Aug 142015
 
 August 14, 2015  Posted by at 10:42 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , ,  Comments Off on Debt Rattle August 14 2015


G. G. Bain Katherine Stinson, “the flying schoolgirl,” Sheepshead Bay Speedway, Brooklyn 1918

Greek Parliament Approves Bailout Deal (Guardian)
Greek Bailout On A Tightrope – Again (CNBC)
China Halts Yuan Devaluation With Slight Official Rise Against US Dollar (AFP)
The Economic Wizards Of Beijing Have Feet Of Clay After All (Guardian)
China Denies Currency War As Global Steel Industry Cries Foul (AEP)
China and the Danger Of An Open Currency War (Paul Mason)
China’s Devaluation Becomes Japan’s Problem (Pesek)
Why The Yuan May Deck Singapore Property Stocks (CNBC)
Greece Creditors Raise ‘Serious Concerns’ About Spiralling Debt (Guardian)
Greece To Get €6 Billion In Bridge Loans If No Agreement At Eurogroup (Reuters)
Greece Crisis Proves The Need For A Currency Plan B (John Butler, Cobden)
Greeks Taste Breadth Of Bailout In Loaf And Lotion Rules (Guardian)
European Union Backs IMF View Over Greece – Then Ignores It (Guardian)
Total U.S. Auto Lending Surpasses $1 Trillion for First Time (WSJ)
Surge in Global Commercial Real-Estate Prices Stirs Bubble Worries (WSJ)
Glencore: World Of Big Mining Agog At Huge Fall (Guardian)
The Junk Bond Market ‘Is Having A Coronary’: David Rosenberg (CNBC)
‘I Will Leave Politics And Return To Comedy’: Beppe Grillo (Local.it)
World without Water: The Dangerous Misuse of Our Most Valuable Resource (Spiegel)
Greece Sends Cruise Ship To Ease Kos Migrant Crisis (Guardian)
Mediterranean: Saving Lives at the World’s Most Dangerous Border (Spiegel)

Talk about a Pyrrhic victory.

Greek Parliament Approves Bailout Deal (Guardian)

After a tumultuous, often ill-tempered and at times surreal all-night debate, Greek MPs voted early on Friday to approve a new multibillion euro bailout deal aimed at keeping their debt-stricken country afloat. With his ruling leftist Syriza party apparently heading for a formal split over the €85bn package, prime minister Alexis Tsipras needed the support of the opposition to win parliament’s backing for the bill in a 9.45am vote which the government eventually won by a comfortable margin. But controversial former finance minister Yanis Varoufakis voted against the punishing terms of the deal, along with a large number of Syriza rebels angered by what they said was a sell-out of the party’s principles and a betrayal of its promises, leaving Tsipras severely weakened.

Tsipras told MPs before the vote that the rescue package was a “necessary choice” for the nation, saying it faced a battle to avert the threat of a bridge loan – which he called a return to a “crisis without end” – that Greece may be offered instead of a full-blown bailout. The draft bailout must now be approved by other eurozone member states at a meeting of finance ministers in Brussels on Friday afternoon, and ratified by national parliaments in a number of countries – including Germany, which remains sceptical – before a first tranche can be disbursed that will allowing Greece to make a crucial €3.2bn payment to the ECB due on 20 August. The Athens parliament did not start debating the 400-page text of the draft bailout plan until nearly 4am after parliamentary speaker Zoe Konstantopoulou, a Syriza hardliner, ignored Tsipras’s request to speed up proceedings and instead raised a lengthy series of procedural questions and objections.

[..] On the left, former energy minister Panayiotis Lafazanis, who leads a rebel bloc of around a quarter of Syriza’s 149 MPs, pledged to “smash the eurozone dictatorship”, while in her concluding pre-vote remarks, Konstantopoulou announced: “I am not going to support the prime minister any more.” Earlier, the government spokeswoman, Olga Gerovasili, conceded divisions within the leftist party, which swept to victory in January’s elections on a staunch anti-austerity platform, were now so deep that a formal split was probably inevitable. Tsipras could call fresh elections as early as next month.

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Time for Dijsselbloem to screw up one last time.

Greek Bailout On A Tightrope – Again (CNBC)

Greece’s third bailout is back in the hands of euro zone finance ministers, who are meeting Friday to discuss whether to go ahead with the deal – or delay it. The baton has been passed on to Brussels after the Greek government, which had debated the reforms that need to be introduced to secure the much needed funds through the night, secured enough votes to pass the bailout bill. However, further uncertainty was heaped on the bailout process with reports from Reuters that left-wing prime minister Alexis Tsipras seeking a vote of confidence from the parliament after August 20. The Eurogroup of finance ministers will be meeting in Brussels to debate the latest developments.

“It’s obvious we have to sign (a bailout deal) and we have to implement this agreement,” Kostas Chrysogonos, a Syriza member of the European parliament (MEP) told CNBC Friday following the Greek vote, saying that he hoped a deal would be completed at the Eurogroup meeting later today. A confidence vote was the last thing Greece needed right now, he added, so soon after Tsipras was elected in January. “I’m hopeful that many of the dissenters will resign their parliamentary seats…and the confidence vote will be enough to gain the confidence of the parliament for this government. It’s obvious that the last thing that we need right now is a general election, a country that stands at the edge of default cannot afford the luxury of having a second general election within eight months.”

Although the country and its international lenders and those overseeing the program have agreed technical details, a political agreement in the euro zone by member state governments is now necessary before any aid is release. But that is easier said than done with tensions running high both in Greece and Germany, Greece’s largest euro zone lender, over the bailout. This raises the possibility that the bailout deal could be delayed and Greece issued a bridging loan to tide it over. In Greece, members of parliament debated the third bailout package through the night after a long delay to the proceedings due to procedural objections saw the plenary session only get underway at 2am local time (midnight London time).

The vote on the bailout deal finally started at 7.30 London time with the government securing enough votes – 222 votes to 64 – to get the bailout approved. Tensions were running high in the Greek parliament, with high profile members of the ruling Syriza party, including former finance minister Yanis Varoufakis and parliamentary speaker Zoe Konstantopoulou, opposing the deal which involves more austerity, spending cuts and reforms. After the bailout was voted through the Greek parliament, Reuters, quoting a government official, said that Tsipras will seek a confidence vote in the Greek parliament after the August 20 deadline for payment to the ECB. A government spokesman told CNBC that he could not confirm the Reuters report but was expecting a statement shortly.

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Wait till Monday.

China Halts Yuan Devaluation With Slight Official Rise Against US Dollar (AFP)

China’s central bank has raised the value of the yuan against the US dollar by 0.05%, ending three days of falls in a surprise series of devaluations. The daily reference rate was set at 6.3975 yuan to $1.0, from 6.4010 the previous day, the China Foreign Exchange Trade System said. That was also slightly stronger than Thursday’s close of 6.3982 yuan. The higher fixing for the yuan came after the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) sought to reassure financial markets by pledging to seek a stable currency after a shock devaluation of nearly 2% on Tuesday.

The cut, and two subsequent reductions, rattled global financial markets – raising questions over the health of the world’s second-largest economy and sparking fears of a possible currency war. Beijing said the move was the result of switching to a more market-oriented method of calculating the daily reference rate which sets the value of the yuan, also known as the renminbi (RMB). Previously authorities based the rate on a poll of market-makers, but will now also take into account the previous day’s close, foreign exchange supply and demand and the rates of major currencies. The yuan is still only allowed to fluctuate up or down 2% on either side of the reference rate.

“Currently there is no basis for the renminbi exchange rate to continue to depreciate,” PBoC assistant governor Zhang Xiaohui said on Thursday. “The central bank has the ability to keep the renminbi basically stable at a reasonable and balanced level,” she said. Speaking earlier this week another PBoC official said the central bank could directly intervene in the market, after reports it bought yuan on Wednesday to prop up the unit. “The central bank, if necessary, is fully capable of stabilising the exchange rate through direct intervention in the foreign exchange market,” PBoC economist Ma Jun said.

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“..the deputy governor of its central bank was forced to hold a press conference at which he insisted this was all part of a grand plan.”

The Economic Wizards Of Beijing Have Feet Of Clay After All (Guardian)

The economic wizards of Beijing have feet of clay after all. That’s the growing sense after China’s currency fell for a third day and the deputy governor of its central bank was forced to hold a press conference at which he insisted this was all part of a grand plan. Zhang Xiaohui didn’t quite say “devaluation, what devaluation?” just as Jim Callaghan never quite said “crisis, what crisis?” during the Winter of Discontent. Both men were intent on showing that their governments were fully in control even though they were not. For UK politicians in the 1970s this was a familiar sensation; for China’s mandarins it is an entirely new experience. Over the past 30 years, the technocrats in Beijing have attained an almost mythical status.

Decade after decade of rapid growth has transformed China into the world’s second biggest economy, slashing poverty at the same time. There was much admiration – and not a little envy – in the west for the way in which communist party officials quickly lifted China out of recession following the financial crisis of 2008. The fact that policymaking was so opaque added to the mystique. But those golden days are now over. Beijing wanted to rebalance the Chinese economy, to make growth less focused on exports and more reliant on consumer spending. It wanted slower but more sustainable growth that gradually took the heat out of overvalued property and share prices.

This is proving difficult. Official figures understate the speed at which the economy is slowing. As fears of a hard landing have increased, policymakers have started to panic. Beijing botched attempts at shoring up the stock market, a move that was unnecessary given that the fall of 30% had been preceded by a rise of 150%. Now the attempts to reduce the value of the yuan are being conducted in an equally ham-fisted fashion. It won’t really wash that the events of this week are a carefully thought-out liberalisation plan that will persuade the IMF to include the yuan in its reserve assets known as special drawing rights.

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“China’s share of global steel output has rocketed from 10pc to 50pc over the last decade.” American and European steel industries can say goodbye.

China Denies Currency War As Global Steel Industry Cries Foul (AEP)

Chinese steelmakers are preparing to flood the global market with cut-price exports as they take advantage of this week’s shock devaluation of the yuan, setting off furious protests from struggling competitors in Europe and the US. It is the first warning sign of a deflationary wave of cheap products from China after the central bank, the People’s Bank of China, abandoned its exchange rate regime, letting the currency fall in the steepest three-day drop since the country emerged as an economic powerhouse. The yuan has fallen 3.3pc against the dollar. Steel mills in the Chinese industrial hub of Hebei have already begun to trim prices of rebar mesh-wires used for building by between roughly $5 and $10 to $295, citing the devaluation as a fresh chance to offload excess stocks of steel.

Europe’s steel lobby Eurofer warned that there would be “very real competitiveness impacts” for European steel firms, already battling for their lives with wafer-thin margins. America’s United Steelworkers accused China of predatory practices.”It is time for China to live by the rules or face the consequences,” said the union’s international president, Leo Gerard. The US steel group Nucor called the devaluation the “latest attempt to support Chinese industry at the expense of producers in the rest of the world who have to earn their cost of capital to survive.” Indian tyre-makers have issued their own warnings, fearing a fresh rush of cheap imports from China. They are already grappling with a 100pc surge in shipments over the last year as the recession in China’s car industry displaces excess supply.

The anger is a foretaste of what China may face if this week’s devaluation is the start of a concerted effort to gain market share in a depressed global economy. Yet it is far from clear whether Beijing really has such an intention. The People’s Bank of China insisted on Thursday that the drop in the yuan was a one-off effect as the country shifts to a more market-friendly exchange regime, essentially a managed float. It described the sudden drop as “irrational” and said reports of a plot to drive down the yuan by 10pc were “nonsense”. China’s share of global steel output has rocketed from 10pc to 50pc over the last decade. It has installed capacity of 1.1bn tonnes a year that it cannot possibly absorb as the Chinese economy shifts away from heavy industry.

It now has 340m tonnes of excess capacity, which has driven down global steel prices by 40pc since early 2014. “This overcapacity alone is more than double the EU’s steel demand, and China is now exporting record quantities to Europe as a result,” said Eurofer.

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“..another way of looking at QE is as an undeclared currency war – which is exactly how China sees it.”

China and the Danger Of An Open Currency War (Paul Mason)

China has stunned the world by devaluing its currency twice in two days. Or rather it has stunned that naive part of the world that believed China’s economy was okay, that its Communist Party was en route to being some kind of team player in the global economy, and that the words “currency war” were just scaremongering. Here’s what’s happened, and why it matters. China’s economy, which grew at 9% and above per year in the period of rapid industrialisation in the 2000s, has slowed to 7%. Because the entire control system of the conomy is based on one bureaucrat lying to/competing with another, nobody really knows whether the Chinese growth figures are correct – but there’s been a clear slowdown.

That, in turn, caused a stock market slump last month – after more than a year of ordinary Chinese people pouring money into shares. So the government tried to contain by ordering state owned stockbrokers to buy RMB 120bn worth of shares, setting a stock market “target level” reminiscent of the old Soviet grain targets. Now, with growth continuing to falter, the Chinese government has devalued its own currency again in a bid to boost exports. At the same time – as a concession to its trade rivals – it has promised to “take more notice of the markets” when setting interest rates in future. Since it re-entered the global economy, China has pegged its currency, the renminbi, against the dollar – refusing to let it trade freely and to find a market rate.

