Baltic Dry Index. 1010 -12
LIR Gold Target in 2019: $30,000. Revised due to QE programs.
"My daughter called me from school one day, and said, 'Dad,
what's a financial crisis?' And, without trying to be funny, I said, 'This type
of thing happens every five to seven years.'"
Jamie
Dimon. Bankster.
We open this
morning with the surprise non-event yesterday in Shanghai. The failure of
Russia and China to sign a long term natural gas supply contract. While I have
no idea on what stalled the deal, there’s plenty of speculation about in the
media, it seems to me in faraway London that this will only be a temporary
delay. Both countries need the deal too much, if for very different reasons.
Both need the gas to start flowing by the start of the next decade. After ten
years of delay, time has simply run out for both.
Below, the
reality of global gas pricing if continental Europe were to try to switch to
LNG in a suicidal bid to placate America and its disastrous botched Kiev coup.
Below, the differing spin between Bloomberg and Xinhua. Between east and west.
You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for
something, sometime in your life.
President Putin, with apologies to Winston Churchill.
Russia Fails to Sign China Gas Deal at Shanghai Meeting
May 20, 2014 9:00 PM GMT
The presidents of China and Russia failed to sign a $400 billion gas supply deal at a
meeting yesterday in Shanghai, prolonging negotiations that started more than 10
years ago. Talks are continuing as the two countries seek a compromise, Alexey Miller, chief executive officer of Russian gas-exporter OAO Gazprom (OGZD), said in a statement after Vladimir Putin and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping signed bilateral agreements that didn’t include the gas deal.
Russian officials said before the meeting that the two sides were very close to a deal on gas price, opening the way to building a pipeline linking the world’s largest energy producer with the biggest consumer. That has been the stumbling block throughout the past decade, though with Putin facing sanctions from the U.S. and
Europe after he annexed Crimea, an agreement had been seen as more likely than at previous summits.
“It shows that Russia is not willing to cut a low-price deal just to make a political point with the west,” said Chris Weafer, founder at Macro Advisory in Moscow. “The danger is if a deal is not concluded this year China may switch its efforts to secure pipeline gas elsewhere.”
The two countries are working out pricing, and an agreement could be reached at any time, Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s spokesman, said after yesterday’s meeting.
----Gazprom plans to build a $22 billion pipeline to China able to carry as much as 38 billion cubic meters (1.34 trillion cubic feet) annually after years of false starts. The company may begin supplying China in 2019 to 2020, Russia Energy Minister Alexander Novak said in March.
That amount of gas is almost a quarter of China’s current consumption and about 10 percent of its estimated demand by 2020, said Gordon Kwan, head of oil and gas research at Nomura International Hong Kong Ltd.
----Gazprom’s average price in Europe was $380.5 per thousand cubic meters last year. CLSA Ltd. forecasts a price for Russia’s gas of $9.50 to $10 per thousand cubic feet ($335 to $350 per thousand cubic meters) delivered to the Chinese border.
That target, worth almost $400 billion over a 30-year contract, compares with the $10 per thousand cubic feet China pays for imports from Turkmenistan and is substantially lower than liquefied natural gas at about $15, CLSA said.
More
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-05-20/russian-chinese-leaders-silent-on-gas-deal-in-shanghai.html
China, Russia pledge wide-ranging cooperation
SHANGHAI, May 20 (Xinhua) -- China
and Russia on Tuesday vowed to beef up cooperation in a wide range of fields,
including finance, trade, energy and transportation infrastructure.
The pledge came in a joint
statement during a visit by Russian President Vladimir Putin. Putin is in China
for the 4th summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building
Measures in Asia (CICA) in Shanghai and a state visit at the invitation of
President Xi Jinping. Xi held talks with Putin in Shanghai on Tuesday.
According to the joint statement,
the two countries will expand local currency settlement for bilateral trade,
cross-border investment and financing and will strengthen exchanges for the
formulation of macro-economic policies.
The two pledged to increase
bilateral trade to 100 billion U.S. dollars by 2015 and 200 billion U.S.
dollars by 2020 from nearly 90 billion U.S. dollars last year.
The two will work to ensure
balanced trade, optimize trade structure and expand mutual investment in fields
like transportation infrastructure, mining development, and housing projects in
Russia, said the statement.
The two sides vowed to deepen
cooperation in the petroleum industry, kick-start Russia's supply of natural
gas to China as soon as possible and jointly develop coal mines in Russia. The
two also will consider jointly building power plants in Russia to increase
power supply to China.
The two countries will strengthen
cooperation in major projects in the peaceful use of nuclear energy, civil
aviation, research on basic aerospace technologies, satellite navigation and
manned space flight, said the statement.
