There Was A Time …

Nowhere is [the result of mainstream media bias] more obvious than in the relentless imploding viewership of once financial media titan, CNBC, which lately has become a sad, one-sided caricature of its once informative self, whose only agenda is to get the most marginal Joe Sixpack to dump his hard-earned cash into 100x P/E stocks, and where according to data from Nielsen Media Research, the total and demographic (25-54) viewership during the prime time segment (9:30am – 5:00 pm) just tumbled to 216K and 40K – the lowest recorded viewership since mid 2005 and sliding.

 

 

NBC, the bought and paid for Obama network … Now Comcast takes the reigns.

So why the relentless collapse in CNBC viewers, which in turns leads to plunging ad revenues (aside from our observations from last summer on just this topic) and which has forced the station to even resort to muppets as a cheap ratings-boosting gimmick? Perhaps it has something to do with outbursts like this, where 13 minutes into the clip, one Jim Cramer tells the camera point blank when discussing daily market gyrations, and with absolutely no remorse, that “I want everyone to play that game at home by recognizing that fraud is part of the equation and the government cannot stop it.“

That’s right: on one hand CNBC’s most overcaffeinated anchor admits that the market is nothing but uncontrollable fraud, and on the other he beckons viewers and listeners, usually with the assistance of assorted bovine sounds, to “buy, buy, buy.“

Perhaps the greater fool is truly dead, or simply the embedded hypocrisy of the CNBC stock “infomercial” is so transparent that nobody really cares what the Comcast subsidiary’s paid entertainers have to say any more.

Read more at zerohedge.com …

 

JCPenney CEO Ron Johnson Is Out

So much for the “transformational” CEO, poached from AAPL and credited with creating the AAPL retail mystique. As per CNBC, he now effectively “out”:

J.C. PENNEY TO OUST RON JOHNSON AS CEO: CNBC
J.C. PENNEY’S CEO JOHNSON `IS OUT’: CNBC

At least he lasted just a bit longer than the former JCP president Mike Francis, who came, saw, collected $10 million, and quit nine months later.

 

Judge: Stockton, Calif., Can File for Bankruptcy

Well I bet this doesn’t end well. The biggest US city so far goes bankrupt. The Good times comes to and end.

CNBC writes:

A judge accepted the California city of Stockton’s bankruptcy application on Monday, making it the most populous city in the nation to enter bankruptcy.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Klein said the bankruptcy declaration was needed to allow the city to continue to provide basic services.

“It’s apparent to me the city would not be able to perform its obligations to its citizens on fundamental public safety as well as other basic government services without the ability to have the muscle of the contract-impairing power of federal bankruptcy law,” Klein said.

The city of nearly 300,000 people has become emblematic of government excess and the financial calamity that resulted when the nation’s housing bubble burst.

SHILLER: ‘We’re Living In A Totally Artificial Real Estate Economy’

“One thing that makes it very hard to forecast home prices right now is that we’re living in a totally artificial real estate economy,” said Shiller, co-creator of the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller Index, a widely followed measure of housing prices.

Shiller pointed to the Federal Reserve, which last week reaffirmed its policies on bond purchases and record-low interest rates. In September, the Fed launched a third round of quantitative easing (QE), in which it has bought $40 billion of mortgage-backed securities per month, primarily in mortgage-backed bonds.

Meanwhile, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two largest U.S. home funding sources, remain in government conservator-ship as Congress looks for ways to raise new tax revenues, Shiller noted.

“All of these things are weighing on the futures of housing,” Shiller said on CNBC’s “Futures Now,” adding the recovery might even be a bubble. “One thing you learn from history is that bubbles can occur at any time.”

 

Cyprus Banks Close, €100 Limit on Withdrawals

With its banks indefinitely closed, and capital controls already in place making it virtually impossible any material cash will leave the local bank branches or certainly the island (especially in direction Moscow), gas stations about to shut down due to lack of cash, next it was the turn of the ATMs.

Sure enough, as CNBC’s Michelle Caruso-Cabrera reports on the ground from Nicosia, moments ago the nation’s second largest, and second most insolvent bank, Laiki Bank, announced that withdrawals are now limited to €100. The picture below from MCC shows as an employee takes down old sign that said previous €260 limit. At this pace, in lieu of some grand bargain, we expect it is only hours before the final limit is imposed: withdrawals now limited to €0.

“Employee takes down old sign that said previous €260 limit”

Source: Michelle Caruso-Cabrera

I went thorugh the mess of bank failure, have cash. You’ve been warned.

