Friday 30 August 2013

War Delayed.



Baltic Dry Index. 1136 -10

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

“Only the dead have seen the end of war.”

Plato.

After last night’s dramatic and unexpected vote against war by Britain’s House of Commons, it’s only war against Syria delayed this morning, although for Great Britain it’s war called off. There is simply no support for a Syrian war among the British public, nor any clear picture of what a bombing campaign will achieve, nor how anyone would know when we had won. Sadly forcing regime change in Syria isn’t guaranteed to produce a better outcome than the Assad’s. However, President Obama can hardly reverse himself. Having declared his “red line” crossed, he can hardly call off regime change now, even if John Bull has got cold feet and is staying home. No word yet if the French will now pull out or if they’re all in for yet more death and destruction in Syria.

Below, old fashioned UK democracy in action, unlike when Blair blatantly lied the House of Commons into a disastrous war in Iraq. Sadly for the ordinary people of Syria, the UK’s contribution to the coming onslaught was minimal and irrelevant. It all comes down to America and how much force president Obama decides to commit and for how long. For now, the chances of a potential oil spike are slightly reduced.

“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children.

Dwight D. Eisenhower.

UK Prime Minister Cameron loses Syria war vote

By RAPHAEL SATTER and GREGORY KATZ
Associated Press Aug 29, 10:47 PM EDT
LONDON (AP) -- British Prime Minister David Cameron lost a vote endorsing military action against Syria by 13 votes Thursday, a stunning defeat that will almost guarantee that Britain plays no direct role in any U.S. attack on Bashar Assad's government.

A grim-faced Cameron conceded after the vote that "the British Parliament, reflecting the views of the British people, does not want to see British military action."

The prime minister said that while he still believed in a "tough response" to the alleged use of chemical weapons by Assad's regime, he would respect the will of Parliament.

Responding to the vote, the White House said that a decision on a possible military strike against Syria will be guided by America's best interests, suggesting the U.S. may act alone if other nations won't help.

The defeat was as dramatic as it was unexpected. At the start of the week, Cameron had seemed poised to join Washington in possible military action against Assad.
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U.K. Vote Complicates Obama’s Decision on Syria Action

By Joe Sobczyk, Margaret Talev & John Walcott - Aug 30, 2013 5:36 AM GMT
U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron’s failure to win parliamentary approval for military strikes against Syria complicates a decision by U.S. President Barack Obama on how to hold the Syrian government accountable for an alleged chemical weapons attack on civilians.

With the House of Commons rejection of a plan from Cameron for use of military force, Obama was left recalculating the cost of acting in Syria now that the hands of the main U.S. ally are tied. Even with last night’s vote by U.K. lawmakers, Obama can draw upon some support for the U.S. taking action on its own.

With the U.K. now sidelined, no possibility of a getting a United Nations mandate for military action and inconclusive intelligence on who ordered the Aug. 21 attack, Obama faces a choice between trying to make a convincing case for attacking Syria and finding an alternative means of preventing further use of chemical weapons.

Speaking in the Philippines today, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said the U.K. vote doesn’t change that country’s strong condemnation of Syria’s alleged chemical use. He said the U.S. is consulting with its allies on Syria intelligence and will work with Congress.
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Worldwide loss of oil supply heightens Syria attack risk

Libya's oil output has crashed to a near standstill over the past year as warlords and strikes paralyse the country, tightening the screws on global crude supply as the crisis in Syria comes to a head.

“We are currently witnessing the collapse of state in Libya, and the country is getting closer to local wars for oil revenues,” said the Swiss-based group Petromatrix.

The country’s oil ministry said production has slumped to an average of 300,000 barrels per day (b/d) in August, down by more than four-fifths from its peak after the overthrow of the Gaddafi regime two years ago.

“Militia groups are behaving like terrorists, using control over oil as political leverage to extract concessions,” said Dr Elizabeth Stephens, head of political risk at insurers Jardine Lloyd Thompson. Port closures and strikes have compounded the damage but the deeper story is the disintegration of political authority.

Libya is the most extreme example of political mayhem around the world disrupting output and causing a chronic shortfall in oil supply. Production has slumped in Iraq, Nigeria, Iran, Yemen and Syria itself, each for different reasons.

