Baltic Dry Index. 1455 -19 Brent Crude 62.88
“The Creator made Italy by designs from Michelangelo.”
Mark Twain
The rump-EUSSR was in
total shock and disarray, last night as disaster overtook the rump-EUSSR.
Sweden qualified for the Football World Cup competition in Russia next year, as
Italy crashed out in a European disaster not seen since the Roman Legions were
forced to retreat from Romano-Britain in 407 AD.
As usual, the extreme
left wing BBC blamed the European disaster on Brexit, and promised that fire
and brimstone would soon descend on isolated and uncivilised Great Britain, now
that Team England would have to play football in Russia next year, lacking the
protection and cover from sophisticated Italy’s failed team of aged former
superstars and nonagenarian manager.
Stunned, Barnier and
Juncker, said Italy’s (and Holland’s) failure and collapse wasn’t typical of
the vibrant future facing the rump-EUSSR’s football teams, and that urgent
efforts were underway to contact Spain, to see if they would be able to field
an extra Spanish team in the competition, possibly playing under the temporary
title of Catalonia.
In Berlin, a beleaguered
Chancellor Merkel, still struggling to put together a coalition German government
of German Jamaicans, compared the disaster
to Napoleon’s retreat from Moscow, or Goering’s defeat over London, but said
that once again it demonstrated Germany’s rightful place dominating Europe.
Below, as a black
mood of despair and utter irrelevancy falls over Italy, continental Europe
struggles to come to terms with a future 2018, of trying to get behind a football
team from Sweden or Lapland.
November 13, 2017 / 9:54 PM
Stunned Italy fail to reach World Cup as Sweden qualify
MILAN
(Reuters) - Italian football boss Carlo Tavecchio said recently that failure to
qualify for the World Cup would be the apocalypse and his worst fears came true
on Monday as they missed out on the finals for the first time in 60 years.
A
desperate 0-0 draw at home to a defiant, belligerent and technically inferior
Sweden ended the four-time world champions’ hopes of reaching next year’s
finals in Russia and with it the international careers of several of Italy’s
biggest names.
The Swedes, whose starting lineup included only four players based with
teams in Europe’s so-called big five leagues, will take their place after
qualifying for the first time since 2006.
Italy’s 1-0 aggregate defeat in their European playoff, after Jakob
Johansson’s deflected strike in Stockholm, is likely to go down alongside
elimination by North Korea at the 1966 World Cup as one of their greatest
football debacles.
The Italians have only failed to qualify for the tournament once before
- missing out on the 1958 finals in Sweden - after not entering the first World
Cup in 1930.
The players sank to their knees as the final whistle went, the starkest
possible contrast to the Swedish joy, knowing that the match will leave an
indelible stain on their careers.
It
was also the tear-jerking end to the career of their 39-year-old goalkeeper and
captain Gianluigi Buffon who made his Italy debut 20 years ago against Russia -
on the last occasion that Italy had to face a playoff for a World Cup place.
----However, Gian Piero Ventura, at 69 the oldest coach Italy has ever had, refused to confirm that he would step down, saying he needed to talk to the federation first.
Ventura made four changes to the team which lost 1-0 in Stockholm on
Friday in the first leg and which was fiercely criticised for its lack of flair
in attack.
----After a scrappy opening 20 minutes, Italy took control and pressed forward in waves.
They had penalty appeals turned down and were repeatedly denied by
outstanding Sweden goalkeeper Robin Olsen but were also let down by some
desperately poor finishing and final passes, possibly born of desperation.
As the game wore on, Italy’s moves became more rushed and their passing
increasingly sloppy and the clear-cut chances dried up.
More
In other dire news
from Italy this morning, the extreme left wing BBC reports that Brexit is
tearing Italy’s government apart.
Italy will never be a normal
country. Because Italy is Italy. If we were a normal country, we wouldn't have
Rome. We wouldn't have Florence. We wouldn't have the marvel that is Venice.
Matteo Renzi
November 13, 2017 / 10:17 AM
It's all his fault - Italy's left obsessed with Renzi, not foes
ROME (Reuters) - National elections are looming and Italy’s
left seems bent on engineering its own defeat as Democratic Party (PD) leader
Matteo Renzi continues to come under fire from potential allies.