Under pressure from America and Japan, which say China’s currency is too cheap and gives it an unfair trade advantage, China allowed the RMB gradually to rise against other currencies. This was seen as a first step towards the RMB becoming convertible, and ultimately emerging as a rival global currency to the dollar. Now that policy has been reversed. The context is, first, the tit-for-tat stimulus measures that the world’s major economies have been taking. Europe has launched a massive programme of quantitative easing; Britain’s QE programme remains in place and Japan is reliant on more and more dollops of printed money to buy state debt and keep the economy going. When states or currency unions print money on this scale the side effect is to weaken the value of their currency and boost exports. So another way of looking at QE is as an undeclared currency war – which is exactly how China sees it.

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Abenomics can still get uglier than it already was.

China’s Devaluation Becomes Japan’s Problem (Pesek)

Among the clearest casualties of China’s devaluation is the Bank of Japan. The chances were never high that Governor Haruhiko Kuroda was going to be able to unwind his institution’s aggressive monetary experiment anytime soon. But the odds are now lower than even skeptics would have previously believed. The real question, though, is what China’s move means more broadly for Abenomics. A sharply devalued yen, after all, is the core of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s gambit to end Japan’s 25-year funk. Abenomics is said to have three parts, but monetary easing has really been the only one. Fiscal-expansion was neutered by last year’s sales-tax hike, while structural reform has arrived only in a brief flurry, not the avalanche needed to enliven aging Japan and get companies to raise wages.

China’s devaluation tosses two immediate problems Japan’s way. The first is reduced exports. As Beijing guides its currency even lower, as surely it will, the yen will rise on a trade-weighted basis. And Bloomberg’s Japan economist Yuki Masujima points out that trade with China now contributes 13% more to Japanese GDP than the U.S., traditionally Tokyo’s main customer. “Given China’s rise to prominence, the yen-yuan exchange rate now has far greater influence on Japan than the yen-dollar rate,” Masujima says. The other problem is psychological. Japanese households have long lamented their rising reliance on China, a developing nation run by a government they widely view as hostile.

But the BOJ was glad to evoke China’s 7% growth – and the millions of Chinese tourists filling shopping malls across the Japanese archipelago – to convince Japanese consumers and executives that their own economy was in good shape. Now, the perception of China as a growth engine is fizzling, exacerbating the exchange-rate effect. “To the extent that the depreciation reflects weakness in China, then that weakness – rather than the depreciation per se – is a problem for Japan,” says Richard Katz, who publishes the New York-based Oriental Economist Report. It’s also a problem for Abe, whose approval ratings are now in the low 30s thanks to his unpopular efforts to “reinterpret” the pacifist constitution to deploy troops overseas. The prospect that Abe will enrage Japan’s neighbors by watering down past World War II apologies at ceremonies this weekend marking the 70th anniversary of the end of the wary is further damping support at home.

The worsening economy, which voters hoped Abe would have sorted out by now, doesn’t help. Inflation-adjusted wages dropped 2.9% in June, a sign Monday’s second-quarter gross domestic product report for the may be truly ugly. It’s an open question whether such an unpopular leader can push painful, but necessary, structural changes through parliament. “Already,” Katz says, “Abe has backpedaled on many issues to avoid further drops.” After 961 days, all Abenomics has really achieved is a sharply weaker yen, modest steps to tighten corporate governance and marketing slogans asking companies to hire more women.

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Think leverage, shadow banking, and fill in the blanks.

Why The Yuan May Deck Singapore Property Stocks (CNBC)

Singapore’s property shares, already on the back foot from expectations of rising interest rates, have taken a beating since China devalued its currency on Tuesday and more pain may be on the cards. “Given that the majority of property stocks with China exposure do not hedge the currency exposures of their incomes and balance sheets, a weaker renminbi suggests that both asset values and earnings/dividends would be negatively affected,” analysts at JPMorgan said in a note Wednesday. “Book values and dividend per unit (DPU) would be affected.” Singapore real-estate investment trusts (S-REITs) are also likely to take a hit as the moves Tuesday and Wednesday by the People’s Bank of China to push down the Chinese currency also caused the Singapore dollar to weaken.

“The weakening Singapore dollar would result in upward pressure on interest rates,” it said, estimating that every 100 basis point rise in interest rates pushes S-REITs’ DPU down by 2.7% because of increased costs. Singapore property shares with China exposure based on earnings and assets under management include CapitaLand Retail Trust China, Global Logistic Properties, CapitaLand and City Developments, JPMorgan noted. Those shares are down 1.2-5.5% so far this week, after a bit of a recovery Thursday. Singapore may not be alone in feeling property pain from China. In Hong Kong, Wharf, Cheung Kong Property and Hang Lung all have significant China exposure, noted Patrick Wong at BNP Paribas.

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The spiralling debt is a direct consequence of the conditions those same creditors force upon Greece.

Greece Creditors Raise ‘Serious Concerns’ About Spiralling Debt (Guardian)

Greece’s European creditors have underlined the temporary nature of the country’s surprise return to growth by warning that they have “serious concerns” about the spiralling debts of the eurozone’s weakest member. The economic news came as Greece’s parliament met in emergency session on Thursday to ratify a new bailout deal, although it was unclear whether the multibillion-euro agreement had the vital backing of Germany. The three European institutions negotiating a third bailout package with the government in Athens said that the Greek economy had plunged into a deep recession from which it would not emerge until 2017. According to an analysis completed by the EC, the ECB and the eurozone bailout fund, Greece’s debts will peak at 201% of GDP in 2016.

The study says that Greece’s debt burden can be made more bearable by waiving payments until the economy has recovered and then giving Athens longer to pay. However, it opposes the idea of a so-called “haircut” – or reducing the size of the debt. It is a course of action the International Monetary Fund, which joined the three European institutions in negotiating the latest bailout, thinks may be necessary for Greece’s debts to become sustainable.

“The high debt to GDP and the gross financing needs resulting from this analysis point to serious concerns regarding the sustainability of Greece’s public debt,” said the analysis, adding that far-reaching reforms were needed to address the worries. It forecasts that the Greek economy will contract by 2.3% this year and a further 1.3% in 2016 before returning to 2.7% growth in 2017. Greece’s debt to GDP ratio will peak next year but will still be 175% in 2020 and 160% in 2022. The IMF views a debt to GDP ratio above 120% as unsustainable.

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Greece doesn’t want a bridge loan.

Greece To Get €6 Billion In Bridge Loans If No Agreement At Eurogroup (Reuters)

Greece could get €6.04 billion in bridge financing if euro zone finance ministers cannot agree on the planned third bailout for Athens when they meet on Friday, according to German newspaper Bild, citing a European Commission proposal for the meeting. That proposal says the bridge loans should run for a maximum of three months, Bild said in an advance copy of an article due to be published on Friday. Eurozone finance ministers are due to meet in Brussels on Friday to discuss a third financial rescue that Greece has negotiated with its creditors.

Greek Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos expressed his opposition on Thursday to Greece taking another temporary loan to meet its immediate debt repayments, calling on lawmakers to approve a new, three-year bailout deal. “I think whatever everyone’s stance on the euro and on whether this is a good or bad accord, there must be no one who is working towards a bridge loan,” he told a parliamentary committee. Athens must make a €3.2 billion debt payment to the ECB on Aug. 20.

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Cobden Partners was proposed to Varoufakis right after the January election as an advisor. Syriza opted for Lazard instead.

Greece Crisis Proves The Need For A Currency Plan B (John Butler, Cobden)

The recent Greek capitulation under pressure from other euro member countries, led by Germany, demonstrates that euro members have de facto ceded sovereignty over fiscal policy to the EU. While this arrangement may be acceptable to some countries, perhaps even Greece, it will be resisted by others. However, as the Greek failure also demonstrates, any eurozone country wishing to restore fiscal sovereignty, or restructure some of their debt, or implement any policy or set of policies that runs afoul of the preferences of certain Eurogroup finance ministers will have near-zero negotiating leverage if they fail to plan, credibly and in advance, for the introduction of a viable alternative currency.

Without this critical card to play, the country in question will be held hostage by the now politicised ECB. Its domestic banking system and financial markets will be shut down, the economy will grind to a halt and the government will face either a humiliating retreat or full capitulation. Former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis has now revealed much of the detail of the recent negotiations, capitulation and attempts to vilify him personally for acting insubordinately or even in a treasonous manner at the 11th hour. However, it is entirely understandable that, once Varoufakis became aware of the degree to which his country’s banks and national finances had been taken hostage by the ECB and EU institutions, he sought some flexibility in order to strengthen Greece’s negotiating position.

Alas, this was much too little, and way too late. In retrospect, it is now obvious that Varoufakis and his colleagues should have set about developing a credible alternative currency plan prior to entering into any negotiations around either debt reduction or fiscal reforms. Had they done so, when the ECB suspended further increases in the ELA, forcing the banks and financial markets to close, Greece would have been able to roll out a temporary plan which, in the event that subsequent negotiations were indeed to fail, could easily have become permanent. Moreover, the very existence of such a plan would have greatly strengthened Greece’s hand to the point where negotiations may well have succeeded.

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Summary: Foreign corporations will take over everything.

Greeks Taste Breadth Of Bailout In Loaf And Lotion Rules (Guardian)

Vouldis, 33, whose bakery was founded 22 years ago by his parents in the southern Athens suburb of Kallithea, and is one of 15,000 local bakeries in Greece, said: “If a supermarket can call itself a bakery and present frozen loaves as fresh, that’s cheating customers . And if we sell by the kilo – which we’ve been supposed to be doing since Easter, actually, but no one does – customers will end up spending more on their bread. Bakers will have far more opportunity to play around with their prices. “Neighbourhood bakeries are the heart of a community; it’s wrong to make things harder for them than they already are. And it’s unacceptable to have international institutions saying, you’re stupid, you don’t know how to run your business, here’s how you must do it.”

Stefanidi meanwhile was concerned at the bailout powers’ insistence that anyone should be allowed to own a pharmacy: at present, Greek law limits their ownership to pharmacists. The way the OECD and the international creditors saw it, far too many laws protected Greece’s 11,000 pharmacies – a quantity, per head of the population, about double that for France or Spain, and more than 15 times Denmark’s total. Many of the rules were scrapped last year despite a European court upholding Greece’s view that it was perfectly entitled to legislate on the matter since its supreme court had ruled that pharmacies were not pure commercial enterprises but also fulfilled a vital social function.

The rule that no district can have more than one pharmacy per 1,000 people will stay. But the regulation stipulating that over-the-counter medicines may only be sold at licensed pharmacies is soon to be scrapped; and the ownership restriction could be gone next week if the bailout package is approved. “It’s crazy,” said Konstantinos Lourantos, president of the Panhellenic Pharmaceutical Association, in his pharmacy in the Athens suburb of Nea Smyrni. “Anyone will be able to open a pharmacy now. Anyone. In all Europe, only in Slovenia and Hungary is this allowed. Even in Germany, a licensed pharmacist must own at least 51% of a pharmacy.”

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There will be no real debt relief, not if Germany has its way. It’ll just be toying with margins, unacceptable for the IMF.

European Union Backs IMF View Over Greece – Then Ignores It (Guardian)

The good news for the IMF, which has been saying for ages that Greece’s debts are unsustainable, is that European lenders now seem to agree. There are “serious concerns” about the sustainability of the country’s debts, the three European institutions negotiating the latest bailout said on Thursday. They think Greece’s debts will peak at 201% of GDP in 2016, which is roughly what the IMF said a month ago when it projected a high “close to 200% of GDP in the next two years”. So what should be done? Unfortunately, that is where unanimity seems to break down.

The IMF’s view of the options in July was blunt. First, there could be “deep upfront haircuts” – in other words, a portion of Greece’s debts to eurozone lenders would be written off, which, reading between the lines, seemed to be the IMF’s first preference. Second, there was the politically-impossible policy of eurozone partners making explicit transfers to Greece every year. Or, third, Greece could be given longer to repay, an approach likely to be more palatable to European leaders. But this option came with a heavy qualification from the IMF: “If Europe prefers to again provide debt relief through maturity extension, there would have to be a very dramatic extension with grace periods of, say, 30 years on the entire stock of European debt, including new assistance.”

Is Europe ready to be “very dramatic,” as the IMF defined it? Almost certainly not – at least not in Germany. Thursday’s European report spoke about extending repayment schedules but it seems highly unlikely that 30 years would be acceptable in Berlin. If that’s correct, the IMF’s willingness to cough up its €15bn-€20bn contribution to the latest €85bn rescue package must be in serious doubt. The fund’s guidelines say loans can only be advanced when there is a clear path back to debt sustainability, usually defined as borrowings being less than 120% of GDP. On Thursday’s European analysis, Greece would still be at 160% even in 2022.

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Subprime is all America has left.