This has cut daily global supply by 1.1m over the past year to 92m, explaining why Brent crude prices have remained stubbornly high despite the slump in Europe and China’s slowdown. To compound the problem, Libya’s oil is some of the highest quality produced in the Middle East and the kind preferred by European refiners. Jitters over Syria have already pushed Brent to $115, near levels that typically erode confidence and inflict serious economic damage.
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We end for today and the month and the silly season, with the end of QE forever.  While I doubt that QE forever can ever be ended without a crash, others still think it will start ending next month. If they’re right a wipe-out of Club Med, India, Brazil, and many other countries is about to hit in this year’s arriving crash season. But will an oldie at the Fed really make his last act financial Armageddon? Will an arriving newbie, really make his or her first act to press the Fed button marked “Do NOT Touch!” We will very shortly find out in the weeks ahead.

"When paper money systems begin to crack at the seams, the run to gold could be explosive."

Harry Browne

Rise in US growth rate fans expectations of end to QE

The US economy is growing much faster than thought, official figures showed, as the rate was revised up from 1.7pc to 2.5pc for the second quarter of this year.

The latest figure represented a more than doubling of the 1.1pc rate recorded for January to March, as surging exports – climbing at their fastest pace in two years - helped to offset reduced state spending.

The news will boost confidence that the world’s biggest economy is turning a corner, with many economists predicting growth will continue to pick up pace in the second half of the year.

The strong economic data will also support expectations the Federal Reserve will next month start to withdraw its economic stimulus by “tapering” off its vast quantitative easing, or money-printing, effort.

“We will have to wait for next Friday’s labour market report to be able to say with more confidence that this is in the bag,” said Rob Carnell, economist at ING Bank.

----The dollar and yields on US Treasuries rose on expectations of Fed tapering.
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Emerging market rout is too big for the Fed to ignore

The US Federal Reserve has told Asia, Latin America, Africa and Eastern Europe to drop dead.

This has the makings of a grave policy error: a repeat of the dramatic events in the autumn of 1998 at best; a full-blown debacle and a slide into a second leg of the Long Slump at worst.

Emerging markets are now big enough to drag down the global economy. As Indonesia, India, Ukraine, Brazil, Turkey, Venezuela, South Africa, Russia, Thailand and Kazakhstan try to shore up their currencies, the effect is ricocheting back into the advanced world in higher borrowing costs. Even China felt compelled to sell $20bn of US Treasuries in July.

"They are running down reserves by selling US and European bonds, leading to a self-reinforcing feedback loop," said Simon Derrick from BNY Mellon.

We are told that emerging markets are more resilient than in past crises because they have $9 trillion of reserves. But any use of that treasure to defend the exchange rate entails monetary tightening, and therefore inflicts a contractionary shock on countries already in trouble.

We are also told that they borrow in their own currencies these days, immune to the sort of dollar squeeze that caused such havoc in the early 1980s and the mid-1990s. This is true, but double-edged. India, Brazil and others will surely be tempted to stop fighting markets, let their currencies slide and inflict the pain on foreigners - that is to say, on your pension fund.

Mirza Baig from BNP Paribas advises them to embrace devaluation, calling it futile to defend quasi-pegs.
"The costs of fighting are spiralling out of control," he said.

Mr Baig said foreigners bear 90pc of the currency risk in Malaysia, 81pc in Thailand, 79pc in Korea and 74pc in India. So let them take the haircut. Should these countries take that course, they will inflict a deflationary trade shock on the West. The eurozone is in no fit state to handle that. Nor is Britain.

We are in entirely uncharted waters. Emerging markets were less than 15pc of global GDP in the early 1980s, when tightening by the Volcker Fed brought Latin America crashing down. That was an ugly episode for Western banks, but easily contained.

----If the stakes were high then, they are higher now. Emerging markets are half the world economy, according to IMF data. The "power ratio" is no longer 1:2, it is 1:1. Those who fell in love with the BRICS and mini-BRICS in the boom were entirely right to claim that an economic revolution was taking place.

Yet all we heard from Jackson Hole this time were dismissive comments that the emerging market rout is not the Fed's problem. "Other countries simply have to take that as a reality and adjust to us," said Dennis Lockhart, the Atlanta Fed chief. Terrence Checki from the New York Fed said "there is no master stroke that will insulate countries from financial spillovers”.

