Baltic Dry Index. 1065 -01
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.
Tired of covering the decline and fall of suicidal
Europe, or the Fed’s final bubble, the Great Disconnect between global stock
markets and the underlying weak economic reality in the global economy, today
we take a look at other less reported news likely to soon be impacting on our
brave new lawless era. We open with almost unreported global cooling. It simply
doesn’t fit in to our Lords of the Universe, man made global warming from
carbon dioxide, war on coal age.
“The world is a place that’s gone from being flat to round to crooked.”
Mad Magazine.
Exclusive: Frost damages nearly fifth of Brazil sugar cane crop: analyst
SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Last week's frosts in southern Brazil damaged nearly a fifth of the unharvested cane crop in the principal growing region, an event likely to cut sugar exports from the world's largest producer, agriculture research company Datagro said Wednesday.Severe early morning frosts on July 24 and 25 in three of Brazil's top sugar-cane states devastated large areas, Datagro President Plinio Nastari told Reuters. The cold blight comes at the peak the crushing season when more than half of Brazil's expected record 590-million-tonne crop remains unharvested.
Although Nastari was unable to say how much mill-output will drop or reduce a global sugar glut that has pushed prices to three-year lows, he said 65 million metric tons, or 18 percent of the cane standing uncut in fields was damaged by the frost.
Frost in tropical Brazil has long been a weather risk for global coffee markets. This frost, though, is the first in recent history that threatens to significantly cut sugar output and it's impact will likely extend into the next harvest too.
"We don't know how much of the affected ... cane has been lost yet; we should know in about a week," Nastari said by telephone. "In some cases the ratoons (young shoots) were hit and will need to be replanted, so the impact will carry over into next year's crop."
New York ICE front month sugar futures recovered from an early morning low of 16.68 cents/lb soon after Reuters reported news of the potential frost damage. Prices later pierced the 17-cent threshold for the first time in a month to settle nearly flat with Tuesday at 16.92.
Alphaville, Brazil-based Nastari, one of Brazil's most respected sugar experts, has a PhD in agricultural economics from Iowa State University and hosts widely attended sugar and ethanol conferences in Brazil and abroad.
Saving the crop will depend on speed, Nastari said, as some fields, where frost has killed the core, or gem, of the cane plants, will likely rot before they can be harvested.
"The most serious damage from the two days of frost occurred over 70 to 80 percent of the cane still standing in the states of Parana and Mato Grosso do Sul," Nastari said. "A cane plant's gem is its center of growth. When the frost kills the top gem of a cane plant, it stops growing and begins to die."
He added that 15 million to 16 million metric tons in Brazil's fourth-largest cane state Parana and 16 million to 18 million metric tons in Mato Grosso do Sul, the fifth-largest cane producer, were seriously affected.
More
Coming soon, two billion Chinese and a Malthusian
food problem?
China to ditch its one-child policy as ageing crisis looms
China's new leaders are close to abandoning the country's one-child policy, belatedly moving to avert an ageing crunch as the work force goes into sharp decline.
The
official news agency Xinhua reported that the Family Planning Commission is
studying proposals to lift the ban on a second child, if either parent is an
only child. The body's spokesman said aim is to "improve" family
policy, confirming leaks to Chinese newspapers that a major shift is in the
works. The new rules are expected to come into force early next year, and may
be extended to cover all families by 2015.
Jun Ma
from Deutsche Bank said the new policies should shore up the pension system and
inject stimulus as China's growth sputters. "As tens of millions of
sibling-less people in China are now entering their child-bearing age, we
expect this policy shift would induce a baby boom," he said.
The
one-child policy dates back to 1971 in its original form and has led to 336m
abortions and 222m sterilisations, often badly executed in poor regions. Recent
abuses have caused uproar, with photos circulating on the internet of a young
mother lying beside a fully formed baby after she had been seized by police for
failing to pay the "social compensation fee" for an illegal child.
She was forced to undergo an abortion just before her natural birth.
Staying with China, our new lawless age Chinese
century rolls on. The Anglo-American era is fast passing. As the west descends
into the suicidal death of Europe’s unemployed youth generation thanks to the
euro, and America splits into a Fed supported lawless casino capitalism at the
expense of everyone else not on Wall Street, China is out in Asia, Africa, and
South America converting paper fiat dollar that can be electronically created
out of nothing at will, into real hard productive assets for the Asian century.
Sri Lanka to Open $500 Million Container Terminal Built by China
By Anusha Ondaatjie - Aug 4, 2013 8:30 PM GMT
Sri Lanka
will open a $500 million container terminal at Colombo
Port today, the biggest investment in the island’s harbours, as the nation
seeks to upgrade its infrastructure with Chinese help. The terminal, built and operated by China Merchants Holdings International Co. (144), will handle 2.4 million containers a year and boost Colombo’s capacity by almost half, according to the Sri Lanka Ports Authority. President Mahinda Rajapaksa will inaugurate the facility.
