Baltic Dry Index. 560 -05 Brent Crude 57.21
LIR Gold Target in 2019: $30,000. Revised due to QE programs.
It
was a bright cold day in March, and the clocks were striking thirteen.
With
apologies to George Orwell, 1984.
It is Friday the thirteenth yet again. What could
possibly go wrong? Buy more! The central banksters have us covered with their
stock market put, no? Who cares about the Great Disconnect. It doesn’t matter anymore
that deficits didn’t matter to the warmonger Cheney. Still out of the blue, one
day they did. We open with yet more bad news from China. In the 21st
century, if China sneezes does even Uncle Scam catch a cold?
Pimco Warns on China’s Steel Outlook as Housing Market Cools
3:38 AM GMT March 13,
2015
(Bloomberg) -- Pacific Investment
Management Co. sees little growth potential for steel demand in China as the
housing market slows, hurting the outlook for the global industry and iron ore
prices.
“The years of huge growth in
China’s housing development market are over, spelling tough times over the
long-term horizon for global steel-making,” Raja Mukherji, head of Asian credit
research, and analyst Emily Au-Yeung wrote in an e-mailed report received on
Friday. At best, steel demand in the country may expand in the low single
digits this year, they wrote.
Squeezed by the housing slump,
China grew at the weakest pace since 1990 last year and is set to slow further
in 2015. Asia’s largest economy accounts for about half of global steel output
and is the biggest buyer of seaborne iron ore, which fell to the lowest price
since 2008 this week amid a global glut. The China & Iron Steel Association
forecast on Wednesday that China’s steel production will shrink this year,
while UBS Group AG predicted the first drop in output since the early 1980s.
“We expect downside risks to
steel demand to continue to materialize as past housing construction growth
rates are unsustainable,” the analysts wrote in the report from the Newport
Beach, California-based money manager. “While there are other end users of
steel -- including machinery, autos and white goods -- they are unlikely to
propel China’s steel demand.”
More
Exclusive: Former risk chief warned Deutsche Bank on stress test, emails show
By Charles Levinson NEW YORK
(Reuters) - In the weeks leading
up to the U.S. Federal Reserve's annual stress test of major banks, a former
risk executive of Deutsche Bank AG repeatedly warned senior managers of the
German bank's U.S. unit that they were painting a far too rosy picture of the
bank's health.
The warnings weren't about this
year's stress test. They were written by William Broeksmit in December 2013 and
January 2014 as the bank was preparing its Fed-mandated, internally run stress
test. At the time, Broeksmit was serving as a director of the U.S. unit.
The bank needed to "stress
harder," Broeksmit wrote in one email to senior managers. The bank's
forecasts were "way too optimistic," he wrote in another. In others,
he said that forecast losses were "way too small compared to
history," and that the full board had to be briefed on the discrepancies,
which were "way too important" to be glossed over.
Deutsche Bank's senior U.S.
managers rebuffed Broeksmit's warnings, according to the emails, copies of
which were reviewed by Reuters.
Deutsche Bank was exempted last
year from submitting its portfolio to a Fed-run stress test, but it was still
required to run its own assessment using the same scenarios as other banks.
Broeksmit was found hanged in his
London home on Jan. 26 last year. After a coroner's inquest, his death was
ruled a suicide.
On Wednesday, the Fed validated
many of Broeksmit's concerns when it said the U.S. unit failed the regulator's
latest test of banks' risk-management capabilities. "In its evaluation,
the Federal Reserve identified numerous and significant deficiencies across
Deutsche Bank Trust Corporation's risk-identification, measurement, and
aggregation processes; approaches to loss and revenue projection; and internal
controls," the Fed said in announcing the stress test results.
----Deutsche Bank
last week passed the first part of the Fed's stress test. That part assessed
whether banks have enough capital to survive a severe economic crisis. This
week's second part, which Deutsche Bank failed, assessed banks' ability to
measure risk and fund capital plans, and carries stiffer consequences for those
that fail.
More
"When it becomes serious, you have to lie"
Jean-Claude Juncker. Failed Luxembourg Prime Minister and ex-president of the Euro Group of Finance Ministers. Confessed liar. EC President.
Jean-Claude Juncker. Failed Luxembourg Prime Minister and ex-president of the Euro Group of Finance Ministers. Confessed liar. EC President.
