BOGUS

We've been harping about the bogus inflation crap coming from the Fed and its cronies in MSM for a long time now.

We don't want to confuse anyone with basic simple stuff like utilities, trash collection and a whole host of everyday stuff like food and energy; that would be too pedestrian. And, oh yea, property and sales and professional fee taxes, they're not part of one's increased costs of existing either.

Here in California the Freeway electric bulletin board signs now warn about a recently increased cell phone fine of $161-plus, a 30-percent-plus, to borrow the idiom of bureaucrats who cook this stuff up, hike for the infraction.

Maybe we're being a bit un-child like here for not appreciating more the now-you-see-it-now-you don't legerdemain. It's so magical.

http://davidstockmanscontracorner.com/memo-to-dr-yellen-on-the-low-flation-myth-inflation-seen-and-not-seen/?utm_source=wysija&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Mailing+List+AM+Wednesday

GLOOM DOOM PUSHBACK

Some gloom, some doom and some pushback.

Normally, we'd post this under voices where we usually put market strategists and their economic meanderings. But Faber is fun to hear and to read.

And the guy from the Times makes a valid point. His comment implies the gloom and doomsters manipulate the market for personal gain. That's interesting and raises an interesting question: What does Wall Street with its horde of bankers like Goldman Sachs do, sell lollipops?

http://blogs.marketwatch.com/thetell/2014/04/30/crashy-marc-faber-its-too-late-to-buy-u-s-stocks-now/

THE MAGICAL WORD

This is a four-letter word we've alluded to before and, in our humble opinion, at least one reason the Fed is behind the curve.

Jobs. Yes, they're out there and this is not the first sign. Again, if Fed Chair Yellen, as she recently did, questions the accuracy of the Fed's models to adequately track prices is correct why would jobs be any better. The truth is they ain't.

The truth is the Fed is trying to muddle its way through a situation they muddled up to begin with. From Japan to the EU to the US as more and more of these economic soothsayers keep worrying about more deflation the less likely that's what's in store. As even Keynes pointed out: nine times out of 10 the most feared never happens. 

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-04-24/labor-shortages-pop-up-in-many-u-dot-s-dot-cities

WHAT HAPPENED?

We'll call this for want of a better term an interesting discussion that took place earlier today from a panel of three prominent American economists. Make of it what you you want. Our take, again for want of a better term, is a big yawn. Furthermore, it's just one more example, prominent economists or no, of "your guess is as good as mine."

http://blogs.marketwatch.com/thetell/2014/04/29/roubini-rogoff-taylor-debate-the-global-economy-live-blog/

WONDER WHY?

A few years ago it was a Connecticut firm that sought to move off shore. Reason: To save on costs, a euphemism for tax bill.

Politicians on the left and right rallied to call the 100-plus year old company's move a bunch of names including ''un-American." The  firm finally backed down and stayed in one of the highest tax states.

 Now two more huge companies want to move their headquarters, Toyota and Pfizer, for reasons we'll leave you to figure out since elected official apparently can't or, worse yet, don't want to.

 http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304163604579530162313579896?mod=WSJ_hps_sections_health&mg=reno64-wsj

http://www.cnbc.com/id/101625195

TWO GOALS DIFFICULT CHOICE

The European Union gets about 40% of its natural gas and 20% of its oil from Russia, not a good position to be in when you're doling out sanctions 

Talk about biting the hand that feeds you. Europe is noted for its environmental activists and for years many countries there have been trying to clean up their greenhouse act. A noble goal to be sure. But so is trying to stay warm during frigid winters

One of the big greenhouse bogey men for decades has been coal, that thick-smoke-producing cheap energy industries worldwide depended on for years. Japan after it's Fukashima nuclear disaster is now considering coal to supply some of its energy needs. And China with its own energy problems, according to most reports, is one of the worlds largest importers of coal.

And there are others including India looking at coal. Though most environmentalists won't admit it, alternative sources ain't the answer for a variety of reasons too numerous to discuss. 

(See http://ourfiniteworld.com/2014/04/23/eight-energy-myths-explained/.) Germany and Poland mine lots of the stuff. Coal is cheap as in the cheapest source of energy despite what many will say.

We're not predicting anything, but don't be too surprised if this turns out to be another chapter in what goes around comes around.

http://www.minyanville.com/sectors/energy/articles/Coal-Increasingly-Seen-As-Option-For/4/28/2014/id/54745

RANDOM READS

New Sanctions
http://www.cnbc.com/id/101620246

High Yield Bonds Still Above Waterline
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-04-28/junk-bond-skeptics-squeezed-as-jpmorgan-sees-tears-in-15.html

Earnings Hit
http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2014/04/27/american-companies-latin-america-currency/8166739/

Hubris? You Decide
http://blogs.marketwatch.com/thetell/2014/04/28/bull-market-wont-die-until-a-recession-hits-rbc/

Higher Beef Prices
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/apr/28/california-drought-cattle-ranchers-water-beef

The Way The Brain Works
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303725404579461722158151180?

SAY GOODBYE TO ROMA

The glory that was once Roma.

Italy is one of the European Union's periphery nations like Greece and Portugal. As one of the richest institutions in the world, the Catholic church, prepares to canonize two still very-much-with-us former popes in a gala festival, Roma and the rest of the nation continues to crumble. And the madness continues.

It's a canonization MSM worldwide will be all over, a morally-bankrupt media covering a bankrupt nation.

Read the full story.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/new-mayor-in-rome-seeks-to-prevent-further-decline-in-city-a-965806.html

QUESTIONS?

Here's a story that should improve your confidence in the Fed and new Chair Janet Yellen.

Some no doubt will see it as a positive, an admission of what they don't know, not a bad human trait to have in most cases. Just not this one. Yellen is a new chairperson, not a new member of the inner circle. Nor is she new to the world of politics. She's a wonk. One could easily suggest so much for the value of experience.

If in truth she is correct and their econometric mumble-jumble is offbeat, what's that say for the policies they've been conducting for the past several years? It's just a question. It doesn't deserve an answer unless you're a serious investor.

If as she postulates their models fail to predict price moves, could they possibly be understating inflation? Just another question. Famed investor Michael Price once said, it's not so much the answers you get. It's the questions you ask.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-04-25/yellen-concerned-fed-model-fails-to-predict-price-moves.html

SO MUCH FOR PEACE DIVIDENDS

Federal Spending Per Household Is on the Rise

Federal spending per household is projected to grow by 22 percent over the next decade, after adjusting for inflation. Federal spending per household more than doubled from 1962 to 2003. Spending grew by 17 percent just over the past decade.

INFLATION-ADJUSTED DOLLARS (2013)

Back in 1989 when the Berlin Wall crumbled there was much talk about the peace dividend.

Industrialized nations would have more of the filthy lucre to spread around purportedly on so-called good things. After all, so the story went, the military-industrial complex soaked and sopped up huge chunks of GDP. In other words, government money.

It was viewed as a waste of good government money. And whatever the purpose, wasting good government money is always characterized as a no-no unless you're the government wasting it.

Well, like a lot of things in life, something went awry on the way to the savings. Those same governments--as they nearly always do--found other ways to waste the would-be windfall. And now that the Ukraine mess has captured the public spotlight, interest in new military weaponry for defense is perking up from some most unusual places.

We'd say go figure, but that would to be too..... 

 http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304788404579522843679136218?KEYWORDS=saab+news&mg=reno64-wsj

 http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303825604579516962265054526?KEYWORDS=saab+news&mg=reno64-wsj