Tuesday 19 November 2013

Venezuela - The Worker’s Paradise.



Baltic Dry Index. 1500 -07

LIR Gold Target by 2019: $30,000.  Revised due to QE programs.

"When it becomes serious, you have to lie"

Jean-Claude Juncker. Ex-Luxembourg Prime Minister and ex-president of the Euro Group of Finance Ministers. Confessed liar.

For more on the delights of Venezuela, as endorsed by the UK Labour Party, scroll down to Crooks Corner.

We open today with more on Euroland’s “recovery.” With recovery like this who needs ill health? The UK must exit this sinking EUSSR ASAP, before remaining aboard ensures drowning in the cesspit of continental Europe. Stay long physical precious metals.

This ailing continent needs newer and better politicians. But where could we find them? There is no sign of a European Obama or anything remotely like him.

Der Spiegel

Bundesbank says Italian and Spanish banks still hooked on home state debt

By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard Economics Last updated: November 18th, 2013
The Bundesbank always like to spoil the party. Tucked away on page 33 if its November monthly report is a reminder that the banking systems and sovereign states of southern Europe remain stuck in a vicious circle:
Italian banks have increased their holdings of Italian public debt from €240bn to €415bn since November 2011 (+ 73pc).

Spanish banks have raised their holdings of Spanish debt €166bn to €299. (+81pc). Ditto Irish banks, up 60pc; and Portuguese banks, up 51pc

The EU summit pledge made in June 2012 to end this dangerous and incestuous linkage has come to little. 
As the Buba report said testily, "the mutual dependency of the banks and the state sector has grown most in those countries where the links were already particularly high at the start."

It is not a crisis as such. It is a chronic malaise. There is still an acute credit crunch for small business in Italy and Spain. The banks are hunkering down and living off their coupons from the state, even as the rest of the economy screams for credit. Their appetite for sovereign debt – boosted first by the ECB's €1 trillion long-term loans (LTRO), then by Mario Draghi's debt backstop (OMT) — is touted as a sign of recovery, but it is equally a sign of deformed EU policy.

Note too that these banks are buying the bonds of sovereign states where the debt trajectory is rocketing upwards, an effect made worse by Euroland's slide towards deflation. Italy's public debt has jumped from 119pc to 133pc of GDP since 2010, and average maturity has been sliding for two years as the treasury relies more heavily on short-term debt backed by the ECB. Spain's debt has risen from 62pc to 94pc. The longer the banks keep betting on this state debt, the greater the risk.

We heard this morning from the Bank of Spain that bad debts in the Spanish banking system have reached 12.68pc, the highest since records began half century ago. Loans under water have reached €188bn.
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In better news for Europe, in a departure from envelopes of cash from Switzerland for politicians, Spain’s cash for clunkers car subsidy paid off. Shame about the banks and the youth generation though.  With success like this, just imagine the success of giving everyone in Europe aged 18-80 a cash for clunkers subsidy.

European Car Sales Rise a Second Straight Month on Spain

By Mathieu Rosemain - Nov 19, 2013 7:00 AM GMT
European car sales rose 4.6 percent in October, marking the first consecutive monthly gain in two years, as a government cash-for-clunkers program pushed a delivery surge in Spain.

Registrations advanced to 1.04 million new vehicles last month from 999,266 a year earlier, the Brussels-based European Automobile Manufacturers Association, or ACEA, said today in a statement. That narrowed the drop this year to 3.1 percent, for 10.4 million total deliveries. September sales rose 5.5 percent.

A record six-quarter recession in the 17 countries sharing the euro ended in the three months through June, and consumer confidence in the area rose in October. Demand gained in four of Europe’s top five auto markets, including a 34 percent jump in Spain.
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Next, the Fedster’s final bubble grows and grows, what could possibly go wrong?

Wall Street hits new highs on hopes Fed will keep taps on

Dow Jones Industrial Average trades above 16,000 for the first time, while broader S&P 500 breaks through 1,800 mark, a level it too had never reached before

US markets have hit record highs on expectations that the Federal Reserve will keep up the pace of its monthly $85bn (£52.8bn) quantitative easing programme into the new year.

The 30-company Dow Jones Industrial Average traded above 16,000 for the first time, while the broader S&P 500 broke through the 1,800 mark, a level it too had never reached before.

Although both indices have set fresh records for much of the year, the fact that they have risen above major psychological barriers may make it easier for US equities to climb even higher.

The Dow ended the day up 14.32 points to 15,976.02, while the S&P 500 changed direction to close down 6.65 at 1,791.53.

The run of positive news, which includes planned economic reform in China, also pushed Germany’s DAX to a record 9225.43 and France’s CAC 40 to 4320.68, a level not seen since September 2008.
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In commodities news,  America’s poster child MF Global. More on our lawless era.  “It also mixed client money with its own accounts to cover its capital requirements, leading to around $1.6bn of client money going missing.” What part of segregating customer funds and money did MF Global’s top officers misunderstand? Why are they not in jail?  

"We finished the year, and we reported that we had $17 billion of cash sitting at the bank's parent company as a liquidity cushion. As the year has gone on, that liquidity cushion has been virtually unchanged."

