Baltic Dry Index. 3009 +11
LIR Gold Target by 2019: $3,000.
''If you fly into the ash and your engines stop, you crash.''
Peter Purcell, of the Natural Environment Research Council. 16/4/10.
Or maybe they don’t stop.
We open this morning with more on the great European blunder of the new century. While tens of thousands of travelers are still struggling to return to where they were used to calling home, and airlines across Europe are demanding financial help from the national governments in dealing with the costs of this fiasco, Ryan Air even going so far as to state it will not comply with EU law on compensation for stranded passengers, it now turns out that the whole Icelandic ash scare was largely illusory and mostly a figment of some computer program operated in Exeter England by the Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre, part of the increasingly discredited UK Met Office that last year forecast the Barbecue Summer that wasn’t, and routinely promotes the idea of man made global warming in its publications and computer modeling research. Garbage in gets garbage out as they say. Below, Der Spiegel covers the wrong sort of volcano, the wrong sort of ash.
“It was the last wish of the Icelandic economy that its ashes be spread over Europe.” Anon.
Test Flight Provides Plume DataHow Dangerous Is the Volcanic Ash?
By Holger Dambeck 04/21/2010
A flight by the German Aerospace Center on Monday measured the ash plume over Germany and found that the particle concentration was no higher than that of sand clouds from the Sahara desert that sometimes reach Europe. But it is still unclear what kind of effect Eyjafjalljökull's ash particles could have on jet engines.
How high is the concentration of dust particles from the Icelandic volcano? The German Aerospace Center (DLR) released the figures on Tuesday from the measurement flight that took off from its research center at Oberpfaffenhofen, Bavaria, on Monday. The plane flew over Leipzig, Hamburg and Cologne at an altitude of mostly 8 kilometers (5 miles), in order to measure the aerosol concentration with the plane's LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) system, according to the report, which SPIEGEL ONLINE has seen. Air samples were also examined.
"The ash clouds were recognizable as a brown layer," the DLR experts wrote in the report. The particles in the clouds of ash had a diameter of more than 3 micrometers, which would not usually be found in an unpolluted troposphere (0-8 kilometers altitude.)
The concentration of big volcanic ash particles would be comparable to the sand dust clouds from the Sahara that sometimes reach Germany. The measurements above Leipzig in eastern Germany at an altitude of 4 kilometers found a concentration of 60 micrograms per cubic meter of air.
-----The highest particle concentration was measured at the so-called atmospheric boundary layer, at an altitude of a maximum of 3 kilometers. However, this is primarily dust from exhaust fumes. The DLR team was unable to observe any ash clouds above the 3-kilometer level in Hamburg, northern Germany. The volcanic ash had obviously already disappeared there.
What the report does not answer, is whether or not the volcanic ash that was found poses a risk to aircraft engines. The German Transport Ministry wants to continue the measurements with more flights.
The danger volcanic ash can pose was shown in the case of a Boeing 747 jumbo jet operated by Dutch airline KLM back in 1989. The aircraft flew overnight above an ash cloud caused by the Mount Redoubt volcano in Alaska. The front panel and exterior shell of the plane were sandblasted and the engines failed. Luckily the pilots were able to get two of the engines to restart and executed an emergency landing.
However, this kind of scenario is highly unlikely to be caused by the current ash cloud above Europe. Test flights carried out by Lufthansa and Air Berlin caused no damage to the aircraft, the airlines say. The ash seems to have spread across a large area -- and the low concentration would cause few problems.
There is another important difference from the Alaska volcano: the chemical composition of the ash itself. The particles from Mount Redoubt contained more silicate than the dust emerging from the Icelandic glacial volcano Eyjafjallajökull.
The higher the level of silicate in the dust, the lower the melting temperature of the small, sharp-edged particles, says Carsten Münker, a volcanologist at the University of Cologne. The silicate level depends on the location of the volcano. In subduction zones, where continental plates converge -- such as in the Andes in South America, Mount St. Helens in the United States or Pinatubo in the Philippines -- the level is particularly high, around 60-65 percent. The volcanic ash in these areas consists of andesite, which has a melting temperature of less than 1,000 degrees Celsius (1,832 degrees Fahrenheit.)
Like Sandpaper
Higher temperatures than that are usually reached in the turbines of modern jet engines during flight, meaning the ash will melt when it enters the turbine. "This then forms a fine molten film of andesite," Münker explains. This settles on the engine's blades and can clog the turbine's cooling air ducts. In 1989 this almost led to the crash of the KLM jumbo jet.
However, the ash from Eyjafjallajökull is not made up of andesite but of basalt, which has a silicate level of only 50 percent. Basalt volcanic dust only melts at 1,200 degrees Celsius. Temperatures of this level are only usually reached during take-off, when the engines are working at maximum thrust. It is for this reason that basalt ash shouldn't melt in the turbines.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,690341,00.html#ref=nlint
I suspect we are going to hear a lot more of requests for taxpayer cash for Europe’s airlines, after all, it’s only fiat money after all, and we bailed out banksters and car makers, why not the candlestick makers and airlines. Ryan Air makes the case that they sell tickets for £27 and can’t be expected to cover the cost of putting up stranded passengers nor feeding them, which all sounds reasonable enough. Except they chose to operate this particular business model under EU laws that that require them to cover those costs. They chose not to insure against the possibility that, however rare, a massive travel dislocation event might occur. They even chose not to minimize their loss by buying in insurance after the event had started, expensive though that might have been. Why should Europe’s heavily taxed (Greeks excepted,), long suffering taxpayers be expected to cover Ryan Air’s flawed business model, and wrong decision not to buy in some insurance? And if following the law becomes optional, there’s a whole lot of laws I want to pass on.
Next the SEC considers action against US banks copying Lehman’s Repo 105 fraud. My only thought, what’s to consider? It’s wrong, and supposedly already against US law if done to deliberately mislead, as if there could be any other reason to do it. The next Lehman is still out there lurching towards certain death. Read Professor Black’s testimony on Lehman, posted on the new blogsite on the page “Intraday News”. "Public Policy Issues Raised by the Report of the
Lehman Bankruptcy Examiner"
http://londonirvinereport.blogspot.com/p/intraday-news.html
APRIL 21, 2010
Debt 'Masking' Under Fire
SEC Considers New Rules to Deter Banks From Dressing Up Books; Ghost of Lehman
The Securities and Exchange Commission is considering new rules that would prevent financial firms from masking the risks they take by temporarily lowering their debt levels before quarterly reports to the public are due.
SEC Chairwoman Mary Schapiro's disclosure, at a hearing of the House Committee on Financial Services, came two weeks after The Wall Street Journal reported that 18 large banks had consistently lowered one type of debt at the end of each of the past five quarters, reducing it on average by 42% from quarterly peaks.
That practice, if done intentionally to deceive, already violates SEC guidelines, an official said. But now, the SEC is weighing requiring stricter disclosure and a clearer rationale from firms about their quarter-end borrowing activities. The agency may also extend these rules to all companies, not just banks.
Excessive borrowing by banks is widely considered to be one of the causes of the financial crisis, leading to bank runs in 2008 on firms including Bear Stearns Cos. and Lehman Brothers. Since then, banks have grown more sensitive about showing high levels of debt and risk, worried that their stocks and credit ratings could be punished.
Tuesday's hearing focused on a recent report by a bankruptcy examiner that found that Lehman Brothers, through transactions the firm dubbed "Repo 105s," had hidden its true debt levels before its collapse by treating certain loans as sales, thus reducing its end-of-quarter debt levels.
Rep. Gregory W. Meeks (D., N.Y.) asked Ms. Schapiro about The Journal's findings regarding banks' end-of-quarter debt reductions. "It appears investment banks are temporarily lowering risk when they have to report results, [then] they're leveraging up with additional risk right after," Mr. Meeks said. "So my question is: Is that still being tolerated today by regulators, especially in light of what took place with reference to Lehman?"
Ms. Schapiro said the commission is gathering detailed information from large banks, "so that we don't just have them dress up the balance sheet for quarter end and then have dramatic increases during the course of the quarter."
