Baltic Dry Index. 817 -08
LIR Gold Target by 2019: $30,000. Revised due to QE programs.
“Call
it the Goldman Sachs test. If this is something Goldman would do to its
clients, don't do it."
Felix
Salmon.
For banksters “life goes on,” says the man
who brought us the “London Whale.” “A six and a half billion US dollar loss?
Forget about it! It’s nothing. Peanuts. Chicken feed! What’s $6.5 billion among
friends, when you have the full faith and credit of the United States of
America, and Ben Bernoccio at the Washington Fed to call upon.” You don’t know
how lucky you are, says America’s top bankster still doing “God’s work.” According
to Reuters on January 1, the minimum wage in the USA ranged from $7.35 to $7.75
an hour, including the 10 to 35 cent increases that went into effect January 1,
2013. “Let them eat cake.” Stay long physical precious metals. If something can’t
go on forever it won’t.
It’s morally wrong to let a sucker keep his money.
Jamie Dim’un, with apologies to W. C. Fields.
Banks 'ports in the storm’ during crisis, says JP Morgan's Dimon
Global regulators are “overwhelmed” by their own efforts to curb financiers and have failed to realise that banks have been “ports in the storm” during financial crisis, according to Jamie Dimon.
The JP Morgan boss led a powerful panel at Davos in an attack on global regulators, pouring scorn on their criticism of bank complexity. “Businesses can be opaque. They are complex. You don’t know how jet engines work either,” he said.He argued that his bank continued to lend to Spain and Italy knowing that “something might go wrong”, because “we are not a fair-weather friend... What shall we say? That it’s too much risk? We provide a service to you, that’s what happens.”
Mr Dimon argued that regulators are out of their depth and have failed to fix the system despite having spent five years trying. “I think a lot of regulators are also overwhelmed,” he said. “They’re overwhelmed with rules and regulations.”
Unless this changes, Mr Dimon said: “It’s not going to fix. It’s just five more years of pointing fingers, scapegoating, using misinformation and thinking we’re making a better system.”
----Mr Dimon, who has just had his bonus cut by 50pc to $11m (£6.9m) in the wake of the so-called “London whale” trading scandal, admitted that the $6.2bn loss the bank suffered resulting from its ill-advised position in credit derivatives was a “terrible mistake”.
However,
he insisted: “Customers didn’t suffer. It wasn’t venal. If you’re a shareholder
of mine, I’m deeply sorry, but we had record results and life goes on.”
More
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financetopics/davos/9822500/Banks-ports-in-the-storm-during-crisis-says-JP-Morgans-Dimon.html
Next, we’re stealing from our children via QE programs, says Dr. Doom at Davos. Damn right and how, said the other 2,600 attendees. With up to 56% youth unemployment in Euroland’s Club Med, you’ve got to get yours while the getting’s good, before this whole fiat system blows up.
Money printing 'amounts to theft from our children'
Money printing is theft from our children and may merely be storing up problems for an even bigger crisis, top economists and investors have warned.
Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Davide Serra, founder of leading hedge fund Algebris, and Nouriel Roubini, the head of Roubini Economics known as Dr Doom for predicting the financial crisis, set out the case against those who think quantitative easing (QE) and low rates are benign policy tools.“When governments borrow, they are taking money from our children. QE is the same – we are lowering returns for future generations. QE creates an inter-generational dilemma,” Mr Serra said.
Mr Roubini warned that central bankers need to think about turning off the cheap money tap or risk creating another, possibly even worse, bubble.
He argued that policymakers have encouraged markets and individuals to take on crippling levels of debt by leaving asset bubbles unchecked in a boom and coming to borrowers’ rescue in a crisis.
"Ten years ago we had the Greenspan put, now we have the Bernanke put. What are the long term economic consequences?" he asked.
He said loose monetary policy is creating a system biased to creating bubbles, "that's why we've been moving to more unconventional territories" in policy responses - from low rates to QE to credit easing.
"Central bankers have affected the behaviour of the private sector. They have to think about that," he said. "As you do a slow exit out of QE you may create another bubble and make another crisis.
“At some point, the consequence of postponing deleveraging is that you end up with zombie banks, zombie companies, zombie households, and zombie governments.”
The warnings came after the Bank of Japan caved into political pressure and pledged to buy government debt in potentially unlimited quantities in an attempt to stimulate growth.
The move prompted accusations that Japan had launched a fresh attempt to debase its currency and improve the competitiveness of its exports.
More
On the other side of the planet to Davos, in the
land of the glowing, self cooking fish, all is even worse than first thought.
Japan’s exports aren’t just collapsing to China with whom they seem to want to
go to war with, they’re collapsing to austerity mad Europe as well. Maybe their
new currency war can turn things around.
Jan. 23,
2013, 7:06 p.m. EST
Japan's December trade deficit wider than expected
LOS
ANGELES (MarketWatch) -- Japanese exports fell more than expected in December,
as shipments to China took another tumble and even U.S.-bound exports shrank.