Tsipras promises Greece will keep its word amid German spat
By Ingrid
Melander and Angeliki Koutantou PARIS/ATHENS
(Reuters) - Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras tried to reassure euro zone partners on Thursday that Greece
would stick to an extended bailout agreement with its international creditors
even as a war of words rumbled on between Athens and Berlin.Tsipras used a visit to the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, an inter-governmental think-tank, to make his case for a long-term restructuring of Greece's debt while promising to implement agreed reforms.
"There is no reason for concern... even if there is no timely disbursement of a (loan) tranche, Greece will meet its obligations," he told reporters.
"We are here in order for the OECD to put its stamp on the reforms that the Greek government wants to push on with and I believe that this stamp in our passport will be very significant to build mutual trust with our lenders."
His soothing words contrasted to the tone of recrimination between Greece and Germany over austerity, relations between their finance ministers and demands for reparations over the World War Two Nazi occupation of Greece.
Greece submitted a formal protest to the German Foreign Ministry, accusing Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble of having insulted his Greek counterpart, Yanis Varoufakis, further eroding a relationship that has been strained by Berlin's tough stance on the Greek debt crisis.
More
Argentina suffers fresh defeat in default row
Judge rules that Citigroup cannot process interest payments by Argentina on $2.3bn of bonds
By Reuters 7:15PM GMT 12 Mar 2015
A judge has ruled that Citigroup
cannot process interest payments by Argentina on some bonds issued under that
country's law, a defeat for the cash-strapped nation as it tries to re-enter
international debt markets.
US District Judge Thomas Griesa
in Manhattan said letting Citigroup process the payments on so-called
dollar-denominated exchange bonds would violate a requirement that Argentina
treat bondholders equally.
Mr Griesa's decision upheld his
order on July 28 last year that blocked Citigroup from making the payments on
an estimated $2.3bn of bonds.
Citigroup has portrayed itself as
being in a legal no man's land, forced to choose between processing payments in
defiance of Mr Griesa's order, or not processing payments and putting its
ability to do business in Argentina at risk.
Mr Griesa acknowledged the bank's
predicament, saying "neither option is appealing", but said it was
the result of Argentina's having "refused to observe the judgments of the
court to whose jurisdiction it acceded".
The decision is the latest
development in a long-running legal battle stemming from Argentina's roughly
$100bn sovereign debt default in 2001.
Argentina subsequently
restructured its bonds in 2005 and 2010, swapping existing bonds for new bonds
worth less than a third as much.
But a group of bondholders known
as "holdouts", including billionaire Paul Singer's Elliott Management
LP hedge fund and the Aurelius Capital Management hedge fund, refused to accept
the terms, and demanded to be paid in full.
Mr Griesa has ruled that the
holdouts must be paid before Argentina can make payments on the restructured
bonds. Argentina refused, and defaulted last July after rejecting Mr Griesa's
order that it pay $1.33bn plus interest to the holdouts.
More
We end for the week with John
Bull hedging his future. The dollar may be soaring, and the Fed’s talking chair
babbling on about an unstoppable US recovery, but Her Majesty’s Government
wants to hedge its future against the world’s largest debtor by far. Suppose
the unthinkable happened. Somewhere down the road, a multi trillions in
unrepayable debt, Uncle Scam played Greece. Or worse, played Japan and
electronically printed up the money to buy up all of Uncle Scam’s debt. Having
some new allies in Asia might just pay off.
Britain's plan to join China's 'World Bank' angers Washington
The $50bn (£33.6bn) Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank is seen as a potential rival to US-based institutions such as the World Bank
By Agencies 11:40PM GMT 12 Mar
2015
Britain has announced plans to
become the first major Western country to join a Chinese-led development bank,
drawing a concerned response from the US.
The $50bn (£33.6bn) Asian
Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) has been feted by Beijing as a way of
financing regional development, and is seen as a potential rival to US-based
institutions such as the World Bank.
Chancellor George Osborne said
Britain would join discussions with other founding members to set out the
institution’s governance and accountability structures later this month, in a
move to bolster relations with China.
“Forging links between the UK and
Asian economies to give our companies the best opportunity to work and invest
in the world’s fastest growing markets is a key part of our long-term economic
plan,” Mr Osborne said in a statement.
“Joining the AIIB at the founding
stage will create an unrivalled opportunity for the UK and Asia to invest and
grow together.”
The move drew a cautious response
from Washington, a rare note of discord in the special relationship that
follows criticism from the US about Britain’s falling defence spending.
