Thursday, 21 November 2013

Confusion On The Titanic.



Baltic Dry Index. 1527 +32

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

Christmas is coming and the geese are getting fat, Please put a trillion in the banksters’ hat. If you haven’t got a trillion a billion will do, If you haven’t got a billion, God damn you!

Ebenezer Squid & The Squids.

From my third class accommodation deep in the SS Titanic, today’s weather is cold, foggy, and very dark. Nevertheless we are speeding along at close to full speed as Captain Bernocchio Schittino and the crew,  attempt to make up for the time lost after we hit the rocks off Giglio back in 2008. So far so good, although most of the crew have stopped serving second and third class passengers, as they cater now only to the one percent in bankster class. On the European deck, nearly everyone under the age of 24 who doesn’t speak German, has been cast out into the lifeboats to fend for themselves. On the American deck, near panic has broken out as nearly everything the Great Leader touches turns to dross. With flu season just getting underway, suddenly everyone there seems to have lost their medical coverage.  For coverage of Her Britannic Majesty’s “the world owes us a living” deck, scroll down to Crooks Corner, where life in the delusional corrupt UK socialist party is getting more interesting by the day. As Christmas 2013 approaches, what could possibly go wrong?

The order to abandon ship was not given until more than an hour after the Costa Concordia had struck rocks and in the meantime police on shore had received telephone calls from worried passengers on board, as well as relatives on shore.

Is the Fed about to taper after all? Who knows? Even the Fedsters seem confused. Start to taper and blow up the Fedster’s final bubble. Do nothing and let QE Forever run forever, until the next Lehman hits and all fiat currencies collapse in the global financial crisis of all time? Not quite 100 years on from the founding of the USA Federal Reserve, this is what rigging markets by central planning has brought, plus America going broke in 1971 and abandoning the dollar gold link, instead of just devaluing the dollar against gold. Stay long physical precious metals against the inevitable fiat money collapse. Today’s and tomorrow’s Fedster’s are dithering in a big funk of confusion. Meanwhile heavily suppressed gold and silver bullion continues to flow from the west to the east. Nothing good comes from the deliberate central bankster policy of gold suppression and the bankruptcy of the west.

In the absence of the gold standard, there is no way to protect savings from confiscation through inflation. There is no safe store of value.

Alan Greenspan.

Lost in the Fed minutes: Why the decline in jobless rate may be accurate assessment of labor market

November 20, 2013, 4:35 PM
You’ve heard it before, from titans of the economy including Janet Yellen, President Barack Obama’s pick to lead the Federal Reserve: Yes, the unemployment rate has come down from a high of 10% to 7.3% in October. But that decline in the jobless rate overstates the improvement in the labor market.

Except, not everyone at the Fed agrees, according to the minutes of the last meeting. Here are the arguments for why the jobless rate actually is a good indicator of the current labor market.

* Point one: The aging workforce. Or, in the dryer words of the minutes: “if the decline in labor force participation reflected decisions to retire, it was unlikely to be reversed, because retirees were unlikely to return to the labor force.” There’s much debate in academic circles about how much the decline in the participation rate is due to demographic reasons, but a safe bet is somewhere between a quarter and half of that drop.

* Point two: “A secular decline in labor market dynamism, or turnover, might have contributed to a reduction in the size of normal monthly payroll gains.” That’s not as easy to explain. But there’s definitely been fewer people quitting and the hiring rate has been down. People are stuck in their jobs, even if those jobs aren’t perfect for their skills or desires. Why that should matter on a net basis isn’t quite clear, however.

* Point three: Revised data indicates that the relationship between real GDP growth and changes in the unemployment rate has remained broadly in place. Here’s one article arguing so (warning: heavy economic jargon!).
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US Fed likely to start QE taper in 'coming months'

The latest minutes from the US Federal Reserve meeting show officials see improving markets conditions, which could lead the central bank to start trimming its $85bn monthly bond-buying programme in 'coming months'

The US Federal Reserve sent investors a clear signal that it expects to begin tapering in the “coming months” its $85bn (£53bn) bond buying programme, its primary tool for reinvigorating the world’s largest economy.

The minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee’s last meeting in October, stated it’s “generally expected that the data would prove consistent with the Committee’s outlook for ongoing improvement in labor market conditions and would thus warrant trimming the pace of purchases in coming months.”

---- “The (forex) market is starting to perhaps pull forward the potential for tapering and might even put December back on the table,” Brian Daingerfield, currency strategist at Royal Bank of Scotland told Reuters following the minutes. “I think a lot will be riding on the November labor report.”

The minutes also indicated that the Fed may look to cut the interest rate on reserves in an effort to soften the impact the tapering may have on the economic recovery, which continues to remain fragile despite better job creation.

The Fed minutes came after it emerged that European Central Bank policymakers have discussed taking monetary policy into uncharted territory by introducing a negative deposit rate that would see banks pay to park money at the bank.