Total U.S. Auto Lending Surpasses $1 Trillion for First Time (WSJ)

With the recession now six years behind in the nation’s rearview mirror, lending for automobiles has sharply accelerated: Around $119 billion in auto loans were originated in the second quarter of this year, a 10-year high, according to figures from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York released Thursday. Auto lending has climbed steadily during the past four years, helping sales of U.S. autos and light trucks completely recover their losses from the recession. In May, consumers purchased vehicles at an annual pace of 17.6 million, the highest since June 2005. Americans have now racked up more than $1 trillion in both auto-loan debt and student-loan debt, which surpassed $1 trillion for the first time in 2013.

The overall indebtedness of U.S. borrowers remains lower than before the recession, owing to declines in home-loan and credit-card balances. But with low gas prices, a growing number of jobs, and an aging automotive fleet, many people have found it an opportune time to get a new vehicle. “A lot of the gain we’ve seen is from light trucks, SUVs, cross-overs, minivans and pickup trucks,” said David Berson, chief economist at Nationwide Insurance in Columbus, Ohio. “Because gasoline prices have come down, it makes it less expensive to run the vehicles that use more fuel” and frees up consumers’ budgets to put toward more cars or higher car loan payments. Auto lending and credit-card lending used to trade spaces as the second- and third-largest categories of U.S. household debt, after mortgages.

Both were surpassed by student loans in 2010. Since 2011, auto loans have rapidly outgrown credit cards. Today, household credit-card balances stand at $703 billion, about the same as four years ago. Auto lending and mortgages offered a study in contrast over the past five years. Both types of debt fell in the recession; from 2008 to 2010 the total stock of auto loans declined by more than $100 billion. Mortgage balances dropped by more than $800 billion. “There was some tightening in auto-loan standards after the financial crisis, but by many measures it’s returned basically to where it was pre-recession,” said Wilbert van der Klauw, a New York Fed economist. “That’s quite a contrast to mortgage underwriting, which remains significantly tighter than before the recession.”

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Spot the zombie.

Surge in Global Commercial Real-Estate Prices Stirs Bubble Worries (WSJ)

Investors are pushing commercial real-estate prices to record levels in cities around the world, fueling concerns that the global property market is overheating. The valuations of office buildings sold in London, Hong Kong, Osaka and Chicago hit record highs in the second quarter of this year, on a price per square foot basis, and reached post-2009 highs in New York, Los Angeles, Berlin and Sydney, according to industry tracker Real Capital Analytics. Deal activity is soaring as well. The value of U.S. commercial real-estate transactions in the first half of 2015 jumped 36% from a year earlier to $225.1 billion, ahead of the pace set in 2006, according to Real Capital. In Europe, transaction values shot up 37% to €135 billion ($148 billion), the strongest start to a year since 2007.

Low interest rates and a flood of cash being pumped into economies by central banks have made commercial real estate look attractive compared with bonds and other assets. Big U.S. investors have bulked up their real-estate holdings, just as buyers from Asia and the Middle East have become more regular fixtures in the market. The surging demand for commercial property has drawn comparisons to the delirious boom of the mid-2000s, which ended in busts that sunk developers from Florida to Ireland. The recovery, which started in 2010, has gained considerable strength in the past year, with growth accelerating at a potentially worrisome rate, analysts said. “We’re calling it a late-cycle market now,” said Jacques Gordon at LaSalle Investment.

While it isn’t time to panic, Mr. Gordon said, “if too much capital comes into any asset class, generally not-so-good things tend to follow.” Regulators are watching the market closely. In its semiannual report to Congress last month, the Federal Reserve pointed out that “valuation pressures in commercial real estate are rising as commercial property prices continue to increase rapidly.” Historically low interest rates have buoyed the appeal of commercial real estate, especially in major cities where economies are growing strongly. A 10-year Treasury note is yielding about 2.2%. By contrast, New York commercial real estate has an average capitalization rate—a measure of yield—of 5.7%, according to Real Capital.

By keeping interest rates low, central banks around the world have nudged income-minded investors into a broad range of riskier assets, from high-yield or “junk” bonds to dividend-paying stocks and real estate. Lately money has been pouring into commercial property from all directions. U.S. pension funds, which got clobbered in the aftermath of the crash, now have 7.7% of their assets invested in property, up from 6.3% in 2011, according to alternative-assets tracker Preqin. Foreign investors also have been stepping on the gas. China’s Anbang Insurance in February paid $1.95 billion for New York’s Waldorf-Astoria, a record price for a U.S. hotel. Another Chinese insurer, Sunshine Insurance in May purchased New York’s glitzy Baccarat Hotel for more than $230 million, or a record $2 million per room.

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Big Mining is in for a Big Surprise.

Glencore: World Of Big Mining Agog At Huge Fall (Guardian)

How do you make a £2bn fortune from commodities? Answer: start with a £6bn fortune. Ivan Glasenberg, chief executive of Glencore, won’t be laughing. Those numbers are the value of his shareholding in the mining and commodity-trading company at flotation in 2011 and now. Yes, Glencore’s share price really has fallen by two-thirds, from 530p to 180p, since it came to market with a fanfare. Among London’s big miners, only Anglo-American has done worse. This week alone the fall has been 10% as the China-inspired rout has run through commodity markets and mining stocks. Glencore is being whacked harder than the likes of BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto for a simple reason – relative to earnings, it has a lot more debt.

Analysts predict borrowings will stand at about $48bn when the company reports half-year numbers next week, which is a hell of a sum even for a business making top-line (before interest and tax) earnings of $10bn-$12bn. Bold borrowings aren’t quite what they seem, it should be said, because Glencore’s marketing division holds a stockpile of commodities as inventories that can be turned into cash. Viewed that way, net debt might be nearer $30.5bn at year-end, estimates JP Morgan Cazenove.

But here’s the rub: Glencore might have to go ahead and turn some of that stock into cash if its wants to save its BBB credit rating. “At spot commodity prices, we calculate net debt needs to fall $16bn by year-end 2016 to safeguard Glencore’s BBB credit rating,” says JP Morgan. Preservation of BBB is a financial priority, Glencore said in March, for the sound reason that a healthy rating is vital to keep funding costs low in the trading-cum-marketing division. It’s a financial challenge caused by the plunge in prices that is undermining profits on the other side of Glencore – the mining operation concentrated on the old Xstrata assets, which are skewed towards copper and coal.

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All ‘markets’ are about to have one of those.

The Junk Bond Market ‘Is Having A Coronary’: David Rosenberg (CNBC)

The biggest trouble sign for stocks may be bonds. High-yield bonds, specifically, often are seen as an effective proxy for movements in the equity market. If that’s the case, trends in junk are pointing to a rocky road ahead. Average yields for low-rated companies have jumped to 7.3% and spreads between such debt and comparable duration Treasurys have widened dramatically, according to David Rosenberg at Gluskin Sheff. History suggests that fallout in stocks is not far behind. “If you think the equity market is heading for a spot of trouble here, the high-yield bond market is having a coronary,” Rosenberg said in his daily market analysis Thursday.

Rosenberg points out that the average yield is the highest since mid-December and has risen 120 basis points—1.2 percentage points—just since June. Spreads are at 580 basis points, a level hit only twice in the last three years. His caution on junk reflects sentiment heard from a number of other market analysts who believe the troubles in the high-yield market, which has led fixed income performance with 7% annualized returns over the past 10 years, are a bad sign. Since the most recent lows in June, spreads have widened a full percentage point. “In other words, this move in high-yield spreads is on par with what we have seen when we have previously had a 9% correction in equities or what would be about the same as the S&P 500 now correcting to 1,910,” he said.

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“I am going to withdraw from the movement because I’m very old and I have a large family.”

‘I Will Leave Politics And Return To Comedy’: Beppe Grillo (Local.it)

Beppe Grillo, the leader of Italy’s anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S), said he plans to leave politics and return to his old job as a comedian. In a TV interview with La7 on Tuesday afternoon, Grillo said: “I am going to withdraw from the movement because I’m very old and I have a large family.” Grillo has distanced himself from the party recently, with some of its members seen as rising political stars. Luigi Di Maio, who at 29 is the youngest deputy president of the lower house in Italian history, is quickly becoming the new face of the Five Star Movement. While Grillo said that he’s “here for now” and that “the movement is my life”, he hinted that the party perhaps no longer needed to use his personality as a springboard for media coverage.

“Once people understand that I am not the undisputed leader of M5S, that I am not in charge and that they are not voting for Grillo but for an idea that I have been part of – then I can return to my job, which is making people laugh and showing them things they don’t know,” he said. The Five Star Movement’s leader has not yet given any clear indications as to when he will be stepping down. His spokesperson told The Local that the leader has not resigned. The comedian is working on a new show that he hopes to launch at the end of this year, after delaying it because of political commitments. A return to TV might also be on the cards. Reports last week suggested he could return to Italy’s national broadcaster Rai, but Grillo was uncertain. “I don’t know, I’m open to anything,” he said.

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Drill baby drill 2.0.

World without Water: The Dangerous Misuse of Our Most Valuable Resource (Spiegel)

California’s rivers and lakes are running dry, but its deep aquifers are also rapidly disappearing. The majority of the 40 million Californians are already drawing on this last reserve of water, and they are doing so with such intensity and without restriction that sometimes the ground sinks beneath their feet. The underground reservoir collapses. This in turn destabilizes bridges and damages irrigation canals and roads. This groundwater is thousands of years old, and it is not replenishing itself. Those who hope to win the race for the last water reserves are forced to drill deeper and deeper into the ground. The Earth may be a blue planet when seen from space, but only 2.5% of its water is fresh. That water is wasted, polluted and poisoned and its distribution is appallingly unfair.

The world’s population has almost tripled since 1950, but water consumption has increased six-fold. To make matters worse, mankind is changing the Earth’s climate with greenhouse gas emissions, which only exacerbates the injustices. When we talk about water becoming scarce, we are first and foremost referring to people who are suffering from thirst. Close to a billion people are forced to drink contaminated water, while another 2.3 billion suffer from a shortage of water. How will we manage to feed more and more people with less and less water? But people in developing countries are no longer the only ones affected by the problem. Droughts facilitate the massive wildfires in California, and they adversely affect farms in Spain.

Water has become the business of global corporations and it is being wasted on a gigantic scale to turn a profit and operate farms in areas where they don’t belong. “Water is the primary principle of all things,” the philosopher Thales of Miletus wrote in the 6th century BC. More than two-and-a-half thousand years later, on July 28, 2010, the United Nations felt it was necessary to define access to water as a human right. It was an act of desperation. The UN has not fallen so clearly short of any of its other millennium goals than the goal of cutting the number of people without this access in half by 2015. The question is whether water is public property and a human right. Or is it ultimately a commodity, a consumer good and a financial investment?

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They should send it to an English port.

Greece Sends Cruise Ship To Ease Kos Migrant Crisis (Guardian)

The Greek government has chartered a cruise ship to help deal with the refugee crisis on Kos, a day after more than 2,000 mainly Syrian refugees were locked inside a stadium on the island for more than a day with limited access to water. The vessel, which can fit up to 2,500 people, will function as a floating registration centre. Officials hope its presence will speed up the processing of about 7,000 refugees who are stranded on Kos after making the short boat journey from Turkey, and to whom the authorities have been previously unable to provide paperwork or housing. The move follows a disastrous attempt to register refugees inside an old stadium on Tuesday and Wednesday, which led to up to 2,500 mainly Syrian migrants trapped in the stadium grounds.

For more than 12 hours, much of it in temperatures of about 35C, migrants were without access to water or toilets. This led some to faint at a rate of one every 15 minutes, according to Médecins Sans Frontières, an aid agency providing medical support outside the stadium. By dawn on Thursday, the last migrants were finally released in calm circumstances witnessed by the Guardian, but some were literally bruised by the experience after clashes broke out on Wednesday between confused refugees and panicking police officers. Youssef, a 29-year-old Syrian banker, criticised the undignified nature of the process after being released early on Thursday morning. “I have a bachelor’s degree in accounting and an MBA,” he said. “It’s a shame to treat us like this.”

Registered migrants like Youssef are still stuck on Kos, with up to 5,000 others yet to be processed. The situation has led the Greek government to send a cruise liner, the Eleftherios Venizelos, to mitigate the fallout – as hundreds more refugees arrive every day. Kos’s mayor, Giorgos Kyritsis, who made the decision to use the stadium, denied that the ship would simply be yet another place of limbo for refugees. Kyritis said: “It’s not going to be used as a camp. As soon as it is filled with migrants, the ship with depart and another ship will come.”

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Médecins Sans Frontières is forced to do what Europe should be doing.

Mediterranean: Saving Lives at the World’s Most Dangerous Border (Spiegel)

The Mediterranean has become a crisis region, one where more than 2,000 people have died this year already – more than have lost their lives in attacks in Afghanistan. But of course that figure is misleading. It reflects only the number of recorded deaths. Who knows how many people have drowned without a trace? Nevertheless, no aid agencies are active in the region. They all wait on shore for the survivors to arrive. The business of saving lives is left to those who are the least prepared: navies and merchant vessels. Meanwhile, more and more refugees are embarking on the perilous journey across the Mediterranean – 188,000 so far this year. It’s hard to believe that a crisis area of this magnitude is empty of aid workers – unthinkable, Doctors Without Borders, or Médecins Sans Frontières, thought.

