Baltic Dry Index. 1021 +19
LIR Gold Target in 2019: $30,000. Revised due to QE programs.
If
all else fails, immortality can always be assured by spectacular error.
J. K.
Galbraith.
From the
South China Sea to the Ukraine, will we see fighting this weekend? Stay long
fully paid up physical precious metals just in case. Toss in Thailand and
Turkey as side shows, and our world seems to want to fast copy Syria. Of
course, the Ukraine’s script was written in Washington, following America’s
botched coup in Kiev that’s now spiralled out of all control. But China v
Vietnam, Thailand and Turkey, are all under no one’s control. Not apparently
that Uncle Sam isn’t all too willing to get involved. Does what’s left of the
Royal Navy still have charts of the South China Sea?
We start
with the latest news from Asia.
"The history of paper money is an account of abuse, mismanagement, and financial disaster."
Richard M. Ebeling
U.S. warns China its actions in sea disputes are straining relations
By Matt
Spetalnick WASHINGTON
(Reuters) - China's "provocative" actions in maritime disputes
with its neighbors are straining ties with the United States, raising questions
over how the world's two biggest economies can work together, a senior U.S.
official said.The strong comments from Washington on Thursday come after deadly anti-China riots broke out in Vietnam in response to China towing an oil rig into a part of the South China Sea claimed by both Hanoi and Beijing.
"This is raising some fundamental questions for us about China's long-term strategic intentions," the U.S. official told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity. He said Beijing's move appeared to fit a "pattern" of advancing territorial claims through coercion and intimidation.
"China's activities are straining the U.S.-China relationship because it raises questions about our ability to partner together in Asia or even bilaterally."
More
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/05/16/us-vietnam-china-usa-idUSBREA4E0TR20140516
China Bad Loans Rise Most Since 2005 as Economy Slows
May 16, 2014 2:45 AM GMT
Chinese banks had the biggest quarterly increase in bad loans since
2005 as a slowdown in the world’s second-largest economy causes defaults to
rise. Nonperforming loans rose by 54 billion yuan ($8.7 billion) in the three months through March to 646.1 billion yuan, the highest level since September 2008, according to data released by the China Banking Regulatory Commission yesterday. Bad loans accounted for 1.04 percent of total lending, up from 1 percent three months earlier.
The 10th straight quarterly increase in defaults adds to concern banks’ profitability may slip as they build buffers to cover loan losses. Policy makers have also been cracking down on financing to weaker borrowers to rein in total debt that has climbed to more than double the nation’s gross domestic product.
“Asset quality is now the biggest overhang on the banking sector,” Rainy Yuan, a Shanghai-based analyst at Masterlink Securities Corp., said by phone. “The government’s reluctance to use stimulus and ease monetary policy has made it difficult for many borrowers to repay debt.”
More
Asian Stocks Slip as Bonds Rise; Sensex, Rupee Surge
May 16,
2014 5:28 AM GMT
Asian
stocks fell, dragging the regional index from a four-month high, as bonds
from Australia to Singapore followed Treasuries higher amid concern the global
recovery is stalling. India’s shares jumped the most in five years and the
rupee strengthened on election results. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index lost 0.9 percent as of 1:16 p.m. in Tokyo, dropping for the first time in four days. The S&P BSE Sensex (SENSEX) Index rose as much as 4.9 percent in Mumbai as early counts showed Narendra Modi’s main opposition bloc will take power.
----China reported the biggest jump
in bad loans since 2005 yesterday, fueling concern over the global outlook as
the U.S. announced an unexpected drop in industrial output and Europe’s
economic growth missed estimates. Modi’s Bharatiya
Janata Party and its allies took an early lead in India’s vote count,
having vowed to revive growth in Asia’s third-largest economy.
----China’s small-company stocks fell, dragging the benchmark index down more than 20 percent from its February peak, on concern valuations are too high as the economy slows and new share offerings divert funds. The ChiNext index lost 2.8 percent today in Shenzhen, set to close in a bear market.
Japan’s Topix (TPX) sank 2.1 percent as the yen rose toward an eight-week high versus the dollar. The Hang Seng Index dropped 0.7 percent in Hong Kong, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index (AS51) fell 0.6 percent and the Kospi index declined 0.5 percent in Seoul, helping trim this week’s advance in the MSCI Asia Pacific gauge to 1 percent.
