Monday, 14 September 2015

Fed Week.



Baltic Dry Index. 818 -12       Brent Crude 47.82

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

There is only one class in the community that thinks more about money that the rich, and that is the poor. The poor can think of nothing else.

Oscar Wilde.

It is dithering Fed week. Put up or shut up week for the Masters of the Fiat Currency Universe in Washington D. C. Will Mammon’s Washington Oracle dare to put up their key interest rate by a tiny, meaningless quarter percent, or will the Fed’s dippy talking chair wimp out once again? After all, China and America’s casinos stumbled last quarter. China’s so badly that it round tripped and is now on full Communist Party outright rigging support, with prison or worse for those not spreading the rosy party line. Don’t even think about selling stock.  Li Yifei, chairwoman of hedge fund firm Man Group Plc’s China unit, was even disappeared to a “Chinese Meeting” for a time. On reappearance it was termed an unplanned “vacation,” we learned.  Sell one more Chinese stock and it might become an unplanned “staycation.” But China’s economic slowdown continues and quickens. And these are the official figures!

China's Stocks Decline Most in Three Weeks on Slowdown Concerns

September 14, 2015 — 2:26 AM BST Updated on September 14, 2015 — 5:37 AM BST
China’s stocks slumped, dragging the benchmark index down the most in three weeks, after data over the weekend added to concern the economic slowdown is deepening.

The Shanghai Composite Index slid 3.2 percent to 3,097.71 at the midday local-time break, led by technology and financial companies. About 13 stocks fell for each that rose on the gauge, while volume was 25 percent below the 30-day average for this time of day. The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index dropped 0.7 percent, reversing a 1.4 percent advance.

August economic data released Sunday showed a challenging picture for policy makers. Industrial output missed economists’ forecasts, while investment in the first eight months increased at the slowest pace since 2000. The government also announced details about plans to make state-owned enterprises more efficient, including encouraging private investment.

“The economic reports don’t look good so investors prefer to be on the sidelines,” said Wu Kan, a Shanghai-based fund manager at JK Life Insurance Co. “The SOE reform rules were widely expected by the market and aren’t very detailed, therefore the reaction is limited. The market could fall to a lower level.”

Industrial output rose 6.1 percent in August from a year earlier, missing the 6.5 percent estimate. Fixed asset investment excluding rural households climbed 10.9 percent in the first eight months versus the 11.2 percent median projection of economists surveyed by Bloomberg.
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At least in America, it’s still only half-hearted casino rigging for the moment. Full on rigging by the New York Fed’s riggers and fix-its probably awaits October, and America’s traditional crash season. And so we await the Fed meeting on Wednesday and Thursday. Will the Fed pull the trigger causing Black Friday? What’s a poor billionaire HFT “algo thief” to do? Do they spoof the market Thursday for a rally or a crash? The Fedster’s must now try to steal the cheese Thursday from a mousetrap entirely of their own making. Can the talking chair walk on water? Stay around for Thursday. When the Casino’s Great Vampire Squids say jump, up until now the Fedster’s have always answered “how high.”

For today though, Europe. The continent made for tanks and that sanity abandoned in 1914. Abandon hope all ye who sail in the EUSSR. In the UK, the spendthrift, wealth envy, class hatred, old socialist Labour Party rebranded itself as a 1930s Communist-Bolshevik revival. But first up Italy, deep in a youth exodus and replacement migrant crisis.

Fears for southern Italy as unemployment, organised crime and economic recession sees young people leave the country

Sunday 13 September 2015
The territory south of Rome, that includes many of Italy’s most enchanting places, in Sicily, Puglia and Campania, is fading away; choked by corruption, its economy mired in recession and its communities corroded by unemployment. The birth rate is at the lowest in history; you might say the beautiful south is dying.
Everyone agrees that southern Italy has a problem. But no one seems able to solve it – and time is running out.
Tourists flock there for the food, climate and scenery. But young locals, faced with 75 per cent youth unemployment, are buying one-way tickets to London and Berlin.
Later this month, Prime Minister Matteo Renzi will launch his Democratic Party’s “master plan” to resuscitate the south, often called Il Mezzogiorno. It can’t come a moment too soon.
Mr Renzi’s infrastructure minister and right-hand man Graziano Delrio has signalled that the government will boost investment in agriculture, manufacturing and tourism – the latter being the southern region’s most obvious strength.
Even some in Mr Renzi’s own party, though, are saying the measures will be too little, too late. Francesco Boccia, a Pugliese MP and economist, claimed that the Renzi government had in the past two years snatched €3.5bn (£2.57bn) earmarked for investment in the south in order to fund tax breaks for employers across Italy as part of plans to add flexibility to the labour market. “This was money that was meant for the south of Italy. It didn’t go there,” he said.
But, in a recent interview, Mr Delrio said: “What is lacking is not the money, but the efficiency with which the projects are executed, and in this respect there are delays and difficulties.” He said a new body, the Agency for National Cohesion, would help put that right.
Mr Boccia is not convinced by the ability of the agency to make a difference, given that the organisation itself is behind schedule. “It’s supposed to have been working since 2013 and so far it’s done nothing. So in a sense it’s already a flop,” he said.
----Some observers, however, say no amount of investment is going to make a difference unless inroads are made against organised crime. “The number one problem is the absence of the state,” said Francesco Giavazzi, professor of economics at Bocconi University. “Calabria is particularly bad. It’s like a lost region.”
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Jeremy Corbyn wins Labour leadership: international reaction

