A Traders Meditations

From the City of Constellations
to the wanderer
and a Place of Rains
he journeys on...
...the City of hesitation and doubt
the Island of the house the colour of the sea
the Plain of Mementoes
he journeys on to find his love...
...the Valley of lost time
the City of End and Endlessness
the Isle of Revenents
he journeys on...
...the City of Solitudes
the City of the distance from you
the City of Words of blue
and yellow and red and green
he journeys on to find his love...

...where the road takes him throuh
the City of Sleep
the thinking that does not end is within him
Then he dreams
the road takes him
this man who is searching
it brings him
in silence through the night

where the Cities that do not Exist, exist
it brings him
in silence through the night
close to the City of Realisations;
it is here one finds the way...
...Mount Orison
the City of Days
the Tree of the lost
he journeys on...
...north of his love
a road through a valley of darkness
the islands that are not of this world
he journeys on to find his love...

It is a long way through darkness
to the way of the eremite
the eremite sings of the world and of
the journey of love, which is not lost in eternity
...the Valley where the moon is caught in the trees
water shows the hidden heart
endlong into midnight
he journeys on...
...the parable of day
the Room of Books
where the winds come to him and say...

Dumb Money" Refuses To Be The Dumb Money For Yet Another Week

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/dumb-money-refuses-be-dumb-money-yet-another-week

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 03/21/2012 16:17 -0400

Goldman screams it is a generational buy, Larry Fink goes all in stocks, Notorious BIGGS is 90% long, anchors on comedy-financial fusion channels are channeling the producer in their earpiece and screaming at the teleprompter to "sell bonds and buy stocks", even as stocks are at their highest in nearly 5 years and... what happens? In the latest week, ICI just reported that domestic equity retail funds just saw another $2.9 billion outflow, the 4th consecutive in a row, and the 23 of out 27 outflows during the entire parabolic blow off top phase the market has undergone since October, and instead put another $9 billion in fixed income funds "soaring" yields be damned. What does this mean? Probably that the stock ramp is about to get uber-parabolic for the simple reason that this is the only thing left in the status quo's arsenal - to keep doing the same old same old, hoping for a different outcome, because this time it's different. Only this time the dumb money either doesn't have the cash to burn, or just doesn't want to participate in a rigged, corrupt, centrally-planned market. Whatever the case, the Primary Dealers and the Fed will just have to keep hoping more central banks pull a Bank of Israel and sell the hot grenade axes to them, since Joe Sixpack is done being the "dumb money."

Something worth Noting

3/6/12
U.S. Will Act to Prevent Iran from Developing Nuclear Weapons, Panetta Says


“He (Obama) has ordered U.S. warships to pass through the Strait of Hormuz despite the threats we have received from Iran,” the secretary said. “He has been the driving force behind the most successful and lethal counterterrorism campaign in U.S. history, culminating in the bold decision to send U.S. special operations forces hundreds of miles into Pakistan to take down Bin Laden.”

Panetta said the president has shown he is willing to do whatever is necessary to protect the United States, its allies and its interests, and Iranian leaders should not doubt his determination.
“Military action is the last alternative when all else fails,” Panetta said. “But make no mistake, when all else fails, we will act.”

Motivational Advice Continued

How to Get Motivation in Tough Times

Arnold Schwarzenegger motivating interview

Life's 6 Rules

Eurozone Services and Composite PMI Back in Contraction; Italy, Spain, France at New Lows

Eurozone Services and Composite PMI Back in Contraction; Italy, Spain, France at New Lows

Markit Eurozone Services and Composite PMIs show renewed contraction due to drop in services activity, making it extremely difficult to deny that Europe is in a recession. Let's take a look at some numbers.

Markit Eurozone Composite PMI®

The Markit Eurozone PMI® Composite Output Index fell from 50.4 in January to 49.3 in February, dropping below the earlier flash estimate of 49.7. The final reading confirmed that business activity contracted in February, having briefly returned to growth in January following four months of decline at the end of last year.



Key points:

• Final data confirm slide back into contraction, as drop in services activity offsets marginal rise in manufacturing output
• Strong downturns still evident in Italy and Spain
• Employment and prices charged fall as firms seek to cut costs and win new sales

Markit Eurozone Services PMI®

Service sector weakness poses new recession risk

Key points:

• Service sector activity contracts for fifth time in six months
• Ongoing fall in new business leads to job losses
• Growth in Germany contrasts with steeper declines in Italy and Spain
• Business confidence hits seven-month high

Of the four largest euro countries, only Germany showed expansion in February, and the rate of growth slowed from January’s seven-month high. The French service sector stagnated, ending a two-month period of mild expansion. Both Spain and Italy registered steep contractions, with the rates of decline gathering momentum in both cases.

Nations ranked by business activity (February)

• Ireland 53.3 12-month high
• Germany 52.8 2-month low
• France 50.0 3-month low
• Italy 44.1 4-month low
• Spain 41.9 3-month low

Spanish service providers reported a further particularly steep drop in payroll numbers, and employment also fell sharply in Italy’s service sector. French headcounts rose only slightly, while services employment growth in Germany slowed to the weakest since June 2010.

Companies frequently sought to boost sales by cutting prices, and average prices charged for services fell for the fifth time in the past six months as a result. Price trends varied markedly by country, however, ranging from ongoing upward pressure in Germany to steep falls in Spain and, to a lesser extent, Italy. France registered a slight fall in prices charged for services, reflecting the stagnation of new business flows in February.

In contrast to the trend for charges levied by service providers, input prices in the sector rose for the twenty-seventh straight month, pushed up in many instances by higher fuel and energy prices.

Profit Squeeze

Note that prices received fell for the fifth month in six, but prices paid rose for the twenty-seventh straight month.

Let's take a look at the second biggest economy, France, to see what is coming up.

3 Charts On The US Consumption Crash Dead-Ahead

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 03/05/2012 14:42 -0500

Average US gas prices are over 13% higher since late December 2011, back at June 2011 levels, and do not look set to drop any time soon. The anecdotal impact of this rise in a significant segment of the real US consumer's spending habits is unmistakable, as we discussed earlier, but it is more important to note where we have come from when considering the macro impact. Q4 macro data was 'juiced' by the significant drop in the price of energy as the 4-5pt drop in Energy-and-Utilities spend enabled 'visible' consumption to rise during that time (obviously helped by government handouts also). Just as occurred in the latter part of 2008, as the consumer was forced to spend more on Energy, so the visible consumption dropped notably and given the significance of the current data 'drop' in energy spending, when the current gas prices filter into this data, we would expect, as Credit Suisse points out, consumption on more discretionary spending will drop significantly.
Gas prices are up very significantly (both absolutely and on average)...


but the 'forced' rise in Energy spending has not filtered into the data yet...



...and just as in late 2008, as the spend of Energy and Utilities rises, so discretionary spending will drop significantly and given the huge divergence in the last quarter or two, the reaction could be very significant.



Perhaps this is just the 'crash' that Bernanke needs to run-the-presses again as conditionality will increasingly force investors to reject the 'optimal' buy-and-keep-buying trend as they recognize that QE3 can't start until things get worse, and buying in anticipation of QE3 means it will never happen?
Charts: Bloomberg

2/29/12 Sen. Snowe: We can't even do regular business

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18563_162-57388130/sen-snowe-we-cant-even-do-regular-business/

Sen Snowe: has decided to resign from Congress. The link above is to a CBS news video and Snowe gives her reasons for her resignation. A disturbing and informative interview on the inner workings of the political system that continues to fail.