Iraqi pawn to check Chinese King? published at ZeroHedge

Investigates whether Iraq was invaded to install a puppet government that would funnel petro-dollars into US Treasuries with the aim of ending China’s hegemony in the US bond market.

What do you do? published at ZeroHedge

An attempt to harness a brain-trust of sorts in order to identify the options available to the Chinese government for safely extracting maximum value from its soon to be worthless holdings of US bonds.

Far-fetched scenario – a stronger post-apocalypse Russia? published at ZeroHedge

Discusses a long-term scenario where the US defaults on its obligations and attacks China, with a resulting boost to Russian power.

High Frequency Trading and systemic instability published at ZeroHedge

An analysis of the systemic instability wrought by the practice of High Frequency Trading.

Q. What do you sing to a joke that roams around all day long without doing any work, and that doesn’t have a fixed address?

A. “AwaraPUN, banjaraPUN, ek khalaa hai seene mein …”

Girish let me in on a top secret side-job he has been doing these days – photoshop liposuction – where friends send their photographs to him and he gives them “better” features by reducing the rotundity of their faces and giving them a chiselled chin. The usual effects of “making fair” and “giving lighter eyes” are also applied.

The photographs are used in matrimonial adverts and proposals. When asked if he feels bad about the disappointment his products create in prospective brides who feel cheated when they see that the square jawed hunk is infact cherubic, obese and, well, a sack of lard, he says, “A resume doesn’t promise you a job, merely a foot in the door.”

There you have it – the originator of the term photoshop liposuction!

Photographs of flowers, taken by a friend.

Or maybe we’re Absurdistan.

Despite Mr Chidambaram’s smooth claims to the contrary, a state that is unable to conduct free and fair elections and a sporting event (IPL) raises questions about competence.

It is a crying shame that the Indian state cannot conduct elections and do anything else simultaneously.  And it’s surprising to note that only states ruled by the Congress (Mr Chidambaram’s party) feel themselves unequal to the task of ensuring the elections and the IPL happen at the same time.

The Congress’ attempts at using the IPL as a tool for furthering its political agenda (at Mr Sharad Pawar’s cost) will, over time, bit it in the ass. I for one will be very amused.

Until then I will sulk at the prospect of the Indian Premier League being held in South Africa!

Geithner’s Five Big Misconceptions by Henry Blodget

Q. What happened when the Autobots (from Transformers the movie) defaulted on their loans?

A. Their leader became Optimus Sub-Prime.

My article on SeekingAlpha … comments solicited

http://seekingalpha.com/article/127263-the-dollar-is-dead

Usually I just add interesting websites to my blogroll with much fuss, but Heroes Are Here is different and deserves every bit of attention it can get.

http://heroesarehere.blogspot.com/

The website profiles some of the bravest soldiers and officers of the Indian Armed Forces who gave up their lives in various operations since independence.

Hats off to the author (Sammy Dhaliwal) for doing a fantastic job and taking up the responsibilities that the government and armed forces of India  have disgracefully abdicated.

The US Fed has finally begun acting on its threat of purchasing US Treasuries (basically, printing money – monetising its debt). A press release by the FOMC yesterday says, among a whole lot of other things …

Moreover, to help improve conditions in private credit markets, the Committee decided to purchase up to $300 billion of longer-term Treasury securities over the next six months.

So the US Fed is embarking on a scheme meant to drive down yields on US Treasuries while increasing the supply of USD. It is also a scheme of currency debasement (Debasement is the practice of lowering the value of currency.)

US Dollars are only valuable so long as they are limited in supply. With Ben Bernanke embarking on a printing spree, that supply is going to shoot up with obviously negative consequences on the dollar.

The Chinese are going to be pissed off! Look for China to retaliate, perhaps by offloading part of its own holdings of US Treasuries or by slowing down even further its purchase of fresh ones (with the obvious caveat that I don’t quite have unrestricted access to the minds of China’s rulers).