Baltic Dry Index. 680 -26 Brent Crude 50.49
LIR Gold Target in 2019: $30,000. Revised due to QE programs.
"On
the whole human beings want to be good, but not too good, and not quite all the
time.”
George
Orwell.
We open with the EUSSR where there’s something fishy as always in Brussels.
Fraud, exactly what you would expect in Brussels. Remember when poor old missing
Neddy showed up labelled as EU beef in Irish burgers. Brexit gets better by the week.
Whiff of 'fraud' as Eurocrats tricked into eating cheap fish in Brussels restaurants
Brussels restaurants accused of passing off low-grade fillets as Bluefin tuna or Atlantic cod
Eurocrats have been hoodwinked into eating cheap fish, an undercover investigation into Brussels restaurants has established.EU officials are being ripped-off and their health put in danger by a "systemic” fraud in the Belgian dining scene that sees one in three fish dishes mislabelled.
An investigation by campaigners using undercover diners and DNA sample analysis found that even the restaurants of the European Commission and Parliament are, wittingly or unwittingly, passing off low-grade fillets as delicacies.
Investigators working with the University of Leuven sought to buy five kinds of fish – Atlantic cod, common sole, bluefin tuna, swordfish and ray – from restaurants surrounding EU offices and in Brussels' tourist quarter.
In fact, they were served 36 kinds of fish – including four that could not be identified by laboratory analysis.
The study, conducted with the University of Leuven, took in 280 separate orders from 150 restaurants. They included outlets with rave reviews on Trip Advisor and the famous eateries of Saint-Catherine, the historic fish quarter.
"Everywhere we look, we find fraud," said Lasse Gustavsson, of the campaign group Oceana. “Imagine this was a car market in which they sold you a Renault and told you it is a Rolls-Royce. This is exactly what is happening.”
He described the situation in the EU canteens – frequented by those who draw up Europe’s fisheries policies – as "inadequate and dishonest", with saithe, cod and hake served interchangeably and 38 per cent of dishes mislabelled.
“This was just total chaos. Nobody seems to understand what’s going on,”
----Meanwhile, just 14 per cent of hake dishes sold in Brussels were genuine, with saithe a common replacement. And just one in 20 plates of the endangered Bluefin tuna, typically costing more than €30 (£21), were genuine, with diners more usually served cheaper Yellowfin, Bigeye or Swordfish.
More
Staying with European fraud, can
any of Volkswagen’s auto statistics be believed? Can you even rely on a VW
speedometer?
VW Emissions Issues Spread to Gasoline Cars
November 3, 2015 — 6:12 PM GMT Updated on November 3, 2015 — 11:31 PM
GMT
Volkswagen AG said it found faulty emissions readings for the first
time in gasoline-powered vehicles, widening a scandal that so far had centered
on diesel engines. Separately, the company’s Porsche unit said it’s halting
North American sales of a model criticized by U.S. regulators.
Volkswagen said an internal probe showed 800,000 cars had
“unexplained inconsistencies” concerning their carbon-dioxide output.
Previously, the automaker estimated it would need to recall 11 million vehicles
worldwide -- more than Volkswagen sold last year. It was unclear how much overlap
there was between the two tallies. The company said the new finding
could add at least 2 billion euros ($2.2 billion) to the 6.7 billion euros
already set aside for fixes to the affected vehicles but not litigation, fines
or customer compensation.
The crisis that emerged after Volkswagen admitted in September to
cheating U.S. pollution tests for years with illegal software has shaved more
than one-third of the company’s stock price and led to a leadership
change. Today’s revelation adds to the pressure on Volkswagen’s new chief
executive officer, Matthias Mueller, who replaced Martin Winterkorn and was
previously head of Porsche. Volkswagen’s supervisory board said it will meet
soon to discuss further measures and consequences.
“VW is leaving us all speechless,” said Arndt Ellinghorst, a
London-based analyst with Evercore ISI.
Volkswagen’s American depositary receipts fell 5.6 percent to $25.49 at
the close in New York. They have declined 30 percent since Sept. 18, when U.S.
regulators said the company admitted to the emissions cheating.
Volkswagen’s Polo, Golf and Passat models are affected as well as the
subcompact A1 and the A3 hatchback at the Audi premium brand, a Volkswagen
spokesman said by phone. The affected models at other brands include the
Skoda Octavia, the Seat Ibiza and the Seat Leon.
More
Next, Germany needs to brace for a
shock. The EUSSR looks like flying apart.