Bear Stearns CEO Alan Schwartz. March 12, 2008. Bust March 17, 2008

MF Global ordered to pay $1.2bn back to customers

US judge orders MF Global to pay $1.2bn in restitution to customers and imposes $100m fine

By Denise Roland, and agencies 6:03PM GMT 18 Nov 2013
A federal judge in New York has ordered MF Global to pay $1.2bn (£740m) in restitution to harmed customers over its collapse.

Victor Marrero, US district judge for the Southern District of New York, has also imposed a $100m fine on the futures broker, to be paid after MF Global has fully paid customers and other creditors.

The order marks the end of litigation initiated in June against MF Global Inc over the brokerage's October 2011 collapse and loss of around $1.6bn in customer money by the US market regulator, the Commodity and Future Trading Commision (CFTC).

The CFTC's civil case against defendants MF Global Holdings, former chief executive Jon Corzine and former assistant treasurer Edith O'Brien, however, is still ongoing.

MF Global filed for bankruptcy in October 2011 after the company took a disastrous $6.3bn bet on European government bonds. The position shattered confidence in the broker, which had assets of $41bn and debts of almost $40bn. It also mixed client money with its own accounts to cover its capital requirements, leading to around $1.6bn of client money going missing
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The Yellen QE Forever Fed,  advances. If you liked the easy come easy go, socialism for banksters, policies of fallen guru Greenspan and Bernocchio, just wait until Calamity Jane cranks up QE to infinity and beyond.

Banks are an almost irresistible attraction for that element of our society which seeks unearned money.

J. Edgar Hoover

Yellen Nomination for Fed Chairman to Get Vote This Week

By Cheyenne Hopkins - Nov 19, 2013 5:00 AM GMT
Janet Yellen’s nomination to be chairman of the Federal Reserve is scheduled for a Senate Banking Committee vote this week, advancing her confirmation.

The banking panel vote will be Nov. 21, setting the stage for a full Senate confirmation vote later this year. Democrats hold a two-vote lead on the 22-member committee and no Democrat has opposed her nomination. If confirmed, Yellen, the Fed’s current vice chairman, will become the first woman to lead the U.S. central bank.

Yellen, 67, would succeed Ben S. Bernanke, whose current term ends in January. Senator Sherrod Brown, an Ohio Democrat, led an effort with 20 Democrats to send President Barack Obama a letter in support of Yellen before she had been nominated.

Yellen faces opposition from some Republicans who disapprove of the Fed’s recent monetary policy.
Republicans have opposed the bond-buying pace that has swelled the Fed’s balance sheet to almost $4 trillion. The Federal Open Market Committee began $40 billion in monthly purchases of mortgage-backed securities in September 2012 and announced the addition of $45 billion in Treasury securities to that pace in December.

Fed officials have said their current pace of purchases will continue until the labor market improves “substantially.”
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We end for the day with more on our lawless age.

People never lie so much as after a hunt, during a war or before an election.

Otto von Bismarck.

The October 2012 Pre-Election Jobs Report Was Faked

On Friday October 5, 2012, the BLS released what was arguably the most important report of Obama's first term: the final jobs number, and unemployment rate before the November 2012 presidential election. As so many predicted, it "plunged" from 8.1% to 7.8% allowing the president to conduct countless 
teleprompted speeches praising the success of his economic recovery. It also served as the basis for the infamous Jack Welch tweet: "Unbelievable jobs numbers..these Chicago guys will do anything..can't debate so change numbers" and prompted the pro-Obama media to quickly brand all those who questioned it as conspiracy theorists.

---- And many more other such reports posted on this site on the same day, alleging fabrication which as it turns out courtesy of the just released stunning disclosure by the Post, were absolutely spot on since the number was, you guessed it, manipulated.

The Post's John Crudele reveals the details on a data manipulation scandal, which we exposed back in October 2012, but this time with the actual "dirty details" that has the potential to be so big, Obama will need to start another YouTube-fabricated, false flag war just to distract from this latest scandal.

From The Post's "Census ‘faked’ 2012 election jobs report"

---- the reason is that this particular instance manipulation is merely the tip of the iceberg - since virtually all data out of the BLS is manipulated and fabricated, as we report each and every month, the last thing the legislative and certainly the executive want is to offer the general public a glimpse of just how deep the rabbit hole goes. Because it goes very, very deep.

One can only hope this forces at least some more people to wake up about the sad farce this once great nation has devolved to in its quest to destroy the middle class.

The only real good news, as noted above, is that yet another conspiracy theory is forever cast into the void, and going forward the only thing the random, but manipulated, number generator out of the Bureau Of Lies And Subterfuge will be good for, is to prod the just as pathetic HFT algos into a buying frenzy when month after month the economy is painted with rosy brushes, even as millions forever drop out of the labor force, never to return.
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Politics is not an exact science.

Otto von Bismarck.

At the Comex silver depositories Monday final figures were: Registered 44.25 Moz, Eligible 124.36 Moz, Total 168.61 Moz.  


Crooks and Scoundrels Corner
The bent, the seriously bent, and the totally doubled over.