The two will speed up the
construction of cross-border transportation infrastructure, including bridges
on cross-border rivers, and Russia will facilitate China's goods shipment using
its railway networks, ports and through the Northern Sea route, said the
statement.
The countries also pledged
constructive cooperation in the use and protection of water resources in cross-border
rivers as well as in the establishment of cross-border nature reserves to
protect biodiversity.
More
In other news from Asia this morning, President
Xi called for Asians to settle Asian problems among themselves. A hint that
this is to be the new Chinese century, not an extension of the old American
century. Despite any potential setbacks, we’re here and we’re not going away.Asia security should rely on Asians: Xi
SHANGHAI, May 21 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping said Wednesday security problems in Asia should eventually be solved by Asians themselves who are able to achieve regional peace and stability through cooperation.Xi made the remarks during his keynote speech at the fourth summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) opened on Wednesday morning in Shanghai.
Asian countries should promote security in their own country and across the region through dialogue and cooperation, Xi said.
"We should engage in sincere and in-depth dialogue and communication to increase strategic mutual trust, reduce mutual misgivings, seek common ground while resolving differences and live in harmony with each other." Xi said.
Asian countries should focus on common security interests of all countries and build the awareness of meeting security challenges through cooperation, he said.
He urged countries in the region to insist on resolving disputes through peaceful means and oppose the arbitrary use of force or threats.
Provocations and escalation of tensions for selfish interests should also be opposed, he added.
While Asia is enhancing cooperation within the region, it must also be committed to cooperation with countries in other regions and international organizations, Xi said.
More
Up next, if Uncle Sam wanted the Middle Kingdom’s
attention he got it. Xinhua covers the beat, with an ominous; this has harmed
China-US ties. The other shoe has yet to fall. I suspect we will not have to
wait very long for its arrival.
China Voice: Big Brother USA's spy charges are absurd
BEIJING, May 20 (Xinhua) -- As the most notorious surveillance country, the U.S. indictment of Chinese military officers seems almost insolent in a world still reeling at the scope of the U.S. spy network.The Chinese military has never engaged in cyber theft of trade secrets, nonetheless, Washington has charged five members of the People's Liberation Army with hacking U.S. companies.
Everyone knows that the U.S. itself is the biggest cyber bully, conducting sweeping surveillance around the world. Documents leaked by former Central Intelligence Agency contractor Edward Snowden detailed the National Security Agency's (NSA) surveillance activities around the globe, from foreign leaders to ordinary citizens.
Intelligence from Snowden showed that about 70 million French phone calls were collected by the NSA from December 2012 to January 2013. More than 120 world leaders have been under U.S. surveillance since 2009.
China is one of Big Brother's victims. The U.S. routinely attacks, infiltrates and taps Chinese networks belonging to governments, institutions, enterprises, universities and major telecom backbone networks.
Latest data from the National Computer Network Emergency Response Technical Team Coordination Center of China showed that 135 host computers in the U.S. carried 563 phishing pages targeting Chinese websites that led to 14,000 phishing operations from March 19 to May 18.
The center found 2,016 IP addresses in the U.S. had implanted backdoors in 1,754 Chinese websites, involving 57,000 backdoor attacks in the same period.
The indictment is based on fabricated facts, grossly violates the basic norms governing international relations and has harmed China-U.S. ties.
More
In the
insane rush to World War Three news, it was Russia’s yesterday turn to rattle
the sabres. Russia says “we’re no pushover like Kosovo or Serbia or Iraq.”
Having earlier tested their ballistic missiles, reminding Europe and London, “you’re
in range,” yesterday’s test of an intercontinental ballistic missile, was a
reminder to Washington, that Manhattan, Chicago, LA and any place in between is
in range.
Russia conducts test-launch of ballistic missile
AFP | Moscow
May 21, 2014 Last Updated at
02:05 IST
Russia today carried out a successful test-launch of an
intercontinental ballistic missile, news agencies reported citing the defence
ministry, amid a standoff between Moscow and the West over Ukraine.
Interfax and ITAR-TASS quoted the defence ministry as saying a successful test of the RS-12M Topol ICBM had been carried out from Russia's Kapustin Yar rocket launch site near the Caspian Sea at 2238 IST (1708 GMT).
The missile hit its target in the Sary Shagan ballistic missile test range that Russia leases in Kazakhstan, it said.
Interfax and ITAR-TASS quoted the defence ministry as saying a successful test of the RS-12M Topol ICBM had been carried out from Russia's Kapustin Yar rocket launch site near the Caspian Sea at 2238 IST (1708 GMT).
The missile hit its target in the Sary Shagan ballistic missile test range that Russia leases in Kazakhstan, it said.
"The purpose of the launch was to
test a prospective warhead of intercontinental ballistic missiles,"
Interfax quoted defence ministry spokesman Igor Yegorov as saying, without
providing further details.