It is the biggest, best organized medical relief organization in the world. An army of survival. They are professionals for natural catastrophes and civil wars, and they are engaged in the fight against HIV, Ebola and measles. With a budget of €1.066 billion in 2014, MSF’s 2,769 international employees and 31,000 local helpers undertook some 8.3 million treatments. They calculate the need for help based on mortality rates – a cold, precise measurement. An emergency situation is considered acute when there is one death per day for every 10,000 people. Last year, at least 3,500 refugees died in the Mediterranean while 219,000 made it to Europe. That’s a mortality rate of around 10 per day, or one in 63. MSF, until now a land-based operation, has decided to set sail.

Never has the organization’s name been more fitting than right now, as it carries out its mission in a vast sea that has developed into the world’s deadliest border. Three boats have been in action since early summer. The Dignity 1, the Bourbon Argos and MY Phoenix, the smallest of the fleet. Together they have room for 1,400 refugees. It is the only real private rescue mission in the Mediterranean, and it is almost entirely funded by donations. Operating costs have already topped €10 million this year. Of that, Phoenix, jointly funded by MOAS, has cost €1.6 million thus far this year. MSF has rescued more than 10,000 people so far. By mid-2015, the mortality rate in the Mediterranean was one in 76. A small victory, but a victory nonetheless.

An estimated 15 to 20 boats carrying around 3,000 people set sail from Libya’s beaches every day. After a few hours, they call a contact person in Italy or they get in touch with the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC) in Rome directly. That’s if a navy vessel or a cargo ship doesn’t stumble across them first. Whoever is close by is obligated to come to the rescue. But what if no one is nearby to save them?

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 August 11, 2015  Posted by at 9:23 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , ,  1 Response »


Howard Hollem Assembly and Repairs Department Naval Air Base, Corpus Christi 1942

China Slashes Yuan Reference Rate by Record 1.9% (Bloomberg)
How To Anger Asia And The Fed In One Go: Devalue The Yuan (CNBC)
Emerging Stocks Head for Two-Year Low After China Devalues Yuan (Bloomberg)
China Joins The Global Devaluation Party (Coppola)
Chinese Spurn Unprecedented 30% Car Discounts Amid Slowdown (Bloomberg)
U.S. Consumers Rein in Spending Growth Plans, New York Fed Says (Bloomberg)
Greece And Lenders Reach Deal On Third Bailout (Kathimerini)
Germans And Slovaks Stand Ready To Scupper Greek Deal (Telegraph)
Germany Gained €100 Billion From Greece Crisis, Study Finds (AFP)
Greek Military: Armed and Financially Dangerous (Zeit)
Deflation Stalks the Euro Zone (Bloomberg)
Bank of Russia Gets Putin’s Praise as Ruble Rebounds With Crude (Bloomberg)
Impeaching Rousseff Would Set Brazil On Fire: Senate Chief (Reuters)
UK Farming Unions Call For ‘Seismic Change’ In Way Food Is Sold (Guardian)
New Zealand A ‘Virtual Economic Trade Prisoner Of China’ (Nz Herald)
EU To Provide $3.6 Billion Funding For Migrant Crisis Over 6 Years (Reuters)
French Police Say Time To ‘Bring In British Army’ To Calais (RT)
History In Motion (Pantelis Boukalas)
Japan Restarts Sendai Nuclear Reactor Despite Public Opposition (Fairfax)
A Good Week For Neutrinos (Butterworth)

I haven’t seen anyone in the US whine about currency manipulators yet. Da Donald?

China Slashes Yuan Reference Rate by Record 1.9% (Bloomberg)

China devalued the yuan by the most in two decades, ending a de facto peg to the dollar that’s been in place since March and battered exports. The People’s Bank of China cut its daily reference rate for the currency by a record 1.9%, triggering the yuan’s biggest one-day loss since China unified official and market exchange rates in January 1994. The change was a one-time adjustment, the central bank said in a statement, adding that it plans to keep the yuan stable at a “reasonable” level and will strengthen the market’s role in determining the fixing. “It looks like this is the end of the fixing as we know it,” said Khoon Goh, a Singapore-based strategist at Australia & New Zealand Banking Group. “The one-off devaluation of the fix and allowing more market-based determination takes us into a new currency regime.”

The PBOC had been supporting the yuan to deter capital outflows and encourage greater global usage as China pushes for official reserve status at the IMF. The intervention contributed to a $300 billion slide in the nation’s foreign-exchange reserves over the last four quarters and made the yuan the best performer in emerging markets, eroding the competitiveness of Chinese exports. [..] The currency’s closing levels in Shanghai were restricted to 6.2096 or 6.2097 versus the dollar for more than a week through Monday and daily moves has been a maximum 0.01% for a month. The devaluation triggered declines of at least 0.9% in the Australian dollar, South Korea’s won and the Singapore dollar, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index of shares rose 0.7%.

China has to balance the need to boost exports with the risk of a cash exodus, Tom Orlik, chief Asia economist at Bloomberg Intelligence, wrote in a research note. He estimates a 1% depreciation in the real effective exchange rate boosts export growth by 1 percentage point with a lag of three months. At the same time, a 1% drop against the dollar triggers about $40 billion in capital outflows, he wrote. “The risk is that depreciation triggers capital flight, dealing a blow to the stability of China’s financial system,” Orlik wrote. The calculation from China’s leaders is that with their $3.69 trillion of currency reserves “they can manage any risks from capital flight,” he said.

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The Fed must have been expecting this.

How To Anger Asia And The Fed In One Go: Devalue The Yuan (CNBC)

A new Asian currency war and a delayed Federal Reserve rate hike; these are the potential market-shaking implications of Beijing’s decision to devalue the yuan, strategists told CNBC. “If they are true to their word today and this is a new regime for the fixed mechanism, we might think about using the word ‘floating’ associated with the Chinese exchange rate—that’s a massive change,” noted Richard Yetsenga, head of global markets research at ANZ, referring to Tuesday’s announcement by the People’s Bank of China to allow the yuan to depreciate as much as 2% against the U.S. dollar.

The move took global traders by surprise, with many pointing to weak July trade data, the recent stock market rout’s spillover impact on consumption, and aspirations for inclusion into the IMF’s Special Drawing Rights basket as factors motivating Beijing. “It’s an interesting move which means several things: when the People’s Bank of China first started lowering interest rates and reserve requirements, that freed up bank lending, which likely went to stocks. Now this yuan re-engineering will help companies that represent the greater economy, i.e. exporters, not just companies heavily weighted in stock markets,” explained Nicholas Teo, market analyst at CMC Markets.

China may be focused on becoming more market-oriented, but Tuesday’s announcement is the latest in a series of competitive devaluations in Asia and other emerging markets, traders said. “Clearly, this is a shock to the rest of Asia. If you look at China’s top trading partners—Korea, Japan, the U.S. and Germany—this is a competitive hit to the exports of those countries. China is exporting disinflation to countries who receive Chinese exports. This is especially negative for Asia currencies,” noted Callum Henderson, global head of FX Research at Standard Chartered.

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There never was another option.

Emerging Stocks Head for Two-Year Low After China Devalues Yuan (Bloomberg)

Emerging-market stocks headed for a two-year low and currencies sank after China devalued the yuan amid a deepening slowdown in its economy. China Southern Airlines and Air China sank at least 12% in Hong Kong on concern a weaker yuan will boost the value of their dollar-denominated debt. Indonesian stocks fell to a 17-month low. China’s currency slid the most in two decades versus the dollar. South Korea’s won fell 1.3% and Malaysia’s ringgit extended declines to a 1998 low. Russia’s ruble lost 0.6%. The MSCI Emerging Markets Index slid 0.4% to 884.02 at 3:28 p.m. in Hong Kong. China’s central bank cut its reference rate by 1.9%, triggering the yuan’s biggest one-day loss since the nation unified official and market exchange rates in 1994.

Data on Tuesday showed China’s broadest measure of new credit missed economists’ forecasts last month. “This is another effort by China to boost economic growth as a weaker currency could increase exports,” said Rafael Palma Gil, a trader at Rizal Commercial Banking Corp., which has $1.8 billion in trust assets. Investors should favor companies that earn dollars over those with large dollar-denominated debts, he said. MSCI’s developing-nation stock index has fallen 7.3% this year and trades at 11.2 times projected 12-month earnings, data compiled by Bloomberg show. The MSCI World Index has added 3.3% and is valued at a multiple of 16.4.

Eight out of 10 industry groups fell, led by industrial shares. China Southern Airlines tumbled 17% and Air China was poised for the biggest drop since April 2009. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng China Enterprises Index fell 0.6%, erasing earlier gains. The Shanghai Composite Index was little changed. Indonesia’s Jakarta Composite Index tumbled 2% on concern the yuan devaluation may weaken exports from Southeast Asia’s largest economy. Shipments to China, Indonesia’s third-largest trading partner, had already dropped 26% in the first half of 2015, according to government data.

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Beggar thy neighbor to the bottom of the barrel.

China Joins The Global Devaluation Party (Coppola)

As Chinese economic performance has worsened in recent months there has been a growing divergence between RMB “central parity” (the unofficial official exchange rate) and the RMB’s market rate. This increased sharply when the most recent statistics were released. Maintaining a higher parity than the market wants is costly, as Russia could tell you: China has been unloading its foreign reserves at a rate of knots to support its currency. Maintaining too high a parity is costly in other ways too. China’s precious export-led growth strategy is at risk from the rising dollar. The “macroeconomic and financial data” referred to by the PBOC includes sharply falling exports, particularly to the EU and Japan. July’s export figures were dismal, and the trade surplus was well below forecast.

Add to this the massive over-leverage of the Chinese economy – overtly engineered by the government – and recent stock market volatility, and devaluation was inevitable. The only surprise is that the PBOC has not acted sooner. Indeed, why hasn’t it acted sooner? After all, the Fed has been passively tightening monetary policy for a year now, ending QE and repeatedly signalling that rate hikes are on the horizon. This is principally why the yuan REER has been rising. Furthermore, both the ECB and the Bank of Japan are doing QE, depressing the Euro and the yen and forcing smaller countries to defend their currencies. Emerging market economies are particularly badly affected, but we shouldn’t forget about Switzerland, which is still trying to prevent its currency appreciating as capital flows in from the troubled Eurozone. Capital inflows can be every bit as damaging as capital outflows. Reuters has an explanation for the PBOC’s reluctance to join the devaluation party:

Analysts say Beijing has been keeping its yuan strong to wean its economy off low-end export manufacturing. A strong yuan policy also supports domestic buying power, helps Chinese firms to borrow and invest abroad, and encourages foreign firms and governments to increase their use of the currency.

This brings us back to the liberalization of the Chinese financial economy. China needs the yuan to be widely accepted OUTSIDE China if it is to have any chance of becoming one of the IMF’s SDR basket currencies – the essential prelude to becoming a global reserve currency. Hence PBOC’s reluctance to devalue. So now, having been forced to devalue because of bad economic news, the PBOC is making a virtue out of necessity. Devaluing the yuan is presented as part of its liberalization strategy. Not that the PBOC has any intention of moving to a free float any time soon, though its statement does signal that it might widen the band.

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Might as well give them away. Next year’s models are on the way.

Chinese Spurn Unprecedented 30% Car Discounts Amid Slowdown (Bloomberg)

Bill Shen wants to upgrade his 8-year-old Citroen to something fancier, maybe an Audi or a BMW. But the Shanghai resident is in no hurry. Cars keep getting cheaper. Facing the slowest growth in new car sales in four years, dealerships in China have chipped away at retail prices in the past several months. Now discounts of at least 30% are being offered in major cities on hundreds of models. Audi’s top-of-the-range A8L luxury sedan, originally listed for 1.97 million yuan ($317,000), is now going for 1.28 million yuan, according to Autohome, a popular car-pricing portal. “Prices are getting lower all the time, even as cars are getting better,” said Shen, 37, who works for an auto parts company. “If it’s not urgent, one can wait.”

Consumers like Shen represent the biggest threat to China’s new-vehicle market, which overtook the U.S. in 2009 to become the world’s biggest. With the Chinese economy flagging, and government curbs on car registrations and stock market volatility deterring would-be car buyers, the auto industry is pulling out unprecedented offers to drum up sales. Their success may be reflected in industry sales figures for July slated for release on Tuesday by both the Passenger Car Association and China Association of Automobile Manufacturers. “This round of price cuts is the worst in China’s auto industry history in terms of the number of models involved and the depth of the cuts,” said Su Hui, a deputy division head at the state-backed China Automobile Dealers Association and a 26-year veteran of the trade.

“Nobody saw it coming, not the government, not the automakers, not the dealers.” Besides discounting prices, carmakers and dealers are offering incentives such as subsidized insurance, zero down-payments, interest-free financing and boosting trade-in prices, according to brokerage Sanford C. Bernstein. Peugeot Citroen and Mazda. have warned of a looming price war that will damage profit margins. BMW said this month that slowing sales in China may force it to revise this year’s profitability goals.

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They’re broke just like the Chinese?!

