Baltic Dry Index. 1250 +28
LIR Gold Target in 2019: $30,000. Revised due to QE programs.
Are
you now, or have you ever been, a card carrying member of a Swiss bank?
With
apologies to Mitt Romney, who admitted he was.
Well to say the least, it’s brazen and different.
The Schweizerischer
Bankpersonalverband, a sort of Swiss banker’s union, says that encouraging
global tax evasion was just a regular Swiss business model. A whole lot more
countries that just France and Germany are now going to be in the market for
stolen Swiss client lists, starting with the USA. Of course they could just ask
Snowy and the NSA to spill the beans, but somehow I suspect that they won’t.
Swiss bankers say tax evasion was 'a business model'
Banking group hits out at Credit Suisse chief executive after he tells US that alleged tax schemes were due to a few dishonest employees
4:20PM GMT 27 Feb 2014
A group representing Swiss
bankers has demanded an apology from Credit Suisse boss Brady Dougan after he
said the practice of helping Americans conceal their wealth was the work of a
few dishonest employees.
The American-born chief executive
told a US Senate subcommittee on Wednesday that he and other top managers were
not aware that a small group of Credit Suisse private bankers had helped US
customers evade taxes with offshore accounts.
"The evidence showed that
some Swiss-based private bankers went to great lengths to disguise their bad
conduct from Credit Suisse executive management," Mr Dougan told the
senators.
He said the wrongdoing appeared
to have taken place before 2009 despite "industry-leading compliance
measures" at the bank.
The body representing staff at
Credit Suisse and other Swiss banks reacted with astonishment to Mr Dougan's
comments, saying it was "hardly credible" that the bank's bosses knew
nothing of the practices.
"It was common knowledge
that tax evasion was the strategy, a business model pursued by many banks for a
long time," the Schweizerischer Bankpersonalverband said in a statement.
It said Mr Dougan's comments
"vilify lots of employees that had nothing to do with offshore US
banking", and demanded he apologise to the bank's 46,000 staff.
Mr Dougan's comments may have
been motivated by efforts to lessen the bank's penalties in the US, but he
still owes staff an explanation, the employee group said.
More than 22,000 Americans were
using Credit Suisse to park combined assets of $12bn at one time, according to
a report released by the US Senate ahead of Wednesday's hearings.
The Senate subcommittee alleged
Credit Suisse bankers held secret meetings in luxury hotels and used hidden
elevators to help foreign clients hide their wealth, a practice that one
senator said belonged in a spy novel, not a bank.
More
Elsewhere in the land of “my word is my bond” aka
perfidious Albion, the fix is in. Who’d have thunk it, as they say. Now if
someone would just manipulate my lottery ticket, but I rather suspect that
someone already does.
Gold Fix Study Shows Signs of Decade of Bank Manipulation
Feb 28, 2014 12:00 AM GMT
The London
gold fix, the benchmark used by miners, jewelers and central banks to value the
metal, may have been manipulated for a decade by the banks setting it,
researchers say. Unusual trading patterns around 3 p.m. in London, when the so-called afternoon fix is set on a private conference call between five of the biggest gold dealers, are a sign of collusive behavior and should be investigated, New York University’s Stern School of Business Professor Rosa Abrantes-Metz and Albert Metz, a managing director at Moody’s Investors Service, wrote in a draft research paper.
“The structure of the benchmark is certainly conducive to collusion and manipulation, and the empirical data are consistent with price artificiality,” they say in the report, which hasn’t yet been submitted for publication. “It is likely that co-operation between participants may be occurring.”
The paper is the first to raise the possibility that the five banks overseeing the century-old rate -- Barclays Plc (BARC), Deutsche Bank AG (DBK), Bank of Nova Scotia, HSBC Holdings Plc (HSBA) and Societe Generale SA (GLE) -- may have been actively working together to manipulate the benchmark. It also adds to pressure on the firms to overhaul the way the rate is calculated. Authorities around the world, already investigating the manipulation of benchmarks from interest rates to foreign exchange, are examining the $20 trillion gold market for signs of wrongdoing.
