Baltic Dry Index. 1271 -03
LIR Gold Target by 2019: $30,000. Revised due to QE.
"If the financial system goes down, our business is going down and, trust me, yours and everyone else's is going down, too."
Lloyd Blankfein. CEO Goldman Sachs. November 8, 2009
For more on Great Britain’s 21st century “men of probity” scroll down to the UK banksters in the “Crooks and Scoundrels Corner” section. Still rewarding failure, the UK’s banksters still don’t get it. Or perhaps they do. With the system unreformed, and a fiat currency crash awaiting the next Lehman, banksters everywhere know they need to loot and pillage while the opportunity is still there. Thanks to the BOE, the ECB and the US Fed, that opportunity is still there, but for how long?
We open with the news that Japan has slumped back into recession again. The 20 year stagnation rolls on into the third decade. This time round, the spin miesters assure us that all will be well in the second half of the year, once Japan enters the great reconstruction following on from the March earthquake and devastating tsunami. Possibly, but through the loss of electric power from Fukushima and Hamoaka multiple nuclear reactors, Japan is suffering a serious electric power deficit. A swift rebound in the economy may be harder to achieve than at first sight.
May 19, 2011, 12:49 a.m. EDT
Japan’s economy shrinks sharply in January-March
GDP drops at a 3.7% annualized rate due to March 11 disaster
TOKYO (MarketWatch) — Japan’s economy shrank by almost double the margin economists had expected, as the March 11 disaster pushed the country back into recession with a second consecutive quarter of contraction.
The gross domestic product contracted by 0.9% during the January-March quarter, marking a 3.7% annualized drop, the Cabinet Office reported Thursday.
The result showed a far greater drop than a median forecast for a 0.5% quarter-on-quarter contraction in separate surveys of economists from Reuters and Dow Jones Newswires.
The worse-than-expected data came after Prime Minister Naoto Kan said Monday that the second extra budget for this fiscal year aimed at disaster reconstruction might not be ready until August.
----A drop in domestic demand took 0.8 of a percentage point off growth in the latest quarter, as business investment fell 0.9% and consumer spending contracted 0.6%.
The GDP reading was the first to include the impact of catastrophic earthquake and tsunami in March, which also triggered a still-ongoing nuclear crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. GDP contracted a revised annualized 3.0% in the October-December period.
Before the quake, economists had seen Japan returning to growth in the quarter. A survey of 43 economists forecast an annualized growth of 1.73%, according to Dow Jones.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/japans-economy-shrinks-sharply-in-january-march-2011-05-18
Next, what else, the basket case of Greece again, where unsurprisingly, the average Greek resents being told by Germany, to get a job, work hard and pay taxes. Yesterday Germany was joined by the scandal pressed, suddenly leaderless IMF. Stop partying, and sell something, says the IMF. Cut out the holidays and raise the retirement age, says Chancellor Merkel, paymaster of all from the Gulf of Finland to the Med. One always get a little nervous at headlines like “German Chancellor on the Offensive”. Alarm bells ring in Warsaw, Paris, London and Moscow. Not to worry yet, for now Chancellor Merkel is more likely to send in an army of German tourists than panzers, but perhaps Greece should sell off Crete to Iron Chancellor Merkel rather than test her again. Far more likely is for Athens to bring up the war again. Stay long precious metals. The euro just passed the Pound and dollar in the race to Reykjavik and is fast catching up on the yen.
Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.
Winston Spencer Churchill.
IMF tells Greece to stop dragging its heels over reform
The International Monetary Fund has told Greece to step up its efforts to sort out its finances in the most stern warning yet from the bailed-out nation's rescuer
By Emma Rowley 8:31PM BST 18 May 2011
The Washington-based lender is worried the country will not meet the deficit-cutting targets agreed as part of its €110bn (£97bn) IMF/EU aid package.
"The view that seems to be taking hold is that the government programme is not working," said Poul Thomsen, head of the IMF mission currently in Greece to measure the country's progress towards tax and spending goals.
"The programme will not remain on track without a determined re-invigoration of structural reforms in the coming months," he told an Athens conference. "Unless we see this invigoration, I think the programme will run off track."