U.S. Consumers Rein in Spending Growth Plans, New York Fed Says (Bloomberg)

U.S. consumers last month envisioned the slowest rate of growth in their planned spending in at least two years, according to a survey by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York released on Monday. The New York Fed’s July Survey of Consumer Expectations found that households expect to increase spending by 3.5% over the next year, down from the 4.3% gain seen in June, according to the median response. It was the lowest reading since the survey started in 2013. Median expected inflation over the next year was unchanged at 3%. The monthly New York Fed survey comes ahead of the release of a Commerce Department report on Thursday that is forecast to show U.S. retail sales rose 0.6% in July after falling 0.3% in June.

The Fed is looking for signs that the labor market and inflation have returned to normal before beginning to raise its benchmark federal funds rate. Most economists expect policy makers will act at their next meeting on Sept. 16-17. The Fed has kept rates near zero since 2008 to combat the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. Spending data are important because the consumer underpins the Fed’s optimism that economic growth will accelerate. “That’s really fundamental to our improved outlook,” Chicago Fed President Charles Evans said during a breakfast with reporters last month. “We are really counting on the consumer playing a strong role.”

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Tentatively for now.

Greece And Lenders Reach Deal On Third Bailout (Kathimerini)

Greece and its lenders have reached an agreement on the terms of a third bailout, government sources said early on Monday. The deal appears to have been concluded shortly after 8 a.m. local time following a marathon last session of talks that began on Monday morning. Emerging from the Hilton hotel, where the negotiations were taking place, Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos suggested a deal is in place. “We are very close,” he told reporters. “There are a couple of very small details remaining on prior actions.”

Kathimerini understands that the agreement involves the government having to immediately implement 35 prior actions. The measures demanded include changes to tonnage tax for shipping firms, reducing the prices of generic drugs, a review of the social welfare system, strengthening of the Financial Crimes Squad (SDOE), phasing out of early retirement, scrapping tax breaks for islands by the end of 2016, implementation of the product market reforms proposed by the OECD, deregulating the energy market and proceeding with the privatization program already in place.

Should the agreement be finalized, it is likely to be voted on in Greek Parliament on Thursday. This would be followed on Friday by a Eurogroup and the process of other eurozone parliaments approving the deal. The European Stability Mechanism would then be in a position to disburse new loans to Athens before August 20, when Greece has to pay €3.2 billion to the ECB. Greece is aiming to receive €25 billion in the first tranche, allowing it to pay off international lenders, reduce government arrears and have €10 billion left for bank recapitalization.

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Good. We wouldn’t want anything to run smoothly, would we? Where’s the fun in that?

Germans And Slovaks Stand Ready To Scupper Greek Deal (Telegraph)

Eurozone creditor governments raised fresh concerns about the viability of a new Greek rescue package on Monday despite hopes from Athens that an agreement to unlock vital rescue funds was inching ever closer. Greeca and its creditor partners reportedly agreed on fiscal targets the country will need to hit over the next two years, on Monday evening. They would amount to a baseline of 0pc in 2015, followed by a primary surplus of 0.5pc the following year, and 1pc in 2017, according to an official quoted by Reuters. The targets would represent significant easing of the initial austerity measures demanded from Athens Leftist government, and reflect the severity of the damage that has been wrought to the economy by capital controls.

Creditors projections assume Greece will contract by another 0.5 pc in 2016, before returning to a 2.3% growth in 2017, the official added. However, in a sign of continued dissent among the ranks of Europe’s creditor nations, both Germany and Slovakia stood firm on the tough conditions Athens must accept as its price to stay in the eurozone. Sloviakian prime minister Robert Fico, who represents one of the most hardened member states against further eurozone largesse to Greece, insisted his government would not stump up a “single cent” in debt write-offs on Greece’s €330bn debt mountain. Without debt relief, the IMF has said it will pull out of talks with Athens until there is an “explicit and concrete agreement”, jeopardising the entire basis of a new three-year rescue package.

But Mr Fico said Slovakia would reject any attempt to cut the value of Greece’s debt and was “nervous” about the current status of talks between the Syriza government and its creditors. “Slovakia will not adopt a single cent on Greek sovereign debt, as long as I am prime minister”, he told Austria’s Der Standard. “There are other options: You can drag redemption dates but this also has limits: We can not wait 100 years until Greece repays its debts.” The IMF has recommended a maturity extension of another 30 years on Greece’s debt mountain; the country will already be paying back its creditors in 2057. Mr Fico added that he “wholeheartedly” supported German finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble’s proposal for a “temporary” eurozone exit for Greece during eleventh hour summit talks in July.

“There are no rules in the EU over a euro exit…But that does not mean however, that you can not create the rules. The proposal with a fixed-term euro exit has advantages. I support the agreement reached for Greece, but we will be watching very closely what is happening now. We are nervous.”

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Meanwhile, in the real world..

Germany Gained €100 Billion From Greece Crisis, Study Finds (AFP)

Germany, which has taken a tough line on Greece, has profited from the country’s crisis to the tune of €100 billion, according to a new study Monday. The sum represents money Germany saved through lower interest payments on funds the government borrowed amid investor “flights to safety”, the study said. “These savings exceed the costs of the crisis – even if Greece were to default on its entire debt,” said the private, non-profit Leibniz Institute of Economic Research in its paper. “Germany has clearly benefited from the Greek crisis.” When investors are faced with turmoil, they typically seek a safe haven for their money, and export champion Germany “disproportionately benefited” from that during the debt crisis, it said.

“Every time financial markets faced negative news on Greece in recent years, interest rates on German government bonds fell, and every time there was good news, they rose.” Germany, the eurozones effective paymaster, has demanded fiscal discipline and tough economic reforms in Greece in return for consenting to new aid from international creditors. Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble has opposed a Greek debt write-down while pointing to his own government’s balanced budget. The institute, however, argued that the balanced budget was possible in large part only because of Germany’s interest savings amid the Greek debt crisis.

The estimated €100 billion euros Germany had saved since 2010 accounted for over 3% of GDP, said the institute based in the eastern city of Halle. The bonds of other countries – including the United States, France and the Netherlands – had also benefited, but “to a much smaller extent”. Germany’s share of the international rescue packages for Greece, including a new loan being negotiated now, came to around €90 billion, said the institute. “Even if Greece doesn’t pay back a single cent, the German public purse has benefited financially from the crisis,” said the paper.

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And on top of the €100 billion German profit from Greece, there are the secret side deals with German arms industry. That the Troika will refuse for Syriza to cut.

Greek Military: Armed and Financially Dangerous (Zeit)

The Bonn International Center for Conversion has listed Greece among the most militarized countries since 1990. It was ranked ninth in 2014, ahead of all other NATO members – despite Greece’s financial crisis. “Athens’ high arms expenditures and extensive weapons purchases over the past years have contributed to the desolate budget situation,” according to BICC. The figures show that Greece invested nearly €6 billion in its military in 2000. Eight years later, the figure was €8.6 billion. In 2009, Europe’s NATO member countries spent an average of 1.7% of their GDPs on defense – Greece was at 3.1%. The country was among the world’s five biggest arms importers between 2005 and 2009, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

Athens’ high arms expenditures and extensive weapons purchases over the past years have contributed to the desolate budget situation. In May 2010, Greece had to be saved from financial ruin, and eventually received a loan package of hundreds of billions of euros. The government used some of this money to buy more weapons. Now, even more cash is on the table. The Greek government, led by Alexis Tsipras, has accepted a number of conditions connected to the deal. Greece must save money. The value-added tax has been increased, pension payments are to decrease, state-owned companies are to be privatized, and corruption weeded out. But only marginal consideration has been given to the country’s huge military expenditures. The army remains sacrosanct.

Politicians and others in Germany have often harshly criticized Mr. Tsipras. But the critics seem to forget that debt-ridden Greece until recently was ordering armaments worth billions of euros from Germany. Between 2001 and 2010, Greece was the most important customer for the German defense industry. During this period, Greece bought 15% of all of Germany’s exports, SIPRI estimates. Greece’s armed forces have nearly 1,000 German-developed model Leopard 1 and 2 combat tanks. Including models from other countries, Greece has 1,622 tanks. The German military has 240 Leopard tanks in service. (That number is to increase by around 90 because of the crisis in Ukraine.) While the German armed forces have been shrinking and phasing out military equipment for years, Greece has gone the other way. No other E.U. country has more combat tanks today.

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A very flawed article that presents predictions by Bloomberg Survey economists as fact.

Deflation Stalks the Euro Zone (Bloomberg)

The euro zone is poised to record its ninth quarter of economic growth, with economists predicting that gross domestic product figures scheduled for release Friday will show the economy expanded by 0.4% in the second three months of the year. Unfortunately for the ECB, that revival isn’t dispelling the risk that disinflation will worsen into deflation. For reasons that future historians of economic policy may struggle to unravel, modern central bankers have decided that the Goldilocks rate of acceleration for consumer prices to run not too hot, not too cold, is 2%. And while forecasts compiled by Bloomberg suggest that economists expect the U.S. to achieve that state of inflationary nirvana in the first three months of next year, prices in the euro region are seen languishing at 1.5% in the first quarter of 2016 and then decelerating.

That outlook helps to explain why almost a quarter of the market for euro-zone government bonds has negative yields, meaning investors are paying for the privilege of keeping their money in $1.5 trillion of securities, according to data compiled by Bloomberg reporters Lukanyo Mnyanda and David Goodman. It has been almost a year, for example, since German two-year notes paid more than zero. The disparity in the inflation outlooks for the euro region and the U.S. is also driving a divergence in borrowing costs. As Bloomberg strategist Simon Ballard points out, investment-grade borrowers are paying more to borrow dollars than euros, and the gap has reached its widest level since at least December 2009.

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I said it before: Elvira Nabiullina is a smart cookie. Moreover, Russian debt levels are very low compared to western nations. The demise of Putin is greatly exaggerated in the western press.

Bank of Russia Gets Putin’s Praise as Ruble Rebounds With Crude (Bloomberg)

Russian President Vladimir Putin commended the central bank for its efforts to keep the ruble stable after policy makers called for calm as the currency bounced back from a six-month low. “The central bank is doing a lot to strengthen the national currency or in any case to ensure its stability and the stability of the financial system as a whole,” Putin said at a meeting with Governor Elvira Nabiullina. “I see how persistent you are in going down that path.” The Bank of Russia said on Monday that corporate debt payments in 2015 won’t overwhelm the foreign-exchange market with “excessive demand” after redemptions last year helped spark the worst currency crisis since 1998.

Companies and lenders have to repay as much as $35 billion out of the $61 billion that falls due from September to December, the central bank said on its website. The rest may be rolled over or refinanced because some of it is owed to affiliated companies, it said. [..] Policy makers are short on instruments as they try to avert another ruble collapse after a rushed switch to a freely floating currency in November. While the central bank has faced questions about its commitment to allow the market to set the ruble’s exchange rate, the Russian leadership has been more unabashed in acknowledging a measure of control over the currency market as the economy succumbs to a recession. Putin said in June that a weaker ruble was helping Russian companies weather the economic crisis.

The central bank last month halted foreign-currency purchases, started in mid-May to boost reserves, after a renewed slide in commodity prices triggered further ruble declines. It defended the operations as compatible with its free float and has pledged to avoid interventions unless the ruble’s swings threatened financial stability. With its statement on Monday, the central bank is conducting “verbal intervention aimed at stabilizing market sentiment regarding the ruble,” Dmitry Dolgin, an economist at Alfa Bank in Moscow, said by e-mail. “There are concerns on the market that the looming repayment of external debt will exert significant pressure on the balance of currency demand and supply on the domestic market, especially under the conditions of falling oil prices.”

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Her popularity rate is at 8%.

Impeaching Rousseff Would Set Brazil On Fire: Senate Chief (Reuters)

The president of Brazil’s Senate said on Monday that attempting to impeach President Dilma Rousseff was not a priority and warned that seeking her removal in Congress would “set the country on fire.” Renan Calheiros, who is often critical of the administration, struck a more positive tone amid a deepening political crisis after seven months into Rousseff’s second term. Many of the president’s opponents in Congress have called for her impeachment for allegedly breaking the law by doctoring fiscal accounts to allow her government to spend more in the run-up to her re-election in October. Calheiros, a leader of the country’s biggest party, the PMDB, spoke to reporters after meeting with Finance Minister Joaquim Levy to discuss the government’s fiscal austerity plan.

He promised to bring to a vote this week a bill that rolls back payroll tax breaks, which would save the government nearly 13 billion reais ($3.78 billion) a year. The rollback is the last key bill to be approved in an austerity package aimed at preserving the country’s investment-grade rating. The Brazilian real, buffeted by political uncertainty in recent weeks, added some gains after Calheiros’ comments. The lower chamber of Congress, whose speaker recently defected to the opposition, decides whether to start an impeachment process, which then goes to the Senate for a final ruling. Rousseff would be suspended as soon as the lower chamber agrees to impeach her, which requires two-thirds of the votes.

