[QUOTE=garo;300607]I don't think it is a good idea to use overstock.com as the posterboy for NSS. Its CEO is a piece of work and it is hard to separate facts from conspiracy mongering in his case.[/QUOTE]Agreed. The reason it is mentioned here and now is because some interesting emails accidentally got released unredacted into the court record. Every time a log in the forest is lifted, bugs run for cover. I personally pleaded a headache and bailed out of attempting to separate facts from conspiracy mongering. I felt too weary to even make the effort. That doesn't change that fact that I still look under the log when it is lifted.

The turbulence in Spain is enough to make you seasick. First they were going to issue bonds to pay for the bank bailout, then another emergency request came in from Catalonia requesting up to $16 billion. Long story short, regional governments are mostly up to their ears in debt and the national government is in a quagmire of slowly collapsing economy. At the rate they are going, they will have EU bailout funds in their hands and egg on their face in about 3 months.

[url]http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505123_162-57442935/spain-may-ask-for-international-financial-aid/[/url]

DarJones

[QUOTE=Fusion_power;300625]The turbulence in Spain is enough to make you seasick. First they were going to issue bonds to pay for the bank bailout, then another emergency request came in from Catalonia requesting up to $16 billion. Long story short, regional governments are mostly up to their ears in debt and the national government is in a quagmire of slowly collapsing economy. At the rate they are going, they will have EU bailout funds in their hands and egg on their face in about 3 months.[/QUOTE]

One has to wonder though, must one not?

Since the earth's financial system is closed, where is all the money?

Adam Smith brought us "Wealth of Nations".

John Nash showed it wasn't that simple.

Where is all the money?

[QUOTE=chalsall;300628]Where is all the money?[/QUOTE]Yeah! I'm tired of a broke @$$ world! Just now I'm reading that Switzerland is paying [B]negative[/B] interest rate of 0.62 percent on Tuesday's debt sale. I don't know what the debt instruments are called but people are paying to loan Switzerland their money. Investors are willing to lose money to preserve capital. That's fear, uncertainty and doubt but not the usual FUD.

[QUOTE=garo;300606]Have you bothered to ask any Iraqis or Afghanis or are you basing your opinion off the oh-so-objective US main stream media? Your use of the phrase "I would like to believe" clearly suggests that you are not open to the possibility of the invasions being a malign influence.

Regarding things getting worse since 1975 not having anything to do with the US, have you ever seen the photo of Rummy shaking Saddam's hand?

I would encourage you to read a bit more especially non-US sources before making your mind up.[/QUOTE]

I should think "I would like to believe" means that I understand there is a distinct possibility that it is not the case. (And if I were only using the US media as sources, they must be the worst places on Earth to live, what with the 10s of people (on average) being murdered every day. They're probably both better than some parts of Syria ATM.)

I've always been meaning to read more Al-Jazeera.

(PS Of course invasions are generally malign influence; I never said that 2003 was better than 2000.)

[QUOTE=chalsall;300628]One has to wonder though, must one not?

Since the earth's financial system is closed, where is all the money?[/QUOTE]

As long as the world's TBTF and central banks can emit virtually unlimited amounts of "credit money" against fictitiously valued "capital", they can counterfeit as much money as they like.

The problem with this tactic from the perspective of those who seek magical solutions involving such fiat-monetary manipulations -- the "Ben Bernankes of the world", if you will -- is that money != wealth ... perhaps that is why the esteemed Mr. Smith did not title his magnum opus "The Money of Nations".

The problem with this tactic from the perspective of those not benefiting directly from the new-printed money -- the "99 percenters of the world" -- is that the counterfeited money spends just like real capital, thus represents a barrier to the kind of genuine capital formation crucial for non-debt-expansion-based "organic" economic growth, as well as a highly effective means of transferring wealth from those who possess it (in the form of either savings or productive labor) to the counterfeiters and their designated beneficiaries. As I've said before, it's the ultimate form of taxation without representation.

[QUOTE=ewmayer;300650]As long as the world's TBTF and central banks can emit virtually unlimited amounts of "credit money" against fictitiously valued "capital", they can counterfeit as much money as they like.[/QUOTE]

But, as we all know, this doesn't scale.

[QUOTE=ewmayer;300650]As I've said before, it's the ultimate form of taxation without representation.[/QUOTE]

So, let me then please ask again: where is all the money?

[QUOTE=chalsall;300651]So, let me then please ask again: where is all the money?[/QUOTE]

Tied up in a multiple-GDP-sized mountain of debts, public and private. Where do you think the past 30 years of "GDP growth" cam from? (If you are inclined to answer "increased productivity", you may want to check your numbers first.)

How's that for "not scaling"? The bulk of the "developed" world has scaled itself into collective unpayable insolvency, it seems.

[QUOTE=garo;300496]Ernst, your 9999900 bid on yahoo was a data error. The max bid on FB that day was 6 million shares resting at 38. A hefty chunk but not infinite.

The shares outstanding and float don't change from day to day. The next float increase is in a bit less than three months when a bunch of employees see their restrictions on selling stock lifted.[/QUOTE]

I've been tracking price and float at end of each US-market day in non-high-tech fashion via [url=http://finance.yahoo.com/q/ks?s=FB+Key+Statistics]Yahoo! Finance[/url]. Here are numbers for last week, for which I missed Monday:
[code]
5/22: 31.00 Down 3.03(-8.90%)
Shares Outstanding5: 2.74B
Float: 772.60M

5/23: 32.00 Up 1.00(3.23%)
Float: 757.21M

5/24: 33.03 Up 1.03(3.22%) <*** First day shares available to borrow (= puts) ***
Float: 757.21M

5/25: 31.91 Down 1.12(3.39%)
Float: 719.34M <*** Steep drop ... poss. due to borrow for shorting? ***[/code]

Yesterday was a U.S. holiday, would not have expected any changes in the above, but I did not actually check.

Shares Outstanding remained at a constant 2.74B all of last week - not surprising since I expect that is simply the number of "fiat shares" created via the IPO-related filing. But right now, I see this:
[code]
5/29: 28.84 Down 3.07(9.62%)
Shares Outstanding5: 2.14B <*** Sudden drop of 600M shares
Float: 1.14B <*** Increase of ~400M shares[/code]

Float should not be affected by borrowing to short. The drop in SO is puzzling. Yahoo might have the data wrong. AFAIK no fiat shares have been burned.

[QUOTE=ewmayer;300653]The bulk of the "developed" world has scaled itself into collective unpayable insolvency, it seems.[/QUOTE]

But to have debt you must have lenders.

And yet, if you listen to the "news", everyone is in debt.

This (literally) doesn't add up.