International media outlets have reacted to the news that Jeremy Corbyn won the Labour leadership by a landslide with a mixture of alarm and bemusement.

By Bonnie Malkin 11:10PM BST 12 Sep 2015
New York Times
"Mr. Corbyn’s perceived integrity and his willingness to speak his mind have struck a chord in a party in which many supporters were left disillusioned by the leadership of Mr. Blair, whose decision to join President George W. Bush in invading Iraq poisoned his legacy. Yet Mr. Blair is one of only a handful of Labour leaders who has ever won a general election, and Mr. Corbyn’s critics fear he will turn the Labour Party into a protest movement, rather than a realistic alternative to the Conservative government of Prime Minister David Cameron."

Washington Post
"The Corbyn victory represented an extraordinary rebuke to Labour’s more centrist powers-that-be, especially to former prime minister Tony Blair, who had campaigned vigorously against Corbyn and who argued that his selection would mean the party’s “annihilation.” But interventions from Blair and other party heavyweights apparently did little to halt Corbyn’s momentum and may have even backfired."
Sydney Morning Herald
"Mr Corbyn's policies include new taxes on excessive bank profits, renationalising the railways, printing money to pay for new infrastructure, greater assistance for refugees, and above all a redistribution of wealth to help the poorest and most disadvantaged... However some were predicting a short reign for Mr Corbyn, as centrist Labour MPs were expected to turn down roles in his shadow cabinet as they positioned themselves for what they consider his inevitable downfall."
Al Jazeera
Jeremy Corbyn winning the Labour leadership is like Aberdeen beating Real Madrid in a European final. It really happened, but you have to pinch yourself to believe it is true. The 66-year-old, bearded left-winger was a 200/1 outsider when the contest began. He scraped onto the ballot paper with just minutes to spare, only thanks to the charity nominations of MPs who leant him their signatures to "broaden the debate". Corbyn is everything that a modern professional politician shouldn't be: crumpled, scruffy and principled.
Times of Israel
British Jews have repeatedly expressed alarm over what they say are Corbyn’s dubious ties to Holocaust deniers and pro-Palestinian figures who have espoused anti-Semitic views. Empathetic to Hamas and Hezbollah, Corbyn, who won the Labour leadership by a landslide Saturday, is also widely regarded as one of the British MPs most hostile to Israel.
The Hindu
Although he did not touch on foreign policy in any detail during his campaign, Jeremy Corbyn, the newly elected leader of the Labour Party, has in his long career in politics been associated with international movements for peace, against war and nuclear militarisation, and for human rights. As one of the conveners of Stop the War campaign, he opposed the West’s war against Iraq, the Israeli occupation of Palestine, and in more recent times, has been a strong voice in urging for greater participation by the British government in offering asylum for refugees who are entering Europe in thousands.

Germany Reinstates Austria Border Controls Amid Refugee Crisis

September 13, 2015 — 4:53 PM BST Updated on September 13, 2015 — 10:13 PM BST
Germany reinstated border controls in response to the refugee crisis as a surge in the number of refugees threatens freedom of movement across Europe.

The temporary measure, focused on the southern border with Austria, risks widespread disruption as governments weigh a further tightening of frontier controls across Europe. German state railway Deutsche Bahn suspended all traffic to and from Austria Sunday afternoon until 6 a.m. Monday under orders of the authorities, it said on its website.

The border controls became necessary to try and “limit the flood to Germany and return to an orderly process of entering the country,” Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said Sunday at a press briefing in Berlin. “This is urgently needed for security reasons.”

The re-imposition of controls abandoned some 20 years ago is a signal to Europe that its biggest economy needs more help to cope with an estimated 800,000 asylum seekers expected to arrive in the country this year. The sudden move also underscores the risk attached to Chancellor Angela Merkel’s strategy of welcoming refugees while fellow EU leaders stand still.