Rousseff’s support in Congress is rapidly fading as the economy heads toward a painful recession and a widening corruption scandal at state oil company Petrobras rattles the country’s political and business elite. Her popularity is at record lows and opponents plan a nationwide anti-government protest on Sunday. Congress has resisted Rousseff’s austerity efforts by watering down measures to cut expenditure and raise taxes, while passing bills that raise public spending.

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But.. but.. that’s protectionism…!

UK Farming Unions Call For ‘Seismic Change’ In Way Food Is Sold (Guardian)

Farming is in a “state of emergency” and a “seismic change” is needed to the way food is sold in Britain, agriculture leaders have warned after a crisis summit on falling milk prices. Leading farming unions called on the government to introduce long-term contracts between farmers, distributors and supermarkets and to force retailers to clearly label whether their products are British or imported. The emergency summit in London followed days of protests from farmers over the sharp fall in the prices they are being paid for milk. Asda and Morrisons distribution centres have been blockaded, farmers have removed cartons of milk from supermarkets and cows were paraded through the aisles of an Asda store in Stafford.

Figures from AHDB Dairy, the trade body, show that the average UK farmgate price for milk – the price that farmers are paid – has fallen by 25% over the last year, to 23.66p per litre. Industry experts claim it costs farmers 30p per litre to produce milk, meaning farms have been thrown into chaos by the drop in prices. Farmers have blamed the fall in prices on a supermarket price war but retailers claim the drop reflects declining commodity prices and an oversupply of milk, partly caused by Russia’s block on western imports. Farmers For Action, the campaign group behind the milk protests, is scheduled to meet representatives from Morrisons on Tuesday to discuss the crisis.

The farming unions warned of “dire consequences for the farming industry and rural economy” if the way in which food is sold does not change in the near future. The presidents of the NFU, NFU Scotland, NFU Cymru, Ulster Farmers Union and four other unions, said: “We would urge farm ministers across the UK to meet urgently. They need to admit that something has gone fundamentally wrong in the supply chain and take remedial action. “In general, voluntary codes are not delivering their intended purpose. Government needs to take action to ensure that contracts to all farmers are longer-term and fairer in apportioning risk and reward. “Government also needs to urgently ensure that rules are put in place regarding labelling so that it is clear and obvious which products are imported and which are British.”

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Sold their soul.

New Zealand A ‘Virtual Economic Trade Prisoner Of China’ (Nz Herald)

No one doubts the benefits of extending our trade opportunities – but many are alarmed at a dangerous naivety in what passes for our trade policy. That policy reflects our unfortunate dependence on a single commodity; our anxiety to maximise our one trading advantage by currying favour with powerful trading partners has led us into some treacherous waters. We have, for example, rapidly built up a Chinese market for our dairy produce with the result that – without any assurance that that market will remain open to us – we are now virtually economic prisoners, forced to meet almost any Chinese demand in order to retain a market that has become our life blood.

We have chosen, for example, to avert our gaze from the obvious effects of Chinese intervention in the Auckland property market for fear of offending Chinese opinion. More importantly, we have apparently not recognised that the Chinese interest goes beyond merely buying our products in a normal trading relationship, but extends to obtaining control of the productive capacity itself. Dairy farms themselves, processing plants, manufacturing capacity, expertise of various sorts are now owned by Chinese operators; their production increasingly by-passes New Zealand economic entities and suppliers and is marketed by Chinese companies directly to the Chinese consumer.

There are of course many instances of Chinese capital being deployed across the globe in pursuit of assets and capacity. This is not a cause for criticism – the Chinese are entitled like anyone else to pursue their own interests. It is simply a statement of fact. We, however, seem unaware of what is happening. It is no accident that this direct supply to the Chinese market has accompanied a fall in the proportion of New Zealand dairy production handled by Fonterra. While the proportion of our dairy production under Chinese control is still quite small, there can be little doubt that it will grow.

Low dairy prices will force the sale of a number of farms to foreign owners. As the Chinese increasingly control their own sources of supply, their reduced requirements for dairy produce on international markets will inevitably mean downward pressure on prices. Nor is it just the ownership of the physical product that has passed into foreign and often Chinese hands. The decision to allow non-farmer ownership of “units” (or, in other words, shares) in Fonterra has meant that we must now face the prospect of a significant part of the income stream from our most important industry to pass into private and often foreign hands.

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Over 6 years?! How about right now, and handle the issue properly?

EU To Provide $3.6 Billion Funding For Migrant Crisis Over 6 Years (Reuters)

The European Commission on Monday approved €2.4 billion of aid over six years for countries including Greece and Italy that have struggled to cope with a surge in numbers of immigrants. Italy is to receive the most aid – nearly €560 million, while Greece will receive €473 million. Tensions have escalated this year as thousands of migrants from the Middle East and Africa try to gain asylum in the European Union. In Calais, a bottleneck for migrants attempting to enter Britain illegally through the Eurotunnel from France, has seen several migrant deaths this month.

Britain has already received its €27 million from the commission in emergency aid funding, which it applied for in March. France will receive its €20 million later this month. Neither country has requested additional aid for security in Calais and will not receive funds from the latest aid program. “We are now able to disburse the funding for the French national program and the UK has already received the first disbursement of its funding,” Natasha Berthaud, a European Commission spokeswoman, said. . “Both of these programs will, amongst other things, also deal with the situation in Calais.” The Commission plans to approve an additional 13 programs later this year, which will then be implemented by EU member states.

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The only answer Europe ever seems to have.

French Police Say Time To ‘Bring In British Army’ To Calais (RT)

Police in Calais, from where thousands of illegal immigrants from Africa and the Middle East risk their lives trying to cross the English Channel to make it to the UK, have suggested bringing in the British army to curb the crisis. The head of the Alliance union for police deployed to the French port and Eurotunnel site, Bruno Noel, has warned that the situation could soon get out of control if additional help is not provided. He complained that his unit is “doing Britain’s dirty work.” “We have only 15 permanent French border police at the Eurotunnel site,” the Daily Telegraph quoted him as saying. “Can you imagine how derisory this is given the situation? “So I say, why not bring in the British Army, and let them work together with the French?” Mr Noel added.

According to different estimates, between 2,000 and 10,000 migrants in Calais are trying to cross the English Channel. Many have attempted to reach Britain by boarding trains through the tunnel or on lorries bound for UK destinations. Twelve people have died this year attempting to reach the UK. The numbers of migrants in the Calais camp, known as The Jungle, have soared over the past few months from 1,000 in April to nearly 5,000 by August. The first call to use British troops was made by Kevin Hurley (former Head of Counter Terrorism for City of London Police, an ex-Paratrooper and an expert on international security), who is currently Police and Crime Commissioner for Surrey. He said the problems stemming from the crowds of migrants trying to enter the UK from Calais through the Channel Tunnel could be dealt with efficiently by Gurkha regiments, based close by in Hythe, a small British coastal market town on the south coast of Kent.

The 700-strong 2nd Battalion of the Royal Gurkha Rifles has been based in the Shorncliffe and Risborough barracks just outside Hythe since 2000, according to Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner for Surrey. “I am increasingly frustrated by the huge numbers of illegal migrants who jump out of the backs of lorries at the first truck stop – Cobham Services in Surrey – and disappear into our countryside. There were 100 in the last month alone,” Mr Hurley said late last month. “But, while the UK and French governments decide their next prevention strategy we, the British police, have to deal with the immediate problem. The Gurkhas are a highly respected and competent force, and are just around the corner. They could help to ensure that our border is not breached,” he added.

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Mass migrations cannot be stopped.

History In Motion (Pantelis Boukalas)

Throughout the history of mankind the walls protecting cities under siege were never able to keep a determined enemy away forever – a first wave would be followed by a second, and so on. But when that enemy conquered those cities, the waves would stop. However, the overwhelming waves of migrating people that are reaching our shores today, mobilized by the desperate need for survival as opposed to the desire to conquer, will simply keep coming. These desperate people are trying to escape Middle Eastern, Asian and African countries where poverty, war and a lack of freedom threaten their very existence. What has been set in motion now is not the persecution of certain populations, but history itself.

This process cannot be halted, no matter how many fences are erected, no matter how many high walls are put up, such as the ones under construction by Hungary at its border with Serbia, or those envisioned by controversial mogul Donald Trump, a candidate for the Republicans’ presidential ticket, at the US-Mexico border. As for the Channel Tunnel, do the British truly believe that 50,000 – instead of 5,000 – determined refugees in Calais could be prevented from crossing at the mere sight of police officers and weapons? A recent editorial in The New York Times was poignant: “Residents on the island of Lesbos – where many refugees from the Middle East land because of its proximity to Turkey – have responded generously, providing meals, blankets and dry clothing.

Their response should shame others in Europe, particularly the British government, which is panicking over the prospect that a mere 3,000 migrants in Calais, France, might make it across the English Channel.” So far, despite officials’ meetings, the positions of Central and Northern Europe with regard to the refugee issue leaves a lot to be desired. As if Italy’s southern borders and Greece’s eastern borders were not the European Union’s own borders.

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“..only two of 85 medical institutes and 15 of 159 nursing and other care facilities within a 30-kilometre radius of the Sendai plant had proper evacuation plans.”

Japan Restarts Sendai Nuclear Reactor Despite Public Opposition (Fairfax)

Japan has restarted its first nuclear reactor since new safety rules were ordered in the wake of the 2011 Fukushima disaster, despite vocal public opposition and anxiety. After months of debate about safety, the No 1 reactor at the 30-year-old Sendai nuclear power plant, on the southwest island of Kyushu, became the first to be brought back to life on Tuesday morning. The reactor, one of 25 which have applied to restart, will begin generating power by Friday and reach full capacity next month. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has made the restart of the country’s nuclear energy industry a priority of his administration, with the hiatus sending electricity bills soaring, providing a drag on his so-called Abenomics reforms, and serving to highlight Japan’s dependence on energy imports.

But with the scars of Fukushima yet to fade, newspaper polls have shown a majority of Japanese oppose the restart. Mr Abe’s personal approval ratings have also plumbed new depths, having also come under fire for pushing through a controversial new national security bill that will see Japanese troops fight overseas for the first time since World War II. “I would like Kyushu Electric to put safety first and take utmost precautions for the restart,” he said. Yoshihide Suga, the chief cabinet secretary, said “it is important for our energy policy to push forward restarts of reactors that are deemed safe”.

But local residents said they are worried about potential dangers from active volcanoes in the region, and there was no clarity around the evacuation plans for nearby hospitals and schools. An Asahi Shimbun newspaper survey found only two of 85 medical institutes and 15 of 159 nursing and other care facilities within a 30-kilometre radius of the Sendai plant had proper evacuation plans. About 220,000 people live within a 30-kilometre radius – the size of the Fukushima no-go zone – of the Sendai plant. “You will need to change where you evacuate to depending on the direction of the wind. The current evacuation plan is nonsense,” Shouhei Nomura, a 79-year-old former worker at a nuclear plant equipment maker, who now opposes atomic energy and is living in a protest camp near the plant told Reuters.

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A little physics fascination.

A Good Week For Neutrinos (Butterworth)

Neutrinos are made by firing protons into a target. This produces lots of mess, including charged particles called pions (made of a quark and an antiquark), which travel a while and can be focussed into a beam. They eventually decay to neutrinos, which remain in a collimated beam and, mostly, just carry on without interacting with anything. Crucially though, a few of them will, by random luck (maybe bad luck from the neutrinos point of view) collide with normal matter, some of it (by good luck from the physicists point of view) the matter inside the NOvA far detector, which can measure what kind of neutrinos they were.

The vast majority of neutrinos produced when a pion decays are so-called “muon neutrinos”. This means when they interact they should produce muons (a heavier version of the electron). If the neutrinos did nothing odd during their 800 km journey to NOvA, about 200 of them should have been seen by now. However, only 33 turned up. Also, six electron neutrinos turned up, when only about one would be expected.

This is evidence that the neutrinos transmogrify, or “oscillate”, during their journey. That is, they change types. This behaviour is already known; it is how we know neutrinos have mass (in the original version of the Standard Model of particle physics they were massless), and it may be connected with mysterious fact that there is so much matter around and so little antimatter. Studying this kind of mystery is what Nova was built for, and this confirmation of neutrino oscillations is just the start.

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 May 31, 2015  Posted by at 10:44 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , ,  Comments Off on Debt Rattle May 31 2015


Jack Allison “Utopia Children’s House, Harlem, New York.” 1938

There’s A Currency War Going On And The Fed Can’t Play (CNBC)
When Betting on QE Suddenly Goes Wrong (WolfStreet)
For The Fed, It’s The Rebound That Matters (MarketWatch)
What Bubble Vision Doesn’t Get About Q1’s Punk GDP Numbers (Stockman)
Why the Bank of Japan Can’t Stop a Sudden Collapse of the Yen (WolfStreet)
China Central Bank: We Want ‘Healthy’ Stock Market (Reuters)
What Do Falling Corporate Profits Mean With Stocks Near Their Highs? (Lyons)
Elon Musk’s Growing Empire Is Fueled By Government Subsidies (LA Times)
Economic Theory: Science Or Scam? (Hanauer)
New Arrests Coming in FIFA Corruption Probe, Says Investigator (Bloomberg)
Seymour Hersh And The Dangers Of Corporate Muckraking (Mark Ames)
Stephen Hawking: No Funding For Students With My Kind Of Condition (Guardian)
European Union Anger at Russian Travel Blacklist (BBC)
The Rebel of St. Peter’s Square (Spiegel)
‘Wanted Criminal’ Saakashvili Attempts a Napoleon as Governor of Odessa (RT)
Over 4,200 Migrants Rescued In Mediterranean In 1 Day As Crisis Grows (Reuters)
Kos Shows There Is No Escape From The Migrant Crisis (Guardian)
The Most Polluted City In The World?! (NY Times)

Emerging economies face the biggest threat from this.