She added: "We are considering whether...we need new rules to prevent sort of the masking of debt or liquidity at quarter end, as we saw Lehman do with the Repo 105 transaction."
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703763904575196334069503298.html?mod=WSJ_hps_MIDDLETopStories
We end for the day with Greece, where a new round of strikes is underway. A sort of Great Britain with sun, for after the general election, I fear. Stay long precious metals for the coming Greek default.
Greek Workers to Strike Today as Papandreou Faces Bond Rout
April 22 (Bloomberg) -- Greek civil servants will strike today in their fourth national walkout this year as surging bond yields put pressure on the government to activate a European Union bailout and accept more spending cuts.
The strike will shutter hospital and schools and also affect ministries and government offices, according to an e- mailed statement from Athens-based ADEDY, the umbrella group for more than 500,000 state workers. It will hold a rally in central Athens at 11 a.m. local time.
Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou is under fire from voters who say his austerity measures have gone too far and from investors who argue that further action is needed to cut the EU’s largest budget deficit. As Greece meets EU and International Monetary Fund officials to agree on the conditions tied to any loan, the extra yield investors demand to hold Greek debt over German bonds has surged to a record 522 basis points.
“Papandreou is caught between a rock and a hard place,” said Jacques Cailloux, chief European Economist at Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc. “The market has zero confidence in what the Greeks are saying, and any further austerity measures pushed for by the IMF could be the ones that break the camel’s back if they are deemed unfair by the population. He doesn’t have any option though.”
Today’s strike isn’t expected to affect public transport or air traffic, after air-traffic controllers postponed a planned walkout to clear a backlog of flights caused by the spread of volcanic ash from Iceland across Europe.
Belt-Tightening
Greek officials yesterday began talks on activating a 45 billion-euro ($60 billion) emergency aid package, with 9 out of 10 people surveyed in an opinion poll in Eleftheros Typos expecting the IMF to insist on more belt-tightening measures.
The main opposition party, the center-right New Democracy, said Papandreou is responsible for driving the country into the IMF’s arms. Dimitris Papadimoulis, a lawmaker for the Syriza left coalition group, said in parliament yesterday the IMF’s involvement hangs “like a cloud of volcanic ash over Greeks.”
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=auoUeDqdr0rY&pos=5
At this point it is too early to tell what went wrong in the Gulf of Mexico at the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, and the story is well covered in the mainstream media, but it is an energy story with big implications, and we will be following further developments with great interest. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families of those involved.
At the Comex silver depositories Wednesday, final figures were: Registered 50.20 Moz, Eligible 65.20 Moz, Total 115.40 Moz.
+++++
Crooks & Scoundrels Corner.
The bent, the seriously bent, and the totally doubled over.
“First Iceland goes bankrupt, then it manages to set itself on fire. This has insurance scam written all over it.” Anon.
Today, the winner is Germany, “Vee hauf vays ov vinning zee Vorld Kup!” Below, Professor Tolan goes for best of two. Nutty professors, it seems, aren’t just a specialty of California. Below that, the great vampire squid goes all patriotic.
“Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.”
Samuel Johnson.
Germany will win World Cup, science professor calculates
A university professor has developed a mathematical formula which, he claims, shows Germany will win the 2010 World Cup in South Africa this June.
Published: 1:46PM BST 21 Apr 2010
Germany face Australia, Serbia and Ghana in Group D, but Prof Metin Tolan, a physics professor at the University of Dortmund, is convinced German captain Michael Ballack will be lifting the World Cup following the final on July 11.
The scientist has written a formula based on trigonometry which analyses all Germany's results from previous World Cups and predicts a winner for this year's tournament.
Having won the World Cup three times, in 1954, 1974 and 1990, Germany's average finishing place at previous tournaments is 3.7 and Prof Tolan says his formula shows this will be Germany's year to lift the trophy.
"It is very simple, all my calculations prove this," he told Germany magazine "Zeit Wissen".
"The last time we won the World Cup was back in 1990 and there have been four tournaments since," explained Tolan.
"The average finishing place of the Germany team is 3.7 and the German team wins the title every fourth or fifth World Cup.
"Nobody can beat us this year and you can already put the champagne on ice."
Prof Tolan already predicted Germany would win the last World Cup, which they hosted in 2006, but unfortunately for his theory, the home nation was beaten by eventual winners Italy in the semi-finals.
"My formula gave the winner for the following World Cup, this is why it works this time for sure," he explained undeterred after Jurgen Klinsmann's side beat Portugal 3-1 to finish third at the last World Cup.
But Prof Tolan's equations could also help Germany's arch-rivals England, who were dumped out of the last World Cup after being beaten on penalties by Portugal, as Fabio Capello's side have a history of struggling with spot-kicks.
"The weakest kicker should take the first penalty, then the second-weakest and so on," he said.
"Then you have the greatest chance of scoring as many goals as possible." http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/world-cup-2010/7614446/Germany-will-win-World-Cup-science-professor-calculates.html
Blankfein fights back on SEC case
By Henny Sender in New York and Stephanie Kirchgaessner in Washington Published: April 22 2010 00:42 Last updated: April 22 2010 00:42
Lloyd Blankfein on Wednesday attacked the Securities & Exchange Commission’s fraud charges in telephone calls to ¬clients as Goldman escalated its campaign to stem the damage to the firm’s reputation.
One person who received a call from the Goldman chief said he was told the regulator’s case against the bank was politically motivated and would ultimately “hurt America”.
Mr Blankfein mounted the campaign to bolster the confidence of its business partners in the wake of the SEC charges that the bank had sold investors a security designed to fail.
In the conversations with private equity executives and others, Mr Blankfein left clients with the impression that he was eager to fight the charges in court. The SEC has requested a jury trial.
“He was very aggressive,” said one person called by Mr Blankfein on Wednesday. “He feels that the government is out to kill them, that they are under attack and the whole thing is totally political.” Mr Blankfein said the SEC action “hurts America”, this person said.
Mr Blankfein did not initiate talk about the politics or timing of the SEC charge, announced on Friday. A person familiar with the matter said: “Clients brought up the politics . . . and there was a discussion around the context of what happened.”
Mr Blankfein’s charm offensive with clients came as it emerged that Fabrice Tourre, the Goldman employee also named in the SEC case, would appear with him next week before a US Senate panel investigating Wall Street’s role in the financial crisis.
Mr Blankfein said a female staffer at ACA, the manager of the security, new that Paulson & Co intended to bet against the transaction, according to a person that was called. This goes against the SEC charges that Goldman failed to disclose that Paulson was taking the opposite side of the deal. Paulson’s short position yielded it a profit of about $1bn while investors who bought into the security lost $1bn, the SEC complaint says.
Goldman this week bolstered its legal team by hiring Greg Craig, a former counsel to the Obama White House. Though Mr Blankfein did not indicate on the calls whether he was considering settling the suit, some clients close to Goldman say they believe it is gearing up for a fight. “They will likely fight aggressively and hope to win clean,” the person said. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/a62b8a5c-4d9b-11df-9560-00144feab49a.html
"I want us to do even more to encourage the risk takers"
Gordon Brown. 2004.
“Prime Minister Gordon Brown called yesterday for the Financial Services Authority to start an inquiry, saying he was “shocked” at the “moral bankruptcy” indicated in the suit.”
Gordon Brown. 2010.
Why A UK Hung Parliament is Likely. Stay long precious Metals.
http://www.ukpollingreport.co.uk/blog/
Showing posts with label Lehman. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lehman. Show all posts
Thursday, 22 April 2010
Wednesday, 31 March 2010
“Where on earth has the SEC been?”
Baltic Dry Index. 2982 -39
LIR Gold Target by 2019: $3,000.
Those have a short Lent, who owe money to be paid at Easter.
Benjamin Franklin
For the next few days of Holy Week there won’t be a daily LIR update. Check with the blogs for possible updates as news warrants. We wish all our Christian readers, and all who are celebrating Easter at this time, a very happy and holy Easter 2010. The next regular update will be on Monday April 5th.
