Baltic Dry Index. 846 -21
LIR Gold Target in 2019: $30,000. Revised due to QE programs.
"Too bad ninety percent of the politicians give the other
ten percent a bad reputation."
Henry Kissinger
Henry Kissinger
It is E-Day in Europe, the start of a two day
summit of Europe’s “Great Leaders,” little leaders, followers, dissemblers,
liars, and outright delusional. Europe’s hapless serfs, get to see their “Greatest
and Goodest,” fawning over each other, pouting, primping and posturing, briefing
against each other, and installing a failed political liar from Luxembourg as the
next EC President. Like the England football team at the world cup, not much is
expected of them, but they are all too likely to beat expectations. With any
luck, the following two days, will advance the cause of a UK EU exit into
unstoppable territory.
At America’s urging
due to their botched coup in Kiev, the EU leaders are supposed to commit economic
suicide by imposing real sanctions against Russia. Expect continental Europe’s
youth unemployment to surge, if they comply. More tomorrow, after day one of
the Liars Club Meeting.
Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats.
H. L. Mencken.
U.S. Prepares Russia Sanctions as Ukraine Unrest Simmers
Jun 25, 2014 10:03 PM GMT
The U.S. kept up pressure on Russia to do more to de-escalate tensions in Ukraine or face
stiffer American and European sanctions as violence marred a temporary
cease-fire in the conflict-torn former Soviet republic. “Moving forces out, not allowing tanks and rocket launchers to actually cross the border -- there are many concrete things that could make a difference,” U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said at a news conference at NATO headquarters in Brussels yesterday. “We are going to continue to take steps to prepare in the event that the circumstances on the ground warrant those sanctions.”
With momentum behind peace efforts in Ukraine flagging, German Chancellor Angela Merkel joined the top U.S. diplomat in warning that additional sanctions against Russia could be “back on the agenda” if further progress isn’t made to end the conflict. The Obama administration is preparing penalties aimed at specific areas of the Russian economy, including energy and technology, according to three people briefed on the plans.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko held talks yesterday with the leaders in Russia, Germany and France to discuss ways to end months of fighting that’s killed more than 400 people. Poroshenko said he’ll present a draft constitution today to Ukrainian and European Union officials that seeks to widen regional powers in an attempt to calm the situation in the country’s east.
More
Next more on our ever changing world. Up first,
Uncle Sam flush with a fracking glut of oil and gas, takes a baby step towards
allowing oil exports again. A complete non-event for the rest of the oil
importing world so far. A sop to continental Europe to get them to go along
with suicidal sanctions on President Putin’s Russia. The botched coup was
supposed to slice and dice up Russia and Belarus, balkanising EurAsia, and
encircling China. As of now it seems more likely to impoverish Europe’s dim
witted continentals. Europe needs economic policies made in Europe and in
Europe’s best interest. Not far off US War Party fantasies derived in faraway Washington.
US takes first steps to ending 40-year oil export ban
Government tells two companies they can sell ultra-light oil abroad as country is gripped by fracking boom
The US government has moved
towards lifting a 40-year ban on oil exports by allowing two companies to sell
ultra-light oil to foreign buyers.
Pioneer Natural Resources, of
Irving, Texas, and Enterprise Products Partners, of Houston, have been told by
the Bureau of Industry and Security that they can export the oil, known as
condensate, which can be turned into gasoline, jet fuel and diesel.
The US has a glut of oil
following a fracking revolution that promises to make the country the world’s
largest crude producer, ahead of Saudi Arabia and Russia.
According to the US Energy
Information Administration, America produced 8.3m barrels per day of crude in
April, the highest level since 1988.
However, Congress banned exports
after price shocks from the 1973 Arab oil embargo led to the notion that the US
was running out of oil.
Companies are allowed to export
refined fuel, such as gasoline and diesel, but not oil itself. The US Commerce
Department, which oversees the Bureau of Industry and Security, is believed to
have changed the definition of some ultra-light oil, clearing the way for the
two companies to sell abroad, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Oil shipments could begin as soon
as August, in a move that energy research group IHS believes could add more
than $1 trillion (£590bn) to government revenues through 2030, trim fuel prices
and create an average of more than 300,000 jobs a year.