More
Vietnam Will Be the Loser in the Anti-China Riots
The latest round
in the territorial dispute between China and Vietnam has had its first
casualties. Anti-Chinese demonstrations have swept Vietnam since the two
countries’ ships attacked one another in the South China Sea last week, and
yesterday Vietnamese protesters targeted a
steel mill in the central province of Ha Tinh, leaving at least one Chinese
person dead and 90 injured. The mob went after the factory even though its
owner, the Formosa Plastics Group (1301:TT), is not even from mainland China.
It’s Taiwanese. But no matter: Hailing from a Chinese-speaking place and
employing Chinese workers are crimes enough.
The Vietnamese government has only itself to blame for this disaster. After a Chinese state-owned company started drilling for oil in waters that Vietnam claims as its exclusive economic zone in the South China Sea, the leaders in Hanoi couldn’t figure out a way to respond, according to Jonathan London, a City University of Hong Kong professor and Vietnam expert. One easy option was to encourage a nationalistic fervor among Vietnamese. “The Vietnamese ‘street’ is extremely upset by these most recent developments,” he said Friday. “Vietnamese cyberspace is on fire.”
Sure enough, nationalist fervor quickly got out of hand. “The riots appear to be the result of carelessly planned small-scale protests initiated by state-run or state-invested foreign ventures which then quickly exploded,” London writes on his blog today. Making things worse, the leadership in Hanoi hasn’t been able to agree on a strategy. With the leadership paralyzed about what to do, “the absence of a clear, coherent voice from Hanoi is doing great harm,” he argues. “Instead of communicating with the world with the confidence it should, Hanoi is on the brink of a public-relations meltdown that would make even Malaysian aviation officials blush.”
More
Thai Army Chief Warns of Military Action If Clashes Escalate
May 16, 2014 2:37 AM GMT
Thailand’s army chief
said the military may need to use force to counter any escalation of violence
linked to the nation’s six-month political stalemate. Yesterday’s statement from Prayuth Chan-Ocha came hours after acting Prime Minister Niwattumrong Boonsongpaisan was forced to flee from anti-government protesters who stormed an air force compound where he was meeting with election officials, casting doubt on a poll tentatively planned for July 20.
The protest followed an overnight
gun and grenade attack on the anti-government group’s camp in Bangkok that
killed three people and wounded 22, bringing to 28 the number of people killed
in political violence since November. The protesters are opposed to any vote
under the current system and seek to install a temporary, unelected government
of “good people.”
“We want to warn all parties that
use war weapons against innocent people to stop now,” Prayuth said in a
statement yesterday. “If the violence escalates, the military may need to come
out in full force to keep the situation under control and protect lives.” He also
asked those who want to invade or block military units to “stop thinking about
that.”
Hundreds of demonstrators entered
the air force compound in northern Bangkok where Niwattumrong was meeting with
election commissioners yesterday. The talks were scrapped before an agreement
to delay the vote was reached, Election Commission Secretary-General Puchong
Nutrawong told reporters.
More
Thai Recession Threat Rises as Turmoil Delays Recovery: Economy
May 16,
2014 4:36 AM GMT
Thailand’s prolonged
political crisis is raising the risk that the nation will be the only one of Southeast Asia’s
biggest economies to slide into a recession this year, undermining its allure
as a manufacturing center. The country’s gross domestic product probably shrank 2.2 percent in the three months through March from the previous quarter, when it expanded 0.6 percent, according to the median estimate of 12 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News ahead of data due May 19. Economists at DBS Group Holdings Ltd. and Mizuho Bank Ltd. said Thailand could experience two consecutive quarters of contraction this year
More
Now back to
the rush to start World War Three. America’s War Party is still conditioning the
public against Russia, and urging on the Ukraine’s puppet government to start
the shooting war in the east. In the
east, Kiev’s puppet government oligarch appointed as Governor, hyped up the
story yesterday. With Washington having given the green light, will the massacres
start this weekend?
My fellow Americans, I am pleased to tell
you I just signed legislation which outlaws Russia forever. The bombing begins
in five minutes.
Ronald Reagan.
