The Plunge Protection Team…also known as the “Insider Bankster Group Joined at the Hip to Hank Paulson”…(IBGJHHP)…is starting to come under scrutiny.

Pretty interesting stuff.

Our friend Chris Powell at GATA just posted the following article:

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Suspicions about Plunge Protection Team break onto CNBC Submitted by cpowell on Wed, 2008-11-19 03:01. Section: Daily Dispatches

9:58p ET Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:

Cable television network CNBC today could not escape a discussion of the possibility that the U.S. government has been intervening in the stock market to prop it up at crucial moments. The discussion occurred because the issue was pressed by a guest on the network’s morning program — Scott Nations, president of Fortress Trading in Chicago.

Nations could offer little more than his suspicions, but the utter lack of curiosity shown by the other market analysts on the program was deplorable. They rejected the possibility out of hand when plainly they

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At least, that's what the futures say.

I spent some time looking at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange's housing futures this week.  The futures are tied to the S&P Case-Shiller Home Price Indexes, and are the only liquid way to bet on where house prices are heading.

Right now, the futures all agree: home prices are going lower.

The longest-dated contract available expires November 2012. Using that contract, I looked at the most recent sale to see where the market thinks home prices will be in four years.  The data compare November 2012 vs. August 2008, because August 2008 is the last date for which we have index data available.

House Price Expectations

Nov. 2012 vs. August 2008

City

Price Change

Boston

10.29%

Chicago

0.00%

Denver

12.55%

Las Vegas

12.97%

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The gold price straddled the $740 mark throughout most of trading in the Far East on Monday, although a smallish rally began at 3:00 a.m. New York Time. That tiny rally ended shortly after London opened and began a gentle decline right into the Comex…where both gold and silver had the rug pulled out from underneath them. About 9:00 a.m. Eastern, the selling pressure disappeared and another rally began which got capped just under $750. As of this writing, $12 has been carved from the peak price of the day…and 22 cents for silver. Volume was extremely light…even lower than Friday…so it wasn’t hard to push the price around. Having said that, the US$ was down 95 basis points, but the powers that be wouldn’t let the precious metals prices reflect that. One wonders how much gold and silver would have declined if the US$ had actually risen on the

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Gold declined slowly between the London and New York opens on Monday, plunged in the first hour of Comex trading, rallied back to where it started by early afternoon, but then reversed direction again, from there to late Globex trading, finally finishing the volatile day at $736.10, down $6.20. Overnight, gold is little changed.

Platinum blasted to $858 in Hong Kong, but that was decisively that, as it fell sharply into the New York open, then traded sideways to end at $802/oz., down $31. Overnight, platinum has edged higher.

Silver got onto the same rollercoaster as gold, pushing as high as $9.65, then falling nearly 40 cents, clawing back up to $9.45, but finally pulling back again to close at $9.23/oz., down 24 cents. Overnight, silver is trending higher. (Click here for charts)

It was another disappointing day for the precious metals, especially gold as it failed to generate any

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Industry PulseHedge Fund Industry Pulse Check(http://HedgeFundBlogger.com) I was on the phone yesterday with a hedge fund investor who said he simply could not keep up with all of the news coming out on hedge funds without spending his whole work day tracking it. He wanted to know what to receive a series of updates within a single post.Here is a collection of quotes on the current state of the hedge fund industry:- Hedge-fund manager David Tepper entered the third quarter with $3.1 billion of U.S. stocks and exited with $648 million, selling most holdings to reduce risk and raise cash as carnage spread across the financial markets. “We moved a lot out early because we didn’t want to lose money,” said Tepper, 51, president of Appaloosa Management LP in Chatham, New Jersey. The firm, which switched some money ...

Bank of America Corp. (BAC) will almost double its stake in state-owned banking giant China Construction Bank Corp., and will control nearly 20% of China’s second-largest bank when the deal is finalized. The official announcement yesterday (Monday) ends months of speculation that the Charlotte, N.C.-based BofA would dump part of its three-year-old investment the Beijing-based bank to offset the effects of the global financial crisis. In an article on Saturday, Money Morning reported that the deal was close, though noting that the actual timing was unknown. Bank of America plans to be “a long-term and significant strategic investor in CCB,” the U.S. lender said in a statement. The shares to be acquired to carry a restriction, however: They can’t be sold before Aug. 29, 2011, unless the China bank provides special permission. According to Caijing– the influential China ...

Testimony QuotesCongressional Hearing QuotesQuick Links: Hedge Fund Testimonial VideosHere are a series of quotes from yesterday's testimony.``We do not need greater regulation of hedge funds,'' said Kenneth Griffin, founder of Citadel Investment Group LLC in Chicago. ``We've not seen hedge funds as a focal point of the carnage.''Soros, founder of Soros Fund Management LLC, cautioned against ``ill-considered'' rules because this industry is reeling from market losses and client defections.``I believe our tax situation is fair,'' Paulson said. ``If your constituents, whether a plumber or a teacher, bought a stock and if they held that stock for more than a year they would pay a long-term capital gains rate.''``This isn't just about sophisticated, high-stakes investors anymore,'' Davis said. ``Institutional funds and public pensions now have a huge stake in hedge funds' ...

The Fed’s first credit crisis lawsuit… who’s suing and why, AmEx, Fannie Mae unload more financial follies… government “fixes” problem with more taxpayer dollars, Chris Mayer with a credit crisis byproduct (and opportunity) that could affect the entire world, China announces big stimulus plan… so why did commodities fall? A hefty chink in Dubai’s armor, Plus, Dan Amoss with a once-favored investment theme due to be back in the spotlight soon

Here’s a curious development that may be worth watching: Bloomberg is suing the Federal Reserve.

Last week, we took a look at the Fed’s bulging $2 trillion balance sheet. And if you’re a long-suffering 5 Min. reader, you know our futile recounting of the weekly Fed lending programs… all the abbreviations and acronyms: TAF, TSLF, PDCF, CPFF, TARP, etc.

Well, the folks at

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American International Group Inc. (AIG) got a $150 billion government rescue package – almost double the initial bailout deal of less than two months ago and the largest ever granted to a private U.S. company – as the ailing insurer continues to burn through its cash at an accelerating rate. The New York-based AIG will get $40 billion of new capital from the U.S. Treasury Department’s $700 billion bailout package, to help offset the damage wreaked by four consecutive quarterly losses, including a third-quarter deficit of $24.5 billion that the company announced yesterday (Monday), Bloomberg News reported. The U.S. Federal Reserve also is slashing an $85 billion loan to $60 billion, and is replacing a separate $37.8 billion loan to the insurance company with $52.5 billion in aid. These actions were taken by the Treasury Department and the Fed after it ...

Platinum Grove AMPlatinum Grove Asset Management LP | NotesThe following piece on Platinum Grove Asset Management, LP and Myron Sholes (pictured left) is being published as part of our Hedge Fund Tracker Tool, our daily effort to track hedge funds in the industry.Resource #1: (11.8.08) Platinum Grove Asset Management LP, the hedge-fund firm co-founded by Nobel laureate Myron Scholes, temporarily stopped investor withdrawals from its biggest fund after it lost 29 percent in the first half of October.The decline left Platinum Grove Contingent Master fund with a 38 percent loss this year through Oct. 15, according to investors. Funds employing a similar approach of exploiting differences in the value of related securities fell 14 percent last month and 30 percent this year, according to data compiled by Chicago-based Hedge ...