And here it is. Snapshot from the Treasury’s page. Debt ceiling achieved, now we just need the Congress to increase it and all will be fine.

Dell Inc. said Tuesday afternoon that earnings surged in the first fiscal quarter on a mix of cost reductions and improved service revenues.

Shares of Dell rose nearly 4% in after-hours trading following the report; the stock closed the day down slightly at $15.90. The company said it expects revenue for the current period to come in above its normal seasonal levels, as several factors may give its PC business a lift in the period. (market watch)

Some history, oops.

The journalist Tristan Bano tells about the irrepressible urge of Strauss-Kahn as according to her she had to straight kick him to get rid of Mr. IMF’s passionate embrace. Ethnos Journal tells her story that took place in 2002. The young journalist managed to arrange an interview with the French politician and it should be held in an apartment. Bano tells that he wanted her to hold his hand to answer her questions. After a while his hand went up her thigh and up… it turned out they were fighting, she kicked him and he tried to unzip her jeans. Clearly, the interview never happened, and according to the story of Tristan Bano, after leaving the scene she received message: “Am I scaring you?”

http://www.grreporter.info/en/imf_romances_and_not_only/3799

Now we turn to some bedtime reading. The good, the bad, the ugly. Part III is another great piece from the burning platform.

The economic peril that we find ourselves confronted with, has been ninety-eight years in the making. The confluence of debt, demographics, delusion, and denial has left the country at the precipice of annihilation. There are two kinds of people in the world, those who control the money and those that are controlled by those who control the money. The last century has been marked by a methodical looting of the good (working middle class) by the bad (Federal Reserve & bankers) and supported by the ugly (Washington D.C. politicians). When historians pinpoint the year in which the Great American Empire began its downward spiral they will conclude that year to be 1913. In this dark year for the Republic, slimy politicians, at the behest of the biggest bankers in the country, created a private central bank that has since controlled the currency of the United States. This same Congress staked their claim as the most damaging group of politicians in US history by passing the personal income tax in the same year. These two acts unleashed the two headed monster of inflation and taxation on the American people.

Who benefits from inflation and the issuance of trillions in debt to average Americans? Based upon the decades of gargantuan Wall Street profits, mammoth bonuses paid to bank executives, and fact that Washington politicians absconded with trillions from American taxpayers to save their Wall Street masters, it appears that bankers and politicians are the beneficiaries. A gutted, indebted, jobless, demoralized middle class were the recipients of the downside of inflation and debt. Without a Central Bank issuing a fiat currency, with no constraints, none of this could have happened.(theburningplatform)

http://www.theburningplatform.com/?p=15246

So we don’t forget to be a little bullish. Here is Ajay Kapur, managing director, head of equity strategy at Deutsche Bank says investors should be more bullish on U.S. and European markets than Asia, which is likely to underperform for an extended period of time.

http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=1931387717

El Erian on Strauss and the Greek bail out. According to El Erian, Strauss was rather important for the IMF and the designing of the bail out. Will Greece open an investigation after Erian’s views, as nobody is supposed to say realistic words about Greece?

The probability of Greece defaulting or restructuring its debt has increased since the arrest of International Monetary Fund head Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Pacific Investment Management Co.’s Mohamed El-Erian said.

“Don’t underestimate how important Dominique Strauss-Kahn was in coordinating action” among European nations, El-Erian, the chief executive officer of Pimco, said in a Bloomberg Television interview on “In the Loop” with Betty Liu. “It’s the worst possible time to lose your general. You need the IMF to coordinate this global healing.” (Bloomberg)

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-05-17/greece-default-risk-increasing-since-arrest-of-strauss-kahn-el-erian-says.html

Is the Congress paralyzed? It surely seems so, when you consider the debt ceiling was (b)reached yesterday, but we are not close to any kind of solution, with regards to how to fix the situation. Has the debt increased so much, that Congress is paralyzed about what to do about it? They have to make something up before August, or……

Following a Congress that passed laws affecting more Americans than any since the “Great Society” legislation of the 1960s, U.S. lawmakers by comparison this year are taking a breather.

Since the newly seated, divided 112th Congress began in January, 13 measures have been signed into law by PresidentBarack Obama. Four of those cut spending and keep the government funded through this fiscal year. A couple of bills named federal courthouses, and the remainder were mostly temporary extensions of existing programs.

“Perhaps after gorging itself in the 111th Congress, the 112th is a time for fasting,” said Ross Baker, a political scientist at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. (Bloomberg)

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-05-17/do-nothing-congress-after-record-lawmaking-session-shows-budget-paralysis.html

The head of a powerful international institution is about to announce his candidacy for the French presidency. All the polls show him well ahead of the unpopular incumbent. The gilded salons of the Elysée Palace seem within his grasp—until a stunning event derails his presidential hopes and his political career: incredibly, improbably, he is accused of attempting to rape a New York hotel maid and is arrested aboard an airplane shortly before takeoff.

 It could be the plot of an international thriller if it were not true. At least the above details are true—Dominique Strauss-Kahn, 62, the dashing silver-haired director of the International Monetary Fund, sits in a New York prison cell after a Manhattan Criminal Court judge denied his bail request on Monday. He faces up to 74 years if convicted on charges of attempted rape, sexual abuse, and illegal imprisonment. Those are the facts. What is less certain—at least until it is proven in court—is whether the astounding accusations against him are wholly or even partially true. (Vanity Fair)

http://www.vanityfair.com/online/daily/2011/05/strauss-kahn-predator-or-plot-victim.html

When we are at it, ie some bearish videos, here is a fresh one from the renowed Rusell Napier, who sees SPX bottom around 400, give or take a couple of handles. Great interview by Authors, FT Long View, we wonder how long his view is? Napier’s book Anatomy of a Bear is a must read. Meanwhile listen to his video below.

http://video.ft.com/v/946244201001/Long-View-Historian-sees-S-P-fall-to-400

Last week we mentioned SPX under 1300 to a senior Trader at a London Bank. He laughed, and we didn’t even tell him our more pessimistic view. Capital on the sidelines, people waiting to get involved, etc is all we got back. Besides, not really knowing, who all this capital on the sidelines is, we doubt they are getting involved. The important thing is not our view, but to ask if we could get below 1300, could we get below 1200 quickly, and then 1100? We argue, people are pricing risk very wrongly at this time, and the majority don’t even see the probability of a market correction, but more than those 10 tiny percent. We ask ourselves, what if the Us Economy, resembles even a small percentage of the below outlined. These guys are maybe overly bearish, but what if they are a little right?

Video, http://finance.moneyandmarkets.com/reports/SMCT/4459/vsp-smct-nv.php?s=p446&e=4459159

Harvard Professor Kenneth Rogoff’s study on historical sovereign debt crises finds that not only do sovereign debt defaults tend to follow financial crises, but they tend to be widespread.

It’s the combination and systemic nature of sovereign debt and the global banking system that make the prospects of rolling defaults far more dangerous than what was experienced in the 2008 failure of Lehman Brothers. (moneyandmarkets)

http://www.moneyandmarkets.com/lehman-brothers-crisis-just-the-opening-act-44623?FIELD9=2