The Greek government has struggled to implement its programme of cuts and tax rises, hampered by the impact of a deep recession on its economy and widespread tax evasion.
Greece's budget deficit came in at 10.5pc of its gross domestic product (GDP) last year, more than two percentage points over an initial target. The county is on track to also miss its current 7.6pc target, Mr Thomsen warned.
As the IMF stepped up the pressure, Greece announced it was appointing a string of advisers to work on plans to privatise billions of state assets in an attempt to plug the hole in its finances.
Deutsche Bank will advise on the possible sale of its slice of in OPAP, Europe's biggest betting company, while Barclays, Rothschild and Ernst & Young will work on the sale of a stake in Hellenic Motorways, said the Greek finance ministry, listing 15 privatisation projects.
Doubts about the country's ability to get its finances in order have sent its government's borrowing costs sky-high amid talk it will have to restructure its debt - effectively defaulting on the terms.
More
Hor auf, so laut in dieser nervigen sprache zu reden!
German Chancellor on the Offensive 05/18/2011
Merkel Blasts Greece over Retirement Age, Vacation
German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Tuesday evening blasted Greece and demanded that Athens raise the retirement age and reduce vacation days. Germany will help, she said, but only if indebted countries help themselves.
It was the kind of criticism that one isn't used to hearing from Angela Merkel. Normally sober and analytical to a fault, the German chancellor on Tuesday evening blasted a handful of heavily indebted southern European countries, saying they needed to raise retirement ages and reduce vacation days.
Keeping debt under control, Merkel said in a speech at an event held by her party, the conservative Christian Democratic Union, in the western German town of Meschede, isn't the only priority. "It is also important that people in countries like Greece, Spain and Portugal are not able to retire earlier than in Germany -- that everyone exerts themselves more or less equally. That is important."
She added: "We can't have a common currency where some get lots of vacation time and others very little. That won't work in the long term."
There are indeed significant differences between retirement ages in the two countries. Greece announced reforms to its pension system in early 2010 aimed at reducing early retirement and raising the average age of retirement to 63. Incentives to keep workers in the labor market beyond 65 have likewise been adopted. Germany voted in 2007 to raise the retirement age from 65 to 67 over the next several years.
----Merkel's sharp tone on Tuesday evening was almost certainly intended primarily for a domestic audience. Her junior coalition partner, the business-friendly Free Democrats, have been vocally skeptical of additional euro-zone bailout packages, even though they voted in favor of the European Stability Mechanism -- a permanent euro backstop set to enter force in 2013 -- at a weekend party convention. And the Christian Social Union (CSU), the Bavarian sister party to Merkel's Christian Democrats, is considering polling its members on whether it should support an additional aid package for Greece.
"The lesson from Greece is that despite the euro rescue scheme, it is in no better a position today than a year ago," Alexander Dobrindt, the CSU's general secretary, told the Munich-based paper Münchner Merkur. "Our members have to be consulted on such a basic question as whether we should tolerate a different Europe."
More.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,763294,00.html#ref=nlint
We end with developments in Asia. Unsure of the reliability of US support in the aftermath of the Osama bin Laden assassination, Pakistan seeks support elsewhere. Though the meeting predates recent events, it couldn’t be more timely for both countries. Tomorrow will not be like today which was like yesterday. I wonder what happened to the stealth helicopter?
Europe is a molehill. All great empires and revolutions have been on the Orient; six hundred millions live there.
Napoleon. French Dictator.
China, Pakistan reaffirm "all-weather" friendship |
English.news.cn 2011-05-19 00:58:39
BEIJING, May 18 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani Wednesday reaffirmed their "all-weather" friendship as the two countries celebrate the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties.
The two leaders held talks at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing Wednesday afternoon and pledged to "inject new vitality into the friendship and cooperation" between the two countries by celebrating the anniversary. This year is also the China-Pakistan Friendship Year, which was declared by Wen and Gilani during Wen's visit to Pakistan in December 2010.
Gilani is making a four-day visit to China, which is also a part of a series of celebration activities.