Russia reportedly carried out previous tests in December and March of the RS-12M Topol, a road-mobile missile first put into service in the 1980s and then repeatedly modified.
It is referred to as the SS-25 Sickle by NATO and has a reported maximum range of 10,000 kilometres.
Russia reportedly carried out previous tests in December and March of the RS-12M Topol, a road-mobile missile first put into service in the 1980s and then repeatedly modified.
It is referred to as the SS-25 Sickle by NATO and has a reported maximum range of 10,000 kilometres.
Russia earlier this month test-launched
several ballistic missions during military exercises overseen by President
Vladimir Putin.
More
We close for the
day with dying Europe. A moral cesspit, run by elitist Bilderbergers and
overpaid, under achieving Eureaucrats, assisted by the Club Med Berlusconi’s,
and incompetent love rat Hollande. Who would want to be a modern European.
You read constantly that banks are
lobbying regulators and elected officials as if this is inappropriate. We don't
look at it that way.
Jamie Dimon. Bankster.
German Unease With ECB Simmers as Anti-Euro Party Gains
May 20,
2014 11:00 PM GMT
Lawmakers from Chancellor Angela Merkel’s
party are criticizing European Central Bank policies as aGerman anti-euro party gains support before elections across Europe this week.
Misgivings by Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble about the ECB’s threat of unlimited bond-buying and Merkel’s warning of “deceptive calm” in financial markets are the latest signs that German policy makers and economists don’t want to discount the lingering risk to taxpayers from the debt crisis.
As polls suggest the anti-euro Alternative for Germany may win as much as 7 percent of the German vote for the European Parliament on May 25, members of Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union in the Bundestag, or lower house, questioned the underpinnings of ECB President Mario Draghi’s pledge in July 2012 to do “whatever it takes” to save the euro.
“The Bundestag would certainly have major concerns to clear the way for unlimited bond purchases by the ECB,” Norbert Barthle, the budget spokesman for the Christian Democrats in parliament, said by phone. “I said back then that the ECB is making itself strongly dependent on political decisions” because lawmakers in Berlin would have a say in the process if the central bank ever decided it wants to buy a euro-area country’s bonds as part of an aid package, he said.
More
Voters May Determine EU Chief Executive for First Time
May 21, 2014 12:01 AM GMT
The European Union’s 400 million voters may be about to determine the chief
executive of the world’s largest economic bloc for the first time. For that to happen, national leaders such as German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande will have to renounce their right to pick the head of the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm. The commission proposes EU laws, acts as the bloc’s antitrust authority, administers its 140 billion-euro ($192 billion) budget, negotiates trade accords and runs a European foreign service.
This question of where EU power lies will hover over May 22-25 elections to the European Parliament that will give the biggest Europe-wide party a claim to the top job at the commission. Under new treaty rules, heads of government must take “into account” the election result when nominating someone to succeed Jose
Barroso of Portugal as commission president when his second five-year term ends in October.
“Government leaders seem to think that they still have the right to choose who runs Europe,” Marco Incerti, an analyst at the Centre for European Policy Studies in Brussels, said by phone on May 19. “They haven’t yet fully subscribed to the new system. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if a compromise candidate emerges, in which case there would be noise from the Parliament.”
This experiment in parliamentary democracy by a 28-nation club has the potential to turn into a turf battle, particularly if neither Europe’s Christian Democrats nor Socialists emerge as clear winners.
More
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-05-20/voters-may-determine-eu-chief-executive-for-first-time.html
Germany becomes world's top migration spot after U.S.: OECD
BERLIN
(Reuters) - Germany
has become the world's second most popular destination for immigrants after the
United States, attracting many southern Europeans driven from the ravages of
the euro
zone financial crisis to overtake Canada and Australia.Germany soared to second place in the 2012 in a survey of permanent migration published by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) on Tuesday. It ranked eighth in 2009.
"This really is a boom - without any exaggeration ... no other OECD country experienced such a rise," said Thomas Liebig, an expert on international migration at the Paris-based OECD.
The number of permanent migrants to Germany, defined as those with the right to stay longer than one year, rose by an annual 400,000 or 38 percent in 2012, with migrants from other European countries the main driver, the study showed.
The OECD said immigrants to Germany now had better vocational skills than in earlier years and more were finding work.
Most people came from eastern Europe but an increasing number came from southern European countries, lured by Germany's strong economy and robust labor market, the OECD study showed.
More
Three banks accused of rigging Euribor
HSBC, JP Morgan and Credit Agricole under investigation by European Commission over allegations of cartel behaviour
European regulators have accused
three banks of colluding to manipulate a key interest rate benchmark in an
attempt to influence the prices of global financial instruments.