More on the SEC later. We open today with Climategate, and the UK’s “independent” enquiry into the University of East Anglia’s dodgy Climate Research Unit. Operating on the traditional British fair play rules of hear no evil, see no evil and speak no evil, especially when it involves a British institution and all 3 UK political parties are signed up members of the global warming camp, the investigation is widely expected to come up with the desired result. So how independent is a “Perfidious Albion” enquiry into dodgy climate science and cover up? Below, the Telegraph covers the story.
There has been a curious by-product of the attempts being made by the University of East Anglia to whitewash last November's embarrassing leak of documents from its Climatic Research Unit. Since it set up not one but two supposedly "independent" inquiries into the "Climategate" affair, climate sceptics were intrigued but not entirely surprised to find that almost all their members were committed, even fanatical advocates of global warming, and hence unlikely to be over-critical of the CRU's bizarre record.
Most recently, the sceptics have been particularly intrigued by the background of the man chosen by the university to chair an assessment of the CRU's scientific record. Lord Oxburgh declared on his appointment that he is linked to major wind-farm and renewable-energy companies. He admitted that he advises Climate Change Capital, which manages funds worth $1.5 billion, hoping to cash in on the "opportunities created by the transition to a low-carbon economy", in a world market potentially worth – its website boasts – $45 trilllion.
What Lord Oxburgh kept quiet about, however, is that he is also a director and vice-chairman of a strange little private company few of us had heard of known as Globe International. The name stands for "Global Legislators Organisation for a Balanced Environment", and it describes itself as a worldwide network to lobby governments to take more drastic action on climate change. Globe is certainly well-connected, as it showed just before last December's Copenhagen conference by staging a seminar addressed by, among others, the conference's chairman Yvo de Boer, as well as Nancy Pelosi and Ed Markey, the leaders of the campaign to push a cap-and trade-scheme – which could make a lot of people fabulously rich – through the US Congress.
The international president of this lobbying organisation turns out to be none other than Stephen Byers MP, now best known for his description of himself on last week's Dispatches as "like a cab for hire", happy to take £5,000 a day for using his influence as a lobbyist.
Globe clearly knows how to pick its men. Its UK parliamentary team also includes Elliot Morley MP, Globe's former president, and David Chaytor MP, both of whom now face criminal charges for fraud in connection with their expenses claims, Considering the record of some of his colleagues, it is perhaps not surprising that Lord Oxburgh was not too keen to declare his interest in this odd little outfit when he was appointed to chair an inquiry as to whether the world can rely on the evidence produced by the CRU to support its advocacy for global warming.
The fund-raising requirement was announced after the National Asset Management Agency said it will apply an average discount of 47 percent on the first block of loans it is buying from lenders as part of a plan to revive the financial system. The central bank set new capital buffers for Allied Irish Banks Plc and Bank of Ireland Plc and gave them 30 days to say how they will raise the funds.
“Our worst fears have been surpassed,” Finance Minister Brian Lenihan said in the parliament in Dublin yesterday. “Irish banking made appalling lending decisions that will cost the taxpayer dearly for years to come.”
The agency aims to cleanse banks of toxic loans, the legacy of plunging real-estate prices and the country’s deepest ever recession. In all, it will buy loans with a book value of 80 billion euros ($107 billion), about half the size of the economy.
“The information that has emerged from the banks in the course of the NAMA process is truly shocking,” Lenihan said.
---- Ireland may not be able to afford to pump more money into the banks. The budget deficit widened to 11.7 percent of gross domestic product last year, almost four times the European Union limit, and the government spent the past year trying to convince investors the state is in control of its finances.
The premium investors charge to hold Irish 10-year debt over the German equivalent was at 139 basis points yesterday compared with 284 basis points in March 2009, a 16-year high.
Ireland’s debt agency said it doesn’t envisage additional borrowing this year related to the bank recapitalization. It is sticking to its 2010 bond issuance forecast of about 20 billion euros, head of funding Oliver Whelan said in an interview.
“The bank losses, awful as they are, represent a one-off hit. It’s water under the bridge,” said Ciaran O’Hagan, a Paris-based fixed-income strategist at Societe Generale SA. “What’s of more concern for investors in government bonds is the budget deficit. Slashing the chronic overspending and raising taxation by the Irish state is vital.”
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aiI8N1UP2rFM&pos=1
Over on the other side of the Atlantic, an ex-Clinton appointment, Robert Reich Secretary of Labor, finally gets it right on how Wall Street’s banksters were given free reign in the last decade. Rarely have I been on the same side as Clinton appointment, so this is perhaps a cheap shot, but where were you Mr. Reich from 2002-2007 as Mr. Greenspan and Co. unleashed the real estate bubble and triple-A swindle?
Fraud on the Street
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
The Securities and Exchange Commission announced Monday it had begun an inquiry into two dozen financial companies to determine whether they followed accounting practices similar to those recently disclosed in an investigation of Lehman Brothers.
Where on earth has the SEC been?
It’s now clear Lehman Brothers’ balance sheet was bogus before the bank collapsed in 2008, catapulting the Street and the world into the worse financial crisis since 1929. The Lehman bankruptcy examiner’s recent report details what just about everyone on the Street has known since the firm imploded – that Lehman defrauded its investors. Even Hank Paulson, in his recent memoir, referred to Lehman’s balance sheet as bogus.
In order to look like it could borrow $30 for every dollar of its own money, Lehman shifted liabilities off its books at the end of each quarter. Its CPA, Ernst and Young, approved of this fraud against the advice of its own whistle blower, whom Ernst and Young fired.
Lehman’s practices couldn’t have been all that different from those of every other big bank on the Street. After all, they were all competing for the same business, and using many of the same techniques. Lehman was just the first to go under, causing a financial run that led George W. to warn “this sucker could go down” unless the federal government came up with hundreds of billions to bail out the others.
In other words, the TARP covered the other bankers’ assets and asses.
We now know, for example, Goldman Sachs helped Greece hide its public debt and then placed financial bets that Greece would default, using credit-default swaps to avoid risking its own capital. It’s the same tactic Goldman used for (and against) American International Group (AIG): Hide the ball, and then bet against the ball and fob off the risk to investors and taxpayers, using derivatives to remove the risky tactics from the balance sheets. Even today no one knows the fair value of the complex derivatives underlying these and related maneuvers, which is exactly the point.
But wait. We already have a law designed to stop this sort of fraud. It’s called the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.
Obama to Open Offshore Areas to Oil Drilling for First Time
By JOHN M. BRODER Published: March 30, 2010
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is proposing to open vast expanses of water along the Atlantic coastline, the eastern Gulf of Mexico and the north coast of Alaska to oil and natural gas drilling, much of it for the first time, officials said Tuesday.
The proposal — a compromise that will please oil companies and domestic drilling advocates but anger some residents of affected states and many environmental organizations — would end a longstanding moratorium on oil exploration along the East Coast from the northern tip of Delaware to the central coast of Florida, covering 167 million acres of ocean.
Under the plan, the coastline from New Jersey northward would remain closed to all oil and gas activity. So would the Pacific Coast, from Mexico to the Canadian border.
The environmentally sensitive Bristol Bay in southwestern Alaska would be protected and no drilling would be allowed under the plan, officials said. But large tracts in the Chukchi Sea and Beaufort Sea in the Arctic Ocean north of Alaska — nearly 130 million acres — would be eligible for exploration and drilling after extensive studies.
The proposal is to be announced by President Obama and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland on Wednesday, but administration officials agreed to preview the details on the condition that they not be identified.
The proposal is intended to reduce dependence on oil imports, generate revenue from the sale of offshore leases and help win political support for comprehensive energy and climate legislation.
But while Mr. Obama has staked out middle ground on other environmental matters — supporting nuclear power, for example — the sheer breadth of the offshore drilling decision will take some of his supporters aback. And it is no sure thing that it will win support for a climate bill from undecided senators close to the oil industry, like Lisa Murkowski, Republican of Alaska, or Mary L. Landrieu, Democrat of Louisiana.