Officials at London Gold Market Fixing Ltd., the company owned by the banks that administer the rate, referred requests for comment to Societe Generale, which holds the rotating chairmanship of the group. Officials at Barclays, Deutsche Bank, HSBC and Societe Generale declined to comment on the report and the future of the benchmark. Joe Konecny, a spokesman for Bank of Nova Scotia, didn’t respond to requests for comment.
More
In Washington, it was brazen but more of the same market
rigging too. A talking chair at the Fed, turned canary, and tried it’s hand at
weather forecasting to a bunch of befuddled Senators. The Great Nixonian Error
of fiat money stumbles along in its final act.
White lady speaks with forked tongue.
Bernocchio, with apologies to Tonto
and Kemosabe.
Yellen Says Fed to Keep Taper as It Parses Weather-Weakened Data
Feb 27,
2014 9:37 PM GMT
Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said the central bank is likely to keep
trimming asset purchases, even as policy makers monitor data to determine if
recent weakness in the economy is temporary. “Unseasonably cold weather has played some role,” she said in response to a question today from the Senate Banking Committee. “What we need to do, and will be doing in the weeks ahead, is to try to get a firmer handle on exactly how much of that set of soft data can be explained by weather and what portion, if any, is due to softer outlook.”
Yellen also signaled the Fed is moving away from its numerical threshold linking any decision to raise its benchmark interest rate to the level of unemployment. Her appearance before the Senate panel, delayed by a snowstorm in Washington, follows reports indicating that harsh weather contributed to weakness in retail sales, manufacturing and housing.
Yellen repeated the Fed’s statements that the central bank intends to reduce asset purchases at a “measured” pace, and she said in response to a separate question that the bond-buying program is likely to end in the fall. At the same time, “if there’s a significant change in the outlook, certainly we would be open to reconsidering,” she said.
More
Next, anything Japan can do, China can do too, in
the currency war to the bottom. It’s the 1930s all over again. G-20, watch what
they do not what they say. Stay long fully paid up physical gold and silver.
One day not too soon we might really need it.
China’s Yuan Drops Most on Record Amid Band Widening Speculation
Feb 28,
2014 5:17 AM GMT
China’s yuan tumbled
by the most on record on speculation the central bank will widen the currency’s
trading band, allowing greater volatility at a time when growth is slowing in
the world’s second-largest economy. The yuan plunged as much as 0.85 percent to a 10-month low of 6.1808 per dollar in Shanghai, the biggest intra-day drop in China Foreign Exchange Trade System prices going back to 2007. That took it within 0.04 percent of the weak end of its trading band, which limits moves in the spot rate to 1 percent on either side of the central bank’s daily reference rate. The fixing was set at 6.1214, from a 12-week low of 6.1224 yesterday.
The People’s Bank of China is expected to double the yuan’s trading band by the end of June, according to the majority of 29 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg, as policy makers loosen exchange-rate controls and promote greater usage of the currency in global trade and finance. Lawmakers will meet next week to decide on major economic policies and an official report tomorrow is forecast to show manufacturing expanded this month at the slowest pace since June.
“China looks determined to proceed with financial reforms, and so a wider band in the near term looks likely,” said Daniel Chan, a Hong Kong-based strategist at China Silver Global Investment Consultant Ltd. “As yuan selling pressure is still on, a wider band will mean further declines. That’s obviously among the concerns in the market.”
More
China’s Subsidies End Prompts Forecasts for Slower Growth
Feb 28, 2014 7:06 AM GMT
Chinese carmaker BYD Co. (1211) may be getting some bad news
as it prepares to start selling in the U.S. next year. A planned reduction in
government subsidies and a phase-out of interest-rate controls threaten to
raise costs for it and thousands of companies across China. Less than a decade after surging wages began forcing manufacturers to cheaper countries, President Xi Jinping is preparing to dismantle a web of subsidies that began under Deng Xiaoping in the 1980s. The measures could slow average annual growth to as low as 3 percent through 2022 from 10 percent in 2010. They also will mean higher prices for capital, land and water and swings in the cost of energy, potentially squeezing indebted state businesses.
----Societe Generale SA says as many as half of China’s steelmakers may have to shut down. Farther away, Australian iron producers such as Fortescue Metals Group Ltd. (FMG), which derives almost 100 percent of its revenue from China, could see lower profits.