Japan's December exports fell 5.8% from a year earlier, while imports rose
1.9%, sending the trade deficit to 641.5 billion yen ($7.24 billion), the
Ministry of Finance reported Thursday. The drop in exports outpaced
expectations for a 4.7% fall, while the deficit was wider than a ¥548.5 billion
forecast, according to a Dow Jones Newswires survey. Exports to China, which
have fallen in recent months due to political tensions between the two nations,
fell 15.8% in December, while those to the U.S. slipped 0.8%, reportedly the
first such decline in 14 months. Exports to Western Europe fell 12.3%.
Staying with East Asia for now. North Korea just threw
down the gauntlet in front of Uncle Sam! Is 2013 about to repeat 1914?
North Korea to target U.S. with nuclear, rocket tests
SEOUL |(Reuters) - North Korea said on Thursday it would carry out further rocket launches and a nuclear test that would target the United States, dramatically stepping up its threats against a country it called its "sworn enemy".
The announcement by the country's top military body came a day after the U.N. Security Council agreed to a U.S.-backed resolution to censure and sanction North Korea for a rocket launch in December that breached U.N. rules.
"We are not disguising the fact that the various satellites and long-range rockets that we will fire and the high-level nuclear test we will carry out are targeted at the United States," North Korea's National Defence Commission said, according to state news agency KCNA.
North Korea is believed by South Korea and other observers to be "technically ready" for a third nuclear test, and the decision to go ahead rests with leader Kim Jong-un who pressed ahead with the December rocket launch in defiance of the U.N. sanctions.
China, the one major diplomatic ally of the isolated and impoverished North, agreed to the U.S.-backed resolution and it also supported resolutions in 2006 and 2009 after Pyongyang's two earlier nuclear tests.
Thursday's statement by North Korea represents a huge challenge to Beijing as it undergoes a leadership transition with Xi Jinping due to take office in March.
China's Foreign Ministry called for calm and restraint and a return to six-party talks, but effectively singled out North Korea, urging the "relevant party" not to take any steps that would raise tensions.
---- Analysts said the North could test as
early as February as South Korea prepares to install a new, untested president
or that it could choose to stage a nuclear explosion to coincide with former
ruler Kim Jong-il's Feb 16 birthday.
More
Up next Euroland. Would you want to remain a member
of a club like this?
Derivatives scandal drags Monte Paschi into Italy election race
MILAN |(Reuters) - A scandal over shady derivatives deals bleeding money at Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena has thrust Italy's third-biggest lender into the country's election campaign and risks embarrassing the center-left over its ties with the bank.
The bank, which had to request a 3.9-billion-euro state bailout ($5.2 billion) last year, is widely regarded as close to the center-left PD party, which is leading in opinion polls and controls the Tuscany region where Monte dei Paschi is based.
Monte dei Paschi's woes deepened on Tuesday after reports it would book a loss of at least 220 million euros due to a 2009 derivative trade with Japanese bank Nomura, one of several deals currently under scrutiny.
Its former chairman Giuseppe Mussari stepped down as head of Italy's banking association on Tuesday after Nomura said he personally approved the deal, though he denied any wrongdoing.
Center-right and far-left politicians campaigning for next month's vote seized on the scandal to accuse the PD of mismanaging the bank, the world's oldest, and criticize outgoing prime minister Mario Monti for using taxpayer money to save it.
"This Monte dei Paschi story confirms that left-leaning banks can allow themselves all sorts of distractions, naturally at the expense of the tax payer," said Antonio Leone of former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi's PDL party.
"The icing on the cake is that Monti has granted a 3.9 billion euro loan to Monte dei Paschi, obviously taking that from our pockets."
---- The bank's executives also face a grilling by Beppe Grillo, a comedian now leading the anti-establishment 5 star movement which could emerge as Italy's third biggest party in the vote.
Grillo, a
Monte dei Paschi shareholder, will attend the bank's extraordinary shareholder meeting on
Friday.
The
movement's website in Siena compared the bank to a "house of cards where
the pieces are falling every day."
More
We end for today with a link to the list of the
elite Lords of the Universe who run, or get invited to, or pay for admission
to, the World Economic Forum in snowy Davos, Swizzerland. Of the 2,630 names attending,
includes some duplicates, “680 participants
have “chief executive” in their titles. Diageo CEO Paul S. Walsh and Yahoo CEO
Marissa Mayer can expect to run into NYSE Euronext CEO Duncan Niederauer,
and Citigroup CEO Michael Corbat.”
If your name isn’t written in this leger of
the elite, you’re not one of the 1%. You’re just a part of the other six and a
half billion serfs, aka plebs or cannon fodder, to be bossed around by the
Bilderberger Goldmanites. “From Wall Street, there are seven Citigroup
employees participating. JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, and Deutsche Bank are
each sending six and UBS, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America and HSBC will each
have a delegation of five.”