The Senate is expected to take up a climate bill in the next few weeks — the last chance to enact such legislation before midterm election concerns take over. Mr. Obama and his allies in the Senate have already made significant concessions on coal and nuclear power to try to win votes from Republicans and moderate Democrats. The new plan now grants one of the biggest items on the oil industry’s wish list — access to vast areas of the Outer Continental Shelf for drilling.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/31/science/earth/31energy.html?hp
As with nearly everything, the devil is in the details, and this policy shift is a sop to get votes to get a climate bill passed. A climate bill based on the myth of man made global warming, and designed to further the ends of the great vampire squids and carbon trading scams.
At the Comex silver depositories Tuesday, final figures were: Registered 54.24 Moz, Eligible 61.77 Moz, Total 116.01 Moz.
See the land, her Easter keeping,
+++++
US Investigators Crack Down on Daimler's Culture of Corruption
By Dietmar Hawranek 03/30/2010
After corruption scandals involving engineering giant Siemens and truck manufacturer MAN, Daimler is now in the spotlight. The US is pressing charges against the carmaker over alleged bribery payments to foreign governments. The case will likely be settled out of court.
Sometimes two letters are enough to tell an entire story. In this case, the two letters, which were printed on the labels of three files in a safe at the Mercedes-Benz office in Istanbul, were "N.A."
The German automaker produces busses in Turkey, which it sells in countries around the world, including North Korea, Latvia, Bulgaria, Romania and Russia. The company apparently paid €3.3 million ($4.4 million) in bribes to secure business in these countries.
This, at least, is the way the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) interprets the content of the files with the letters "N.A." -- an abbreviation for the words "Nützliche Aufwendungen" ("useful payments") -- printed on the label. It's another -- and very German -- way of saying "bribes."
The story behind the files is particularly dramatic, because it also involved the suicide of an executive. Rudi K., who worked for Mercedes-Benz's parent company Daimler in Nigeria, was apparently involved in the payments. He was faced with a difficult choice: report poor sales figures or risk a jail term.
American attorneys questioned K. for several days. He later told his wife that he was treated like a hardened criminal and was under "enormous pressure." Then K. committed suicide.
The affair has proved to be extremely expensive for automaker Daimler, which is set to pay $185 million to settle a lawsuit in the United States. The case raises many questions. How could a respected global corporation like Daimler apparently have violated German and international law for years by paying bribes in at least 22 countries around the world? Could it be that the Daimler case is in fact typical for Germany, which until recently was the world's largest exporter? Are German companies as good at corruption as they are at exporting?
http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/0,1518,686238,00.html#ref=nlint
It was enough to arouse suspicions. For many years, there had been recurring stories about presumed bribe payments by Essen-based plant construction group Ferrostaal. In one case, the company allegedly paid 200,000 deutsche marks (€102,258, $138,099) to former Indonesian President Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie. In another, the family of former Nigerian dictator Sani Abacha is believed to have received 460 million deutsche marks for the construction of a metal-processing plant.
Few of these allegations have stood up in court, however, partly because some of the payments occurred during a period when so-called "useful expenditures," or payments made to procure contracts, were not yet illegal in Germany.
But since Wednesday of last week, there are many indications that bribery payments were commonplace at Ferrostaal. Klaus Lesker, a member of the executive board, was arrested last week, and the Munich public prosecutor's office is also investigating two former board members and other senior executives for "a particularly serious case of bribing foreign officials in connection with international business arrangements," as well as for suspected tax evasion.
The prosecutors' list of suspects now includes about a dozen people. Investigators have their sights set on five projects, worth a total of almost one billion euros, which the group is believed to have secured through bribery.
The investigators also believe that the numbers could quickly rise in the coming days. "What we have now is just the beginning," says one official.
A few key documents already fell into the hands of prosecutors last year, during their corruption probe into Ferrostaal's former parent company, engineering group MAN. Last July, authorities conducted a raid on Ferrostaal offices in Essen because they suspected that bribes had been paid in connection with the sale of eight oceangoing tugs to a Hamburg shipping company.
Did Ferrostaal Arrange Bribes for Other Firms?
In the proceedings that has now been launched, under case number 565 Js 33037/10, the investigators can apparently rely on the extensive testimony of two witnesses. The allegations against Ferrostaal are serious: Did the company not only pay bribes itself for years, but also do the dirty work on behalf of other companies in return for a fee?
A case in point is that of Giesecke & Devrient, a Munich-based company that specializes in banknote and securities printing. The case concerns the sale of five printing and embossing machines, as well as a system used to destroy banknotes, to the Indonesian state-owned banknote printing company. Ferrostaal is believed to have brokered the deal and, through a consultant, paid bribes to local officials.
Giesecke & Devrient, which is also under investigation, says it "has not been aware of any irregularities to date."
http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/0,1518,686513,00.html#ref=nlint
But from this earth, this grave, this dust,
The monthly Coppock Indicators finished February:
DJIA: +95 UP. NASDAQ: +291 UP. SP500: +118 UP. The great Bull market goes on with the all three continuing higher in positive numbers.
----During the period from 1645 to 1715, the Sun entered a period of low activity now known as the Maunder Minimum, when through several 11- year periods the Sun displayed few if any sunspots. Models of the Sun's irradiance suggest that the solar energy input to the Earth decreased during that time and that this change in solar activity could explain the low temperatures recorded in Europe during the Little Ice Age.
----The same data were later published [Penn and Livingston, 2006], and the observations showed that the magnetic field strength in sunspots were decreasing with time, independent of the sunspot cycle. A simple linear extrapolation of those data suggested that sunspots might completely vanish by 2015.These observations caused researchers to wonder whether the characteristics of sunspots are different now than in other solar cycles.http://www.leif.org/EOS/2009EO300001.pdf
Big freeze could signal global warming 'pause'
The Arctic conditions which have brought Britain to a standstill over the past week could be the start of a "pause" in global warming, some scientists believe.
Published: 9:20AM GMT 11 Jan 2010
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/globalwarming/6965342/Big-freeze-could-signal-global-warming-pause.html
Sunspot cycle 24: Together with sunspot cycle 25, the next two global cooling cycles. The new “Dalton Minimum?” Twenty Eight months now with low sunspots numbers, and counting. February was the 28th month of yet another low number of 18.6 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dalton_Minimum
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This week’s featured links: Silver & Gold Miners + Rare Metals.
With US trillion dollar deficits stretching as far as the eye can see, and voodoo economics the order of the day at the central banks, I think it is now time to begin selectively scaling into precious metals companies that mostly meet the following criteria:
Adequate cash reserves. Good management. Strong in-ground reserves or prospects. NAFTA based, or else located in countries with strong rule of law.
Endeavour Silver Corp. TSX: EDR. http://www.edrsilver.com/s/Home.asp
Semafo TSX: SMF http://www.semafo.com/home_company_intro.php
ATW Gold Corp. TSX.V: ATW. http://www.atwgold.com/
US Silver Corp. TSX.V: USA. http://www.us-silver.com/s/Home.asp
Excellon Resources Inc. TSX: EXN. http://www.excellonresources.com/
First Majestic Silver Corp. TSX: FR http://www.firstmajestic.com/s/Home.asp
New Jersey Mining Company. OTCBB: NJMC
http://www.newjerseymining.com/index.html
Atna Resources Ltd. TSX: ATN. http://www.atna.com/s/Home.asp
Barkerville Gold Mines TSX.V: BGM. Formerly International Wayside Gold Mines Ltd.
http://www.barkervillegold.com/s/Home.asp
Shoreham Resources Ltd. TSX-V: SMH
http://www.shoreham.ca/
ATAC Resources Ltd, TSX.V: ATC. http://www.atacresources.com/s/home.asp
Evolving Gold Corp. TSX.V: EVG http://www.evolvinggold.com/
Lydian International Ltd. TSX: LYD. Note: LYD operates in Armenia, a region carrying higher risk than our usual safer picks in NAFTA lands. http://www.lydianinternational.co.uk/
The story of rare earths and metals is mostly one of China producing and exporting, Japan, America and everyone else importing. Vital to our new technologies, and lifestyle, and critical to hybrid and electric cars, Rare Earth Elements and Heavy Rare Earths, are a strategic choke point held in China’s hands. Lately China has been squeezing that choke point. I think that AVL at Thor Lake Canada, has a property of global importance. A property with the ability to offer NAFTA access to REEs and HREs for the decades ahead. As America and the west move to reduce over dependence on oil from unstable regions, we will see demand for rare metals take off.
