Confused Keynesians Scratch Heads at Accelerating ISM Factory Index

The Keynesian econometric trend followers are confused, once again, as the trend changes in their face. The clueless trend followers expected a decline. Bloomberg writes:

U.S. manufacturing unexpectedly accelerated in September as production picked up, easing concern of a slump in the industry that led the economic recovery.

The Institute for Supply Management’s factory index climbed to 51.6 last month from 50.6 in August, the Tempe, Arizona-based group’s data today. A level of 50 is the dividing line between growth and contraction. Economists forecast the measure to fall to 50.5, according to the median projection in a Bloomberg News survey.

These upside surprises will continue as the Fed floods the economy with new money that will create a new artificial boom. The even bigger surprise will be how quickly price inflation picks up from here. Which means that Richard Fisher, Dallas Federal Reserve Bank president, doesn't have a clue.

He told CNBC this morning that U.S. inflation will drop towards 2 percent. The Consumer Price Index , which includes food and energy prices, is currently at 3.8 percent on an annualized basis.

How to Deal with Bosses

If you have a boss, then you need to read James Altucher's explanation of how to deal with thedm. I have generally been in a situations where I have had employees rather than working for others, but I can see where much of Altucher's advice would be valuable if my employees understood it.

The advice is clever, sharp and will help you. It is here.

Tyler Cowen: Refusal to Contemplate a Tax Increase is Extreme

Tyler Cowen, in a typical convoluted column, writes in NYT:

...this refusal to contemplate a tax increase...I’d characterize as an extreme Republican stance...

He also tells us that:

Curiously, though, if this [antitax] approach actually were to become government policy, it would have a surprising effect: it would surely lead to higher rather than lower taxes.

This last comment indicates that Cowen is nothing but a government technocrat, with no small-government libertarian principles at all. The only way you can expect higher taxes in the future is if you expect the size of government to increase.

The entire idea behind the lower tax movement is to shrink government, so that it never grows again. That's libertarianism, not some crazed model that says a tax cut today will me higher higher taxes tomorrow.

Are the Clueless 'Occupy Wall Street' Protesters Puppets of the Elite?

I wrote below:

My guess is that most of the protesters are against "profit" and fail to realize that profit is the fuel that keeps an economy growing. They fail to realize that the real problem is not profit (and loss)but that the government protects the incompetent banksters from losses.

Infowars is reporting along the same lines and suggesting that the usual suspects including George Soros are playing a role in the protests:

Despite their honest intentions, many of the Occupy Wall Street protesters are being suckered into a trap and calling for the very “solutions” that are part of the financial elite’s agenda to torpedo the American middle class – higher taxes and more big government.

Watch the clip below in which journalist Adam Kokesh talks to Occupy Wall Street protesters [in Washington D.C.].

The ignorance displayed in these interviews knows no bounds. The protesters just don’t get it. They are calling for the government to use force to impose their ideas, all in the name of bringing down corporations who they don’t realize have completely bought off government regulators. Corporations and government enjoy a mutually beneficial relationship – getting one to regulate the other is asinine and only hurts smaller businesses who are legitimately trying to compete in a free market economy that barely exists.

The zeal for totalitarian government amongst some of the “protesters” is shocking. One sign being carried around read, “A government is an entity which holds the monopolistic right to initiate force,” which seems a little ironic when protesters complain about being physically assaulted by police in the same breath.

One woman interviewed by Kokesh also announces her intention to help Obama to capture a second term. How can a self-proclaimed Occupy Wall Street protester simultaneously support the man whose 2008 campaign was bankrolled by Wall Street, whose 2012 campaign is reliant on Wall Street to an even greater extent, and whose cabinet was filled with Wall Street operatives?

Something is very wrong with this picture.

The usual suspects, mega-rich foundations and elitists, behind the young radicals have also started to emerge – George Soros, The Ruckus Society, the Tides Foundation and the Ford Foundation...

