actions.

Speaking of corporate self-serving... Turning to Japan, a fish caught between Fukushima and Tokyo tested positive for radioactive iodine and for cesium. The Japanese admitted that BEFORE they dumped all that radioactive water into the ocean yesterday that readings were 7.5 MILLION TIMES legal limits! Yet the headlines I read have “experts” saying it will all be diluted, the ocean is a big place you know… Of course these fluff pieces fail to acknowledge how it consolidates as it goes up the food chain. Also no talk of how the still propagating radiation creates clouds of radiation that waft all the way across the ocean and pollute the water and food chain even here in America – yet America and Americans remain silent. I guess we are just going to sit back and accept our fate like the stoic Japanese?!

Well, the Koreans are pissed, and at least they’re speaking out about it – not that it will prompt action. What action? Well, efforts need to focus on keeping the radiation on site in my opinion. TEPCO has been proven to be incompetent, their actions clearly are too little, too late, and serve only their own self-interests. The Japanese government is like ours, captured by the corporation’s special interest money.

America should demand that TEPCO be removed and that outside experts be brought in to manage the crisis, and be given unlimited resources to protect humanity. Make no mistake; the number of people who will ultimately be killed by this incompetence will be shocking – and not just in Japan! The cost of future cancer care alone will dwarf the puny sums being bantered around today. That’s not hyperbole, that’s reality, and that reality is looking worse with every day that passes without containment.