Author: Tyler Durden

From the first sudden, and quite dramatic, appearance of the fanatical Islamic group known as ISIS which was largely unheard of until a year ago, on the world’s stage and which promptly replaced the worn out and tired al Qaeda as the world’s terrorist bogeyman, we suggested that the “straight to beheading YouTube clip” purpose behind the Saudi Arabia-funded Islamic State was a simple one: use the Jihadists as the vehicle of choice to achieve a political goal: depose of Syria’s president Assad, who for years has stood in the way of a critical Qatari natural gas pipeline, one which … Continue reading →

The last time AOL was involved in a mega merger was January 2000, when AOL acquired Time Warner for $182 billion in what was the mega deal of the last tech bubble, creating a $350 billion behemoth… which nearly dragged down both companies a few years later. Fast forward 15 years and here is AOL again in yet another period-defining if far, far smaller transaction, when moments ago Verizon announced that it would acquire AOL for $50/share, a deal value of $4 .4billion. And with that the golden age of digital (and in many cases robotic) content, has now been … Continue reading →

In the aftermath of the Nav Sarao scapegoating farce, one week ago Zero Hedge decided to give the confused CFTC a helping hand and launched a daily series highlighting the constant spoofing and “manipulation” (in the CFTC and DOJ’s own words) that takes place in every asset class, but mostly in the E-mini futures (“Dear CFTC: This Is The Market Manipulating “Spoofing” Taking Place In The E-Mini Just Today“). Virtually every day since then we presented the “regulators” at the commodity trading commission a clear example of stock market manipulation, with the exception of Tuesday, when with the exclusive help … Continue reading →

In recent years, there has been much shock and stunned reactions among the general public as one after another banker avoided any prison time, despite perpetrating (and benefiting from the subsequent bailout) the biggest financial crisis know to mankind. But is this shock warranted? The simple answer: no. Consider the case of countless Nazi financiers and even Hitler’s personal banker, Hjalmar Schacht. What do they all have in common? Aside from (or perhaps due to) practically all having walked through the secretive corridors of the Bank of International Settlements, the one truly disturbing common theme is that virtually all avoided … Continue reading →

Tamah Clark apparently wasn’t ready to accept her husband Jason Clark’s incarceration on aggravated assault and domestic battery charges, so she did what anyone would do when aggrieved by the US justice system: she loaded up her AK-47 assault rifle and .45 caliber pistol, procured some wilderness survival gear, strapped the couple’s one year old son into his car seat, and went to break her husband out of prison. Or at least that’s how the story goes. Although phone records reportedly indicate that Tamah did indeed conspire to stage a prison break with Jason, she was apparently never convicted and … Continue reading →

They say don’t let money printing get to your head, but for one now former central banker it is far too late. The identity of the former employee of the Dutch Central Bank in question is unknown, what is known is that the money authority of the Netherlands has fired a 46-year-old female employee who for 6 of her 8 years with the central bank made money on the side as a “dominatrix prostitute who described herself as a high-class nymphomaniac and earned €10,000 a week dressing up as a Nazi and whipping men.” While her real name remains unknown … Continue reading →

Over the centuries there have been many stories, some based on loose facts, others based on hearsay, conjecture, speculation and outright lies, about groups of people who “control the world.” Some of these are partially accurate, others are wildly hyperbolic, but when it comes to the historic record, nothing comes closer to the stereotypical, secretive group determining the fate of over 7 billion people, than the Bank of International Settlements, which hides in such plain sight, that few have ever paid much attention. This is their story. First unofficial meeting of the BIS Board of Directors in Basel, April 1930 … Continue reading →

“The Fed is ‘ever-interested’ in doing something later,” Jim Grant notes, explaining why he believes the timetable for rate hikes will be pushed back further as fear of allowing a free market in the “most critical” of prices – that of interest rates – would lead to the “unmasking of the misallocations of capital that will have come about through the levitation of asset prices.” Grant further unleashes his verbal attack of truthiness when he points out that the central bank’s persistent easy money policies is on display currently in the form of stifling American enterprise and sending millions of … Continue reading →

Amid a cacaphony of pundit parroting about strong US auto sales — which culminated in CNBC’s now infamous “car-stock arbitrage” recommendation — we have said repeatedly that at the margin, growth is being driven (no pun intended) by lenders’ willingness to extend credit to underqualified (read: subprime) borrowers. This was later confirmed by Goldman in a note which pointed out that subprime loans accounted for more than a fifth of all US new vehicle sales in January, which is 500bps above the post-crisis norm of 16%. Furthermore, as of January, the percentage of new vehicle sales attributable to subprime loans had … Continue reading →

In what may be a preview of what’s in store for The Bank of Greece, Cypriots — who are understandably still a little more than angry about the decision to confiscate their deposits —showed up outside of The Bank of Cyprus today to “celebrate” the anniversary of the bail in. Watch below as the crowd shouts and hurls rocks at the central bank… More from hellenicinsider: A few hundred Cypriots made their way to the Cyprus Central Bank and The Bank of Cyprus HQ to let the all powerful EU banking clan know exactly how they feel. Considering that the … Continue reading →

There were three notable items in the follow up, 11-page letter sent by Yanis Varoufakis earlier today to the Eurogroup, and its president “Jeroen.” But first, by way of background, here is what happened as recapped by Reuters. Earlier today Greece sent an augmented list of proposed reforms on Friday  (see the 11 page letter attached below) but EU officials said several more steps were required before any release of aid funds.  In the Yanis Varoufakis outlined plans to fight tax evasion, activate a “fiscal council” to generate budget savings and update licensing of gaming and lotteries to boost state … Continue reading →

As noted last week, the aggregate amount of loans for new and used cars will in short order eclipse the $1 trillion mark, joining total student debt in full-on bubble mode. Better still, early delinquencies on auto loans are now sitting back at their 2008 highs (both for all borrowers and for subprime borrowers, with 9% of the latter now missing a payment within the first 8 months of origination). Despite this, and despite the fact that nearly a third of all auto loans in 2013 were made to subprime borrowers (the same amount we saw in 2006 at the … Continue reading →

One of the biggest question marks surrounding the Greek negotiation and ultimately, bailout extension, was just how panicked was the Greek population and domestic corporations. Recall that as explained previously, the tension boiled down to this: the Troika did everything in its power to accelerate the bank run in order to crush any negotiating leverage Varoufakis may have; Greece on the other hand was desperate to make its cash drain appear far better than rumored. Moments ago the Bank of Greece presented its latest, January, deposit data. And it’s a doozy: following a record €12.2 billion monthly outflow, greater in … Continue reading →

It was just over 12 years ago today when then Secretary of State Colin Powell spoke to the U.N. Security Council on February 5, 2003, and lied to a packed auditorium of world leaders and the entire world, making the case that Saddam Hussein’s Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. It was only after the second US invasion of Iraq (not to be confused with Obama’s third) that we learned that not only did Saddam not have WMDs, but that the whole invasion was merely a pretext for the US to gain control of yet another middle-eastern regime and one … Continue reading →

By now everybody knows that the primary consequence, one which we originally predicted back in 2009 – and many have since agreed – was completely intended, of the past 6 years of unprecedented monetary policy has been to push wealth inequality to record levels, not just in the US but across the world. What may not be so clear is precisely when this period of unprecedented wealth disparity started. The answer, as the following handy chart from NPR shows, is that long before QE, the wealth gap for the 1% really started in the early 1980s, courtesy of none other … Continue reading →