The bilateral ties between the two countries have withstood various tests since China and Pakistan forged diplomatic relations 60 years ago, and have yielded great dividends for the two peoples as well as made great contributions to peace and stability in Asia, Wen said during the talks with his Pakistani counterpart.
"Facing the changing international and regional situation, China is willing to work with Pakistan, give full play to the mechanism of annual meetings between state leaders and that of diplomatic consultations between the two countries to step up communication and cooperation, and safeguard our common interests as 'all-weather' strategic partners," said the Chinese Premier.
Wen said that Pakistan has made great sacrifices for and contributions to the global war against terrorism, urging the international community to understand and support Pakistan' s efforts to maintain domestic stability and advance the economic and social development.
More.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/china/2011-05/19/c_13881855.htm
"We shouldn't pour cold water on everything. We, the eight or nine players in global investment banking, have a very good future."
Deutsche Bank, CEO Josef Ackermann. Davos, January 2007.
At the Comex silver depositories Wednesday, final figures were: Registered 32.66 Moz, Eligible 67.85 Moz, Total 100.51 Moz.
+++++
Crooks and Scoundrels Corner.
The bent, the seriously bent, and the totally doubled over.
Today, meet the UK banksters still living in “cloud cuckoo land”. Still voting themselves outrageous bonuses and salaries, even as they run a bailed out bank dependent on UK taxpayer support. Unsurprisingly, HMG’s representative voted the UK taxpayer’s 41% stake in favour of the board’s insane remuneration. Stay long gold and silver, the banksters have learned nothing from the events of 2007-2008. The next Lehman is out there and getting closer by the day.
"It's strange that men should take up crime when there are so many legal ways to be dishonest. “
Al Capone
Lloyds takes a grilling from investors over boardroom pay
Plan to award 300 per cent bonuses triggers shareholder rebellion at AGM
By Sean Farrell Thursday, 19 May 2011
Lloyds Banking Group suffered an embarrassing shareholder revolt over boardroom pay at its heated annual general meeting yesterday.
Almost one in five votes cast failed to support the bank's remuneration report. The plan included a £2.57m final payday for Eric Daniels, the former chief executive, and a massive signing on deal for his replacement, Antonio Horta-Osorio.
At the meeting, the board faced repeated attacks over pay from individual shareholders angry about the bank's financial performance, ailing share price and cancelled dividends.
They also grilled the bank's bosses on its disastrous takeover of HBOS and the shock £3.2bn charge announced for mis-selling payment protection insurance (PPI).
Sir Win Bischoff, the bank's chairman, was forced to say sorry for the bank's handling of PPI. "I have apologised for that and other [bank] chairmen may do the same," he said.
Under pressure from shareholders, Sir Win also vowed to fight the call from the Independent Commission on Banking for Lloyds to sell off more branches. He said the bank had an agreement with the Government and European Union for 600 branch sales and "we firmly believe that shouldn't be altered".
The bank said 8.2 per cent of votes went against the remuneration report but, including abstentions, 18 per cent of voting shareholders refused to support it. UK Financial Investments, which manages the Government's 41 per cent stake in Lloyds, voted in favour.
The Association of British Insurers had given the report an "amber-top" alert before the meeting and the shareholder consultancy Pirc had urged investors to vote against.
The board was booed over pay at times during the fractious two-and-a-half hour meeting in Glasgow.
Martin Simons, from London, said to applause: "The banking community is living in cloud cuckoo land. I think it is a blessed scandal."
“In a heated exchange with Sir Win, Mr Nadin asked why the bank could not find "men of probity" who would work hard without huge bonuses, pay-offs and signing-on deals.
Sir Win said Lloyds had many honest workers and that "there are men of probity who are paid bonuses".
The monthly Coppock Indicators finished April:
DJIA: +182 Up. NASDAQ: +236 Up. SP500: +185 Up.
The Dow and SP 500 and NASDAQ have all reversed from down to up. The Fed’s rigging of the indicators seems to have worked. Note: like all indicators, they were devised for normal markets not markets where the central bank is flooding the economy with new cash. In current conditions where risk is suspended by too big to fail, I doubt any indicators are showing more that where the Fed’s new cash is flowing in our world of casino capitalism.
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