Avalon Rare Metals Inc. TSX: AVL. http://www.avalonraremetals.com/
We will be adding more REEs as appropriate.
Warning.
Sadly we are all in unexplored territory. The world has never before suffered a severe recession/depression while operating on fiat currency. As is widely apparent, the central banks haven’t a clue and are making up the rules as the flounder along. They never saw it coming they claim, although it was obvious to many fine writers though not unfortunately in the mainstream media, that a giant financialised derivatives gambling economy would always end badly. There are no experts now, for the simple reason that we have never before faced such a sudden synchronised and deep collapse in the global economies.
The unfortunate fact that we are operating on fraudulent currencies is highly likely to mean it all ends many months from now, in a fiat currency revulsion, but only after the monetary authorities have first tried pouring in endless amounts of newly created money. A derivatives gambling world with an estimated quadrillion dollars of face value has to be unwound and the losses absorbed. In this sort of investing environment, cash, gold and silver and tangible assets are favoured over stocks and intangible assets.
As always if thinking about making an investment, it’s important to do one’s own due diligence. No one has more at risk in an investment than you do yourself. In these difficult economic times, there will likely be several false bottoms before the real one arrives and hindsight allows us to confirm that the bottom is in. Even then, a “V” shaped rebound is highly improbable. A double dip recession seems likely. Beware the false "statistical" government subsidised "recovery." It is a "recovery" bought from a future of fiat currency collapse.
Graeme Irvine
London Irvine Report: www.londonirvinereport.com/
Graeme@londonirvinereport.com
LIR Gold Target by 2019: $3,000.
Those have a short Lent, who owe money to be paid at Easter.
Benjamin Franklin
For the next few days of Holy Week there won’t be a daily LIR update. Check with the blogs for possible updates as news warrants. We wish all our Christian readers, and all who are celebrating Easter at this time, a very happy and holy Easter 2010. The next regular update will be on Monday April 5th.
More on the SEC later. We open today with Climategate, and the UK’s “independent” enquiry into the University of East Anglia’s dodgy Climate Research Unit. Operating on the traditional British fair play rules of hear no evil, see no evil and speak no evil, especially when it involves a British institution and all 3 UK political parties are signed up members of the global warming camp, the investigation is widely expected to come up with the desired result. So how independent is a “Perfidious Albion” enquiry into dodgy climate science and cover up? Below, the Telegraph covers the story.
Can we trust the 'Climategate' inquiry?
Sceptics have not been surprised to find that almost all the members of the 'Climategate' inquiry are committed advocates of global warming
By Christopher Booker Published: 6:24PM GMT 27 Mar 2010
Sceptics have not been surprised to find that almost all the members of the 'Climategate' inquiry are committed advocates of global warming
By Christopher Booker Published: 6:24PM GMT 27 Mar 2010
There has been a curious by-product of the attempts being made by the University of East Anglia to whitewash last November's embarrassing leak of documents from its Climatic Research Unit. Since it set up not one but two supposedly "independent" inquiries into the "Climategate" affair, climate sceptics were intrigued but not entirely surprised to find that almost all their members were committed, even fanatical advocates of global warming, and hence unlikely to be over-critical of the CRU's bizarre record.
Most recently, the sceptics have been particularly intrigued by the background of the man chosen by the university to chair an assessment of the CRU's scientific record. Lord Oxburgh declared on his appointment that he is linked to major wind-farm and renewable-energy companies. He admitted that he advises Climate Change Capital, which manages funds worth $1.5 billion, hoping to cash in on the "opportunities created by the transition to a low-carbon economy", in a world market potentially worth – its website boasts – $45 trilllion.
What Lord Oxburgh kept quiet about, however, is that he is also a director and vice-chairman of a strange little private company few of us had heard of known as Globe International. The name stands for "Global Legislators Organisation for a Balanced Environment", and it describes itself as a worldwide network to lobby governments to take more drastic action on climate change. Globe is certainly well-connected, as it showed just before last December's Copenhagen conference by staging a seminar addressed by, among others, the conference's chairman Yvo de Boer, as well as Nancy Pelosi and Ed Markey, the leaders of the campaign to push a cap-and trade-scheme – which could make a lot of people fabulously rich – through the US Congress.
The international president of this lobbying organisation turns out to be none other than Stephen Byers MP, now best known for his description of himself on last week's Dispatches as "like a cab for hire", happy to take £5,000 a day for using his influence as a lobbyist.
Globe clearly knows how to pick its men. Its UK parliamentary team also includes Elliot Morley MP, Globe's former president, and David Chaytor MP, both of whom now face criminal charges for fraud in connection with their expenses claims, Considering the record of some of his colleagues, it is perhaps not surprising that Lord Oxburgh was not too keen to declare his interest in this odd little outfit when he was appointed to chair an inquiry as to whether the world can rely on the evidence produced by the CRU to support its advocacy for global warming.
But I am sure we can all have every confidence as to which way his inquiry's conclusions are likely to point.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/7530961/Can-we-trust-the-Climategate-inquiry.html
Below, more on Bloomberg on yesterday’s story on Irish banks. The “true” recapitalisation they need is $43 billion, it now turns out. On this basis, probably the Economist magazine is correct in assessing that the real Greek debt problem is $75 billion rather than the EU-IMF rescue package of $25 billion.
Irish Banks Need $43 Billion on ‘Appalling’ Lending
By Dara Doyle and Colm Heatley
March 31 (Bloomberg) -- Ireland’s banks need $43 billion in new capital after “appalling” lending decisions left the country’s financial system on the brink of collapse.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/7530961/Can-we-trust-the-Climategate-inquiry.html
Below, more on Bloomberg on yesterday’s story on Irish banks. The “true” recapitalisation they need is $43 billion, it now turns out. On this basis, probably the Economist magazine is correct in assessing that the real Greek debt problem is $75 billion rather than the EU-IMF rescue package of $25 billion.
Irish Banks Need $43 Billion on ‘Appalling’ Lending
By Dara Doyle and Colm Heatley
March 31 (Bloomberg) -- Ireland’s banks need $43 billion in new capital after “appalling” lending decisions left the country’s financial system on the brink of collapse.
The fund-raising requirement was announced after the National Asset Management Agency said it will apply an average discount of 47 percent on the first block of loans it is buying from lenders as part of a plan to revive the financial system. The central bank set new capital buffers for Allied Irish Banks Plc and Bank of Ireland Plc and gave them 30 days to say how they will raise the funds.
“Our worst fears have been surpassed,” Finance Minister Brian Lenihan said in the parliament in Dublin yesterday. “Irish banking made appalling lending decisions that will cost the taxpayer dearly for years to come.”
The agency aims to cleanse banks of toxic loans, the legacy of plunging real-estate prices and the country’s deepest ever recession. In all, it will buy loans with a book value of 80 billion euros ($107 billion), about half the size of the economy.
“The information that has emerged from the banks in the course of the NAMA process is truly shocking,” Lenihan said.
---- Ireland may not be able to afford to pump more money into the banks. The budget deficit widened to 11.7 percent of gross domestic product last year, almost four times the European Union limit, and the government spent the past year trying to convince investors the state is in control of its finances.
The premium investors charge to hold Irish 10-year debt over the German equivalent was at 139 basis points yesterday compared with 284 basis points in March 2009, a 16-year high.