The talk for Fed corridors strikes me as dangerously insouciant. The bank has made a series of errors over the past six years, the result of a "closed macro-economy model" that fails to take full account of global interactions. It failed to anticipate how jamming on the brakes before the Lehman crash would trigger a scramble for dollars, igniting a conflagration. The bank played a key role in setting off later spasms of the EMU debt crsis with hawkish talk, each time forced to retreat later.

----One cannot blame the US for the failings of these countries, yet Ben Bernanke and his successor will still have to live with the consequences. Globalisation has entrapped the Fed. Like it or not, the Fed is the world's monetary superpower.

The exodus of money from emerging markets that we have seen so far is nothing compared with what could happen if this episode is mishandled.
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“What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or in the holy name of liberty or democracy?

Mahatma Ghandi.

At the Comex silver depositories Thursday final figures were: Registered 39.32 Moz, Eligible 124.81 Moz, Total 164.13 Moz.  


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

No crooks today nor bent politicians and bureaucrats, I didn’t want to spoil the last holiday weekend of the summer. Today, it’s those non-stop dancers over at Citi, who in their current technical update think that raising the US debt ceiling will put gold on a course to about $3,500 in about 3 years. In the process breaking the cardinal rule of commodity forecasting, “give them a price or give them a date, never both.”

I think Citi under estimates what will likely happen this decade. QE forever, is just that, forever. Whatever jobsworth is given the keys to the Fed, is likely to find that tapering or tampering with “loose lips Bernanke’s” voodoo QE policy, is likely to bring on the calamity that he implemented QE to prevent. Every attempt this decade at ending QE will quickly be reversed as a new crisis develops. But QE forever is bad for the fiat currencies, many of which have already gone into free-fall at just the prospect of the big bad Fedsters’ trying to taper QE. On QE forever this decade, I think we will see the end of the unloved Euro, and the end of the Great Nixonian error of fake money. I think we will see the re-entry of gold into the international settlements system. By 2020 I think Citi might be off by an extra zero. Stay long fully paid up physical precious metals.

Below an excellent article full of interesting charts.

"For more than two thousand years gold's natural qualities made it man's universal medium of exchange. In contrast to political money, gold is honest money that survived the ages and will live on long after the political fiats of today have gone the way of all paper."

Hans F. Sennholz

Citi Asks "How High Can Gold Ultimately Go?"

Via Citi FX Technicals,
Gold looks to have found a base...

Following the multi-year surge in Gold the recent fall took us 14% below the 55 month moving average. That is exactly what happened in 1976 during Gold’s correction after a multi-year move higher.

Once that moving average was regained on a monthly close basis the uptrend re-established itself and Gold rallied for the next 3 years. (included in that period was the “supply shock” driven move higher in crude)

----The rally in the Equity market after the 1973-1974 “crash” peaked 4 weeks after that corrective low was placed in Gold.

SO FAR the trend peak in the stock market (DJIA and S&P) has taken place 5 weeks after the corrective low was posted in Gold.

After that peak in late 1976 the Equity market entered into an 18 month long 27% correction.
Gold weekly chart- Prior support now good resistance

----We still retain a view that we can see a “low to high” percentage move in this bull market similar to what we saw in the bull market of 1970-1980.

If we extract the final leg of that move in December 1979-Jan 1980 which was totally driven by the USSR invasion of Afghanistan almost doubling the price of Gold over 5 weeks then we end up with a target of around $3,500 over the next 3 years or so.

The charts below are compelling in that respect, but before we look at them we will indulge in some pontification.

----It is no coincidence in our mind that these two have expanded together over the last 10-12 years

As we continue to spend more than we earn and shift that liability to the next generation Gold has shown itself to be a very effective hedge against that policy. The recent “squeeze in Gold” has sent it significant below this “stairway to hell” chart (Debt limit) which has continued higher. As we said earlier, we do not believe that this fall in Gold will be sustainable and expect new highs in the trend eventually.

As we also said above , we have retained a long term target of about $3500 for some time on this Gold price based on a comparison of this period and that seen in the 1970’s

As we headed towards the last Presidential election there was a considered view in the markets that by the end of President Obama’s 2nd term the debt limit could be as high as $22 trillion. Then we got the sequester, a more rosy economic outlook, tapering talk and all this has been forgotten. For how long?

