Baltic Dry Index. 1196 +06 Brent Crude 50.67
The whole history
of civilization is strewn with creeds and institutions which were invaluable at
first, and deadly afterwards.
Walter Bagehot
We open today with yet another sign that the dying,
unreformed, EUSSR isn’t working for its members anymore. Just Germany, Brussels,
and Washington. The EUSSR’s Russian sanctions, imposed after the American War
Party’s botched coup in Kiev allowed Russia to take back the Crimea, does very
little damage to Russia, but a whole lot of damage to the EUSSR members. Now Bulgaria is about to swing east. Germany
about to swing to the SDP?
London fog over Rome as EU gropes for Brexit unity
European leaders hope to paper over simmering disputes when they meet in
Rome on Saturday to celebrate 60 years of union, but with Britain filing for
divorce next week, the mood will be somber and unity under strain.
Theresa May, who next Wednesday will launch a two-year countdown to
Brexit, will be conspicuous by her absence in Rome, as the other 27 EU leaders
try to put aside differences for fear the British prime minister could exploit
their disunity to cut a sweet deal they fear would encourage others to quit.
At the very moment the Islamic State attack on cosmopolitan London was
again highlighting risks Europeans face in common, EU Brexit negotiator Michel
Barnier was warning Britain not to try to barter security cooperation for
better trade terms nor divide the 27, whose joint approval it will need to
forge a new treaty.
"Unity is the first condition for reaching an agreement in the
negotiations," the former French foreign minister said in a speech in
Brussels on Wednesday after Monday's confirmation that negotiations will finally
begin following June's Brexit vote.
---- Frictions among those remaining have been on show this week as Italians, stepping up security in the wake of the Westminster attack, prepare a largely ceremonial summit on Saturday in the Campidoglio palace, where France, West Germany, Italy and the three Benelux countries signed the founding Treaty of Rome on March 25, 1957.
The text of a 60th anniversary Rome Declaration was agreed on Monday by
the 27 leaders' aides. It reads: "Europe is our common future." Yet
Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydlo said on Thursday she might raise objections
and Greece was holding up formal agreement on the brief text while it wrangles
with euro zone creditors over its bailout terms.
Diplomats dismissed any threat to Saturday's agreement and insisted the
text was already approved by all. But the wrangling drew attention again to
long-running divisions, notably between east and west and, in the euro zone,
between north and south.
More
The Under-the-Radar EU Vote That's Opening the Door for Russia
by Elizabeth Konstantinova and Slav Okov
23
March 2017, 22:01 GMT
Biggest parties vow warmer Putin ties; one opposes sanctions - Tensions with Turkey escalate before Sunday’s snap election
While
affirming their commitment to the EU, Bulgaria’s two biggest parties say
they’ll revive economic ties with Russia to benefit voters who feel let down by
the bloc a decade after membership. The Socialists, neck and neck with
Gerb before Sunday’s snap parliamentary ballot, vow to go further, by sinking
sanctions against President Vladimir Putin’s government. A Russia-friendly
Socialist won the presidency in 2016.
Accused
of meddling in elections from the U.S.
to France, Russia is getting a warmer reception in Bulgaria, a NATO member of 7
million people that was dubbed the “16th Soviet republic” during the Cold War
for its affinity to Moscow. Still the EU’s poorest member, talk of an
alternative economic path resonates in the Black Sea nation, which
remains dogged by graft, a worker exodus and migration worries. The
vote is also stoking tensions with Turkey, which Bulgaria accuses of
interfering to boost its influence.
More
Merkel Plays Anti-Terror Card in Bid to Blunt Election Opponents
by Patrick Donahue
23
March 2017, 17:54 GMT
German regional vote Sunday to test SPD challenger’s momentum - Saarland state in play six months before national vote
German Chancellor Angela Merkel portrayed her political
opponents as weak on fighting terror and crime as she campaigned for a state
election this weekend that will test her Social Democratic challenger’s surge
in the polls.
Three days before the vote in the western region of Saarland, Merkel
warned against opening the door to a left-leaning government in a state her
Christian Democratic Union has governed for 18 years. That dominance is at risk
regionally and nationwide this year as polls suggest the SPD has caught up with
the CDU after naming Martin Schulz to run against Merkel.
