This is the chart showing JP Morgan’s stock price over the past few days. If you still happen to be under the impression that markets aren’t a total sham, I’d encourage you to take a look at this stock chart, alongside the headlines released while the stocks price was climbing.

JP Morgan Chase Stock Chart

• JP Morgan Second-Quarter Profit Fell 8.7%
• JPMorgan’s Botched Trades May Generate $7.5 Billion Loss
• JPMorgan’s trade losses soar in second quarter
• JPMorgan loses $5.8 billion on trades; traders may have hidden losses

How in the world is a company that is posting these kinds of losses, with this kind of press, pushing out a stock gain of nearly 6% since the day’s open? I would love to know what would happen to Microsoft or Apple or Oracle stock if they put out a press release headlining: “Second quarter profit dropped 8%, and one of our factories burned to the ground”.

For any “normal” company posting numbers like that, the stock price would be tanking. Who on earth is buying this?

These days, I get such a kick out of watching the markets swing up and down with absolutely no grip on anything fundamental whatsoever. Alleged “good news” is for the most part a giant smokescreen, while “bad news” tends to at least have have some basis in reality. The following are two images, one taken from Google Finance on Friday June 29th, and one Friday July 7th – just a week apart. It should be no surprise to anyone that the market moves up and down – but  to do so in such an erratic and non-sensical way is, to me, a clear indicator that these markets are rigged and being yanked around by proverbial big fish.

Market Close, June 29 2012

Market Close, July 6 2012

Continuing with the same story, you might want to figure out where to buy some gold or silver, and store some of your assets outside the financial system if you want any hope of preserving your wealth in a market that is anything but “free”.

Starting off with a quote from Mish:

On the heels of an article from Al Jazeera, noting Papandreou warning against a ‘catastrophic’ default, I noticed a second article from the Guardian describing the scene on the square in front of the Greek capital at it plays host to thousands of enraged citizens. Continue Reading…

I finally had a chance to watch Inside Job, advertised as the “THE FILM THAT COST OVER $20,000,000,000,000 TO MAKE”.

The Inside Job study guide states:

Inside Job, the critically acclaimed movie by Academy Award nominated filmmaker, Charles Ferguson, is the definitive film about the economic crisis of 2008 and the role of Wall Street in modern society. It is a substantive and entertaining film that is ideal for educational purposes.

Continue Reading…

If you haven’t heard the recent King World News interview with Nigel Farage, I recommend you give it a listen. For the uninformed, Nigel Farage is a British politician, founding member of the UK Independence Party, etc. Continue Reading…

This is going to be brief, but here are my thoughts on Zuckerberg vs. Assange for Times Person Of The Year:

Zuckerberg’s company builds software that continually exposes more and more information about individuals, (via poor privacy settings, sending extensive data to third party applications, location monitoring, facial tagging, etc.) allowing governments to spy on its citizens. Continue Reading…

The U.S. dollar is “one step nearer” to a crisis as debt levels in the world’s largest economy increase, said Yu Yongding, a former adviser to China’s central bank.

Any appreciation of the dollar is “really temporary” and a devaluation of the currency is inevitable as U.S. debt rises…

“Such a huge amount of debt is terrible,” Yu said. “The situation will be worsening day by day. I think we are one step nearer to a U.S.-dollar crisis.”

Yu also said China is worried about the safety of its foreign-exchange reserves including those invested in U.S…

China, the biggest foreign investor in U.S. government bonds, cut its holdings by about 10 percent to $846.7 billion in the 12 months ended July, according to the Treasury Department.

U.S. Treasuries fail to provide safety or liquidity in managing China’s $2.45 trillion foreign-exchange reserves, Yu said in an e-mail in August.

via bloomberg.com

In a desperate attempt to fill a $70 million budget hole, Newark’s mayor is taking a chainsaw to the town’s budget — even going so far as to cut toilet paper from the 2010 budget.

via globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com

But the economy is fine. You just have to bring your own toilet paper to work, that’s all.

Several top U.S. asset managers, on being told by John Levin (HSBC Bank’s Managing Director, Global Metals and Trading) that HSBC’s U.S. vaults had sufficient space available to store bullion, was told that they did not want their gold stored in the U.S.A. but preferably in Europe because they feared that at some stage the U.S. Administration might follow the path set by Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933 and confiscate all U.S. gold holdings as part of the country’s strategy in dealing with the nation’s economic problems.

via mineweb.com.