The market dynamics above combined with the change of leadership at the Fed may well be “resurrecting that thought”. If so our 2nd favourite Gold chart comes into play.

Gold and the US debt limit (Again): So what would a debt limit of $22 trillion over the next 2-3 years suggest for the Gold price?
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"Gold was not selected arbitrarily by governments to be the monetary standard. Gold had developed for many centuries on the free market as the best money; as the commodity providing the most stable and desirable monetary medium."

Murray N. Rothbard

Have a great weekend everyone.

The monthly Coppock Indicators finished July:
DJIA: +164 Up. NASDAQ: +167 Up. SP500: +195 Up. The Fed’s final bubble still inflates but for how much longer?  

Thursday 29 August 2013

QE And War Forever.



Baltic Dry Index. 1146 -23 

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

My fellow Americans, I'm pleased to tell you today that I've signed legislation that will outlaw Syria forever. We begin bombing in five minutes.

President Richard M. Obama, with apologies to President Reagan and Russia.

Well it’s definitely QE forever, but the war against Syria seem to have hit a bit of a snag. Russia doesn’t think it’s a good idea for the west to get involved in Syria’s civil war as Al Qaeeda’s Air Force. As with QE forever, who needs the law when they’ve got the power. Still, before we start smashing up Syria and those pesky Syrians, it might be a good idea to get the western tourists out of Egypt’s Red Sea resorts first.

"What do I care about the law ? Hain't I got the power."

President Milhous Obama, with apologies to Cornelius Vanderbilt, 1794-1877

U.S., U.K. Pressure for Action on Syria Hits UN Hurdle

By Joe Sobczyk & Terry Atlas - Aug 29, 2013 3:45 AM GMT
The rift between Russia and western nations over Syria widened as the U.S. and the U.K. said they were ready to lead a military strike against Syria without United Nations approval.

U.S. President Barack Obama and U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron confront a decision whether to attack Syria without a UN mandate amid Russian resistance, demands for consultation from lawmakers at home and domestic opposition to involvement in another conflict in the Middle East.

Obama additionally is facing declining public approval ratings and the prospect of a partisan fight with Congress in the coming weeks over funding government operations and increasing the federal debt limit.
Obama said in an interview aired last night on PBS’s “NewsHour” program that while the U.S. has concluded the Syrian government was responsible for a chemical weapons attack against civilians on Aug. 21, he hasn’t decided on a course of action. He said the U.S. won’t become ensnared in the Syrian civil war, now in its third year.

“We can take limited, tailored approaches, not getting drawn into a long conflict, not a repetition of, you know, Iraq, which I know a lot of people are worried about,” he said.

Still, the possibility that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad or his allies in Iran and Hezbollah will respond in unpredictable ways, or that an attack may go awry, also poses a challenge to Obama and U.S. allies.
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Below, UK Prime Minister “U-turn” Cameron makes another of his famous handbrake U-turns. Great Britain’s stampede to war in Syria alongside Uncle Sam Obama and Marianne Hollande, has suddenly been reduced to a crawl.  With Al Qaeeda’s air force grounded into next week, Israel took only modest precautions as a first step.

"When a President does it, that means that it is not illegal."

President Milhous Obama, with apologies to President Nixon.

Cameron backs down on urgent Syria strikes

David Cameron backed down and agreed to delay a military attack on Syria following a growing revolt over the UK's rushed response to the crisis on Wednesday night.

By Peter Dominiczak, Tim Ross and Robert Winnett 10:00PM BST 28 Aug 2013
The Prime Minister has now said he will wait for a report by United Nations weapons inspectors before seeking the approval of MPs for “direct British involvement” in the Syrian intervention.

Downing Street said the decision to wait for the UN was based on the “deep concerns” the country still harbours over the Iraq War.

MPs had been recalled to vote on a motion on Thursday expected to sanction military action. Instead, after a Labour intervention, they will debate a broader motion calling for a “humanitarian response”.

A second vote would be required before any British military involvement. This could now take place next week.