The thousands of Americans currently expressing their disgust at Wall Street and the bankers who have ruined the economy to the detriment of the poor and middle class should be commended for getting off their hind ends and doing something, unlike the millions who will continue to watch American Idol, drink beer and laugh in ignorance as the country is flushed down the toilet. It should also be added that there is a sprinkling of “End the Fed” demonstrators who truly understand the root cause of the problem.

However, the fact that the majority of the Occupy Wall Street demonstrators are advocating “solutions” which the very elite they claim to be protesting against also want should set alarm bells ringing. The official Occupy Wall Street website vehemently supports Obama’s tax agenda, again in the deluded belief that Obama, the ultimate Wall Street puppet, genuinely wants to go after big corporations who use loopholes to avoid paying income tax.

Evidence that Chris Christie is Nothing But a Closet Leftist

Koch brothers favorite potential presidential candidate appears to be nothing but a closet leftist. Once you scratch the surface of his record and views, it's clear that Christie is simply one big interventionist. There is no indication that Christie fears a growing government or government's paws in any part of our lives.

The record shows that Christie is Al Gore leaning when it comes to climate change:

I can’t claim to fully understand all of this. Certainly not after just a few months of study. But when you have over 90 percent of the world’s scientists who have studied this stating that climate change is occurring and that humans play a contributing role it’s time to defer to the experts.

He believes there should be an "orderly path to citizenship", for illegal immigrants.

There is nothing wrong with anyone coming to America and finding a job, but citizenship is simply opening up free goodies to illegals,,e.g. government healthcare and governmnet education, when what really should be going on in America is the elimination of such government programs for current Americans.

Christie, also, supports gun control. In an interview with Sean Hannity in 2009, Christie said he supports "common-sense" gun control laws to deal with New Jersey's "hand gun problem."

He continues to see a major role for government in the education system.

At a time when the government education system is an obvious failure, creating nothing but roaming gains of youth in our major cities, Christie, speaking at the New Jersey governor's mansion, known as Drumthwacket, after private talks with U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan, Christie said he and Duncan "have a lot in common ... in the education reform agenda."

He also said, regarding Obama and the education agenda, "I consider myself an ally of his."

(htBusinessInsider)

The Coming Crash of the Chinese Economy and Stock Market

I have been warning for sometime in the EPJ Daily Alert that the Chinese stock market and economy are about to crash, and have also touched on the topic here at EPJ (See: here, here, here and here). Now, the view is gaining traction. Joe Weisenthal and Simone Foxman at Business Insider write:

It's strange: The Shanghai Composite stock index has been one of the worst performers all year, and yet it was only this week that China-slowdown fears exploded into the consciousness of the market...

What caused the mass flip-out? A slew of things: Some weak economic data, end-of-the-quarter panic (investors dumping losers), and a big, negative report on China from BofA/ML.

What makes the shift in mentality particularly important is that China has been assumed to be one of the stable pillars of global growth, and in a sense—because people are so worried about debt in the US and Europe—an even safer play than the US (that goes for many emerging markets, really).

So this shift should have some pretty big implications, especially if the data ultimately bears out the notion that there's a real slowdown coming.

BI has a pretty decent slideshow of the current problems in the economy, here.

Of course, BI is as clueless about Austrian Business Cycle Theory as Paul Krugman and Nouriel Roubini, so they don't get to the core of China's problem, which is that China, until recently has been printing up huge amounts of its own currency, the yuan, in a mad effort to prop up the dollar, for the benefit of Chinese exporters.

The money printing distorted the Chinese economy and is responsible for the very rapid price inflation the country is experiencing. The rapid price inflation has caused Chinese banking officials to slow the money printing, and thus China is entering the down phase of the business cycle, where the distorted structure of the economy is no longer supported by money printing and starts to collapse.

So when you view the BI slideshow, keep in mind that they are discussing symptoms rather than the disease. They do not have any money supply data or price inflation data in their presentation.