Ukraine Troops Advance as U.S. Warns Russia of Sanctions
May 16, 2014 1:14 AM GMT
Ukrainian forces moved to flush separatists from their eastern holdouts as
the top U.S. and U.K. diplomats vowed to punish Russia with industrywide
sanctions if this month’s presidential election is undermined. “If Russia or its proxies disrupt the elections,” the U.S. and its allies “will impose sectoral economic sanctions as a result,” U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said in London yesterday after meeting his counterparts from the U.K., Italy, France and Germany. Separatists “are literally sowing mayhem,” seeking to “speak for everyone through the barrel of a gun.”
Discord over the election risks another round of escalation as the Kiev government and its U.S. and European Union allies blame Russia for the unrest in Ukraine’s easternmost regions. Russian calls to include rebels in national unity talks that began May 14 in the capital were rejected as the meetings opened without separatist leaders’ participation.
In eastern Ukraine, government troops eliminated two rebel bases near the towns of Slovyansk and Kramatorsk, acting President Oleksandr Turchynov said yesterday in parliament in Kiev. Militants vowed to expel the military from the region.
“The anti-terrorist operation can stop after weapons are surrendered and hostages released,” Turchynov said. “We’re conducting dialogue with those who’re prepared for conversation and cooperation. We’re working on changes to the constitution to expand powers to local self-government. At the same time, those who conduct war will receive an adequate answer.”
With U.S. and EU leaders threatening more sanctions over the May 25 presidential ballot, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said it’s “ridiculous” to hold Russia responsible.
While Lavrov said May 14 that Ukraine’s slide into a civil war is making legitimate voting impossible, Kerry yesterday appealed to separatists to take part in the presidential ballot and engage in national dialogue as “the best way to de-escalate the situation.”
---The situation in the Donetsk region is worsening, with the sounds of gunfire constant in Slovyansk and the surrounding district, television service knocked out and civil transport not functioning, the governor’s office said in a statement yesterday. Tensions have engulfed 15 towns and cities in the region, according to the statement.
Armed rebels seized a truck carrying 1.5 million hryvnia ($127,000) near Yenakiyevo in the Donetsk region, according to Ukraine’s biggest lender, Privatbank. The central bank said it’s evacuating staff members and suspending operations in the region after attacks by separatists.
“When Ukrainians kill Ukrainians, I believe it’s as close to civil war as you can get,” Lavrov told Bloomberg Television in a May 14 interview in Moscow. “In the east and south of Ukraine, there is a war, a real war, with heavy weaponry used.”
More
It’s madness
to think that Russia won’t invade to preserve life and property. It’s what
regional powers do when self-interest forces action. History is littered with
interventions in the last century. Most of them by America. Forget Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya. How about
next door neighbour Mexico. If Russia or China were destabilising Mexico and
imposing a puppet President, and murdering innocent Americans, US troops would
be south of the border in a heartbeat.
Below, why
Russia will act. But will it act this weekend?
United States Interventions in
Mexico, 1914-1917
During the Mexican Revolution
(1910-1917), the United States government ordered two military incursions into
Mexico. The first entailed an invasion and occupation of the city of Veracruz
in 1914, and the second was the "Punitive Expedition" of 1916-1917,
commanded by General John J. Pershing. President Woodrow Wilson was reluctant
to send U.S. troops to Mexico in 1914, but "yielded to pressure from
American business interests, cabinet members, newspapers, and representatives
of the Southwest." Reluctant or not, Wilson desired to depose the
government of General Victoriano Huerta by seizing the port of Veracruz,
through which flowed most of the armaments and supplies imported for the
Mexican army. Wilson's quarrel with Huerta was twofold: first, Huerta
"could not maintain order and protect U.S. private and public interests"
in Mexico; and second, Huerta was "a dictator who imposed himself on the
Mexican republic after murdering his democratically elected predecessor."
American warships arrived on the scene in April, 1914 and shelled the city,
taking "a terrible toll" on the civilian population, which had
decided to resist the invasion.
More
Why did America invaded Grenada in 1983?
Grenada's
neighboring island nations went into a panic after a military coup on Grenada. Then
Castro made the comment, "Now there are four of us." The reference
was to four Marxist governments in the Caribbean area: Cuba, Nicaragua, Jamaica,
Grenada. In those days it did appear as though the Communists were taking
control of Central America and the Caribbean area. Reagan though had his eye on
Grenada long before the actual invasion. In a television speech in March 1983
he mentioned Grenada and the unusual 10,000 foot runway being constructed by
the Cubans on the island. Reagan
believed the runway was for use as a base for Russian bombers. When the coup
occurred in Grenada, Reagan used that as an excuse to invade. There were about
200 American medical students on the island. There was also a concern these
students would be taken as hostages and Reagan would be subjected to the
indignity of a hostage crisis like Jimmy Carter suffered from Iran four years
earlier. The invasion was a military disaster. The different branches of the
military could not even communicate with each other. The commanding General of
the 82nd Airborne Division was fired due to the poor performance of his troops.