“Only
4.9% of the participants are coming from China and Japan, 4.8% from Africa and
only 3.1% from South America. Two-thirds of the participants come from North
America or Europe. Less than 17% of the world’s population lives in those two
regions.”
The confidential list of everyone attending Davos this year
World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2013, List of Participants as of 7 January 2013 : Participants
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0AsHfT_5cBEHldGZxZ2ozRW5YeTNSaXRmYjR4Tjk4VUE&output=html
One of the queries Quakers are asked to consider, is: "Do
you maintain strict integrity in your business transactions and in your
relations with individuals and organizations? Are you personally scrupulous and
responsible in the use of money entrusted to you, and are you careful not to
defraud the public revenue?"
Probably why there a no Quakers on Wall Street.
At the Comex silver depositories Wednesday final figures were: Registered 38.02
Moz, Eligible 112.02 Moz, Total 150.04 Moz.
Crooks and
Scoundrels Corner
The bent, the seriously bent, and the totally
doubled over.
Today, more on why it’s probably not a good idea to go flying with
lithium. Even when the lithium problem is “solved,” Boeing stands just one
disaster away from calamity. Does travel insurance pay out if a Dreamliner
burns?
Jan. 23, 2013, 11:29 p.m. EST
How Dreamliner’s lithium-ion batteries work
Lithium-ion batteries became crucial to the design of Boeing
Co.’s new Dreamliner jet because they offered a combination of high power and low
weight, yet the very chemistry that makes these high-tech batteries so
attractive to designers may increase their risk of overheating and catching
fire, a situation that has contributed to the global grounding of about 50
Dreamliners in use and a halt to new deliveries after two onboard fires.
Investigators
aren’t just looking at the batteries. Safety experts are combing over the jet’s
wiring, circuit boards and other battery-related external components as they
probe the incidents.
Batteries
convert stored chemical energy into usable, electrical energy. A lithium-ion
battery consists of a negative electrode and a positive electrode that are
linked by an electrolyte, such as an organic solvent.
When
the battery is being used, the electrolyte transports ions between the
electrodes; electrons flow along a separate wire circuit and that electrical
current is used to start an auxiliary power unit and for emergency power.
By
mixing and matching different metals and chemistries, scientists have created a
range of different battery types that differ in terms of voltage, service life,
size and cost. Low-power devices such as those in a TV remote are usually
powered by inexpensive alkaline batteries.
The
challenge for battery makers has been to boost the amount of energy that can be
stored in a given volume — and that is where lithium-ion technology shines. A
lithium-ion power-pack can deliver more energy than a similar-size battery
based on another metal, a measure known as energy density.
That
is why lithium batteries were compelling to the 787’s designers. The Dreamliner
was crafted to allow for big fuel savings and weight reductions, some of which
are enabled by the small but powerful lithium-ion batteries Boeing BA +0.18% s
using.
Lithium
is the least dense of all metals and highly electropositive, which means it
delivers a high voltage. Lithium-ion batteries pack twice as much energy
density as nickel-metal-hydride versions, and four to six times as much energy
density of the lead-acid battery found in many cars, according to Stanley
Whittingham, a professor of chemistry and expert on lithium-ion batteries at
Binghamton University in New York.
Lithium
also is the third-smallest element after hydrogen and helium. “Because it is
small, you can pull it in and out of materials easily” compared with other
elements that are bigger and can’t be moved so easily, said Clare Grey,
professor of materials chemistry at Cambridge University in England.
Today,
lithium batteries are the preferred power packs for an array of widely used
consumer products, from laptops and tablets to cellular phones and portable
drills. They are also increasingly found in cars, buses, planes, trains and
satellites.
On the
787, the batteries aren’t used during normal cruising flight, but they are
continually charged by the plane’s onboard generators.
A
potential problem can arise when a lithium-ion battery is plugged into an
external power source for recharging. “If it is overcharged, there is
electrolyte breakdown and that generates heat,” said Whittingham.
Chemists
call it “thermal runaway,” an ever-increasing heating process that can cause
the battery to ignite.
It isn’t
clear whether this is what happened to the Dreamliner batteries. Grey
speculated that a manufacturing defect could have triggered a physical
short-circuit, which caused heating, released oxygen and led to a fire. Or
intense heat could have melted the physical separator between anode and cathode.
“Then the whole thing goes up in a puff of smoke,” she said.
Whittingham
noted that, when heated up, the electrolytic solvent in the battery can turn
into a flammable gas, which can potentially trigger a fire.
“When you
get thermal runaway,” he added, the battery can burn “at a temperature of 300
to 400 degrees Celsius,” or between 570 degrees and 750 degrees Fahrenheit.
We do not err because truth is difficult to see. It is visible at a glance. We err because this is more comfortable.
Alexander Solzhenitsyn
The monthly Coppock Indicators finished December:
DJIA: +100 Down. NASDAQ: +123 Unch. SP500: +129 Up.
All three indexes are giving different
signals. A time for caution.
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