Ireland’s debt agency said it doesn’t envisage additional borrowing this year related to the bank recapitalization. It is sticking to its 2010 bond issuance forecast of about 20 billion euros, head of funding Oliver Whelan said in an interview.
“The bank losses, awful as they are, represent a one-off hit. It’s water under the bridge,” said Ciaran O’Hagan, a Paris-based fixed-income strategist at Societe Generale SA. “What’s of more concern for investors in government bonds is the budget deficit. Slashing the chronic overspending and raising taxation by the Irish state is vital.”
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aiI8N1UP2rFM&pos=1
Over on the other side of the Atlantic, an ex-Clinton appointment, Robert Reich Secretary of Labor, finally gets it right on how Wall Street’s banksters were given free reign in the last decade. Rarely have I been on the same side as Clinton appointment, so this is perhaps a cheap shot, but where were you Mr. Reich from 2002-2007 as Mr. Greenspan and Co. unleashed the real estate bubble and triple-A swindle?
Fraud on the Street
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
The Securities and Exchange Commission announced Monday it had begun an inquiry into two dozen financial companies to determine whether they followed accounting practices similar to those recently disclosed in an investigation of Lehman Brothers.
Where on earth has the SEC been?
It’s now clear Lehman Brothers’ balance sheet was bogus before the bank collapsed in 2008, catapulting the Street and the world into the worse financial crisis since 1929. The Lehman bankruptcy examiner’s recent report details what just about everyone on the Street has known since the firm imploded – that Lehman defrauded its investors. Even Hank Paulson, in his recent memoir, referred to Lehman’s balance sheet as bogus.
In order to look like it could borrow $30 for every dollar of its own money, Lehman shifted liabilities off its books at the end of each quarter. Its CPA, Ernst and Young, approved of this fraud against the advice of its own whistle blower, whom Ernst and Young fired.
Lehman’s practices couldn’t have been all that different from those of every other big bank on the Street. After all, they were all competing for the same business, and using many of the same techniques. Lehman was just the first to go under, causing a financial run that led George W. to warn “this sucker could go down” unless the federal government came up with hundreds of billions to bail out the others.
In other words, the TARP covered the other bankers’ assets and asses.
We now know, for example, Goldman Sachs helped Greece hide its public debt and then placed financial bets that Greece would default, using credit-default swaps to avoid risking its own capital. It’s the same tactic Goldman used for (and against) American International Group (AIG): Hide the ball, and then bet against the ball and fob off the risk to investors and taxpayers, using derivatives to remove the risky tactics from the balance sheets. Even today no one knows the fair value of the complex derivatives underlying these and related maneuvers, which is exactly the point.
Congress is now struggling to come up with legislation to stop this from happening again. And the Street is struggling to stop Congress. As of now, the Street’s political payoffs seem to be working. Proposed legislation still allows secret derivative trading in foreign-exchange swaps (similar to what Goldman used to help Greece hide its debt) and in transactions between big banks and many of their corporate clients (as with AIG).
But wait. We already have a law designed to stop this sort of fraud. It’s called the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.
Think back to the corporate looting scandals that came to light almost a decade ago when the balance sheets of Enron, WorldCom, and others were shown to be fake, causing their investors to lose their shirts. Nearly every major investment bank played a part in the fraud — not only advising the companies but also urging investors to buy their stocks when the banks’ own analysts privately described them as junk.
Sarbanes-Oxley – Sarbox, as it’s come to be known – was designed to stop this. It requires CEOs and other senior executives to take personal responsibility for the accuracy and completeness of their companies’ financial reports and to set up internal controls to assure the accuracy and completeness of the reports. If they don’t, they’re subject to fines and criminal penalties.
Sarbox is directly relevant to the off-the-balance-sheet derivative games the Street played and continues to play. No bank CEO can faithfully attest to the accuracy and completeness of its financial reports when derivatives guarantee that the reports are incomplete and deceptive.
So where has the SEC been?
http://robertreich.org/post/485015444/fraud-on-the-street
We have finally reached the end of the month and end of quarter. The Fed’s market wizards and others, take to the field today to window dress the markets. The great disconnect from economic reality has never been greater. In our Kafkaesque, Alice in Wonderland, bankster mark to the model accounting world, the bailed out banksters are back betting the ranch in too big to fail “prop trading,” and busy paying out the bonuses before the next Lehman hits. Stay long precious metals. There is no reason to think it ends any better second time around.
We end for today and Easter with the NY Times on a major policy shift in US energy plans. The US government is finally making plans to reduce US oil dependency on ever more unstable overseas supply. Of course, that assumes that oil is actually found in commercial quantities and gets exploited.
http://robertreich.org/post/485015444/fraud-on-the-street
We have finally reached the end of the month and end of quarter. The Fed’s market wizards and others, take to the field today to window dress the markets. The great disconnect from economic reality has never been greater. In our Kafkaesque, Alice in Wonderland, bankster mark to the model accounting world, the bailed out banksters are back betting the ranch in too big to fail “prop trading,” and busy paying out the bonuses before the next Lehman hits. Stay long precious metals. There is no reason to think it ends any better second time around.
We end for today and Easter with the NY Times on a major policy shift in US energy plans. The US government is finally making plans to reduce US oil dependency on ever more unstable overseas supply. Of course, that assumes that oil is actually found in commercial quantities and gets exploited.
Obama to Open Offshore Areas to Oil Drilling for First Time
By JOHN M. BRODER Published: March 30, 2010
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is proposing to open vast expanses of water along the Atlantic coastline, the eastern Gulf of Mexico and the north coast of Alaska to oil and natural gas drilling, much of it for the first time, officials said Tuesday.
The proposal — a compromise that will please oil companies and domestic drilling advocates but anger some residents of affected states and many environmental organizations — would end a longstanding moratorium on oil exploration along the East Coast from the northern tip of Delaware to the central coast of Florida, covering 167 million acres of ocean.
Under the plan, the coastline from New Jersey northward would remain closed to all oil and gas activity. So would the Pacific Coast, from Mexico to the Canadian border.
The environmentally sensitive Bristol Bay in southwestern Alaska would be protected and no drilling would be allowed under the plan, officials said. But large tracts in the Chukchi Sea and Beaufort Sea in the Arctic Ocean north of Alaska — nearly 130 million acres — would be eligible for exploration and drilling after extensive studies.
The proposal is to be announced by President Obama and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland on Wednesday, but administration officials agreed to preview the details on the condition that they not be identified.
The proposal is intended to reduce dependence on oil imports, generate revenue from the sale of offshore leases and help win political support for comprehensive energy and climate legislation.
But while Mr. Obama has staked out middle ground on other environmental matters — supporting nuclear power, for example — the sheer breadth of the offshore drilling decision will take some of his supporters aback. And it is no sure thing that it will win support for a climate bill from undecided senators close to the oil industry, like Lisa Murkowski, Republican of Alaska, or Mary L. Landrieu, Democrat of Louisiana.
The Senate is expected to take up a climate bill in the next few weeks — the last chance to enact such legislation before midterm election concerns take over. Mr. Obama and his allies in the Senate have already made significant concessions on coal and nuclear power to try to win votes from Republicans and moderate Democrats. The new plan now grants one of the biggest items on the oil industry’s wish list — access to vast areas of the Outer Continental Shelf for drilling.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/31/science/earth/31energy.html?hp
As with nearly everything, the devil is in the details, and this policy shift is a sop to get votes to get a climate bill passed. A climate bill based on the myth of man made global warming, and designed to further the ends of the great vampire squids and carbon trading scams.
At the Comex silver depositories Tuesday, final figures were: Registered 54.24 Moz, Eligible 61.77 Moz, Total 116.01 Moz.
See the land, her Easter keeping,
Rises as her Maker rose.
Seeds, so long in darkness sleeping,
Burst at last from winter snows.
Earth with heaven above rejoices...
Charles Kingsley
Charles Kingsley
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Crooks & Scoundrels Corner.
The bent, the seriously bent, and the totally doubled over.
He may look like an idiot and talk like an idiot but don't let that fool you. He really is an idiot.