Libya warns it could flood Europe with migrants if EU does not recognise new self-declared government
Breakaway government in Tripoli issues veiled threat in response to West's refusal to accept their legitimacy
Libya has issued a veiled threat to send "hundreds of thousands" of extra migrants to Europe if Brussels does not give official recognition to its self-declared government.Officials say they could hire boats to send large numbers of African migrants across the Mediterranean, massively adding to the numbers already reaching Europe's borders.
The warning was made by a spokesman for Libya's General National Congress in an interview with The Telegraph in the Libyan capital, Tripoli.
The Congress took control of Tripoli last year after fighting against forces loyal to the internationally- recognised House of Representatives government, and is not recognised by the European Union as Libya's legitimate government. A fortnight ago, both factions also rejected the terms of a United Nations-brokered peace deal.
Jamal Zubia, the Congress's foreign media spokesman, told The Telegraph that Libya was currently spending tens of millions of pounds a year stopping migrants from crossing the Mediterranean, through the use of detention centres and repatriation programs.
He said that if Europe continued to refuse to recognise the Congress's
authority, the Libyan government could reverse the policy.
"To be honest, I have advised my goverment many times already that
we should hire boats and send them to Europe," he said. "We are
protecting the gates of Europe, yet Europe does not recognise us and does not
want to recognise us. So why should we stop the migrants here?"
More
Next new figures from China. Anyone want to bet against their hitting or beating the 6.5 percent target figure?
China growth should be 6.5% over next 5 years: Xi
Published: Nov 3, 2015 4:20 a.m. ET
BEIJING--China's President Xi Jinping said the nation's annual growth
should be no less than 6.5% over the next five years for the government to
realize its economic goals by 2020, the state-run Xinhua News Agency reported
Tuesday.
The remark came after China's Communist Party gave the green light to a
proposal to map out the country's economic blueprint, also called the five-year
plan, from 2016 to 2020.
Beijing has targeted doubling China's 2010 gross domestic product and
per capita income by 2020.
In a key meeting attended by top party leaders last week, China vowed to
maintain "moderately high growth" and to allow all couples to have
two children in the proposed five-year plan. It didn't give a specific growth
target in the 13th five-year plan, which will be subject to legislators'
approval in March, but many economists predict Beijing is likely to cut the
target to 6.5% from current 7%.
----China said it would accelerate the
opening up of several state-dominated sectors including oil, electricity,
natural gas and telecommunications in the next five years, according to Xinhua.
China also vowed to promote the yuan to be included in the International
Monetary Fund's special reserves, putting the Chinese currency at par with the
dollar, euro, yen and pound sterling. It also said it would make the yuan
"freely convertible and usable" over the next five years and usher in
the long-promised capital account convertibility in an orderly manner.
China also said it would lower the leverage ratio in its financial
system, where a build-up of debt after the government's stimulus measures
during the global financial crisis triggered concerns over the health of the
world's No. 2 economy.
It also vowed to narrow income gap in the next five years and deepen its
household registration reforms to allow more rural residents to live and work
in Chinese cities.
More
In other Asian news, the “wobble” is becoming something more than a
wobble. But don’t let on to the central bankster gambling dens. Our QE forever
and ZIRP free fiat money world, is about to get hit by an earthquake.
Standard Chartered's Bad Loans Reveal Cracks in Asian Economies
November 4, 2015 — 12:38 AM GMT Updated on November 4, 2015 — 3:35 AM
GMT
As China’s growth sputters, the troubles at Standard Chartered Plc are
another bad omen for what were once Asian economic darlings.The bank, which generates most of its income in the region, had gambled on success in emerging markets such as India, which instead saddled the lender with delinquent loans. As a result, the company which opened its offices in Mumbai under Queen Victoria is now axing 15,000 jobs and is asking investors for $5.1 billion.
“Standard Chartered are Asian specialists and are in all the main markets in the region, so in looking at them you can get a good sense for credit direction and lending appetite,” said Mark Holman, chief executive officer at TwentyFour Asset Management in London, which oversees 5 billion pounds ($7.7 billion).
For now, Asia still has fewer corporate debt defaults than other developing countries, but rising leverage from India to Indonesia point to the risk of further nonpayments. More stringent conditions from banks like Standard Chartered are slowing loan growth in the region, exposing more fissures in the corporate credit market.
“The picture that emerges is that Asian credit cycles are far more advanced than those in Europe and loan losses and impairment charges are mounting,” Holman said.
Like other developing nations, Asian companies took advantage of low interest rates overseas to go on a borrowing binge. The move is backfiring as slower economic growth makes it more difficult to pay back the obligations.
Fitch Ratings warned on Nov. 2 that 11 percent of India’s loans will fall into the category of “stressed assets” in the fiscal year ending in March 2016 and only improve “marginally” the next year. In China, Sinosteel Co., a state-owned steelmaker, missed an interest payment last month, becoming the latest firm that teeters on the verge of default.