In a statement on Wednesday night Downing Street said that it only wanted to proceed on a “consensual basis” and was now wary about becoming embroiled in another divisive conflict in the Middle East in the wake of Iraq.
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Israel calls up reservists, deploys missile defenses against Syria

JERUSALEM | Wed Aug 28, 2013 1:25pm EDT
(Reuters) - Israel ordered a small-scale mobilization of reservists on Wednesday and strengthened its missile defenses as precautions against possible Syrian attack should Western powers carry out threatened strikes on Syria.

But an Israeli official briefed on a meeting of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's security cabinet said the Jewish state believed the probability of it be targeted by Syria, its northern neighbor and long-time foe, was low.
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Below, more bad news from the oil front. A long cold, expensive winter might be ahead for us hapless northern hemisphere serfs.

Why oil could rise even without Syria tensions

August 28, 2013, 11:18 AM
Oil markets got a bit of a shocker Wednesday from a SocGen prediction that Brent UK:LCOV3 -1.09%  could reach $125 a barrel in the coming days in connection with a U.S.-led retaliation against Syria. And if there’s a big regional spillover from this, SocGen says $150 Brent could be not far off.

But the investment bank isn’t the first to the game on a bullish oil call.

Yves Lamoureux, president of Lamoureux & Company, a market advisory firm based on behavioral economics, set a new price target of $140 for WTI crude CLV3 -1.06%  about two weeks ago. Unlike SocGen, his call has little to do with the Syrian conflict.

Lamoureux backs up his oil call with these three reasons:
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Yesterday, the BOE’s newbie Goldmanite from Canada and the great white wilderness to the north of New York, joined America’s Fedsters in desperately trying to talk back down interest rates following old “loose lips” Bernanke’s tapering gaff to the Wall Street Journal. In this latest iteration of Moses descending from Mount Sinai to lay down the law, the man best known for playing Ed Norton alongside Ralph Kramden, is going to micro manage the UK economy, central planning style. Sort of like Mikhail Gorbachev tried in the USSR back in the late 80s. Remind me again how well that turned out.

The statesman who should attempt to direct private people in what manner they ought to employ their capitals, would not only load himself with a most unnecessary attention, but assume an authority which could safely be trusted, not only to no single person, but to no council or senate whatever, and which would nowhere be so dangerous as in the hands of a man who had folly and presumption enough to fancy himself fit to exercise it.

Adam Smith. The Wealth of Nations. 1776.

BoE Governor Mark Carney is ready to pop any housing bubble and warns traders' bets on rate rises are way off

Mark Carney, Governor of the Bank of England, signalled he is ready to pop any looming housing bubble as he gave his first speech in the role.

 "The Bank is acutely aware of the risk of unsustainable credit and house price growth and will be monitoring it closely," he said in Nottingham on Wednesday.

"The important thing to recognise is that we now have tools other than interest rates that can be used to contain risks in the property and financial sectors. We are now fully prepared to deploy them if that were needed."

The Bank could, he said, use its newer tools to recommend that banks and building societies "restrict the terms on which new credit is provided, or even to raise capital requirements on mortgage or other types of lending".

This would allow the Bank to avoid raising wider interest rates across the economy even as it acted to put the brakes on specific areas.
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We end for today with yet another version of QE forever by the Old Lady of Threadneedle Street. While the BOE expects the new heroin to flow into £90 billion of extra lending to the UK’s metal bashers and bricklayers, I think that most of the new pixie dust will fall in the trading rooms of the banksters market riggers and casino derivatives gamblers. After all, if they screw up again, it’s all back to the Old Lady again for more socialist bailouts by UK taxpayers. Is the Great Nixonian Error of fiat money great or what?

“Call it the Goldman Sachs test. If this is something Goldman would do to its clients, don't do it."

Felix Salmon.

Bank of England opens way to £90bn of new bank lending

Banks deemed to be the safest will be allowed by the Bank of England to cut their holdings of liquid investments to support up to £90bn of new lending to the economy.

Mark Carney, Governor of the Bank of England, said lenders that passed a minimum capital threshold would be given permission to reduce their liquidity buffers in an effort to encourage banks to lend more.

Only banks with a capital base equal to 7pc of their risk-weighted assets will be eligible to take advantage of the new scheme, which the Bank of England reckons could eventually unlock £90bn of lending.

"Every pound in liquid assets is one that can be used in the economy," he said in a speech in Nottingham.
Mr Carney said the decision to “relax” the Bank’s strict liquidity requirements came as a result of the repair work done on banks’ balance sheets.