The PD emerged badly bruised in a Sicilian regional vote last week,
coming in a distant third to a centre-right coalition and the
anti-establishment 5-Star Movement in a contest that many saw as a dry run for
a national election due by May.
Though a weekend poll showed the PD has dropped six percentage points in
six months, it remains locked in a three-way race with 5-Star and a
centre-right coalition that includes four-time Prime Minister Silvio
Berlusconi’s Forza Italia (Go Italy!).
The economy is growing at its fastest pace in seven years and migrant
arrivals have fallen dramatically, two factors the ruling PD hopes will help it
win over moderate and progressive voters who would never choose Berlusconi and
are wary of the untested 5-Star.
But a group of left-wing lawmakers who split from the PD earlier this
year accuse Renzi of taking the party too far to the right and turning it into
his personal fiefdom; and so far they are refusing to make peace.
Former Prime Minister Massimo D‘Alema, who orchestrated
the dramatic schism, never passes up a chance to attack Renzi. Pietro Grasso,
the Senate president and a former anti-mafia magistrate who abruptly left the
PD last month, quipped that “the PD doesn’t exist any more”.
----The fast-talking 42-year-old Florentine has not made it easy on himself. Just last month he clashed with the most popular member of his own party - Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni.
Just days before Bank of Italy Governor Ignazio
Visco’s mandate was to expire, Renzi blindsided Gentiloni with a parliamentary
motion inviting the premier not to give the central banker another six-year
term.
The PD accused Visco of doing too little to head off
banking crises that cost taxpayers up to 23 billion euros (20.50 billion
pounds) this year in salvage operations on sinking lenders.
More
In even more dire, dire news from the rump-EUSSR, most
Spanish voters now want to hold new elections, no matter what happens in
bothersome Catalonia.
November 13, 2017 / 9:27 AM
Over half of Spaniards want early national election - poll
MADRID (Reuters) - More than half of Spanish
voters favour an early national election, a survey showed on Monday, as support
waned for a minority government embroiled in the country’s worst political
crisis in decades.
Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy imposed direct rule
on the region of Catalonia after it held an independence referendum on Oct. 1
that Spanish courts had declared illegal.
The term of the minority government led by his centre-right People’s
Party (PP) expires in 2020, but 55 percent of respondents in Monday’s survey
said they wanted a ballot before then.
The figure in an equivalent survey in October was 49 percent.
The poll was taken by pollsters Metroscopia for newspaper El Pais
newspaper between Nov. 6 and 8 as former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont --
whose government was sacked by Rajoy -- pursued his campaign for the region’s
independence from self-imposed exile in Belgium.
Authorities in Madrid have called an election in Catalonia for Dec. 21.
Rajoy was given a second term in October 2016 when the PP won the most
votes but failed to take a parliament majority.
The PP’s weakness in parliament has meant the government has struggled
to pass legislation, including the 2018 budget.
Support for the PP, if the elections were held today, slipped to 26.1
percent in November from 26.9 percent in July.
Backing for Ciudadanos (Citizens), a pro-Spanish unity party originally
from Catalonia, jumped to 22.7 percent from 18.5 percent, putting it equal
second with the Socialists.
More
In market news, Asian markets largely paused,
awaiting global central bankers take on the Italian football disaster, possibly
later today at the European Central Bank Christmas Market Junket in boring,
damp and dull, Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Happily, Wiesbaden is only a short drive away.
Asia Stocks Steady Ahead of Central Banker Meeting: Markets Wrap
By Adam Haigh
Updated on November 14, 2017, 6:16 AM GMT
Equity markets in Asia were steady as investors awaited clues on
monetary policy from heads of some major central banks and kept an eye on U.S.
tax reform developments. Bond yields held recent advances.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 Stock Average closed little changed after swinging
between a gain of 0.7 percent and a drop of 0.3 percent. The gauge had dropped
for the past four days. Shares in China slipped after the country’s economic
expansion dialed back a notch as factory output, investment and retail sales
all decelerated. Australian stocks underperformed regional markets
as Royal Dutch Shell Plc sold its entire stake in Woodside Petroleum Ltd.,
sending its shares down the most in a year.