There’s A Currency War Going On And The Fed Can’t Play (CNBC)

There is a currency war going on—one in which the Federal Reserve is the least able to play, said David Woo, head of global interest rates and currencies research at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, on Friday. The ECB statement during a dinner last week regarding the purchase of more bonds is a strong signal it doesn’t want the euro to go back over $1.15, said Woo during an interview with CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street.” “You could argue that the U.S. got back on the street playing that game,” explained Woo. “Now, the U.S. cannot tell others they cannot play this game.” With inflation picking up and better performance from U.S. companies, the Fed has less of a reason to get engaged in this war at the moment, said Woo.

As the deadline for a debt payment by Greece draws closer, the volatility of currencies has increased. The country is supposed to pay about €300 million to the IMF on June 5, but creditors have been worried about Greece’s ability to make the payment. Woo added that the latest data show €5.6 billion leaving the Greek banking system for elsewhere—double the March figure. He added that this might force a showdown into the end of June.

Meanwhile, Wells Fargo’s Scott Wren, also on “Squawk on the Street,” said that the volatility was creating more of a chance to buy stocks. “Volatility is going to hopefully cause more buying opportunities. Even in a worst-case scenario for Greece, which I don’t think is going to happen, they are going to Band-Aid this thing and kick it down the road,” said Wren. Woo said that his biggest worry is Asia, especially China. With the Chinese yuan one of the strongest currencies and Germany’s exposure to China, there might be some problems for the euro. “I think the euro will have an issue,” said Woo. “German exposure is more than U.S exposure to China.”

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One day, they’ll find themselves pushing on a string.

When Betting on QE Suddenly Goes Wrong (WolfStreet)

The ECB rode to the rescue. This sort of turmoil went against everything it had tried to accomplish. So it announced that it would frontload some of its bond-buying spree ahead of the summer, under the pretext that this would avoid having to buy so much debt at a time when European market players would be on vacation and nothing could get done. As far as the markets were concerned, the announcement meant an additional short-term mini-QE. It stopped the bleeding. Bonds recovered some, and yields settled down. By now, the German 10-year yield, after spiking from 0.05% to 0.77% during the weeks of turmoil, has dropped to 0.50%.

All this even though the ECB’s QE has barely begun. But it shows how these bouts of QE around the globe have perverted asset pricing mechanisms. The markets front-run QE as rumors and suggestions of QE run wild, and they’re driving up bonds and stocks in the hope of QE, as they have done in Europe, and when QE finally arrives as it did in March, stocks and bonds begin to sink. German stocks, for example, are down 7.4% from their peak in early April, after having shot up nearly 50% since October. And so central bank jawboning, rumors of QE, suggestions of QE, promises of QE, and finally QE itself work in driving up markets – until someday, they don’t. And that’s when “unexpected” turmoil sets in.

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Brilliant obfuscation: the lower the Q1 data are, the bigger the rebound can be. Even reality is just in the eye of the beholder.

For The Fed, It’s The Rebound That Matters (MarketWatch)

The Federal Reserve has already indicated that it isn’t too bothered by the weak first quarter. The key factor for the U.S. central bank going forward is the strength of the bounce back. “It’s the extent of the rebound that will be critical in determining the timing of the Fed’s first move on interest rates,” said Chris Williamson, chief economist at Markit, in a note to clients. New data from the government Friday showed that the economy got off to a weak start in 2015, shrinking at an 0.7% annual rate in the first quarter, down from the prior estimate of a tepid 0.2% increase. Bricklin Dwyer, economist at BNP Paribas, said the first quarter GDP report should give the Fed confidence that the soft patch was likely driven by temporary disruptions. What matters for the Fed is the second-quarter data.

St. Louis Fed President James Bullard on Thursday said he wanted to hike rates this year but needed “confirmation” of his hunch that the first quarter weakness wouldn’t last. Barclays said Friday its Q2 GDP tracking estimate was 2.5%. This is down from expectations earlier in the year, of second quarter growth over 3%. The Chicago PMI report also injected some concern that the economy may be struggling to move beyond the first quarter soft-patch, said Millan Mulraine at TD Securities. The index dipped back into contractionary territory, falling to 46.2 from 52.3 the month before. Fed officials will gather on June 16-17 to set policy for the next six weeks. While Fed officials have taken pains not to take a rate hike off the table at that meeting, economists don’t think policymakers will have enough data to justify a rate hike.

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“..you would think that after a recessionary plunge that was in a league all by itself that some account of that would be taken in assessing the recovery.”

What Bubble Vision Doesn’t Get About Q1’s Punk GDP Numbers (Stockman)

Promptly upon release of today’s GDP update, Steve Liesman and his Wall Street economist pals spent 10 minutes bloviating about why the negative print should be completely ignored. Herein is an essay on why it is they who should be given the heave-ho. According to Liesman & Co the GDP shrinkage reported by the BEA for Q1 was all a mistake due to winter, strikes and unseasonal seasonals. So don’t sweat the small stuff, they brayed to what remains of the CNBC audience, the US economy actually continues bounding along at a 2.5% growth rate, as it has for the entire recovery. Well, hold it right there. I am all for ignoring the quarterly jerks and flops embedded in the GDP data, too. But if you want to talk trend and context – let’s do exactly that.

And first and foremost there is no such trend as 2.5% growth. After all, Liesman and his Wall Street cronies have been cheerleaders for the Fed’s insane 80 months of ZIRP and massive QE on the grounds that extraordinary measures were needed to combat the deep economic plunge known as the Great Recession. In fact, measured from peak to trough, the latter was the worst downturn since 1950. Real GDP shrank by 4.2% compared to an average of 1.7% during the previous nine recessions, and handily topped the 2.6% decline in 1981-1982 and the 3.0% decline in 1973-1975. So you would think that after a recessionary plunge that was in a league all by itself that some account of that would be taken in assessing the recovery.

Indeed, that’s particularly pertinent in the present instance because the depth of the Great Recession was exacerbated by a violent inventory liquidation in the fall and winter quarters right after the Wall Street meltdown in September-October 2008. In fact, fully one-third of the $636 billion (2009 dollars) real GDP decline from peak to trough was accounted for by inventory liquidation; real final sales dropped by a far more modest 2.8%. Accordingly, the appropriate way to measure the trend is to remove the violent inventory swings from the numbers, and then to look at the path of real final sales after the peak – averaging in the down quarters and the subsequent rebound.

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Rate hike. “It will be the mother of all currency debasements.”

Why the Bank of Japan Can’t Stop a Sudden Collapse of the Yen (WolfStreet)

On Friday morning in Tokyo, the Nikkei stock index was up again, at 20,600, highest in 15 years. Since “Abenomics” has become a common word in December 2012, the Nikkei has soared 128% on a crummy economy, terrible government deficits, and an insurmountable mountain of government debt. This 10-day run of straight gains, or 11-day run if Friday plays out, is the longest glory streak since February 1988 when Japan was in one of the craziest bubbles the world had ever seen. The subsequent series of crashes had the net effect that the Bank of Japan became engaged in propping up the stock market not only by pushing interest rates to zero and dousing the market with money via waves of QE, but also by buying equity ETFs and J-REITs.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has made asset-price inflation his top priority. Under pressure from the BOJ and the government, state-controlled entities – such as the Government Pension Investment Fund with ¥137 trillion in assets – are dumping Japanese Government Bonds into the lap of the BOJ and are buying stocks with the proceeds. Foreign hedge funds have jumped into the fray, which is the hot money that can evaporate overnight. But fear not, every time the Nikkei drops 100 points or so, the BOJ starts buying, or creates the perception that it’s buying, and within minutes, stocks shoot back up. It’s part of the BOJ’s relentlessly communicated policy to inflate asset prices come hell or high water. And hell or high water may now be on the way. [..]

To keep the nation from descending to where Greece is, the BOJ will keep its iron fist on the government bond market. It will keep interest rates near zero. It will keep JGB prices inflated. And it will keep the government funded. It will do so by buying JGBs and handing out yen, no matter what. The rest is secondary – the yen and the stock market, both. So when the yen begins to crash past all jawboning, there might not be much of a floor underneath it. If Japan is lucky, there won’t be a sudden ruble-like 60% crash in the yen, on top of the 35% swoon it already experienced. Or it may come years down the road when another government is in place and when a different crew runs the BOJ. That’s the plan for those folks today. After us the deluge. But if something nevertheless triggers it in an untimely manner, or if it starts coming unglued on its own, it will get ugly. It will be the mother of all currency debasements.

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If only bloated would count as healthy.

China Central Bank: We Want ‘Healthy’ Stock Market (Reuters)

China’s central bank said on Friday it wants to see a “healthy” stock market, a day after surging Chinese shares slumped 6% in record trading volume as investors fled tighter borrowing rules. In its 2015 financial stability report, the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) warned of a slowing economy and rising debt levels, but repeated its vow to deepen China’s nascent financial market through reforms. The PBOC said in the report released online it was monitoring widely-recognised financial risks in the world’s second-biggest economy, including heavily-indebted local governments and a slowing real estate market. It did not address the dangers of China’s soaring shares, saying only that it wishes to promote a “stable” bourse. Chinese stocks have zoomed up 140% in the last 12 months.

“We will promote stable and healthy development of the stock market, and continue to expand the main board and the small-and medium boards,” the PBOC said, adding that there are plans to set up a new board on the Shanghai stock exchange. Chinese stocks, which ended flat on Friday after a volatile session, skidded earlier this week as more brokers tightened margin trading requirements and as the central bank drained cash from the money market. There are worries that China’s buoyant stock market is being powered by its looser monetary policy, at the expense of small businesses which are grappling with high real interest rates and a shortage in loans.

Even though the PBOC has cut interest rates three times in six months to stoke growth in China’s stuttering economy from a six-year low, real interest rates in China are still over 3%, Morgan Stanley said in a report this month. That is well above real rates in Japan, Europe and the United States, where borrowing costs are negative, the investment bank said. The PBOC acknowledged the problem of high borrowing cost in China, saying it would lower interest rates in a “targeted” fashion, but did not elaborate. “Downward pressure on the economy is increasing,” it said. “Some economic risks are showing up, and the overall debt level is still climbing.”

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That ticking sound.

What Do Falling Corporate Profits Mean With Stocks Near Their Highs? (Lyons)

If you’ve followed our commentary for awhile, you may have noticed that we don’t cover fundamental or economic data too often. That is for a good reason: we don’t use it, at all. Occasionally, however, a data point will cross the radar that piques our interest for whatever reason. So it is with the current state of U.S. Corporate Profits. The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis released the latest data today revealing that Corporate Profits (after Tax with Inventory Valuation Adjustment and Capital Consumption Adjustment) were down 9% for the 1st quarter and are now down 16% from their peak in the 3rd quarter of 2013. Perhaps we don’t run in the right circles but we haven’t heard much regarding the significance of this trend on the stock market, which continues to trade near its all-time highs.

Perhaps that’s a good thing considering we’ve found scant profitable uses for fundamental data in our investment approach (which is why we don’t use it). So we decided to take a look at it ourselves to see what effect similar historical precedents, assuming there were any, may have had on the stock market. This is what we looked for: Quarters when Corporate Profits were down at least 12% from their 2-year high, and the S&P 500 made a 2-year high at some point within the same quarter. As it turns out, there have been 21 quarters meeting that criteria since 1960.

Many of the occurrences came in clusters in 1980, 1986-1987 and 1998-2000. There were also single occurrences in 1961, 2007, 2011 and the 1st quarter of last year. Without going into great depth of analysis, one can tell by the inauspicious dates that these circumstances have not worked out well in the past. The stock market may not have rolled over immediately in every occasion (e.g., 1986, 1998, 2014), but it usually ended up paying the piper. Specifically, the average drawdown over the 2 years following these quarters was -18.6%. This compares with an average 2-year drawdown of -7.3% following all quarters since 1960.

We don’t follow economic and fundamental data too often since we’ve never found it very helpful in our investment decision-making process. At times, however, a certain data series will garner our attention. Often times, as is the case with Corporate Profits presently, it grabs our attention because it is receiving very little attention elsewhere. From just a cursory look at the current trend of falling Corporate Profits, however, it would appear to be a potential negative influence on the stock market that is trading near its all-time highs – if not immediately, then eventually.

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Pop.