More
Will the EUSSR survive? Probably not, is my opinion. Undone by Merkel’s
Folly, in setting off mass economic migration. Telling the world “you can stay
if you get here,” was insanity of the highest order. Europe’s voters seem to be
splitting hard left and right. And the troubles of a million welfare dependent,
economic migrants are just beginning. Europe hasn’t seen anything yet. If a new
global recession is arriving, and the Baltic Dry Index suggests it’s virtually
here, continental Europe is going to become a very ugly place. The EUSSR will likely
split apart out of necessity. Euros anyone?
“We
all know what to do, but we don’t know how to get re-elected once we have done
it.”
Jean-Claude Juncker. Failed Luxembourg Prime Minister and
ex-president of the Euro Group of Finance Ministers. Confessed liar. EC
President.
At the Comex silver depositories
Tuesday final figures were: Registered 43.04 Moz, Eligible 120.52 Moz, Total
163.57 Moz.
Crooks and Scoundrels Corner
The bent, the seriously bent, and the totally
doubled over.
Today, Uncle Scam. Do as I say, not as I do!
“Call
it the Goldman Sachs test. If this is something Goldman would do to its
clients, don't do it."
Felix
Salmon.
U.S. Placed Above Cayman Islands in Financial Secrecy Blacklist
November 2,
2015 — 5:00 PM GMT
The U.S. government’s refusal to take part in a global system for exchanging
bank data has moved it above the Cayman Islands in a financial secrecy list
compiled by the Tax Justice Network.The U.S. trails only Switzerland and Hong Kong in a league of offshore havens after refusing to comply with information-sharing standards created by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, according to London-based TJN, which campaigns for greater transparency in finance. That’s despite the U.S. creating its own system of data collection known as FATCA, which obliges banks around the world to provide details about American account holders who try to dodge the Internal Revenue Service.
“While the U.S. has pioneered powerful ways to defend itself against foreign tax havens, it has not seriously addressed its own role in attracting illicit financial flows and supporting tax evasion,” TJN said in a report Monday. “Washington’s independent-minded approach risks tearing a giant hole in international efforts to crack down on tax evasion, money laundering and financial crime.”
Singapore and the Cayman Islands were placed fourth and fifth in the TJN
rankings, which applies a weighted score to jurisdictions based on factors such
as bank secrecy rules, registers of ownership and cooperation with other
governments. The methodology favors the more than 90 jurisdictions that have
said they will adopt the OECD standard by 2017, or in some cases, 2018.
The TJN list is compiled every two years and in 2013 the U.S. was placed
sixth.
One
of the queries Quakers are asked to consider, is: "Do you maintain strict
integrity in your business transactions and in your relations with individuals
and organizations? Are you personally scrupulous and responsible in the use of
money entrusted to you, and are you careful not to defraud the public
revenue?"
Probably
why there a no Quakers on Wall Street or in the City.
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 or DC energy mankind’s future from the 21st century onwards? DC? A quantum computer next?IKEA pulls plug on Hanergy solar deal after three years
By Liam Stoker 02 November 2015, 15:35
Updated: 02 November 2015, 16:16
Scandinavian furniture giant IKEA has cancelled its domestic solar PV supply
deal with beleaguered Chinese thin-film module manufacturer Hanergy.An IKEA spokesperson confirmed to Solar Power Portal this afternoon that it had chosen not to renew its solar supply contract with Hanergy, little more than three years after striking the partnership.
In a statement, IKEA said the deal between the two companies had ended on 1 November and IKEA was to now pursue a "new business model".
"Based on the successful roll out and to ensure IKEA Group has a growth plan in place for the future, we have evaluated our business model, starting in the UK. A new business model has been decided upon, which includes the decision not to renew the contract with Hanergy Solar UK when their current contract ends on 1st November 2015.
"IKEA group’s priority now is to work collaboratively with Hanergy Solar UK during the phase out, in order to ensure the best interests of customers and we are working with the local team at Hanergy Solar UK to agree a transition time plan to ensure a smooth transition for our visitors, their customers and store teams," the statement read.
IKEA and Hanergy originally partnered in September 2012 in a deal which was ultimately so successful that the furniture manufacturer elected to expand its sales of solar equipment into eight additional markets last year.
But since then Hanergy's share price has collapsed prompting an investigation by Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission and six months of claim and counterclaim between the financial authority and Hanergy Thin Film chairman Li Hejun. Trading of Hanergy shares remains suspended.
The monthly Coppock Indicators finished October
DJIA: +31 Down. NASDAQ:
+125 Down. SP500: +53 Down.
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