More
Up next the Ukraine where America and the EU are trying
once again to topple Russia.
"Never
believe anything until it has been officially denied."
Otto
von Bismarck.
Armed standoff in pro-Russian region raises Ukraine tension
By Alessandra Prentice and Alissa de Carbonnel
SIMFEROPOL, Ukraine (Reuters) - The United States told Russia to demonstrate in coming days that it was sincere about its promise not to intervene in Ukraine as armed men stormed the regional parliament and hours later others seized the airport in a mainly ethnic Russian region.
Crimea, the only Ukrainian region with an ethnic Russian majority, is the last big bastion of opposition to the new leadership in Kiev since pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovich was ousted at the weekend.
The region also provides a base for the Russian navy's Black Sea Fleet. Kiev's new rulers said any movement by Russian forces beyond the base's territory would be tantamount to aggression.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had assured him by telephone that Moscow would not intervene militarily in its neighbor.
More
We end for the week with rising trouble in India. I
suspect that this is just the tip of a very nasty iceberg surfacing.
Indian Financier Roy Arrested Amid Probe of $3.9 Billion Refund
Feb 28, 2014 6:15 AM GMT
Subrata Roy, owner of the financial services group Sahara
India Pariwar, surrendered to police after the nation’s top court issued a
warrant in a probe into whether he failed to refund $3.9 billion to his
depositors. Roy, 65, submitted to police and is cooperating with the Supreme Court’s directive, his son Seemanto Roy said at a press conference in New Delhi today. The financier defied summons and failed to appear in court on Feb. 26, prompting a non-bailable arrest warrant. In a statement issued earlier today, Roy cited the need to be at his ailing mother’s bedside for his absence.
Roy, who began operations in 1978 by going door to door to collect small amounts of cash, is seeking to convince the top court that Sahara has complied with an order to refund 240 billion rupees ($3.9 billion) to 30 million depositors. India’s market regulator in June 2011 faulted two of his companies for selling convertible debt without approval.
The financier, who calls himself “Sahara Sri,” is part of the $670 billion shadow banking industry in Asia’s third-largest economy. Roy earlier dismissed reports in newspapers including the Times of India that he was evading arrest after police, seeking to serve the warrant, couldn’t find him at his house.
“I am not that human being who will abscond,” Roy said in today’s media statement, explaining he had left his house in Lucknow to consult doctors on his mother’s medical reports when the police were looking for him. “I’ve started hating myself. Now, I can’t handle this level of agony and humiliation. They are bullying and indulging in character assassination.”
More
At the Comex silver depositories Thursday final figures were: Registered 50.29
Moz, Eligible 132.13 Moz, Total 182.42 Moz.
Crooks and Scoundrels Corner
The bent, the seriously bent, and the totally
doubled over.
Below the day swedes turned into turnips. The day 61,000 hopes were dashed, crushed, and smashed.
Chaos as company accidentally invites 61,000 people to job interview
Police called to quell anger after Swedish employment office sends out email to every jobseeker in Stockholm
Police dispersed an angry crowd of jobseekers outside an employment office in Stockholm on Wednesday after it called 61,000 people for a recruitment meeting by mistake."Something has gone wrong with the mailing list ... it has set off a very messy situation at the city office," said Clas Olsson, acting director of the employment office.
An email call for a recruitment meeting that should have gone out to about 1,000 jobseekers went out to considerably more people, about 61,000 – apparently all the registered job seekers in Stockholm, police said.
Hundreds of people expecting to attend crowded into the alley where the labour office is located and spilled into the adjacent street, a main thoroughfare running through downtown Stockholm.
Emotions were running high and office staff sounded the alarm, bringing police to the scene.
"When we got there it was very crowded and there were some upset feelings," Police Inspector Ulf Lindgren told Reuters.
Olsson told the Aftonbladet newspaper he did not know if the cause was a human or technical error.
Sweden's total unemployment stood at 8.6 per cent in January.
The monthly Coppock Indicators finished January.
DJIA: +202 Down. NASDAQ: +330 Up. SP500: +249 Up. The new Fed bubble continues, but seems to be running out
of momentum.