Policymakers have discussed reducing the rate for lenders who deposit excess cash overnight at the ECB to -0.1pc, from zero, according to Bloomberg, which cited two unnamed sources. Such a move would be the first time a central bank has adjusted interest rates by less than a quarter of a percentage point.

The euro plummeted by more than a cent against the dollar and sterling on the back of the report, to €0.7443 and €1.2011 respectively, while European stocks pared back some of their losses.
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European Stock-Index Futures Retreat on Fed, China Data

By Inyoung Hwang - Nov 21, 2013 7:40 AM GMT
European stock-index futures fell after minutes from the Federal Reserve’s last meeting signaled the U.S. may reduce stimulus in coming months and a gauge of China manufacturing dropped more than forecast.

---- The Fed expected economic data to signal improvement in the job market and “would thus warrant trimming the pace of purchases in coming months,” minutes of the U.S. central bank’s Oct. 29-30 meeting showed yesterday in Washington.

A gauge of China’s manufacturing activity declined for the first time in four months. The preliminary 50.4 reading for the November Purchasing Managers’ Index released today by HSBC Holdings Plc and Markit Economics compared with a 50.8 median estimate from analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News. Levels above 50 indicate expansion.
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Next more on the EUSSR heading for its own version of implosion. Just wait until one of the big French banks does a Monte dei Pasche.

“One basic formula for understanding the Community is this: ‘Take five broken empires, add the sixth one later, and make one big neo-colonial empire out of it all.’”

Professor Johan Galtung, Norwegian sociologist. 1973.

EU Risks Violating Bank-Capital Pact, Basel Member Says

By Jim Brunsden & Johan Carlstrom - Nov 20, 2013 11:00 PM GMT
The European Union risks violating international bank-capital standards and its implementing law should face a rigorous review by global regulators, a Swedish member of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision warned.

The EU’s plans to apply a worldwide pact struck by the Basel group fall short in multiple areas, from requirements applied to government debt to treatment of loans to small businesses, Uldis Cerps, executive director for banking at the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority, said in an interview on Nov. 19. The Basel group is set to probe the EU’s compliance with the rules in a peer review to be completed next year.

“It’s quite clear that there are some things that are not Basel compliant, according to my view,” Cerps, a member of the Basel committee, said. ‘It’s important that the review team does a thorough job.’’

The EU emerged bruised from a preliminary Basel committee probe last year that cast doubt on its claims to be fully in line with a global pact to beef up banks’ defenses against financial crises. The review, based on a draft version of the EU plans, triggered a rebuttal from Michel Barnier, the bloc’s financial services chief.

The Basel group’s follow-up assessment in 2014 will examine the final version of the EU’s implementing rules, which were agreed on by the bloc earlier this year.
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We end for today noticing a nasty typhoon approaching the SS Titanic.

China Manufacturing Gauge Declines in Growth Headwind

By Bloomberg News - Nov 21, 2013 5:23 AM GMT
A Chinese manufacturing gauge declined for the first time in four months, adding headwinds to a recovery in the world’s second-largest economy as leaders start to implement the broadest policy reforms since the 1990s.

The preliminary 50.4 reading for the November Purchasing Managers’ Index (SHCOMP) released today by HSBC Holdings Plc and Markit Economics compared with a 50.8 median estimate from analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News. The final number for October was 50.9, and levels above 50 indicate expansion.

Slower manufacturing gains would add challenges for Premier Li Keqiang in carrying out a reform package that includes loosening controls on interest rates and giving farmers more land rights. Expansion headwinds may intensify after last month’s slowdown in credit growth that suggests Li is trying to contain financial risks.

“The recent growth rebound may have peaked,” said Ding Shuang, senior economist at Citigroup Inc. in Hong Kong. “Tighter credit conditions and reform measures will continue to weigh on investment and growth through next year,” and reforms may be slowed if the risk of expansion slipping below 7 percent “becomes material.”
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“The euro is a sickly premature infant, the result of an over-hasty monetary union.”

German Opposition leader Gerhard Schröder, March 1998

At the Comex silver depositories Tuesday final figures were: Registered 44.25 Moz, Eligible 123.90 Moz, Total 168.15 Moz.  


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

Today, more on the cess pit of modern British politics, the reality of the new and old socialist Labour Party of what was once Great Britain. Under the tutelage of the anti-American, anti-British, anti-Christian, anti-Israel, neo-communist, pro-homosexual, BBC Labour Party, dumbed down modern Britain has become a lawless society of banksterism, corporate socialism, and EUSSR elitism. Below. Modern Britain on the road to Caracas.  

Covered up like the Jimmy Saville and others, DJ, multi decade long sex scandal at the BBC, don’t expect this to be covered by the BBC World Service or BBC America. Just imagine the coverage though, if this man worked for Barclay’s bank, was a Conservative, and was heterosexual. No bias in BBC Labour then.