Bond yields in Australia advanced for a fourth day after solid business
confidence data that also gave a leg up to the Aussie dollar and after
short-term U.S. Treasury yields climbed ahead of key U.S. economic data this
week. The pound stayed weak amid renewed political pressure on U.K. Prime
Minister Theresa May. Bitcoin clawed back some losses after extending its slump
from last week’s record high to as much as 29 percent.
As investors continue to monitor developments on U.S. tax reform discussions, attention turns Tuesday to appearances from Mario Draghi, Janet Yellen, Mark Carney and Haruhiko Kuroda at a European Central Bank conference. U.S. inflation and retail sales numbers that could influence Federal Reserve interest-rate hike odds are on the docket later in the week.
Kuroda said in a speech at the University of Zurich’s Swiss Institute of International Studies on Monday that the BOJ would continue to persist with “powerful monetary easing” to ensure that rising inflation expectations and price increases are not cut short. Kuroda has repeatedly said that the central bank needs to continue with its stimulus, even as other central banks begin taking steps to tighten policy.
Markets have stumbled in the past week after a global rally took U.S. stocks to records and Japan’s to the highest in a quarter century. In wake of the historic gains, the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, the largest U.S. pension fund, is considering more than doubling its bond allocation to reduce risk and volatility. Ten-year Treasury yields have climbed about 40 basis points from their low this year reached in September.
Data in China Tuesday still painted a picture of an economy that keeps ticking along at a solid pace. The world’s second-largest economy is on track for its first full-year acceleration in seven years, despite the dip in the October data.
More
Finally, tension
continues to build in the Middle East pressure cooker. If/when it blows, the 21st century
there, will not be like the second half of the 20th century under
Kissinger’s de facto Saudi oil protectorate.
November 13, 2017 / 10:58 AM
Kuwait banks told to examine Saudi accounts after arrests: sources
KUWAIT CITY/DUBAI (Reuters) - Kuwaiti banks have been told by the
central bank to provide account details relating to some Saudi Arabian
nationals, sources familiar with the situation told Reuters on Monday.
The move follows the freezing of more than 2,000 domestic bank accounts
in Saudi Arabia after the detention of senior business figures and officials in
a campaign against alleged graft.
Kuwait’s central bank had asked its banks if they had
exposure to any of the Saudi citizens who were arrested, one of the sources
said, without providing further information.
Banks had also been asked to provide information about the companies
linked to the individuals, the source added.
So far, the information received by the Kuwaiti regulator showed the
exposure of Kuwaiti banks to the individuals detained and their companies was
limited, the source said.
Reuters reported last week that the central bank in the United Arab
Emirates had asked banks to provide details of the accounts of 19 Saudis,
including billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, who was among those detained.
Some banks in the Gulf Cooperation Council have close links to Saudi
Arabia, the largest economy in the six-nation bloc, with a number of Saudi
individuals and companies doing business in the neighboring nations and holding
bank accounts there.
A second Kuwaiti banking source said some Kuwaiti banks had been asked
by the regulator to provide details on their total exposure to Saudi Arabia.
Some banks in Bahrain had also been asked to provide information on any
accounts held by Saudi citizens caught up in the anti-graft campaign, a third source
said.
Nobody was available to comment from the Bahrain central bank.
http://uk.reuters.com/article/us-saudi-arrests-kuwait/kuwait-banks-told-to-examine-saudi-accounts-after-arrests-sources-idUKKBN1DD17H
In Italy, for 30 years under
the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced
Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had
brotherly love, they had 500 years of democracy and peace - and what did that
produce? The cuckoo clock.
Graham Greene
Crooks and Scoundrels Corner
The bent, the seriously bent, and the totally doubled over.
No crooks or bent western politicians
today, just another unintended success story from Russia, where recent punitive
western actions unintentionally benefit modern Russia.