“With that market funding assured, banks can safely hold fewer liquid assets, such as government bonds, that act as a cushion to be sold in the event that investors withdraw their funding,” said the Governor.

He added: “The effect will be to lower total required holdings by £90bn, once all eight major banks and building societies meet the capital threshold. That will help underpin the supply of credit, since every pound currently held in liquid assets is a pound that could be lent to the real economy.”

HSBC, Standard Chartered and Santander UK are expected to be the first lenders allowed to draw down their holdings of liquid securities, as they are all reckoned to have already met the Bank’s capital requirement.

----However, although the Bank would like to see the money go back into the economy in the form of new lending, banks will not be required to do so, meaning they could use the assets released to fund increased trading by their investment banking arms.
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“The problem with fiat money is that it rewards the minority that can handle money, but fools the generation that has worked and saved money.”

“Adam Smith” aka George Goodman.

At the Comex silver depositories Wednesday final figures were: Registered 39.32 Moz, Eligible 124.42 Moz, Total 163.74 Moz.  


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

Yes it’s the banksters again. They can resist anything except breaking the law, lying, cheating and stealing, bribery, and rigging markets. Other than that, they’re really a nice bunch of regular Ali Babas. Below from the banksters who brought us the London signing and walking Whale. Once upon a time in a long distant lawful age, one had to be fit and proper to hold a banking licence, after the scandals of the free for all lawless banking age that preceded it. In our still early 21st century, we have returned to the bankster code of the 18th century, with the exception of bankster socialism under the false doctrine of too big to fail.

“This is an example of the difficulties foreign firms face in doing business in China,” David Marshall, a Singapore-based banking analyst at CreditSights Inc., wrote in an e-mailed response to questions today. “The problem for the foreign firms is that local practices may be different from -- and at times in conflict with -- the legal and ethical rules under which they are required to operate.”

JPMorgan Bribe Probe Said to Expand in Asia as Spreadsheet Is Found

By Dawn Kopecki - Aug 29, 2013 4:51 AM GMT
A probe of JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s (JPM) hiring practices in China has uncovered red flags across Asia, including an internal spreadsheet that linked appointments to specific deals pursued by the bank, people with knowledge of the matter said.

The Justice Department has joined the Securities and Exchange Commission in examining whether JPMorgan hired people so that their family members in government and elsewhere would steer business to the firm, possibly violating bribery laws, said one of the people, all of whom asked to not be named because the inquiry isn’t public. The bank has opened an internal investigation that has flagged more than 200 hires for review, said two people with knowledge of the examination, results of which JPMorgan is sharing with regulators

The scrutiny began in Hong Kong and has now expanded to countries across Asia, looking at interns as well as full-time workers, two people said. The employees include influential politicians’ family members who worked in JPMorgan’s investment bank, as well as relatives of asset-management clients, the people said. Wall Street firms have long enlisted people whose pedigree and connections can win business, a practice that doesn’t necessarily violate the law.

The SEC will hunt for evidence showing “these weren’t real jobs, that they were only there because their father or mother were important public officials,” said Dan Hurson, a former U.S. prosecutor and SEC lawyer who runs his own Washington practice. “If the public official requested the job for the child, that would be a strong indication to the company that the official was seeking and receiving something of value.”

The government hasn’t accused JPMorgan or its executives of wrongdoing in connection with the hiring inquiry.

----“This is an example of the difficulties foreign firms face in doing business in China,” David Marshall, a Singapore-based banking analyst at CreditSights Inc., wrote in an e-mailed response to questions today. “The problem for the foreign firms is that local practices may be different from -- and at times in conflict with -- the legal and ethical rules under which they are required to operate.”

JPMorgan, which has been in the Asia-Pacific region for about 140 years, has a presence in 16 countries in the region including Australia, Japan, South Korea, China, Singapore, Thailand, Bangladesh and India.

The spreadsheet, which links some hiring decisions to specific transactions pursued by the bank, may be viewed by regulators as evidence that JPMorgan added people in exchange for business, according to one person with knowledge of the review.
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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.

The monthly Coppock Indicators finished July:
DJIA: +164 Up. NASDAQ: +167 Up. SP500: +195 Up. The Fed’s final bubble still inflates but for how much longer?