SEC Staffers Watched Porn as Economy Crashed - CBS News

SEC Staffers Watched Porn as Economy Crashed - CBS News: "WASHINGTON, April 22, 2010

This certainly makes room for new phrases.  Nero may have Fiddled but "SEC Diddles while Rome Burns"

Agency Watchdog: Senior Staffers Spent Hours Surfing Pornographic Websites on Government Computers

(AP) Senior staffers at the Securities and Exchange Commission spent hours surfing pornographic websites on government-issued computers while they were being paid to police the financial system, an agency watchdog says.

The SEC's inspector general conducted 33 probes of employees looking at explicit images in the past five years, according to a memo obtained late Thursday by The Associated Press.

The memo says 31 of those probes occurred in the 2 1/2 years since the financial system teetered and nearly crashed.

It was written by SEC Inspector General David Kotz in response to a request from Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa.

The memo was first reported Thursday evening by ABC News. It summarizes findings of past inspector general probes and reports some shocking findings:

• A senior attorney at the SEC's Washington headquarters spent up to eight hours a day looking at and downloading pornography. When he ran out of hard drive space, he burned the files to CDs or DVDs, which he kept in boxes around his office. He agreed to"

The Bigger Picture

We are still in bear environs IMHO and riding a corrective wave over the last 13 months.  This is a monthly snapshot which clearly show the Linear Regression decending.  the red channel depicts the current trend. Overall I think the ES could easily go to 1400 and a correction to 1040is is nothing to become upset over and in fact it will be sold by MSM as healthy and normal.  Only problem is how do you know for sure if a down move is going to be the "big one"  or just a correction.  You don't and that's why I trade only short term in this market.  I would not enter anything with out an exit plan.  Good advise in any environment, but most especially in our current markets.  Next big bull/bear fight will occur around 1290 to 1310 on the ES E-mini.

It should be apparent that I am convinced we face massive failures in just about all things financial sometimes in the future and although bias towards the eventual failure I still have to trade the trend in the meantime.  I keep wracking my brain as to the best way to capitalize on the eventuality of the failure but this remains still a moving target.  FW.s MMG has a hockey stick on the monthly but the TEMA trend is in full up mode making me think any correction will be minimal at this point from a monthly standpoint. We are just one global event away from a real mess.  Hope some of you can get something out of this.  Enjoy.  Just click on the chart for an expanded view.

6 AM snapshot of the evenings counter trend trade.  Yes I violated my rules but it was just to juicy to pass up. with 3 excellent sell signals what's a guy to do.  We are still in an up trend until we fail the previous low and I don't see that happening just yet. Another chance to get long without giving up profits  from the last few days.

Click on chart to expand

Peter Schiff is as usual, correct but when will America wake up

Peter mentions that Hong Kong had no income tax and has stated he stands corrected that Hong Kong first imposes and income tax in 1947.  It has a top rate of 16%, a high personal exemption, and capital gains, dividends, and interest income are not taxed! Certainly not as good as no income tax at all, but a much better system then the one we have here!



Now if anyone thinks Peter does not know what he is talking about when you have a bit of time to watch this speech before the Mortgage Bankers Conference in Las Vegas in 2006.  This was ample warning as to what was about to happen. If you don't have time to watch the entire hour (It is totally worth investing the time) at least watch the last 15 minutes or so when the economist with the opposing view and Peter are asked questions.  Bare in mind these are mortgage bankers.  Some smugly ask Peter if they should "just silt their wrist"  after hearing his forecast. But Dr. Barry Whatzizname is probably some where in hiding about now.

14 Pieces Of Really Bad News For The U.S. Economy

Thanks to JDH over at http://www.buy-high-sell-higher.com/ for calling this piece to my attention. click the link below for the full article may must be a wake up call for some.

14 Pieces Of Really Bad News For The U.S. Economy: "14 Pieces Of Really Bad News For The U.S. Economy
Federal Reserve Governor Kevin Warsh told an audience on Friday that the U.S. economy is in the midst of a cyclical recovery and that there are 'encouraging' signs of improvement in financial markets.  Many other governmental and media talking heads have uttered similar pronouncements about a 'recovery' which will put the U.S. economy back on track.  But are we really experiencing a recovery?  If so, then why are foreclosures still hitting record levels?  Why is unemployment so high?  Why are so many cities and states on the verge of bankruptcy?  Why are so many average Americans hurting so much?"

Patience pays off got the short position about 45 minutes after the London open and rode it down to the Pivot.  These fairly new indicators are pretty go and both gave a good heads up and the TEMA keep me in the trade right to the bottom.  I like this little indicator for helping to stay with a trade longer to maximize the take.  Kudos to you Kirk and John.  FW's measured market guage MMG is quite solid also though I still use my other trusty lights.  I had actually 4 good sell triggers on this last night.  I actually hit the "Reverse" button

Goldman Sachs Says SEC Case Hinges on Actions of One Employee - Bloomberg.com

Poor Bastard.  Wonder how many more throw aways GS has sitting around waiting to be sacrificed.  31 years  old he can do 5-10 standing on his head and pick up the check before he turns 40 and enjoy life on the south of France........  if there is anything left in the south of France by the time he gets out.


Goldman Sachs Says SEC Case Hinges on Actions of One Employee - Bloomberg.com: "Goldman Sachs Says SEC Case Hinges on Actions of One Employee
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By Christine Harper and David Scheer


April 21 (Bloomberg) -- Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said the U.S. fraud case against the firm hinges on the actions of the employee it placed on paid leave this week.

Fabrice Tourre, the 31-year-old Goldman Sachs executive director who was accused of misleading investors about a mortgage-linked investment in 2007, will also be de-registered from the Financial Services Authority, a spokeswoman at the firm in London said yesterday.

“It’s all going to be a factual dispute about what he remembers and what the other folks remember on the other side,” Greg Palm, Goldman Sachs’s co-general counsel, said in a call with reporters yesterday, without naming Tourre. “If we had evidence that someone here was trying to mislead someone, that’s not something we’d condone at all and we’d be the first one to take action.”"

The Miracle Continues

Well I got out the short trade from last week on Sunday night and got reversed into a more sane Long position which is with the trend.  It is clear on the chart where the reverse occurred.  The second chart is a little closer look at the hourly and I am flat looking to short this failure should it pan out. Having said that the ES is still in an up trend, and here I go violating the rules I have about not trading against the trend.  Oh well I am only looking for a few points on the drop and another opportunity to re-enter long.  Hey, I'm trying to milk this for everything I can and getting out on the pull backs to re enter can add to the bottom line.