More
Next the real reason Germany can’t get back its
gold reserves, supposedly stored in America with Uncle Scam. Gold is ever fast flowing
from west to east, as Asia and Russia build up their reserves of the only real
money with intrinsic value. To help prop up the now failing fiat money dollar
reserve standard, Germany’s gold, was long ago sold out to the market,
euphemistically termed “leased” by the lying crooks that operated the western
central banks over the years.
Later this year, China is instituting its own gold pricing
mechanism for physical gold. The writing is on the wall for a coming gold and
precious metals default by the western banks, at some point ahead. Stay long
fully paid up physical precious metals. All the talking chairs in the world,
can’t turn QE forever (credit/debt) into real gold and silver. The holders of
unallocated gold and silver in the London Bullion Market Association’s members,
face a future of a default and one sided paper cash settlement. Gold and silver
pricing in London is currently under investigation for price manipulation.
London’s come a long way from the days of “my word is my bond.”
"Gold was not selected arbitrarily by governments to be the monetary standard. Gold had developed for many centuries on the free market as the best money; as the commodity providing the most stable and desirable monetary medium."
Murray N. Rothbard
Gold’s Flow East Seen for 20 Years as Incomes Increase Demand
Jun 26,
2014 6:12 AM GMT
The global flow of gold from west to east that helped to make China the world’s
largest user will probably last for as long two decades as rising incomes spur
demand, according to the China Gold Association. China’s consumption, which increased to a record 1,176.4 metric tons in 2013, is expected to be “more or less the same” this year, Zhang Bingnan, vice-chairman and general secretary at the association, said in an interview in Singapore. China accounted for about 28 percent of global usage last year, according to the London-based World Gold Council.
Purchases in China accelerated last year after a 28 percent price slump, and the country displaced India as the biggest bullion buyer while European consumption shrank. Demand in China will rise about 25 percent in the next four years as an increasing population gets wealthier, the council said in April.
“In the next 10 to 20 years the trend probably won’t change because there is more gold in the west and less of it in the east,” said Zhang, who also addressed an industry conference in the city-state yesterday. “As incomes in the east rise, demand for gold will follow a similar trend and continue in the future whether in China or India or other developing countries, unless there’s some extraordinary event.”
---- China’s consumption this year will probably be sustained above 1,000 tons as long as the economy expands at 7 percent, Albert Cheng, the council’s managing director for the Far East, said in February. By 2017, Chinese demand may expand to at least 1,350 tons, the council said in a report in April.
“There are less investment options in the east compared with the west, and the notion of gold as an insurance is inherent in eastern society,” said Zhang. The flow of bullion from west to east “is normal and balancing,” he said.
The Shanghai Gold Exchange plans to start international bullion trading priced and settled in yuan in the third quarter, Chairman Xu Luode told the conference, while Singapore Exchange Ltd. said that it would introduce a kilobar contract.
Global fabrication demand may increase 4.5 percent this year, underpinned by a rise in Chinese consumption, Australia’s Bureau of Resources and Energy Economics said in a quarterly report yesterday. Chinese banks and the government are trying to increase their influence on world gold markets, it said, citing the plans by the Shanghai exchange and looser import rules.
---- As much as 1,000 tons of gold in China may be tied up in financing, the council estimated in April. China’s chief auditor discovered 94.4 billion yuan ($15.2 billion) of loans backed by falsified gold transactions, adding to signs of possible fraud in commodities financing deals, according a report on the National Audit Office’s website. The report was delivered at a National People’s Congress meeting June 24 and posted online.
