Its pretty clear that the brain dead are being mentally softened up further to accept another round of baseless war and related propaganda to feed the needs of those who operate from evil (ignorance of true love) and use fear and violence rather than intelligence and wisdom as a strategy for fulfillment.

The "settlement" is little more than a patsy/ponzie scheme to saddle the US tax payers (the one's that actually pay their bills) with the pittance of a payout as supposed "consequences" to the banks for there egregious violation of contract law and does nothing to stop the the behavior or as Matt Taibbi put it recently , "...this deal not only doesn’t end robosigning, it officially makes getting caught for it inexpensive. ..."

This article points out not only the continued blatant efforts of governments and TBTF banks to operate outside the law at the expense of millions of American citizens and the expense of what little moral or ethical credibility is left in this once great nation but also the ramifications of such actions to the economy, real estate owners and ultimately the very TBTF banks that signed on this pact between devils.

Mortgage Settlement Will Plunge Real Estate Values

"When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle."
Edmund Burke

While we witness another day of manipulation in the fantasy once called "markets," and in a trend of contracting volume, with headlines of the Greek bailout, largely based on insubstantial "reporting" about people with increasingly contradictory positions on affairs in Greece making new promises, justice, trust and transparency are as far from the modern markets as ever they have been, as the influence of money rather than doing the right thing has become the norm in a system in the deep atrophy of deepening corruption indicates.

Gary Null is one of the smartest people I've ever listened to. He is not only a preeminent nutritional scientist and independent journalist; he has so much moral and ethical integrity that it oozes from the fabric of his essence in my opinion. For those seeking to improve health, I highly recommend looking at his broad array of nutritional products and for those seeking to expand their perspective with an eye towards "the truth," I recommend his nightly radio show.

All,

John Carney of CNBC currently has an article which ties Super Bowl winners in with projected market direction for the rest of the year. If an old NFC team wins - meaning like the NY Giants, the stock market will rise for the year. If a newer, "expansion" team (the AFC) wins, the market for the year will be down.

I couldn't set idly by on this one. Talk about the most inaccurate reading ever from BLS. No matter. The spin and algorithm driven pump machine feeds on the headline, even as volume continues to shrivel to levels not seen since 1999 in the major market indexes.

I deeply regret my absence. In all honesty, I am going through personal issues which are most difficult and which I can not and will not elaborate on. I want all the loyal contributors and readers to know that "this to shall pass," and I will then be ready to give my heart and time to this effort. Life throws us many unexpected and sometimes very painful and difficult challenges as well as at times, great joy and happiness.

The manipulators have had their way again. Channel stuffing and huge inventory builds drove the Q4 GDP number and even that was moderate and in my mind in no way signals actual economic growth. Robosigning litigation and temporary moratoriums put a temporary halt to the paper work and hence "numbers" of new foreclosures in 2011 but delinquencies maintained their torrid pace.

The manipulators want January to finish in the black so that the self fulfilling prophecy of an up January in a Presidential election year will be an up market for the year.

USA Today ran this article at its website

The Fed isn't working to do what is best for the nation. It is working to do what is required to prop up the house of cards that is the current financial plutocracy and the giant and shaky house of derivatives cards they have built based on a system which now only rewards greed, avarice and brutal manipulation rather than hard work, honesty, ethics and commitment to a higher good, the well being of our fellow beings, human and otherwise.

While the signals are go for gold and silver, the policies that put us in this situation are corrupt.

This article speaks for itself. As in coverage of wars, only the embedded media is allowed unrestricted coverage. It is fortunate that Steve Jobs, the iPhone and real time video upload to internet and mesh networks are turning every citizen and activist into a public citizen video reporter. None the less, the US is increasingly losing the moral high ground as its pay masters try to push this still democratic nation towards their desired vision of a more China like and subdued populace of "yes people" for the oligarchy in my opinion.

‘Extreme’ S&P 500 Momentum, VIX Signal Drop

Is there any hope for one?

Appeasing the Bond Gods

What’s Ahead in Banking? 2012 coming into view.

At least Forbes is the publisher of the article, which means sometimes the mainstream actually does a story for the bottom half of the top 1%, that is the clients of MF Global even while not really getting into the role of JP and Goldman at the level of detail that would do the story true investigative justice, it still touches on the issue of rehypothecation to some small degree. Probably as much for what the article leaves out as it says, it is worth studying.

Via CNBC Reuters has estimated that the global economy could stand one week of a strain by way of a natural disaster.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/45899109

Another great find by Jesse. It is why it is a near certainty that both the ECB will have to move to full on QE and for all practical purposes, forever. The mess that Greenspan, Rubin, Summers, Paulson, Geithner and their club of "free market" (now central planning market manipulation masters), the one's who stopped Brooksley Born from regulating OTC derivatives, is beyond repair by conventional methods in my opinion. It is why I continue to believe in both the moral and economic imperative for citizens to hold honest money, gold and silver, the bi-metal standard.

Eric Schmidt in an interview to be aired tonight on CNN in the 7 PM slot will express his opinion about the American practice of bringing top global talent into our educational system,

While the developing world and most of Europe is adopting these truly miraculous scientific findings, the United States "regulatory" and "research and development agencies" are studiously avoiding the scientific evidence in support of their masters, the giant pharmaceutical and other corporations, who can see that this undeniable and rapidly emerging therapeutic application of stem cells to a very broad range of primary diseases from stroke treatment to Alzheimers is going to make their unnatural toxic cocktails called "drugs" nearly totally obsolete within a very short period of time.

Among the tools that the People of the United States require in order to transform our system from one that serves primarily the 1% to one that serves the interests of its actual citizens, humans that is, are powerful and emotionally and morally moving language framing tools.

I'll be revising this, but I wanted to get it up. Please start by reading these links in regard to the work of George Lakoff, a master linguist and one who understands how the human brain works and responds to language framed in moral terms:

This is another excellent article from Greg Hunter at USA Watchdog about the level of uniformity there is in supporting the establishment candidates and how they all seem to be reading from the same script when it comes to the nominees:

Meet the Mainstream Press - Greg Hunter-USA Watch Dog

To me this is almost as reprehensible as the role that Goldman and JP Morgan played in handling MF Global client money and assets (the subject of my next post (see above). There are few in Congress or the justice system willing to speak out against their money masters. Most in government have become shills for an ever more pervasive corporate welfare system of fascism, which is the furthest thing from real capitalism and true free markets.

Not much I can add to this article accept that it echos what many of us have been saying for at least two years. Leave it to Zero Hedge to publish such an article rather than the robot "journalists" from the cut and paste school of investigative propaganda at the MSM.

Exposing American Banks' Multi-Trillion Umbilical Cord With Europe

Looking at gold from a purely technical perspective it looks like we hit real capitulation late last year. And yet, as the broader stock markets all finished either negative or barely flat, gold (on fundamentals) continues to be the actual hedge against risk and unsound monetary policies and the increasingly unsound currencies that underlie them.

While I disagree with Ron Paul in the role of Government in supporting the health and well being of the common wealth through public education, social security and medicare, highway, safety, environmental and other services which protect human being (something most radical libertarians oppose), I do agree with him about ending these manufactured wars, a greatly reduced role for the Fed (better a bank of the people for the people, with a gold backed currency), the end of the securitization and derivatives markets (in their current casino system), and complete transparency.

Most investors without long term conviction as to the principles of money and wealth preservation will be constantly panicked out at bottoms and enter closer to intermediate and short term tops.