NYT: All the News that is Fit to Alter

By many accounts, on Saturday, Occupy Wall Street marching protesters were led onto the Brooklyn Bridge by NYPD, giving many protesters the impression that the police had no problem with the march, and, indeed,that the police were only standing by to insure the march was peaceful. However, once on the bridge, the NYPD kettled the protesters and eventually arrested 700.

Notice NYT's change in reporting the story, from one which states that NYPD allowed the protesters on to the bridge (which sounds accurate) to one which gives the impression that the protesters actively took over the bridge despite NYPD attempts to stop them.

FreakOut Nation has screen shots which show how NYT edited the story:


(htYvesSmith)

Proof Banksters Running Scared

From JPMorgan's website:

JPMorgan Chase recently donated an unprecedented $4.6 million to the New York City Police Foundation. The gift was the largest in the history of the foundation and will enable the New York City Police Department to strengthen security in the Big Apple.

Yves Smith, correctly sees this as JPMorgan buying extra protection.

But, I also see it as a scared JPMorganChase. JPMC is a tight run corporation, $4.6million, though not a large sum relative to total JPMC operations, is still not a sum that is going to walk out of JPM without notice and approval.

Bottom line: The banksters are running scared and don't know when they will need NYPD backup from a very angry public.

Things are getting interesting in Amerika.

NYPD Trick Protesters on to Brooklyn Bridge; Arrest 700

Police arrested more than 700 demonstrators from the Occupy Wall Street protests who took to the roadway as they tried to cross the Brooklyn Bridge on Saturday afternoon.

“Protesters who used the Brooklyn Bridge walkway were not arrested,” said the head police spokesman, Paul J. Browne. “Those who took over the Brooklyn-bound roadway, and impeded vehicle traffic, were arrested.”

But, according to NYT, many protesters said that they thought the police had tricked and trapped them, allowing them onto the bridge and even escorting them across, only to surround them in orange netting after hundreds of them had entered.

“The cops watched and did nothing, indeed, seemed to guide us onto the roadway,” said Jesse A. Myerson, a media coordinator for Occupy Wall Street who was in the march but was not arrested.

Is Germany Cutting Off the PIIGS?

It's too early to tell if this is for real or just posing, but, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble ruled out Germany contributing any more money to the EU bail-out fund than the 211 billion euros approved by parliament, in an interview published Saturday, AFP is reporting.

"The European Financial Stability Facility has a ceiling of 440 billion euros ($590 billion), 211 billion of which is down to Germany. And that is it. Finished," he told the magazine Super-Illu.

He also suggested the European Stability Mechanism, which is due to replace the EFSF by 2013 at the latest, would be smaller.

"Then it will be only a matter of 190 billion in total, for which we will be guarantors, including interest," he explained.

If Germany does cut off the PIIGS, the EuroZone in its current form is finished.

Livestream: Mass Arrest on Brooklyn Bridge of 'Occupy Wall Street' Protesters

Note: There is intermittent loss of feed. It appears there are hundreds, if not thousands, corralled by NYC police on the Brooklyn Bridge. The police appear to be arresting all those corralled, one by one.

Protester to Jamie Dimon: Come Out with Your Hands Up

The Occupy Wall Street protesters appear to be very clueless as to what the banksters are up to, but clearly there is unrest across the land.

My guess is that most of the protesters are against "profit" and fail to realize that profit is the fuel that keeps an economy growing. They fail to realize that the real problem is not profit (and loss)but that the government protects the incompetent banksters from losses.

If the government didn't backup the banksters, these clowns would be out of business.

Unfortunately, the protesters are unlikely to understand this and are thus likely to call for more governmnet regulation, which will mean that the banksters most cozy with government will gain an even greater edge.

The banksters need to be taken down, but by the profit and loss system, not by government. Banksters will never lose control if government remains a major player. The government and the banksters are in cahoots. The government-bankster cord needs to be cut. Let the banksters go into free fall and lets see if any of them have the skills to survive in a competitive environment where Geithner and Bernanke do not have their back.