More
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-06-26/gold-s-flow-east-seen-for-20-years-as-asian-wealth-spurs-demand.html
The London Bullion Market Association
We maintain the Gold and Silver Good Delivery Lists and represent the interests of our members on issues affecting the bullion market.http://www.lbma.org.uk/
We close for the day with more bad news from fast disintegrating Iraq. Can another oil spike be far away, no matter what America’s “talking chairs” decide? How long before we see helicopters evacuating the lucky from the roof of America’s Baghdad embassy, in a repeat of Saigon 1975? A Caliphate is being born with every passing day. Is this really the time to sanction Russian oil and gas?
“Those who don't know history are destined to repeat it.”
Edmund Burke
Iraq insurgents seize oilfields, hit air base as U.S. advisers arrive
By Raheem Salman BAGHDAD
(Reuters) - Militants attacked one of Iraq's largest air bases and seized
control of several small oilfields on Wednesday as U.S. special forces troops
and intelligence analysts arrived to help Iraqi security forces counter a
mounting Sunni insurgency.Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, who is fighting for his job and is under international pressure to create a more inclusive government, said he supported starting the process of forming a new cabinet within a week.
He also dismissed the call of mainly Sunni political and religious figures, some with links to armed groups fighting Maliki, for a "national salvation government" that would choose figures to lead the country and, in effect, bypass the election held nearly three months ago.
In northern Iraq, the Sunni militants extended a two-week advance that has been led by the hardline Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) but also includes an amalgam of other Sunni groups angered by Maliki's rule.
They blame Maliki for marginalizing their sect during eight years in power. The fighting threatens to rupture the country two and a half years after the end of U.S. occupation.
---- The fighting waged by armed Sunni groups, with ISIL blazing the path, has knocked towns and cities across the north and west from the central government's control. Northern Iraq's largest city Mosul fell to Sunni insurgents on June 10.
Two days later, Kurdish forces
moved into Kirkuk, where violence also flared on Wednesday when a suicide
bomber blew himself up at a crowded market entrance, killing six people and
wounding 23, police and medics said.
---- In addition to the bloodshed, close to a million people have been displaced in Iraq this year. Amin Awad, director of Middle East and North Africa bureau for the U.N. refugee agency, on Wednesday called Iraq "a land of displacement".
U.S. President Barack Obama has ruled out sending ground troops back to Iraq where they withdrew in 2011. He has offered up to 300 American military advisers, about 130 of whom have now been deployed. The advisers could gather information about targets for future air strikes although no decision has been taken to start American bombing.
More
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/06/25/us-iraq-security-idUSKBN0F00RO20140625
"Those entrapped by the herd instinct are drowned in the deluges of history. But there are always the few who observe, reason, and take precautions, and thus escape the flood. For these few gold has been the asset of last resort."
Antony C. Sutton
At the Comex silver depositories Wednesday final figures were: Registered 57.04
Moz, Eligible 119.17 Moz, Total 176.21 Moz.
Crooks and Scoundrels Corner
The bent, the seriously bent, and the totally
doubled over.
Yes it’s the
banksters again. It’s not their fault, really it isn’t. They can resist
anything except temptation, especially the temptation to separate the Muppets
from their wealth. Below, it’s the Schneiderman v Barclays Bank fraudster show again. While everyone is innocent until proven guilty, Barclay’s has form as they say. Still no bankster has ever been hurt in the long running never ending saga, let alone ever gone to jail. No modern criminal enterprise, sorry bank, has ever had to give up a banking licence. Banksterism has certainly changed down the years. Just ask the Fed.
Below, compare and contrast.
"The
London Banker Henry Fauntleroy forged to keep his bank solvent. He was executed
for it in 1824.
Charles
P. Kindleberger, Manias, Panics and Crashes.
Dark Pool Greed Drove Barclays to Lie to Clients, N.Y. Says
Jun 25, 2014 11:19 PM GMT
Barclays
Plc (BARC) was so bent on lifting its private trading venue to the upper
ranks of Wall Street dark pools that it lied to customers and masked the role
of high-frequency traders, according to New York’s attorney general. Barclays falsified marketing materials to hide how much high-frequency traders were buying and selling, according to a complaint filed today by Eric Schneiderman. Barclays runs one of Wall Street’s largest dark pools, a private trading venue where investors can trade stocks mostly anonymously
Schneiderman has taken a leading role in seeking to reform how equities trade in the $23 trillion U.S. stock market, examining whether exchanges and dark pools give unfair perks to high-frequency traders. His suit against Barclays says clients such as institutional investors were the losers, led to believe they were safe from predators on a trading venue where aggressive trading strategies were in fact encouraged.