Groucho Marx.
The envelope please. Today, it’s the turn of the crooks and scoundrels in Germany’s giant export industries. There may be another reason that Germany doesn’t want to bailout Greece, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Ireland. According to Der Spiegel below, it looks like much of Germany’s export success depends on “useful payments” to corrupt officials in the importing countries. Perhaps without the payments, Germany’s export miracle will turn into a bust.
Below, the SEC of all people, get on Germany’s case. The useless, toothless US Agency that looked the other way while the fraudster Madoff bilked mostly Jewish organizations and charities all around the world of up to 60 billion dollars, and who did nothing while Wall Street’s great vampire squids did “God’s Work,” and packaged and securitized, and sold on to unsuspecting brain dead “sophisticated” global investors, hundreds of billions of fraudulent “triple-A” toxic waste, even as they bet against the rubbish they were selling, nearly collapsing the whole global financial system in the process, this agency is now hot on the case of $4.4 million of alleged German bribes in East Europe. It’s a funny old world, on fiat money, regulatory selective enforcement and back door protectionism. My guess is that in retaliation it won’t be long before Brussels is putting Microsoft and others through the wringer again. And didn’t GM just demand German bribes to remain manufacturing in Germany? Whatever else it is, it isn’t capitalism in any meaningful sense.
The bent, the seriously bent, and the totally doubled over.
He may look like an idiot and talk like an idiot but don't let that fool you. He really is an idiot.
Groucho Marx.
The envelope please. Today, it’s the turn of the crooks and scoundrels in Germany’s giant export industries. There may be another reason that Germany doesn’t want to bailout Greece, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Ireland. According to Der Spiegel below, it looks like much of Germany’s export success depends on “useful payments” to corrupt officials in the importing countries. Perhaps without the payments, Germany’s export miracle will turn into a bust.
Below, the SEC of all people, get on Germany’s case. The useless, toothless US Agency that looked the other way while the fraudster Madoff bilked mostly Jewish organizations and charities all around the world of up to 60 billion dollars, and who did nothing while Wall Street’s great vampire squids did “God’s Work,” and packaged and securitized, and sold on to unsuspecting brain dead “sophisticated” global investors, hundreds of billions of fraudulent “triple-A” toxic waste, even as they bet against the rubbish they were selling, nearly collapsing the whole global financial system in the process, this agency is now hot on the case of $4.4 million of alleged German bribes in East Europe. It’s a funny old world, on fiat money, regulatory selective enforcement and back door protectionism. My guess is that in retaliation it won’t be long before Brussels is putting Microsoft and others through the wringer again. And didn’t GM just demand German bribes to remain manufacturing in Germany? Whatever else it is, it isn’t capitalism in any meaningful sense.
US Investigators Crack Down on Daimler's Culture of Corruption
By Dietmar Hawranek 03/30/2010
After corruption scandals involving engineering giant Siemens and truck manufacturer MAN, Daimler is now in the spotlight. The US is pressing charges against the carmaker over alleged bribery payments to foreign governments. The case will likely be settled out of court.
Sometimes two letters are enough to tell an entire story. In this case, the two letters, which were printed on the labels of three files in a safe at the Mercedes-Benz office in Istanbul, were "N.A."
The German automaker produces busses in Turkey, which it sells in countries around the world, including North Korea, Latvia, Bulgaria, Romania and Russia. The company apparently paid €3.3 million ($4.4 million) in bribes to secure business in these countries.
This, at least, is the way the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) interprets the content of the files with the letters "N.A." -- an abbreviation for the words "Nützliche Aufwendungen" ("useful payments") -- printed on the label. It's another -- and very German -- way of saying "bribes."
The story behind the files is particularly dramatic, because it also involved the suicide of an executive. Rudi K., who worked for Mercedes-Benz's parent company Daimler in Nigeria, was apparently involved in the payments. He was faced with a difficult choice: report poor sales figures or risk a jail term.
American attorneys questioned K. for several days. He later told his wife that he was treated like a hardened criminal and was under "enormous pressure." Then K. committed suicide.
The affair has proved to be extremely expensive for automaker Daimler, which is set to pay $185 million to settle a lawsuit in the United States. The case raises many questions. How could a respected global corporation like Daimler apparently have violated German and international law for years by paying bribes in at least 22 countries around the world? Could it be that the Daimler case is in fact typical for Germany, which until recently was the world's largest exporter? Are German companies as good at corruption as they are at exporting?
http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/0,1518,686238,00.html#ref=nlint
Germany's Ferrostaal Suspected of Organizing Bribes for Other Firms
By Jörg Schmitt 03/30/2010
German engineering group Ferrostaal is under suspicion of paying bribes to secure contracts and of organizing bribery payments on behalf of other firms for a fee. The case could have repercussions for the whole of German industry, says one former executive of MAN, Ferrostaal's former parent company.
By Jörg Schmitt 03/30/2010
German engineering group Ferrostaal is under suspicion of paying bribes to secure contracts and of organizing bribery payments on behalf of other firms for a fee. The case could have repercussions for the whole of German industry, says one former executive of MAN, Ferrostaal's former parent company.
It was enough to arouse suspicions. For many years, there had been recurring stories about presumed bribe payments by Essen-based plant construction group Ferrostaal. In one case, the company allegedly paid 200,000 deutsche marks (€102,258, $138,099) to former Indonesian President Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie. In another, the family of former Nigerian dictator Sani Abacha is believed to have received 460 million deutsche marks for the construction of a metal-processing plant.
Few of these allegations have stood up in court, however, partly because some of the payments occurred during a period when so-called "useful expenditures," or payments made to procure contracts, were not yet illegal in Germany.
But since Wednesday of last week, there are many indications that bribery payments were commonplace at Ferrostaal. Klaus Lesker, a member of the executive board, was arrested last week, and the Munich public prosecutor's office is also investigating two former board members and other senior executives for "a particularly serious case of bribing foreign officials in connection with international business arrangements," as well as for suspected tax evasion.
The prosecutors' list of suspects now includes about a dozen people. Investigators have their sights set on five projects, worth a total of almost one billion euros, which the group is believed to have secured through bribery.
The investigators also believe that the numbers could quickly rise in the coming days. "What we have now is just the beginning," says one official.
A few key documents already fell into the hands of prosecutors last year, during their corruption probe into Ferrostaal's former parent company, engineering group MAN. Last July, authorities conducted a raid on Ferrostaal offices in Essen because they suspected that bribes had been paid in connection with the sale of eight oceangoing tugs to a Hamburg shipping company.
Did Ferrostaal Arrange Bribes for Other Firms?
In the proceedings that has now been launched, under case number 565 Js 33037/10, the investigators can apparently rely on the extensive testimony of two witnesses. The allegations against Ferrostaal are serious: Did the company not only pay bribes itself for years, but also do the dirty work on behalf of other companies in return for a fee?
A case in point is that of Giesecke & Devrient, a Munich-based company that specializes in banknote and securities printing. The case concerns the sale of five printing and embossing machines, as well as a system used to destroy banknotes, to the Indonesian state-owned banknote printing company. Ferrostaal is believed to have brokered the deal and, through a consultant, paid bribes to local officials.
Giesecke & Devrient, which is also under investigation, says it "has not been aware of any irregularities to date."
http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/0,1518,686513,00.html#ref=nlint
But from this earth, this grave, this dust,
My God shall raise me up, I trust.
Sir Walter Raleigh
Sir Walter Raleigh
The monthly Coppock Indicators finished February:
DJIA: +95 UP. NASDAQ: +291 UP. SP500: +118 UP. The great Bull market goes on with the all three continuing higher in positive numbers.
+++++
Help the LIR fight Banksterism, the EU, and for sound money.
If you can, help the LIR stay around and make a difference. Please make a donation at the PayPal link on the website or better still become a sponsor for what looks like an exciting 2010. Capitalism not banksterism.
If you can, help the LIR stay around and make a difference. Please make a donation at the PayPal link on the website or better still become a sponsor for what looks like an exciting 2010. Capitalism not banksterism.