Fortunately for the US, Grenada was a small nation with a small army and there
were no Cuban combat troops on the island.
Added by Graeme, nobody else
cared about Grenada. Most of the world couldn’t find it on a map.
"Those entrapped by the herd instinct are drowned in the deluges of history. But there are always the few who observe, reason, and take precautions, and thus escape the flood. For these few gold has been the asset of last resort."
Antony C. Sutton
At the Comex
silver depositories Thursday
final figures were: Registered 56.04 Moz, Eligible 119.06 Moz, Total 175.10 Moz.
Crooks and Scoundrels Corner
The bent, the seriously bent, and the totally
doubled over.
Today, step forward the incredibly stupid European
Court of “Justice.” Why would anyone want to be a member of such a court
peopled by morons?
Suppose
you were an idiot and suppose you were a member of the ECJ. But I repeat
myself.
With
apologies to Mark Twain.
Ex-MP asks Google for 'right to be forgotten'
More than 1,000 people have asked Google to cleanse their web histories in just the three days since the European Court of Justice ruled we have a right to be forgotten
A British former MP seeking re-election is among more than 1,000 people who have asked Google to remove links to unfavourable online stories about them in the wake of a European Court ruling just three days ago, the Telegraph can reveal.Sources at the search giant refused to name the politician, but said yesterday Google’s UK arm alone received 35 new requests it remove links to unfavourable stories about people. Among those were 20 convicted criminals, including a paedophile, who requested that old references to their crimes no longer appear in Google search results about them.
A man convicted of possessing child abuse images and a GP who received negative reviews from patients are also among those who have asked Google to delete their internet histories.
The European Court of Justice said earlier this week that an individual has the "right to be forgotten" when personal data online "appear to be inadequate, irrelevant or no longer relevant, or excessive in relation to the purpose for which they were processed and in the light of the time that has elapsed".
The ruling only compels Google to remove the links to information, rather than the information itself. This means users of Facebook, Twitter and other social media can still share personal information about others so long as it remains online.
EU Commissioner Viviane Reding
described the decision as "a clear victory for the protection of personal
data of Europeans", and former shadow home secretary David Davis MP
welcomed the ruling as a "sensible decision", claiming that this is
"the first step in people having property rights in their own
information".
However, Dominic Raab, MP for
Esher and Walton, called the ruling "a draconian attack on free speech and
transparency, totally at odds with Britain’s liberal tradition", and the
Open Rights Group said the ruling could pose a threat to free speech.
Lawyers and campaigners have
suggested the vague ruling will unravel in the face of further test cases, but
for now Google itself must make a “balanced judgment” on whether a link to a
story should be removed from its web index. If it decides not to remove a link,
it face fines from each national data protection regulator across Europe,
including 16 in Germany alone. Each case could ultimately end up in the
European court.
Google denied reports in Germany
that it would fully comply with the new ruling within two weeks, and said no
links had yet been removed. A Google spokesman said “The ruling has significant
implications for how we handle takedown requests. This is logistically
complicated - not least because of the many languages involved and the need for
careful review. As soon as we have thought through exactly how this will work,
which may take several weeks, we will let our users know.”
Sources at the company told The
Telegraph they are yet to figure out how to deal with the expected flood of
requests and will need to build up an "army of removal experts" in
each of the 28 European Union countries.
More
Another weekend, and from London, it looks like our
world wants a replay of World War One moved further east. Only inflation wins
out in war, although with modern weaponry, not many may be left, one year on
from the war’s start. With summer almost here in the northern hemisphere, it’s
time to get out in the countryside and enjoy God’s gift of high spring. Have a
great weekend everyone.
The trouble with our War friends is not
that they're ignorant; it's just that they know so much that isn't so.
With apologies to Ronald Reagan.
The monthly Coppock Indicators finished April
DJIA: +189 Down. NASDAQ: +347 Down. SP500: +249 Down. Sell in May, go away.
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