What people should understand is that I adore the Labour party.

Tony Blair.

Flowers accused of expenses fiddle

The former chairman of the Co-op bank Paul Flowers stepped down from a charity over a series of alleged false expense claims amounting to a "significant sum", it emerged last night

By Miranda Prynne, News Reporter 12:31AM GMT 21 Nov 2013
Disgraced former banking chief Paul Flowers quit his post on the board of a drugs charity after being investigated over £150,000 of alleged false expenses, it was claimed last night.

The former Co-op Bank chairman, who is currently being investigated by police over claims he bought and used illegal drugs, was suspended as chairman of the trustees at the Lifeline Project over a “significant” number of alleged false claims made between 1992 and 2004.

The charity, which helps people overcome drug and alcohol addiction, launched an investigation into Flowers’ behaviour but he quit his role before it reported its findings.

The Manchester-based organisation’s chief executive Ian Wardle said the “lengthy and thorough” investigation’s conclusions were passed on to the Charity Commission but it is believed no further action was taken.

He described the money as a “significant sum”.

This is just the latest in a series of damaging revelations about Flowers, who was suspended from the Labour party and the Methodist Church after the Mail on Sunday published footage of him allegedly buying crack cocaine and crystal meth last weekend.

It has now emerged he stepped down as a Labour councillor in Bradford two years ago after “inappropriate  content” was found on his computer.

He was also convicted of gross indecency in a public toilet with a man in 1981 but was forgiven by the Methodist Church.

The alleged expenses fiddling scandal will fuel criticism of financial regulators and the Co-op board for approving Flowers’ promotion to the chairman of the bank.

----There is also mounting pressure on Ed Miliband to explain his relationship with the Methodist minister as it emerged that Labour had received more than £18million ‘soft loans’ from the Co-op Bank at a 4 per cent interest rate well below the 5.6 per cent the organisation was offering to regular customers.

Documents submitted to the Electoral Commission suggest the Co-op has been keeping the Labour party afloat for years with generous loans and overdraft facilities.

Two loans of £1.2million were made to Labour by the Co-op and Unity Trust banks just weeks after a meeting between Flowers and Miliband earlier this year.

Flowers home was searched by police

The Co-op now needs a £1.5billion injection of cash to help it overcome financial difficulties caused by ban loans after its takeover of the Britannia Building Society in 2009.

Labour's 'cover-up' over Co-op bank chief

Independent inquiry ordered into how Rev Paul Flowers was appointed chairman of a major British bank, amid allegations Labour Party covered up concerns about his conduct

By Peter Dominiczak and James Kirkup 8:56PM GMT 20 Nov 2013
An independent inquiry has been ordered into how the Rev Paul Flowers was appointed chairman of a major British bank, amid allegations that the Labour Party covered up concerns about the drug-taking Methodist minister’s conduct.

David Cameron accused Ed Miliband on Wednesday of failing to disclose doubts about Mr Flowers before he was appointed to lead the Co-operative Bank, which has close links to the Labour Party.

Mr Flowers, a senior Labour figure, was a member of Mr Miliband’s business advisory group despite a string of serious allegations about his behaviour while serving as a councillor.

Downing Street now wants a full investigation into how Mr Flowers, who was filmed buying class-A drugs, came to lead a major financial organisation.

Amid growing questions over Mr Miliband’s links to Mr Flowers, the Prime Minister on Wednesday told the Commons that Labour “knew” about the Methodist minister’s past but did “nothing” to raise concerns with the authorities

----Mr Cameron said an inquiry will be held in to exactly “what went wrong”.

It will investigate the near-collapse of Co-op Bank earlier this year as well as the appointment of Mr Flowers.

It is expected to be overseen by the Prudential Regulation Authority and will consider “questions around the leadership of that bank,” the Prime Minister’s spokesman said.

Mr Flowers, who led the bank for three years, apologised this week after he was filmed buying hard drugs including crack cocaine and crystal meth.

It has since been disclosed that Mr Flowers was forced to resign as a councillor in Bradford after gay porn was found on his computer.

It also emerged that Mr Flowers, 63, was forced to refer himself to the Standards Board for England in 2005 for sending a “joke” message to council colleagues that was alleged to have had “sexual connotations”.

Although councillors who were sent the message raised concerns with the Labour-run town hall at the time, five years later Mr Flowers was selected by Mr Miliband for his business and industry advisory group.
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Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.

Mark Twain.

The monthly Coppock Indicators finished October:
DJIA: +178 Up. NASDAQ: +238 Up. SP500: +217 Up. The Fed’s final bubble continues to grow, until QE Forever isn’t forever. Up will remain up, until one fine day out of the blue the Fed finally loses control, or the next Lehman hits.

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