How an Oil Giant (Russia) Came to Dominate Wheat
By Anatoly Medetsky
November
13, 2017, 5:00 AM GMT
Russia,
a leading exporter of crude oil for decades now, is increasingly dominating
another critical global commodity. Its output of wheat has surged in recent
years as good growing conditions boost farmers’ profits, allowing them to reinvest
in better seeds and equipment. As low oil prices hurt the ruble, making grain
more alluring for overseas buyers, Russia grabbed more of the wheat-export
market from major shippers like the U.S. This is particularly welcome news for
Russia as it tries to cut its dependence on agricultural imports, after it
banned imports of some western foods in retaliation to sanctions imposed over
the annexation of Crimea.
1. Who’s buying Russian wheat?
About half the countries in the world import wheat from Russia. Some of the biggest buyers are situated a short distance away, in the Middle East and North Africa, but demand comes from as far away as Mexico and Indonesia. Russia’s top customer, Egypt, depends on Russian wheat to feed its people, while No. 2 buyer Turkey uses the grain to make flour it then exports. This season’s shipments are expected to be up more than 40 percent from just three years ago.2. What’s the allure of Russian grain?
It’s cheap. Gluts from years of bumper harvests depressed prices, which are also kept down by the short shipping routes from the Black Sea -- the hub for the bulk of Russia’s supply -- to Middle Eastern and African buyers. More recently, poor crops made grain from North America and Australia less attractive to some of their traditional markets in Asia, opening up the door for Russian wheat.3. How did Russia become a wheat export king?
Russia’s wheat exports began to surge at the start of this century, after Soviet-era collective farms gave way to private ownership of rich soils and farmers gained access to the latest international technology. Now, tractors made by U.S. firm Deere & Co. and Germany’s Claas KGaA roll across Russian farms, and crops are sprayed with pesticides made by Monsanto Co. and Syngenta AG. Helped by state support, farmers’ costs can be as little as half those of major competitors, so Russia can afford to keep planting even when prices tumble.4. What does Russian dominance mean for world markets?
Now forecast as the top wheat shipper, Russia saw its share of the export market jump from less than 1 percent in 2000 to an estimated 18 percent this season. During the same period, the U.S. share was cut almost in half. Bigger Russian harvests have added to the global glut and pushed prices in Chicago to near a decade low, prompting American farmers to plant the least winter wheat in a century last year. Russia’s dominance also gives it the power to shake up world markets. Benchmark prices surged almost 50 percent in 2010 as Russia banned exports, following a drought.
More
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?
India Plans World’s Largest Solar Power Tender — 20 Gigawatts
November 13th, 2017
According to
media reports, the Ministry of New & Renewable Energy
is planning to auction off 20 gigawatts of solar power capacity in one go. The
final details of the proposed auction are still being deliberated upon,
however, the aim is to spur domestic solar modules production as well as
further reduce the cost of solar power.
Despite the
ambitious targets and supportive policies, India has lagged in solar power
capacity addition. The country plans to have an installed solar power capacity
of 100 gigawatts by March 2022. The installed capacity as of 30 September 2017
was just over 14.7 gigawatts. So, it needs to add an additional 85 gigawatts in
the remaining four years and six months.
While a
substantial amount of capacity is already in the pipeline, a larger quantity
has yet to be allocated. To achieve the 100 gigawatts target, India will have to
add around 1.6 gigawatts every month between October 2017 and March 2022. India
has never seen such growth in its solar, or any other renewable energy
technology. Between April and September of 2017, India managed to add just 2.5
gigawatts of solar power capacity, or just 413 megawatts per month.
Initially,
the government had planned to set up 40 gigawatts of the 100 gigawatts from
rooftop solar power systems. Realizing that the rooftop market does not enjoy
the penetration and financial benefits that the utility-scale projects have,
the government circled back to utility-scale solar power projects. It increased
the target for capacity addition through solar power parks from 20 gigawatts to
40 gigawatts.
The 20
gigawatt tender being talked about will likely be under this solar power parks
scheme itself. Several state governments have already identified land to set up
a cumulative 20 gigawatts of capacity and the Solar Energy Corporation of India
will auction these projects in the near future. Work on the additional 20
gigawatts of solar power parks may soon come to fruition.
More
The monthly Coppock Indicators finished October
DJIA: 23,277 +233 Up. NASDAQ: 6,728 +284 Up. SP500: 2,575 +183 Up.
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