+++++
Sunspots – A 22 year colder world? (From 2004?)
Spotless Days March 30 Current Stretch: 0 days
2010 total: 6 days (7%)2009 total: 260 days (71%)Since 2004: 776 daysTypical Solar Min: 485 days
http://www.spaceweather.com/
The long minimum seems to have ended.
Spotless Days March 30 Current Stretch: 0 days
2010 total: 6 days (7%)2009 total: 260 days (71%)Since 2004: 776 daysTypical Solar Min: 485 days
http://www.spaceweather.com/
The long minimum seems to have ended.
New Solar Cycle Prediction
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2009/29may_noaaprediction.htm
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2009/29may_noaaprediction.htm
Are Sunspots Different During This Solar Minimum?
-----But something is unusual about the current sunspot cycle. The current solar minimum has been unusually long, and with more than 670 days without sunspots through June 2009, the number of spotless days has not been equaled since 1933.
-----But something is unusual about the current sunspot cycle. The current solar minimum has been unusually long, and with more than 670 days without sunspots through June 2009, the number of spotless days has not been equaled since 1933.
----During the period from 1645 to 1715, the Sun entered a period of low activity now known as the Maunder Minimum, when through several 11- year periods the Sun displayed few if any sunspots. Models of the Sun's irradiance suggest that the solar energy input to the Earth decreased during that time and that this change in solar activity could explain the low temperatures recorded in Europe during the Little Ice Age.
----The same data were later published [Penn and Livingston, 2006], and the observations showed that the magnetic field strength in sunspots were decreasing with time, independent of the sunspot cycle. A simple linear extrapolation of those data suggested that sunspots might completely vanish by 2015.These observations caused researchers to wonder whether the characteristics of sunspots are different now than in other solar cycles.http://www.leif.org/EOS/2009EO300001.pdf
Big freeze could signal global warming 'pause'
The Arctic conditions which have brought Britain to a standstill over the past week could be the start of a "pause" in global warming, some scientists believe.
Published: 9:20AM GMT 11 Jan 2010
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/globalwarming/6965342/Big-freeze-could-signal-global-warming-pause.html
Sunspot cycle 24: Together with sunspot cycle 25, the next two global cooling cycles. The new “Dalton Minimum?” Twenty Eight months now with low sunspots numbers, and counting. February was the 28th month of yet another low number of 18.6 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dalton_Minimum
Smoothed sunspot numbers (SSN). 2007, Oct. 0.9. The end of cycle 23.
Sunspot cycle 24: Nov 1.7. Dec 10.1. Jan 3.4. Feb 2.2. Mar 9.3 April 2.9. May: 2.9. June 3.1. July 0.5. August 0.5. Sep 1.1 Oct. 2.9. Nov. 4.1 Dec 0.8. Jan 1.5. Feb 1.4. Mar 0.7. Apr 1.2. May 2.9. June 2.6. July 3.5. Aug. 0.0. Sep 4.2. Oct 4.6. Nov 4.2. Dec 10.6 Jan 13.1 Feb 18.6
Sunspots. http://solarscience.msfc.nasa.gov/SunspotCycle.shtml
The count. http://sidc.oma.be/products/ri_hemispheric/
Why a New Minimum. http://sesfoundation.org/dalton_minimum.pdf
The “Carrington Event,” September 1, 1859.
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2008/06may_carringtonflare.htm
Current Space Weather.
http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/
Sunspot cycle 24: Nov 1.7. Dec 10.1. Jan 3.4. Feb 2.2. Mar 9.3 April 2.9. May: 2.9. June 3.1. July 0.5. August 0.5. Sep 1.1 Oct. 2.9. Nov. 4.1 Dec 0.8. Jan 1.5. Feb 1.4. Mar 0.7. Apr 1.2. May 2.9. June 2.6. July 3.5. Aug. 0.0. Sep 4.2. Oct 4.6. Nov 4.2. Dec 10.6 Jan 13.1 Feb 18.6
Sunspots. http://solarscience.msfc.nasa.gov/SunspotCycle.shtml
The count. http://sidc.oma.be/products/ri_hemispheric/
Why a New Minimum. http://sesfoundation.org/dalton_minimum.pdf
The “Carrington Event,” September 1, 1859.
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2008/06may_carringtonflare.htm
Current Space Weather.
http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/
++++
With US trillion dollar deficits stretching as far as the eye can see, and voodoo economics the order of the day at the central banks, I think it is now time to begin selectively scaling into precious metals companies that mostly meet the following criteria:
Adequate cash reserves. Good management. Strong in-ground reserves or prospects. NAFTA based, or else located in countries with strong rule of law.
Endeavour Silver Corp. TSX: EDR. http://www.edrsilver.com/s/Home.asp
Semafo TSX: SMF http://www.semafo.com/home_company_intro.php
ATW Gold Corp. TSX.V: ATW. http://www.atwgold.com/
US Silver Corp. TSX.V: USA. http://www.us-silver.com/s/Home.asp
Excellon Resources Inc. TSX: EXN. http://www.excellonresources.com/
First Majestic Silver Corp. TSX: FR http://www.firstmajestic.com/s/Home.asp
New Jersey Mining Company. OTCBB: NJMC
http://www.newjerseymining.com/index.html
Atna Resources Ltd. TSX: ATN. http://www.atna.com/s/Home.asp
Barkerville Gold Mines TSX.V: BGM. Formerly International Wayside Gold Mines Ltd.
http://www.barkervillegold.com/s/Home.asp
Shoreham Resources Ltd. TSX-V: SMH
http://www.shoreham.ca/
ATAC Resources Ltd, TSX.V: ATC. http://www.atacresources.com/s/home.asp
Evolving Gold Corp. TSX.V: EVG http://www.evolvinggold.com/
Lydian International Ltd. TSX: LYD. Note: LYD operates in Armenia, a region carrying higher risk than our usual safer picks in NAFTA lands. http://www.lydianinternational.co.uk/
The story of rare earths and metals is mostly one of China producing and exporting, Japan, America and everyone else importing. Vital to our new technologies, and lifestyle, and critical to hybrid and electric cars, Rare Earth Elements and Heavy Rare Earths, are a strategic choke point held in China’s hands. Lately China has been squeezing that choke point. I think that AVL at Thor Lake Canada, has a property of global importance. A property with the ability to offer NAFTA access to REEs and HREs for the decades ahead. As America and the west move to reduce over dependence on oil from unstable regions, we will see demand for rare metals take off.
Avalon Rare Metals Inc. TSX: AVL. http://www.avalonraremetals.com/
We will be adding more REEs as appropriate.
Warning.
Sadly we are all in unexplored territory. The world has never before suffered a severe recession/depression while operating on fiat currency. As is widely apparent, the central banks haven’t a clue and are making up the rules as the flounder along. They never saw it coming they claim, although it was obvious to many fine writers though not unfortunately in the mainstream media, that a giant financialised derivatives gambling economy would always end badly. There are no experts now, for the simple reason that we have never before faced such a sudden synchronised and deep collapse in the global economies.
The unfortunate fact that we are operating on fraudulent currencies is highly likely to mean it all ends many months from now, in a fiat currency revulsion, but only after the monetary authorities have first tried pouring in endless amounts of newly created money. A derivatives gambling world with an estimated quadrillion dollars of face value has to be unwound and the losses absorbed. In this sort of investing environment, cash, gold and silver and tangible assets are favoured over stocks and intangible assets.
As always if thinking about making an investment, it’s important to do one’s own due diligence. No one has more at risk in an investment than you do yourself. In these difficult economic times, there will likely be several false bottoms before the real one arrives and hindsight allows us to confirm that the bottom is in. Even then, a “V” shaped rebound is highly improbable. A double dip recession seems likely. Beware the false "statistical" government subsidised "recovery." It is a "recovery" bought from a future of fiat currency collapse.
Graeme Irvine
London Irvine Report: www.londonirvinereport.com/
Graeme@londonirvinereport.com
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