Monday, July 30, 2012

Financial Sarcasm Roundup for 07/30/12

Monday brings me more headlines to ridicule.  Join the fun, or else.

Central banks are planning something big.  Euro-bankers have been running their fat garlic-stuffed mouths up to now about how much they love the euro but they've done little serious money printing.  They're probably waiting for whatever U.S. market correction will quiet the Fed's anti-inflation hawks long enough for Helicopter Ben to activate his dollar swap lines.

Maybe we won't have to wait too long for central bankers to make their move.  Maybe the ECB is serious about eating big losses on Greek bonds.  This deliberate trial balloon signals that the Fed's swap lines are probably on a hair trigger.  The U.S. was probably hoping this could wait until after November, so Secretary Geithner's visit may be a hasty reassessment of whether a Fed bailout of the ECB will trigger a run on the dollar.

Don't you believe me?  Fine, don't believe me.  Believe the German Finance minister who says he won't support any further ECB purchases of Spanish sovereign debt.  The only way the ECB can get around German intransigence is with backup from the Fed.  The Anglo-Atlanticist coup at the IMF (you know, the one that installed Mme. Lagarde) isn't solid enough to overpower the Continent's traditional royal houses without a crisis.  The Geither-Schauble meetings have ended in detente with bland statements advocating "reform" to succor the media.  The stalemate in the trans-Atlantic war for control of the Continent's finances won't be broken until a major news event (Greek exit, Spanish default) breaks the euro.

My hints so far may not have been clear enough about my central thesis.  The Anglo-American elite and the traditional Continental elite have competed with each other for world leadership since at least World War One, when the British Empire and the American Empire largely ceased to be rivals.  The commoners on either side of the pond have little knowledge of this conflict and even less say in its outcome.

Now it's time for some happy news about America.  Some analysts are predicting U.S. corporate profits to shrink.  See, there are some financial analysts who aren't totally brain dead.  Even the U.S. Department of Commerce has analysts who can think for themselves, because they figured out that corporate profits were overestimated after the recession supposedly ended.  This is remarkable.  Honest people in both the public and private sectors can actually figure out that the U.S. economy is not healthy at all.  They should read my blog for confirmation.