Sprawling and Struggling: Poverty Hits America’s Suburbs

CNBC reports:

Like many Americans who move to the suburbs, Tara Simons came to West Hartford, Conn., because she wanted her daughter to grow up in a nice, safe place with good schools.

Her fall from a more financially secure suburban life to one among the working poor also happened for the same reason it’s happened to so many others. She had a bout of unemployment and couldn’t find a new job that paid very well.

As a single mother, that’s made it hard to hold on to the suburban life that is, in her mind, key to making sure her daughter gets off to the right start.

 ”I’m basically paying to say I live in West Hartford,” she said. “It is worth it.”

 

Cyprus Banks To Remain Shut Until …

An official said banks, which been shut for days amid fears of a run on savings, will stay closed on Thursday and Friday, CNBC and Reuters reported. Monday is a public holiday.

Earlier, Germany said the banks were effectively insolvent and might never open at all unless Cypriot political leaders accepted a bailout deal.

Thousands of Cypriots withdrew savings after the unexpected European Union announcement that it would provide $12.9 billion in exchange for up to 10 per cent of the value of all bank deposits – a move that would have thrown the Mediterranean island a lifeline but hundreds of thousands of citizens out of pocket.

I suggest you have at least 30 days of cash you need to live on and pay bills. Just in case.

The EU is getting sicker, and sicker …

Let America Get Back To Work …

There is going to be a rumble.

Not one to shy away from voicing his opinion, CNBC’s Rick Santelli on Friday clashed with his colleagues over topics that included Quantitative Easing, unemployment, and Fed’s supposed plan to revive the U.S. economy.

“Five years into this crisis, I think it’s all disappointing,” Santelli said, referring to recovery’s slow pace. “It would take five years at the present job rate to get to where we were before the crisis.”

Indeed, as noted earlier on TheBlaze, although today’s unemployment numbers are heartening, there’s still a lot a work that needs to be done before we can get back to pre-recession employment levels:

Watch the video here …

Economy Sucks …

CRAMER: ‘We all know it’s going to end badly’…

Economic optimism hits 15-year low…

The fed’s money pump veneer camouflages the problem.

“Mission Accomplished” – With CNBC now lost for countdown-able targets (though 20,000 is so close), we leave it to none other than Jim Cramer to sum up where we stand (oh and the following list of remarkable then-and-now macro, micro, and market variables):  “we all know it’s going to end badly, but in the meantime we can make some money” – ZH translation: “just make sure to sell ahead of everyone else.”

• Dow Jones Industrial Average: Then 14164.5; Now 14164.5
• Regular Gas Price: Then $2.75; Now $3.73
• GDP Growth: Then +2.5%; Now +1.6%
• Americans Unemployed (in Labor Force): Then 6.7 million; Now 13.2 million
• Americans On Food Stamps: Then 26.9 million; Now 47.69 million
• Size of Fed’s Balance Sheet: Then $0.89 trillion; Now $3.01 trillion
• US Debt as a Percentage of GDP: Then ~38%; Now 74.2%
• US Deficit (LTM): Then $97 billion; Now $975.6 billion
• Total US Debt Oustanding: Then $9.008 trillion; Now $16.43 trillion
• US Household Debt: Then $13.5 trillion; Now 12.87 trillion
• Labor Force Particpation Rate: Then 65.8%; Now 63.6%
• Consumer Confidence: Then 99.5; Now 69.6
• S&P Rating of the US: Then AAA; Now AA+
• VIX: Then 17.5%; Now 14%
• 10 Year Treasury Yield: Then 4.64%; Now 1.89%
• EURUSD: Then 1.4145; Now 1.3050
• Gold: Then $748; Now $1583
• NYSE Average LTM Volume (per day): Then 1.3 billion shares; Now 545 million shares

Well that’s a fine mess you have made …

Most Americans Can No Longer Afford New Cars

Solve the global warming hoax the easy way … A 2011 study found that Obama’s green mandate will add $10,000 to the price of new cars, and eliminate 260,000 jobs. Just make cars too expensive to buy.

A majority of middle class Americans can no longer afford a new car.

CNBC reported

Looking to buy a new car, truck or crossover? You may find it more difficult to stretch the household budget than you expected, according to a new study that finds median-income families in only one major U.S. city actually can afford the typical new vehicle.

The typical new vehicle is now more expensive than ever, averaging $30,500 in 2012, according to TrueCar.com data, and heading up again as makers curb the incentives that helped make their products more affordable during the recession when they were desperate for sales.

According to the 2013 Car Affordability Study by Interest.com, only in Washington could the typical household swing the payments, the median income there running $86,680 a year. At the other extreme, Tampa, Fla., was at the bottom of the 25 large cities included in the study, with a median household income of $43,832.