Today the worker’s paradise of collapsing, loony leftist, neo-communist Venezuela. Going bankrupt even with oil. The idol of the UK’s hard left, old socialist, UK Labour Party.  What Scotland would become if follish enough to vote for socialist wealth envy “independence.” What Great Britain will become under a “Red Ed” Milliband, Unite union led government.  

Below, long the poster child for the anti-American, anti-British, Anti-Christian BBC Labour Party, even the BBC now sees Venezuela falling apart. But not old Labour’s Stalinists.

“It is the destiny of the weak to be devoured by the strong.”

Otto von Bismarck.

15 November 2013Last updated at 00:34

Venezuela's President Maduro moves nearer to decree powers

Venezuela's National Assembly has paved the way to granting special powers for President Nicolas Maduro.
Under the measures the leader would be able to govern by decree for 12 months.

The bill still needs to be revised by a special commission and debated for a second time, but correspondents do not expect significant changes to be made.

Mr Maduro says he will use it to tackle corruption and the economic crisis. However, critics fear he may use it to silence the opposition.

The approval of the first reading of the bill comes after a member of parliament, Maria Aranguren, who defected to the opposition was stripped of her parliamentary immunity on Tuesday, being replaced by a government loyalist.

This provided the one remaining vote that the government was missing to achieve the 99 votes needed for the approval of the "Ley Habilitante", or Enabling Act.

'Persecution'

The vote did not come as a surprise, but the opposition has openly criticised the move saying the government will use it to clamp down on opponents ahead of local elections in December, the BBCs Irene Caselli reports from Caracas.

"The only objective of this enacting is to persecute government critical voices in society, the NGOs and the political parties with different views," opposition parliamentary Eduardo Gomez Sigala told EFE news agency.

President Nicolas Maduro first asked parliament in October to grant him special powers to fight corruption and what he called "economic sabotage".

The country is facing shortages of food and essential goods, power cuts and around 54% annual inflation.

The government recently seized many high street shops selling its merchandise at reduced prices, because they were allegedly overcharging consumers.

Venezuela also imposed strict controls over the sale of foreign currency to combat the growing black market of dollars.

Former President Hugo Chavez, who died of cancer in March, resorted to Enabling Acts four times during his 14 years in power.

His vice-president and handpicked successor, Mr Maduro, has pledged to continue his policies but does not command the same support enjoyed by Mr Chavez.
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Venezuelan tyranny exposes the evil on the British Left

Alex Wickham
The developments that have taken place in Venezuela over the past few days are nothing short of disturbing. 
The country’s socialist President, Nicolas Maduro, has been granted “special powers” which permit him to govern by decree. The legislation has been named ‘Ley Habilitante’, which translates – quite chillingly – to ‘Enabling Act’.

Maduro announced that scores of business leaders had been summarily arrested. Triumphantly, he told the proletariat: “We have more than 100 of the bourgeoisie behind bars at the moment”. He said this was part of an “economic war”.

Using the language of Nazi Germany and Communist Russia would, you might have thought, set off alarm bells among the British political class. Yet Maduro and his authoritarian socialist party retain the support of many influential figures on the British left.

Len McCluskey, the general secretary of the Unite union, described Maduro’s controversial election win as a “step forward”. The former Labour mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, joined Labour Members of Parliament Chris Williamson, Grahame Morris and Peter Hain in backing Maduro after he took power.
Diane Abbott said that Maduro’s win had shown “a better way is possible”.

For these big left-wing names, supporting Maduro was a continuation of the deification they offered to Hugo Chavez. In 2012, Abbott and Morris joined their colleague Jeremy Corbyn, himself a man with pretty scary views on international affairs, in flying to Venezuela to monitor Chavez’s re-election as independent observers. Abbott insisted she was there “not to lobby for a particular candidate”, despite the junket being paid for by the Chavez administration. And despite them all being on the record as supporters of Chavez, and attending a pro-Chavez rally just weeks before.

Upon the news of Chavez’s death, Owen Jones gushed that “Hugo Chavez was a democrat, not a dictator, and showed a progressive alternative to neo-liberalism is both possible and popular”. He aligned himself with George Galloway, who tweeted: “Farewell Comandante Hugo Chavez champion of the poor the oppressed everywhere. Modern day Spartacus. Rest in Peace.”

The British left’s unwavering endorsement of the Chavez regime ignored the fact that he was an ally of Fidel Castro, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and even Bashar al-Assad. It ignored that, according to Freedom House, Chavez oversaw a decline in human rights that included political arrests and the pressuring of voters. It ignored that Chavez supplied Assad with the diesel that fuelled his slaughter of the Syrian people.
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I must emphasise that there is nothing in the Labour Party constituion that could, or should prevent people from holding opinions which favour Leninist-Trotskyism. Certainly Marxism has, and will continue to have an important function in the Labour Party.

Neil Kinnock. Former Labour Party Leader.

The monthly Coppock Indicators finished October:
DJIA: +178 Up. NASDAQ: +238 Up. SP500: +217 Up. The Fed’s final bubble continues to grow, until QE Forever isn’t forever. Up will remain up, until one fine day out of the blue the Fed finally loses control, or the next Lehman hits.

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