“Whether on home break-ins, the fight against Islamist terrorism or
making sure people conform with our laws,” a potential governing coalition of
Social Democrats, Greens and the anti-capitalist Left party “would be the
complete opposite of what you see today,” Merkel said Thursday in the town of
St. Wendel, a CDU stronghold in the state of 1 million people on the French and
Luxembourg borders.
More
Greek Deposits Bleeding Drama Resumes Amid Bailout Uncertainty
by Nikos Chrysoloras and Alessandro Speciale
23
March 2017, 10:43 GMT
Greek
deposit outflows resumed, prompting the country’s central bank to raise the
ceiling of emergency liquidity available to lenders, as a deadlock
in bailout talks sparked fears among savers of reliving the 2015 drama that
pushed the country to the edge of economic collapse.
The
Governing Council of the European Central Bank didn’t object to a Bank of
Greece request to raise the ceiling of Emergency Liquidity Assistance
available to Greek lenders to 46.6 billion euros ($50 billion), according to a statement
on Thursday. The 400 million-euro increase “reflects developments in the
liquidity situation of Greek banks, taking into account private-sector deposits
flows,” the Athens-based central bank said.
Outflows this year through last Thursday totaled about 3.6 billion euros, a person familiar with the matter said. They reflect a diminishing stock of banknotes as people pay taxes and an orderly flow of funds toward foreign bank accounts, said the person who asked not to be identified because the information isn’t publicly available.
It is the first time since the Bank of Greece started releasing ELA ceiling data in September 2015 that an increase was deemed necessary, and the first time the central bank omitted a reference to a “stabilization” or “improvement” of deposit flows in its statement. Greece’s financial sector saw net inflows in 2016, when savers’ confidence in banks’ health was gradually returning.
The Bank of Greece had lowered the ELA ceiling by 100 million euros only two weeks ago. A spokesperson for the central bank wasn’t immediately available for comment.
Negotiations between Greek bailout auditors and Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos over the terms of the country’s emergency loans have so far failed to reach a successful conclusion, prolonging a standoff that risks leaving the country unable to service debt payments this summer. Uncertainty has been weighing on economic activity, threatening to derail hopes for a recovery this year.
More
In China news, another reason to worry. China’s
Great Ponzi Scheme needs another bailout it seems. But don’t worry, it’s all
under official control, no really, Beijing says so. Yuan anyone?
China Likely to See More Bond Defaults, Fitch's McCormack Says
Bloomberg News 23 March 2017, 03:46 GMT More corporate defaults in China wouldn’t be a surprise as debt levels are unsustainable and the economy is slowing, says James McCormack, global head of sovereign ratings at Fitch Ratings Ltd.While he doesn’t expect a major credit event in China, the corporate debt problem is getting bigger in the medium-term, McCormack said in a Bloomberg Television interview Thursday from the Boao Forum for Asia, an annual conference on the southern Chinese island of Hainan. Shorter-term issues around wealth management products and leverage inside the financial system are worrying, and a coordinated regulatory response to the problems would be “good news,” he said.
“It opens the system up to contagion because if there’s just a small securities firm that runs into trouble and then it feeds into a local bank and then that feeds into another bank, that’s the problem that China potentially faces,” McCormack said. “Not knowing who the parties are is part of the problem at the outset, and getting the liquidity to where it’s needed could be challenging” for the People’s Bank of China, he said.
China’s
banking regulator this month outlined wide-ranging
efforts to rein in financial risks, including clamping down on shadow lending
and curbing funding for property speculation. Guo Shuqing, days into the job as
China Banking Regulatory Commission chairman, said he will coordinate with
other financial authorities, including the PBOC, to plug loopholes in
regulations for cross-market financial products and update outdated risk
management rules.
More
China debt risk 'very much under control': vice fin min
China's debt risk is "very much under control", Vice Finance
Minister Liu Wei said at the Boao Forum for Asia in southern Hainan province.
Liu was appointed the vice finance minister post in late February.
Chinese leaders have pledged to contain debt risks after years of
credit-fueled expansion. Corporate debt has soared to 169 percent of gross
domestic product, data from the Bank for International Settlements shows.
Never believe anything in
politics until it has been officially denied.
Otto von Bismarck.
At the Comex silver depositories
Thursday final figures were: Registered 40.52 Moz, Eligible 149.76 Moz,
Total 190.28 Moz.
Crooks and Scoundrels Corner
The bent, the seriously bent, and the totally
doubled over.
Today, rising tension in the Far East. China scolds
Japan. Tells Uncle Sam to keep off the grass.
