HOW THE FUCK DOES THIS HAPPEN, MARY?

You know the SEC is still a joke when you see shit like this:

1 Day GLD chart from Quote.com.

If I were the SEC Chair, I’d already have the licenses and scrotums of the dirtbag’s responsible thumbtacked to my wall (by the way, if you don’t know what I’m talking about, maybe you too should become a government watchdog).  Unfortunately citizens, I’m just some blogger whose wife decides what gets hung up on the walls.  The SEC chair is named Mary L. Schapiro, who rose to the top post by virtue of over two decades “service” without  achievement (unless you count sitting on your hands and hiring Bernie Madoff’s son as achievements).  Remeber how she got grilled about how well she knew the Madoff family?  Me niether.

I  thought it was impossible to find a bigger bumblefuck than Christopher Cox, but our government has surprised me once again.  We found somebody who was literally surrounded by the biggest fraud in history, and never made a peep.  I love this graphic from muckety.com

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Bumble Spotting!

Look, I warned you my posts would be hurried and less frequent…..

Real coverage of Bernanke’s 60 Minutes appearance can be found at:

The Daily Bail – a blog so good it became the subject of a conspiracy theory! (You lucky, lucky bastard)

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The Big Picture (always a good time)

As for me, aside from being busier than a one-legged man in an ass-kicking contest, I spent much of the weekend in a three-stooges plumbing episode.  One thing not over-rated in Today’s world: Indoor Plumbing.

In other news:

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Can You say ‘Fiduciary’?

It seems that corporate America is in need of a vocabulary lesson:

From West’s Encyclopedia of American Law via Answers.com

Fiduciary (fidōō′shē-erē) n.

An individual in whom another has placed the utmost trust and confidence to manage and protect property or money. The relationship wherein one person has an obligation to act for another’s benefit……

…..A fiduciary relationship extends to every possible case in which one side places confidence in the other and such confidence is accepted; this causes dependence by the one individual and influence by the other……

I can’t link to an SEC or Finra or NYSE web page that clearly defines the CEO’s fiduciary obligations to shareholders (because I can’t find them, or they don’t exist), but I’m pretty sure that when you say your dividend is good to go, then cut it a month later you’ve breached the trust the shareholders have placed in you.

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How Bad Did the Commerce Department Miss 4th Quarter GDP?

This bad:

Commerce Department sources said, “Close enough for government work.”

Yup, our government blows at math alright.  On February 27, the Commerce Department revised 4th Quarter GDP from -3.8% to -6.2%, which means they only missed by 63%.  Comforting, isn’t it?  The people in charge of the US economy can’t distinguish between Webster and Shaq (OK, theoretically, Webster should be 4 ft. 4, but this was the closest I could get) . If you poke around the web, you’ll find articles saying we knew there estimates were way off and even articles explaining why they are idiots.

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It’s all About Redemption Now

No, not your immortal soul, goofy.

My prayers for a snowstorm that would paralyze the Northeast and close the markets were only partially answered (sometimes God says, “sort of…”), so I’m home today, watching the train wreck.  This is looking to me like the kind of washout that we need, and I’m not seeing any price action for the X-files today.  Could it be that the powers have finally decided to let the chips fall where they may?  Who knows.  I believe that facing reality is usually the best course of action, no matter how painful.  I must concede however, that these are not usual times.

The key to successful short-term trading is figuring out what the other guy is going to do, before he figures it out.  The economic news, especially on Friday of last week, was grim.  Changing bailout terms, GDP much worse than initially thought, more Ponzis, initial unemployment claims thundering along, GE cuts dividend,  Santelli’s a Ho?  etc, etc, etc.  I  found too myself overwhelmed to write anything coherent (at least 5 pieces hit the trash can).

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