----A meeting of justice and interior ministers in Brussels on Monday will deliberate EU proposals to distribute asylum seekers from Hungary, Italy and Greece that eastern states have already rejected.

The government of the Czech Republic, which opposes the European Commission plan, said it was strengthening police numbers along the border with Austria and stood ready to take further security measures if needed.

Austria won’t introduce controls on the Hungarian border but will monitor the consequences of the German measures over the next two days, Chancellor Werner Faymann said after a government meeting in Vienna Sunday. Faymann plans to meet with Merkel in Berlin on Tuesday.
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Still no word from America as to how many migrants it’s willing to take, from the failed policies of the American War Party in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Libya.

"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 Friday final figures were: Registered 50.41 Moz, Eligible 116.00 Moz, Total 166.41 Moz. 

Crooks and Scoundrels Corner

The bent, the seriously bent, and the totally doubled over.
No crooks today, just a worrying look at Spain. What could possibly go wrong on September 27? Euros anyone?

More than one million march for independence ahead of controversial Catalonia vote

Catalan premier Artur Mas has cast a Sept 27 regional election as a de facto referendum on secession from Spain, with a win for his coalition a mandate for a unilateral declaration of independence

By James Badcock, Barcelona 7:47PM BST 11 Sep 2015
More than one million people thronged in central Barcelona on Friday to demand independence for Catalonia ahead of controversial elections cast by the region's leaders as a de facto referendum on secession from Spain.

The colourful show of force by the pro-independence campaign on the Diada, Catalonia's national day, was a defiant message to Madrid ahead of a Sept 27 regional election which the Catalan premier, Artur Mas, has styled as an independence plebiscite despite warnings from the central government. Mr Mas has said that a win for the coalition led by his conservative Convergència (CiU) party will be considered a mandate for secession - and spark a unilateral declaration of independence.

“If we get a majority in parliament and in total votes, there will be no way back,” said 30-year-old Sergi, an industrial designer from Girona present at the rally. “We pay the same taxes as elsewhere in Spain and have more expensive universities and worse infrastructure. I have to pay €14 (£10) today in tolls to drive from Girona and back when you can cross the whole of Andalucia for free”.

Athletes carried a large arrowhead through the crowd along three miles (five kilometres) of Barcelona’s Meridiana Avenue to symbolise the idea that Catalonia’s independent destiny lay ahead.

----Support for independence has swelled over recent years in Catalonia, a regional economic powerhouse whose Catalan identity and language was severely repressed under the dictator General Francisco Franco. Police said 1.4 million people attended Friday's rally. But for those who stayed away, the highly choreographed demonstration constituted a hijacking of Catalonia’s national celebration for political purposes for the fourth year in a row
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"When paper money systems begin to crack at the seams, the run to gold could be explosive."

Harry Browne

Solar  & Related Update.

With events happening fast in the development of solar power and graphene, I’ve added this new section. Updates as they get reported. Is converting sunlight to usable cheap AC energy mankind’s future from the 21st century onwards? DC? A quantum computer next?

Dubai Plans to Award Solar Power Contract in First Quarter

Dubai’s government-owned utility will probably announce the winners in the first quarter to build the third phase of a $3.3 billion solar energy park.
The project to produce 800 megawatts of electricity from the sun will probably be awarded to more than one company, Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, chief executive officer of Dubai Electricity & Water Authority, said in Dubai on Sunday. DEWA is still deciding whether to build the plant all at once or at different times to take advantage of lower costs, he said. In January, DEWA tripled its target for solar energy production to take advantage of lower building costs.
Energy companies in the Middle East are turning to solar power to take advantage of plentiful amounts of sun. Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest crude exporter, has ample solar resources and open land and eventually “won’t need fossil fuels,” Oil Minister Ali Al-Naimi said in May.
DEWA in January awarded a contract to build a 200-megawatt plant to a group led by Saudi Arabia’s ACWA Power International, in the second phase of the park. The first solar factory at the park started in October 2013, with a 13-megawatt photovoltaic plant that was the largest of its type in the Middle East and North Africa at the time. First Solar Inc., the biggest U.S. solar-panel manufacturer, built the facility, at a cost of 120 million to 130 million dirhams ($33 million to $35 million).
DEWA aims to have solar capacity of 1,000 megawatts by 2020 and 3,000 megawatts by 2030.
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The monthly Coppock Indicators finished August

DJIA: +65 Down. NASDAQ: +168 Down. SP500: +92 Down. 

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