The new terminal is part of Sri Lanka’s plan to add 7.2 million boxes of capacity and deeper berths at its main port to attract larger vessels. As Rajapaksa seeks investments after the end of a three-decade civil war, China is tightening its embrace of the island by committing at least $3.7 billion since 2005 to help expand ports to power generation.
----Colombo’s three existing terminals have the capacity to handle 5 million 20-foot equivalent units. China Development Bank provided a $350 million loan to China Merchants in May 2012 for the Colombo terminal, in which the Hong Kong-based port operator holds an 85 percent stake. State-run Sri Lanka Ports Authority owns the balance.
The Export-Import Bank of China has funded investment projects including Sri Lanka’s first four-lane expressway, second international airport and a port in Hambantota city. Japan and India are also seeking closer ties with Sri Lanka as the island lies on the main shipping lanes connecting the Far East, West Asia, Africa and Europe.
More
And in dying Europe, more of the same old story. If
we didn’t know better, one could be forgiven for thinking that Europe has a
deliberate death wish. In the unwinnable trade war with China over solar panels
that threatened to sink exports of German luxury cars and French wines, the EU
raised the white flag at the weekend, and hopefully Europeans are now safe again
to get access to cheap Chinese made solar panels. And in Italy, well Italy is
Italy and it’s never about to become Germany south of the Alps.
Italy is not technically part of the Third World, but no one has told the Italians.
P. J. O’Rourke
Berlusconi Shockwaves in Italy Pose Threat to Euro-Crisis Lull
By Patrick Donahue - Aug 4, 2013 11:00 PM GMT
The instability of the Italian government following the tax-fraud conviction
of former Prime Minister Silvio
Berlusconi threatens to end a lull in the European
debt crisis and derail a nascent economic recovery. Berlusconi’s party has rallied around its leader, possibly seeking a presidential pardon and threatening a mass resignation of deputies in parliament, a move that could bring down Prime Minister Enrico Letta’s government. Letta has told allies that he would quit before being pushed out if support in the chamber dwindles, Italian daily la Repubblica reported on Aug. 3.
“If we decide together to do it, then I’m ready,” Lucio Malan, a senator with Berlusconi’s People of Liberty party, or PDL, said on Aug. 2 of a parliamentary walkout.
With the debt crisis on hold in anticipation of next month’s German election, the rupture in Rome could stall efforts by Letta’s fragile coalition to kick-start economic growth in the euro area’s third-largest economy. Along with a corruption scandal involving the Spanish government, the instability threatens a European recovery as it takes hold.
“As
signs of economic recovery in the eurozone start to emerge, the political
climate is deteriorating markedly,” Nicholas
Spiro, managing director of Spiro Sovereign Strategy in London, wrote in a
note to clients yesterday. “From an economic standpoint, the instability
couldn’t be happening at a worse time,” Spiro said.
More
EU signs off on China solar deal, no state votes against
BRUSSELS |(Reuters) - European Union officials endorsed a deal on Friday to settle a dispute with China over solar panels, the biggest trade row to date between the two powers, after winning almost unanimous backing from member states.
The agreement will be officially published on Saturday and takes effect on August 6. Chinese firms who agree to its terms will avoid duties that the 28-nation EU had planned to impose.
In a statement, the European Commission, the EU's executive arm, said it had received almost unanimous support but declined to give details on any possible abstentions.
"We can't go into details. A huge majority of member states voted in favor. No member state voted against," a Commission spokesman said.
The EU trade chief and his Chinese counterpart agreed late last month to set a minimum price for panels from China near spot market prices.
More
"The great merit of gold is precisely that it is scarce; that its quantity is limited by nature; that it is costly to discover, to mine, and to process; and that it cannot be created by political fiat or caprice."
Henry Hazlitt
At the Comex silver depositories Friday final figures were: Registered 41.86 Moz,
Eligible 122.67 Moz, Total 164.54 Moz.
Crooks and
Scoundrels Corner
The bent, the seriously bent, and the totally
doubled over.
Yes it’s the banksters again. In God’s work, they can resist anything except
the temptation to steal, loot and pillage. Call me an old fashioned Anglo-Scots
dinosaur, but what exactly was Fabrice’s synthetic derivatives product, but an
out and out betting shop product, albeit one intended to favour the shorts.
Goldie’s bankster geniuses had come up with a product of no economic value to
capitalism or society. Merely like Ladbrookes or Paddy Power, an opportunity
for the Muppets to come in and bet on the continued existence of the Fed’s real
estate bubble. Little did they know that Goldie had pre-loaded it to fail. In
this Epsom Derby the horse race was fixed. But why is the Fed allowing bankster
betting shops at all, let alone backstopping them?