“We believe any new multilateral
institution should incorporate the high standards of the World Bank and the
regional development banks,” said US National Security Council spokesman
Patrick Ventrell.
“Based on many discussions, we
have concerns about whether the AIIB will meet these high standards,
particularly related to governance, and environmental and social safeguards.”
China and 20 other countries
signed a memorandum of understanding to establish the Beijing-headquartered
bank in October.
More
In a
time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.
George
Orwell.
At the Comex silver
depositories Thursday final figures were: Registered 68.83 Moz, Eligible 108.35
Moz, Total 177.18 Moz.
Crooks and Scoundrels Corner
The bent, the seriously bent, and the totally
doubled over.
If you think fraud is bad today, just wait another
five years says the FBI’s fraudster-in-chief.
"On
the whole human beings want to be good, but not too good, and not quite all the
time.”
George
Orwell.
‘Catch Me If You Can’ Con Man Says Technology Aids Fraud
12:00 AM GMT March
13, 2015
(Bloomberg) -- Technology makes it a lot easier to cheat today, according to
reformed con artist Frank Abagnale. The man who made $2.5 million in the 1960s as a teenager faking identities as an airline pilot, lawyer and doctor now works with the FBI and others on cybercrime. He even had a role in the investigation into last year’s JPMorgan Chase & Co. hack, he said in an interview this week near Trafalgar Square in London.
Abagnale became famous after the 2002 Steven Spielberg movie “Catch Me If You Can,” starring Leonardo DiCaprio, based on his autobiography. He’s spent the past four decades working with the FBI spotting fraud, and says the advances in technology and the over-sharing trends propagated by social media sites like Facebook have made it much easier to create false identities with a few personal details. When he did it, he had to assume an entirely new identity and life.
“What I did 50 years ago as a teenage boy is 4,000 times easier to do today because of technology,” Abagnale said. “Technology breeds crime. It always has, and always will.”
Abagnale said he was in London to speak with government officials about fighting fraud. He declined to detail what he did for the FBI on the hacking case, or whom he met with from the U.K. government.
Abagnale spent five years in French, Swedish and American prisons after being arrested in France in 1970. The U.S. government released him on the condition he would help teach and assist federal law enforcement agencies. He’s the only person the FBI has done that with in its 107-year history, he says.
“I owe a debt to my country 800 times greater than I could ever repay,” says Abagnale, who met his wife when he went undercover for the FBI as an orphanage social worker named Bill Mattison. “That’s why I’m still with the FBI, and will be there until I can’t do anything any longer.”
Paul Bresson, an FBI spokesman, declined to comment and said he couldn’t verify the accuracy of Abagnale’s information.
----No matter how much money companies invest in cybersecurity, people are the biggest risk, as seen with the JPMorgan hack last year. In that breach, millions of customer accounts were jeopardized when hackers used an employee’s user name and password to worm their way into the bank’s network, people with knowledge of the investigation have said. The FBI and other agencies are investigating.
“The technology works but we’re always dealing with that weakest link, the human beings,” he says. “You need to teach your employees that whether you’re the receptionist on the phone or you’re the officer of the company,” everyone’s a target for a hacker.
While security is tighter now, a new challenge is that often no human contact is needed to defraud someone, he says. It can all be done by computer from the other side of the planet.
More
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-03-13/-catch-me-if-you-can-con-man-says-technology-makes-fraud-easier
Another weekend, and another week lost from Athens plan to break out of Colditz. After a week of acrimonious name calling and threats, paymaster Germany’s chequebook remains firmly locked away from Athens larcenous reach. With a deadline of month end steadily approaching, Mr. Tsipras has just over two weeks to print money for Grexit. Here in the now spring like Thames Valley, it’s time to enjoy all the first joys of spring. The wild primroses are blooming the first white blackthorn blossom is blooming, the early lambs are out in the fields gambolling away. Have a great weekend everyone, more Greek v Germany drama ahead.
"Until government administrators can so identify the interests of government with those of the people and refrain from defrauding the masses through the device of currency depreciation for the sake of remaining in office, the wiser ones will prefer to keep as much of their wealth in the most stable and marketable forms possible - forms which only the precious metals provide."
Elgin Groseclose
The monthly Coppock Indicators finished February
DJIA: +120 Down. NASDAQ: +213 Down. SP500: +169 Down.
No comments:
Post a Comment