HSBC, along with JP Morgan and
Credit Agricole, "may have breached EU antitrust rules" in a cartel
of banks fixing Euribor - the benchmark interest rate for lending in euros -
the commission said.
It comes after four banks -
Barclays, Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), Deutsche Bank and Societe Generale -
admitted their involvement in a cartel last year. The companies, Barclays
excluded, were fined €1.04bn (£850m) between them in December.
Joaquin Almunia, the EU's
competition chief, said that banks had colluded over Euribor in an attempt to
influence the prices of interest rate derivatives - financial products used by
companies to hedge against changes in interest rates.
"These products are traded
worldwide and play a key role in the global economy," the commission said.
It has informed the banks of its view that they may have breached rules and has
opened an investigation. The commission has the power to fine infringing
companies up to 10pc of their global turnover if found in breach of competition
rules.
More
A Man
walking past the Olympic stadium carrying a long case is challenged by a guard.
"Are
you a pole-volter?" Asks the guard.
"No,
I'm German actually; but how did you know my name was Walter"
At the Comex
silver depositories Tuesday
final figures were: Registered 56.14 Moz, Eligible 119.56 Moz, Total 175.70 Moz.
Crooks and Scoundrels Corner
The bent, the seriously bent, and the totally
doubled over.
No crooks today after yesterday’s marathon on America’s spying pot calling China’s spying kettle black. Today, an update from Japan, that if true, and that’s a big if, is likely to finally kick start the global electric vehicle market with a cheap, easy to manufacture, safe, fast to recharge, longer lasting, carbon battery. If all works out as forecast, existing battery manufacturers, won’t have to re-tool to manufacture this new technology. Our new Carbon Age will eventually bailout the mess of our central bankster casino capitalist, Great Nixonian Error, assuming America’s War Party doesn’t trigger World War Three first. But even with this latest development, we are still talking five to ten years away.
Once
in a while you will stumble upon the truth but most of us manage to pick
ourselves up and hurry along as if nothing had happened.
Winston
Churchill.
New "dual carbon" battery charges 20 times faster than Li-ion
By Dario Borghino May 19, 2014Japanese company Power Japan Plus has announced the development and planned mass-production of "Ryden," a disruptive carbon battery that can be charged 20 times faster than an ordinary lithium-ion cell. The battery, which is cheap to manufacture, safe, and environmentally friendly, could be ideal to improve the range and charging times of electric cars.
We've seen electric cars and motorbikes make huge strides forward in recent years. Up to a few years ago, electric vehicles were a synonym of peculiar designs, poor performance, and very low range; but now, more and more people associate them with instant torque and high performance. Further improving range, charging time, and cost would make electric vehicles an even more compelling product.
A new battery developed by Power Japan and Kyushu University promises that – and more. The researchers describe their battery as "dual carbon" since both electrodes are made out of carbon. They claim that their design not only has high energy density, but is also economical, very safe, reliable, and environmentally sustainable. Most importantly, it can charge 20x faster than its Li-ion counterpart.
According to the company, their technology would allow you to charge the battery of a Nissan Leaf in 12 minutes instead of four hours. Because that battery has a capacity of 24 kWh, a back-of-the-envelope extrapolation would give us a charging time of 42 minutes for the 85 kWh battery of a top of the line Tesla Model S.
Power Japan also claims that their battery has energy density comparable to state of the art lithium-ion, with manufacturing costs that are equal or lower. This is because carbon, which is widely available in nature, is the only active ingredient, and the batteries can fit into a standard 18650 cell (the one used in laptops and electric cars), requiring no significant change to existing manufacturing lines.
Further characteristics that make it particularly suitable for electric cars are a long lifetime of 3,000 charge/discharge cycles (Li-ion's life is closer to 1,000 cycles) and the ability to discharge fully without the risk of short-circuiting and damaging the battery. Moreover, the battery doesn't heat up, so it wouldn't require the extensive cooling systems that appear in current electric cars. Thermal stability also makes the battery much safer, because it eliminates the risk of thermal runaway, which can cause explosions. And it would be more powerful than other batteries, operating at over four volts.
----Power Japan is planning to start production of 18650 dual carbon cells later this year for specialty applications such as medical devices and satellites, and they plan to license the technology to other companies for use in electric vehicles.
The video below illustrates the
advantages of the battery.
More
“In
hindsight, the new strategy was flawed, complex, poorly reviewed, poorly
executed and poorly monitored. The portfolio has proven to be riskier, more
volatile and less effective an economic hedge than we thought.”
Jamie
Dimon. Bankster.
The monthly Coppock Indicators finished April
DJIA: +189 Down. NASDAQ: +347 Down. SP500: +249 Down. Sell in May, go away.
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