China says hopes new Japanese carrier doesn't mark return to militarism
China said on Thursday that it hoped the entry into service of Japan's
second big helicopter carrier, the Kaga, did not mean a return to the country's
past militaristic history.
The ship, along with its sister the Izumo, gives Japan's military
greater ability to deploy beyond its shores as it pushes back against China's
growing influence in Asia.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said that in recent
years Japan had exaggerated the "China threat" as an excuse to expand
its military.
"I also want to say that the Kaga was sunk by the U.S. military in
World War Two. Japan should learn the lessons of history," Hua told a
daily news briefing.
"We hope the return of the Kaga is not trying to be the start of
the ashes of Japanese militarism burning once more."
Japan's two biggest warships since World War Two are potent symbols of
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's push to give the military a bigger international
role. They are designated as helicopter destroyers to keep within the bounds of
a war-renouncing constitution that forbids possession of offensive weapons.
Ties between China and Japan, the world's second- and third-largest
economies, have been plagued with a territorial dispute over a group of tiny
East China Sea islets and the legacy of Japan's wartime aggression.http://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-defence-carrier-china-idUSKBN16U19T
China says U.S. should respect China's air defense zone
China said on Thursday the United States should respect its air defense
identification zone (ADIZ), after CNN reported China had warned a U.S. bomber
it was illegally flying inside China's self-declared zone in the East China
Sea.
China declared the zone, in which aircraft are supposed to identify
themselves to Chinese authorities, in the East China Sea in 2013, which the
United States and Japan have refused to recognize.
CNN, citing the U.S. Pacific Air Forces, said the B-1 bomber was flying
near South Korea on Sunday, and that its pilots responded to Chinese air
traffic controllers saying they were carrying out routine operations in
international airspace, and that the aircraft did not deviate from its flight
path.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said she had not heard
of the matter, and referred questions to the Defense Ministry, which did not
immediately respond to requests for comment.
"But, generally speaking, I hope that in this region all countries'
actions consider the security concerns of relevant countries and be beneficial
for mutual trust, peace and stability between countries," Hua told a daily
news briefing.
"The United States has its own ADIZs. I think if this matter is
true, they should respect China's relevant ADIZ rights," she added,
without elaborating.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-usa-defence-idUSKBN16U0SB
Technology
Update.
With events happening
fast in the development of solar power and graphene, I’ve added this 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?
Record-breaking solar panel converts more than a quarter of sunlight into electricity
Leaves can convert as little as three per cent of sunlight into energy
Ian Johnston Science Correspondent Tuesday 21 March
2017 12:08 GMT
A record-breaking solar panel that can convert more than a quarter of the sunlight it receives into electricity has been developed by researchers in Japan.
The silicon solar cell is so efficient that it turns 26.3 per cent of the energy from the sun into renewable power.
In contrast, nature’s ‘solar panels’ – leaves – have a “photosynthetic efficiency” of between three and six per cent.
The scientists behind the new panel also said they believed they had found a way to create a one with the maximum level of efficiency considered to be theoretically possible – 29.1 per cent.
Writing in the journal Nature Energy, the team from the Kaneka Corporation in Osaka, said: “Improving the photo-conversion efficiency of silicon solar cells is crucial to further the deployment of renewable electricity.
“Essential device properties such as lifetime, series resistance and optical properties must be improved simultaneously to reduce recombination, resistive and optical losses.
“Here, we use industrially compatible processes to fabricate large-area silicon solar cells … the photo-conversion efficiency is over 26 per cent.”
The previous record for solar cell efficiency was 25.6 per cent.
Further analysis, the researchers, said “pinpoints a path to approach the theoretical conversion efficiency limit of Si solar cells, 29.1 per cent”.
However a statement on the Nature website said the panels were not yet ready to be sold commercially.
“Although the study represents a record-breaking efficiency for a silicon solar cell, further work is required before the individual cells can be assembled into a commercially available solar panel,” it said.
Another weekend and sad weekend in London, and in the many places around
the world, so many of the injured in the Islamist atrocity come from. Spring is
finally here, time this weekend to advance our clocks by an hour. Have a great weekend everyone.
All the best
stories in the world are but one story in reality - the story of escape. It is
the only thing which interests us all and at all times, how to escape.
Walter Bagehot.
The monthly Coppock Indicators finished February
DJIA: 20,812
+133 Up. NASDAQ: 5,825 +120 Up. SP500: 2,364 +115 Up.
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