“Egol and Fabrice were way ahead of their time,” said one of the former Goldman workers.
“They saw the writing on the wall in this market as early as 2005.”
US regulators 'find evidence' of banks fixing derivative rates
US regulators have reportedly been handed evidence that traders at some of the world’s biggest banks manipulated a key rate for derivatives, pocketing millions at the expense of pension funds in the process.
The
Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is probing 15 banks over
allegations that they instructed brokers to carry out trades that would move
ISDAfix, the leading benchmark rate for interest rate swaps.
Pension
funds and companies who invest in interest rate derivatives often deal with
banks to insure against big movements in the ISDAfix rate or to speculate on
changes to interest rate swaps
ISDAfix
is published each morning after banks submit bids for swaps via Icap, the
inter-dealer broker, in a number of currencies. The CFTC has been investigating
suggestions that the banks deliberately moved the rate in order to profit on
these deals.
Given the
hundreds of trillions of dollars worth of interest rate derivatives trades that
occur annually, even the slightest manipulation can have a substantial effect.
The CFTC, which started to investigate ISDAfix after last summer’s Libor
scandal has now been handed emails and phone call recordings that show the rate
was deliberately moved, according to Bloomberg.
Morehttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/10219333/US-regulators-find-evidence-of-banks-fixing-derivative-rates.html
Tourre’s Junior Staff Defense Seen Leading to Trial Loss
By Bob
Van Voris & Patricia Hurtado - Aug 2, 2013 9:02 PM GMT
Fabrice
Tourre, the former Goldman
Sachs Group Inc. (GS)
vice president found liable for his role in a failed $1 billion investment, may
have lost his case because jurors rejected his defense that as a junior
employee he wasn’t primarily responsible for the transaction.
Being 28 years old and one of several employees of Goldman Sachs isn’t a defense,” Tom Gorman, a former lawyer with the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Enforcement Division, who is now in private practice, said in an interview.
Tourre was a highly paid specialist working in a particular area who asked people to invest billions of dollars in a product he created, Gorman said. Tourre’s lawyers portrayed him as a young employee who was one of many Goldman Sachs employees who worked on the 2007 deal known as Abacus that had subprime mortgage-backed securities underlying the transaction.
The SEC accused Tourre, now 34, of intentionally misleading participants in Abacus about the role played by Paulson & Co., the hedge fund of billionaire John Paulson, which helped choose the portfolio of securities, then made a billion-dollar bet it would fail. Tourre was found liable by a jury in Manhattan yesterday on six of seven claims.
Jurors in the case determined that Tourre couldn’t hide behind his age and relative lack of stature within Goldman Sachs to avoid responsibility.
----The verdict is a
victory for the government in one of the most high-profile trials to come out
of the financial crisis of 2007-2008. The jury’s finding of wrongdoing may help
Goldman Sachs customers in lawsuits against the bank over losses tied to the
transaction. Tourre faces unspecified money penalties and a possible ban from
the securities industry.
----Tourre was found liable on three claims of intending to defraud, two claims of negligence and one count of aiding and abetting. He was found not liable on a claim of misrepresentations and omissions.
Jurors
didn’t buy Tourre’s claim that ACA should have known about Paulson’s role in
the transaction, said juror Rhett, who said they found the former trader “a bit
shady.”
----No senior Goldman Sachs executives were questioned in the trial. Defense lawyers decided not to call Paulson, the billionaire who runs Paulson & Co., to the stand after saying they planned to do so.
“I, like most of the public, wanted to hear from more Wall Street bigwigs to justify what happened with Abacus,” Anthony Sabino, who teaches law at St. John’s University in New York, said in an e-mail.
----“You would think
the SEC convicted the Al Capone of Wall Street
when all it did was scapegoat a single mid-level Goldman Sachs trader,” said
Jake Leon, a spokesman for Better
Markets,
a group that has lobbied for the overhaul of financial regulations. “The SEC
must stop chasing minnows while letting the whales of Wall Street go free. That
only rewards and incentivizes more crime.”
More
So, Goldman is a serial arsonist that has turned betting against its clients' interests into a science. The Times article makes it clear that shorting subprime and luring gullible investors into the trap, was standard operating procedure. Goldman's CEO Lloyd Blankfein dismisses the criticism with a wave of the hand saying, "They were sophisticated investors," which is the same as saying "buyer beware".
It's worth noting that shorting subprimes exacerbated the pain in housing by creating incentives for originators to issue more mortgages to people with poor credit. This prolonged the housing boom and deepened the recession when the bubble finally burst. The eventual downturn was largely engineered by Wall Street.
http://www.counterpunch.org/whitney04192010.html
The monthly Coppock Indicators finished July:
DJIA: +164 Up. NASDAQ: +167 Up. SP500: +195 Up. The
Fed’s final bubble still inflates.
No comments:
Post a Comment