Here's a clip from the Occupy protest [San Francisco edition]. Reports have a woman calling for Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan CEO, to come out with his hands up, although that doesn't occur in this clip.

Banned by Roubini?

Andre Grillon emails:

I tried tweeting your article to Roubini. The last thing I tweeted him was one of your articles last month.

This is what I got (screen shot)

Herman Cain, What Should I Do Now?

Dear Mr. Cain,



Above is a clip of remarks you made while guest hosting the Neal Boortz Show radio show. Specifically, you said that there is no need for additional audits of the Fed and recommended that people just call up the Federal Reserve to get answers from them. Further, you suggested that people should just sit down with the PR people at the Fed.

On your recommendation, I contacted the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and raised concerns about the trading the NY Fed does with Primary Dealers, such as Goldman Sachs.The reply I received from Eric Pajonk in Media Relations and Public Affairs Federal Reserve Bank of New York consisted of a modern day document dump. He sent me links to seven Federal Reserve web pages that have nothing to do with the data I requested.

As far as my getting to sit down with the Fed and going over the data I really want to see. This is what Pajonk wrote in the email:

Thank you for your inquiry. While you are welcome to visit the New York Fed as a member of the public we are not able to fulfill your request for an appointment.

Mr. Cain, I don't want to take a public tour the New York Fed and look at the building's architecture, I want answers to trades made between the New York Fed and the primary dealers, such as Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley.Your suggestion that I could just call up the Fed and, as you put it, "sit down with them," has resulted in total failure.

What should I do now, Mr Cain? Do you still think there is no need for an audit? Perhaps, as the former Chairman of the Kansas City Fed, you will have better luck getting the information on trades between the NY Fed and the Primary Dealers? Would you be willing to do this for me?

Sincerely,

Robert Wenzel
Editor and Publisher
EconomicPolicyJournal.com

Roubini Attacks Austrian Economists

Nouriel Roubini is very well connected in the world of the financial power elite, but that doesn't mean he knows his ass from his elbow when it comes to Austrian economics. He tweets:

The austerians' Austrian austerity will not lead to Schumpeterian "creative destruction" but rather " deadly destructive depression"

First of all, modern day Austrians see Schumpeter as a marginal player when it comes to the Austrian school of economics.

The most significant thinkers in Austrian economics are Ludwig von Mises, Murray Rothbard and Friedrich Hayek. After these three, Carl Menger and Eugene von Bohm-Bawerk would be added to the list.

Second, there are no Austrian economists who would be in favor of the current austerity programs being called for in the PIIGS countries, by globalist organizations such as the IMF, World Bank and the OECD.

Austrians view the IMF etc. as bankster enforcers, who exist for one reason and one reason only, to ensure that the banksters are paid. Austrians view the current increased taxes, as part of austerity programs in PIIGS countries, with horror, and as the state taking by force from the people and handing the funds to the banksters.

Rather than banksters getting paid, Austrians would rather see the the PIIGS countries go into bankruptcy, default on their debt and free the people. The same view holds with regard to the Austrian position on US Treasury debt. Treasury default is the Austrian solution, not phony "austerity" programs of tax reform, aka tax increases, and government programs that are "paid for" by shuffling imaginary cuts in to later years. Bottom line: Austrians aren't in favor the current size of government, anywhere. It's not about austerity, but about eliminating the government money grab on behalf of banksters.

Austrians are also in favor of ending the social-welfare programs, so that the countries can again grow and prosper, but this has nothing to do with the current austerity programs proposed for the PIIGS. This is a position Austrians hold relative to all state social-welfare programs, regardless of the debt situation of a country.

Roubini is shockingly clueless with regard to Austrian economics and its position on the current eurozone crisis and the crisis in the United States.

EuroZone Solution is Mapped Out

(htAndreGrillon)

Nigel Farage: "Wake up to the Misery You're Inflicting on Millions"

I'm not sure what Nigel Farage would offer as a solution, but you rarely see a politician tell it the way it is, as Frarge does in this must view clip.




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