“This is obviously a breach of confidence, a breach of trust,” said Joe Saluzzi, co-head of equity trading at Themis Trading LLC in Chatham, New Jersey. “It’s pretty obvious at this point that the SEC needs to come in, it needs to know what’s going on actually inside these boxes. Barclays -- are they the only ones? We don’t know. I don’t know.”
In a statement, Mark Lane, a spokesman for London-based Barclays said: “We take these allegations very seriously. Barclays has been cooperating with the New York Attorney General and the SEC and has been examining this matter internally. The integrity of the markets is a top priority of Barclays.”
Florence Harmon, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, declined to comment on the case.
SEC Chairman Mary Jo White on June 5 voiced concern about the level of trading on venues where bids and offers are kept private, masking the true depth of demand for shares. Yesterday, the SEC said it would test a program to limit the amount of trading -- now roughly 40 percent of volume -- handled off public exchanges such as the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq Stock Market.
Schneiderman’s action will fortify a suspicion among critics of dark pools and high-frequency firms, which proliferated in the past decade with advances in computer power and efforts to spur competition among U.S. trading venues. Namely, that in the rush to attract traders to their markets and boost profits, the venues have catered to computerized market makers to the detriment of individuals.
----In the complaint, filed in New York state Supreme Court in Manhattan, Schneiderman said Barclays told customers that it was protecting them from “aggressive, predatory or toxic” high-frequency traders, while secretly courting them.
Schneiderman painted a picture of “fraud and deceit” starting in 2011 at Barclays perpetrated by unidentified executives who lied to customers about the role played by high-frequency traders in its market as part of an effort to increase its size. Former “high-level” Barclays insiders helped frame the case, according to the complaint.
More
Record $8 Billion Tax Fraud Gets Ex-Lawyer 15 Years
Jun 25, 2014 10:41 PM GMT
A former lawyer who was convicted in what U.S. prosecutors called the
biggest criminal tax fraud in history was given 15 years behind bars for helping
wealthy clients dodge taxes for years. Paul Daugerdas, who worked at the Dallas-based law firm Jenkens & Gilchrist, which closed over the scandal, was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge William Pauley in Manhattan. A jury last year found Daugerdas, 63, guilty on seven counts and acquitted him on nine.
“Mr. Daugerdas was a tax-shelter racketeer who tapped into the incredible greed of some of the super wealthy,” Pauley said. “Just about everyone he came in contact with, he managed to corrupt.”
The tax shelters at the center of the case were sold from 1994 to 2004 to almost 1,000 people, creating $7 billion in fraudulent tax deductions and more than $1 billion in phony losses for customers, the U.S. said. Pauley described the clients as “real estate tycoons, tire magnates and software developers” who refused to contribute to the country that “made their achievements possible.” He didn’t identify them.
---- The prosecution revealed “the lengths some wealthy citizens are willing to go” to avoid taxes, Pauley said. The case also showed that each time Daugerdas switched jobs and earned more, “it was never enough,” the judge said.
Daugerdas was ordered to forfeit
$164.7 million and help pay restitution, with other conspirators, of $371
million.
---- Stanley Okula, one of the prosecutors,
said a stiff sentence was needed to deter other would-be criminals and to
account for the defendant’s greed and manipulation.
More
If it
looks like a criminal enterprise, acts like a criminal enterprise, and talks
like a criminal enterprise, then its probably a bank.
With
apologies to ducks everywhere.
The monthly Coppock Indicators finished May
DJIA: +181 Down. NASDAQ: +340 Down. SP500: +246 Down. Crisis? What crisis?