Elon Musk’s Growing Empire Is Fueled By Government Subsidies (LA Times)

Los Angeles entrepreneur Elon Musk has built a multibillion-dollar fortune running companies that make electric cars, sell solar panels and launch rockets into space. And he’s built those companies with the help of billions in government subsidies. Tesla Motors, SolarCity and Space Exploration Technologies, known as SpaceX, together have benefited from an estimated $4.9 billion in government support, according to data compiled by The Times. The figure underscores a common theme running through his emerging empire: a public-private financing model underpinning long-shot start-ups. “He definitely goes where there is government money,” said Dan Dolev, an analyst at Jefferies Equity Research. “That’s a great strategy, but the government will cut you off one day.”

The figure compiled by The Times comprises a variety of government incentives, including grants, tax breaks, factory construction, discounted loans and environmental credits that Tesla can sell. It also includes tax credits and rebates to buyers of solar panels and electric cars. A looming question is whether the companies are moving toward self-sufficiency — as Dolev believes — and whether they can slash development costs before the public largesse ends. Tesla and SolarCity continue to report net losses after a decade in business, but the stocks of both companies have soared on their potential; Musk’s stake in the firms alone is worth about $10 billion. (SpaceX, a private company, does not publicly report financial performance.)

Musk and his companies’ investors enjoy most of the financial upside of the government support, while taxpayers shoulder the cost. The payoff for the public would come in the form of major pollution reductions, but only if solar panels and electric cars break through as viable mass-market products. For now, both remain niche products for mostly well-heeled customers. The subsidies have generally been disclosed in public records and company filings. But the full scope of the public assistance hasn’t been tallied because it has been granted over time from different levels of government. New York state is spending $750 million to build a solar panel factory in Buffalo for SolarCity.

The company will lease the plant for $1 a year. It will not pay property taxes for a decade, which would otherwise total an estimated $260 million. The federal government also provides grants or tax credits to cover 30% of the cost of solar installations. SolarCity reported receiving $497.5 million in direct grants from the Treasury Department. That figure, however, doesn’t capture the full value of the government’s support. Since 2006, SolarCity has installed systems for 217,595 customers, according to a corporate filing. If each paid the current average price for a residential system — about $23,000, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists — the cost to the government would total about $1.5 billion, which would include the Treasury grants paid to SolarCity.

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“..if paying workers more resulted in higher unemployment, we would have no restaurants in Seattle.”

Economic Theory: Science Or Scam? (Hanauer)

Noah Smith, a smart financial writer with a very good blog, wrote an article on the $15 minimum wage at Bloomberg earlier this week. The piece celebrated the fact that, finally, we’ll have some data on how the $15 minimum wage would affect jobs. Smith said he considered it a test because in theory “a higher minimum wage should cause increased unemployment.” The more I thought about it, the less sense this premise made. Noah’s article underscored two big things for me: first, the degree to which people see the evidence they want to see, and also how silly the idea of “economic theory” can be. Smith claims that we don’t know what the result of a $15 minimum wage will be. Will it kill jobs or not? But the truth is, there’s abundant and overwhelming evidence that this theory is wrong, and that higher minimum wages don’t hurt employment.

The evidence is there; you just have to choose to see it. Let’s just look in my own back yard for an example of that evidence. Washington State has had the highest minimum wage in the nation for several years—at $9.47, it’s a full 30% more than the federal minimum of $7.25. Washington’s unemployment rate of 5.5% isn’t the best in the country, but it’s not the worst, either. In fact, it perfectly matches the national rate. But Seattle was until recently the fastest growing big city in the country. And speaking of evidence, the first part of the $15 minimum wage rollout was successfully implemented in April, and unemployment in our county promptly plummeted to 3.3%.

An even more dramatic example of the goofiness of this so-called “economic theory” is the impact of the wages of tipped workers on the restaurant industry. In Washington, these workers earn at least $9.47 plus tips, a whopping 440% more than the federal tipped minimum of $2.13 plus tips. Despite the predictions of “economic theory,” and despite the warnings from the National Restaurant Association that eliminating the tip credit would cause food armageddon, Seattle has one of the most robust restaurant scenes in the USA. Why? Because when restaurants pay restaurant workers enough so that even they can afford to eat in restaurants, it’s really good for the restaurant business. If economic “theory” were correct, if paying workers more resulted in higher unemployment, we would have no restaurants in Seattle.

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Hornets nest.

New Arrests Coming in FIFA Corruption Probe, Says Investigator (Bloomberg)

The U.S. investigation of corruption in soccer’s governing body is moving to a new phase that will bring criminal charges against more people, the Internal Revenue Service’s chief investigator said in an interview. How the case develops hinges in part on the fate of nine FIFA officials and five sports marketing executives charged in a racketeering and bribery indictment unsealed May 27, said Richard Weber, chief of the IRS Criminal Investigation Division. The prosecution, which has garnered worldwide attention, came two days before FIFA re-elected its embattled president, Sepp Blatter, 79, for another four-year term. “It’s probably hard to say who is on the list for the next phase and the timing of that,” Weber said. “I’m confident in saying that an active case is ongoing, and we anticipate additional arrests, indictments and/or pleas.”

The IRS joined the Federal Bureau of Investigation and U.S. prosecutors in Brooklyn, New York, in building a case alleging sports-marketing executives paid more than $150 million in bribes and kickbacks over 24 years for media and marketing rights to soccer tournaments. Prosecutors charged Jeffrey Webb and Jack Warner, the current and former presidents of soccer’s governing body for North America, Central America and the Caribbean. They secured guilty pleas from Charles Blazer, 70, the group’s former general secretary; Jose Hawilla, a Brazilian sports marketing executive, who agreed to forfeit $151 million; and Warner’s two sons, Daryll and Daryan. “A lot depends on how the case unfolds from this point forward, depending on if other defendants decide to cooperate, whether or not other witnesses come forward based upon the allegations in the indictment,” Weber said.

“There are a lot of factors beyond our control, so it’s hard to put a specific timeframe on it,” he said. “But we do have evidence that we’re already developing and working on. It depends on how other pieces of the puzzle come together.” The IRS entered the case in 2011 when a Los Angeles-based agent, Steven Berryman, began a tax investigation of Blazer, Weber said. Blazer lived in a Trump Tower apartment, flew on private jets, dined at the world’s finest restaurants and hobnobbed with celebrities and world leaders. His blog, “Travels with Chuck Blazer and his Friends,” featured pictures of Blazer with Hillary Clinton, Nelson Mandela and Prince William, among others. Blazer, now fighting cancer, drew the IRS into FIFA, Weber said. In late 2011, the IRS joined the FBI, which was separately probing FIFA.

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Gulf and Western and Mario Puzo.

Seymour Hersh And The Dangers Of Corporate Muckraking (Mark Ames)

[..] it’s a wonder that Hersh and his collaborator on the Korshak articles, Jeff Gerth (now at ProPublica), didn’t find themselves in the obit pages shortly afterwards, their careers tragically cut short in mysterious car crashes or suicide overdoses. . . . Instead, Hersh smelled blood: the Korshak articles opened his eyes to a company that was, in the 1970s, the symbol of aggressive, shady corporate power: Gulf & Western. Most people have probably forgotten Gulf & Western, once considered the most aggressively acquisitive conglomerate in the US, so aggressive that even Wall Street nicknamed the company “Engulf & Devour” (immortalized as the evil corporation in Mel Brooks’ “Silent Movie”).

G&W’s best known subsidiary was Paramount Pictures, which Gulf & Western bought in the mid-1960s during its massive acquisition spree, underwritten by easy money from banking giants Chase Manhattan and Manufacturers Hanover. Under Gulf & Western, Paramount made some classic films including Chinatown, The Godfather, Airplane!, and Three Days of the Condor. G&W also made the career of future media tycoon Barry Diller, who was named Paramount’s CEO and chairman in 1974 and served there for a decade. Mob attorney Korshak was so integral to Gulf & Western’s Paramount subsidiary, he was known as the film company’s “consigliere,” and rumored to be the model for Robert Duvall’s consigliere character in Paramount’s “The Godfather.”

Two years after acquiring Paramount in 1968, G&W pulled off a mind-boggling transaction with notorious Sicilian mafia financier Michele Sindona, who oversaw the mafia’s global heroin money laundering operations, managed the Vatican’s global portfolio (earning the nickname “God’s banker”), and helped the CIA move money around the globe. Somehow, Gulf & Western managed to exchange reams of worthless commercial paper in a broke subsidiary, Commonwealth United, at a vastly inflated price in exchange for a 10.5% stake in Sindona’s investment empire, Societa General Immobilaire — which was followed by another shady transaction giving half of Paramount Studio’s movie lot to Sindona’s mafia bank.

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What did the people pay for their education who now cut funding for the next generation?

Stephen Hawking: No Funding For Students With My Kind Of Condition (Guardian)

World-renowned physicist and author Stephen Hawking has spoken of fears that a gifted academic with a condition as serious as his own would not be able to flourish in today’s tough economic times. The 73-year-old, Britain’s highest-profile scientist who found fame with a new audience following the release of award-winning film The Theory Of Everything, expressed the concerns at an event to celebrate his 50th year as a fellow at the University of Cambridge’s Gonville and Caius college. He praised the college for supporting him throughout the progression of motor neurone disease, allowing him to focus on his groundbreaking work. But, speaking before an invited audience at the college, he added: “I wonder whether a young ambitious academic, with my kind of severe condition now, would find the same generosity and support in much of higher education. “Even with the best goodwill, would the money still be there? I fear not.”

Although Hawking did not elaborate on his comments, he has previously raised concerns about cuts to government funding for research budgets. Seven years ago he warned that £80m of grant cuts threatened Britain’s international standing in the scientific community, saying: “These grants are the lifeblood of our research effort; cutting them will hurt young researchers and cause enormous damage both to British science and to our international reputation.” His comments come at a time when universities continue to lobby for sufficient resources. Speaking earlier this month, Wendy Platt, director general of the Russell Group, which represents the leading research universities, said: “The new government must ensure our universities have sufficient funding to carry out cutting-edge research and provide excellent teaching to students.”

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Because we can ban Russians, but they can’t ban us.

European Union Anger at Russian Travel Blacklist (BBC)

The European Union has responded angrily to Russia’s entry ban against 89 European politicians, officials and military leaders. Those banned are believed to include general secretary of the EU council Uwe Corsepius, and former British deputy prime minister Nick Clegg. Russia shared the list after several requests by diplomats, the EU said. The EU called the ban “totally arbitrary and unjustified” and said no explanation had been provided. Many of those on the list are outspoken critics of the Kremlin, and some have been turned away from Russia in recent months. The EU said that it had asked repeatedly for the list of those banned, but nothing had been provided until now. “The list with 89 names has now been shared by the Russian authorities.

We don’t have any other information on legal basis, criteria and process of this decision,” an EU spokesman said on Saturday. “We consider this measure as totally arbitrary and unjustified, especially in the absence of any further clarification and transparency,” he added. Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom said the move did not “contribute to increasing the trust of Russian actions” The list of those barred from Russia has not been officially released, although what appears to be a leaked version (in German) is online. A Russian foreign ministry official would not confirm the names of those barred, but said that the ban was a result of EU sanctions against Russia.

“Why it was precisely these people who entered into the list… is simple – it was done in answer to the sanctions campaign which has been waged in relation to Russia by several states of the European Union,” the official, who was not named, told Russian news agency Tass. The official said Moscow had previously recommended that all diplomats from countries that imposed sanctions on Russia should check with Russian consular offices before travelling to see if they were banned. “Just one thing remains unclear: did our European co-workers want these lists to minimise inconveniences for potential ‘denied persons’ or to stage another political show?” he said.

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Long article about the frictions Francis allegedly causes.

The Rebel of St. Peter’s Square (Spiegel)

When Pope Francis, otherwise known as Jorge Mario Bergoglio, entered St. Peter’s Basilica at 10 a.m. on Pentecost Sunday for the Holy Mass, he had been in office for 797 days. Seven-hundred-ninety-seven days in which he has divided the Catholic rank-and-file into admirers and critics. At time during which more and more people have begun to wonder if he can live up to what he seems to have promised: renewal, reform and a more contemporary Catholic Church. Francis has had showers for homeless people erected near St. Peter’s Square, but has at the same time also spent millions on international consultants. He brought the Vatican Bank’s finances into order, but created confusion in the Curia. He has negotiated between Cuba and the United States, but also scared the Israelis by calling Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas an “angel of peace.”

This pope is much more enigmatic than his predecessor – and that is becoming a problem. Right up to this day, many people have been trying to determine Francis’ true intentions. If you ask cardinals and bishops, or the pope’s advisors and colleagues, or veteran Vatican observers about his possible strategy these days – the Pope’s overarching plan – they seem to agree on one point: The man who sits on the Chair of St. Peter is a notorious troublemaker. Like a billiard player who nudges the balls and calmly studies the collisions during training, Francis is getting things rolling in the Vatican. His interest in experimentation may stem from his past as a chemical engineer. He makes decisions like Jesuit leaders – after thorough consultation, but ultimately on his own.

The Francis principle has a workshop character to it, with processes more important than positions. Traditional Catholics see things exactly the other way around from Bergoglio, the Jesuit, and this is creating confusion right up to the highest circles of the Vatican. People want to know where the pope is heading.

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Saakashvili had been ‘hiding’ in New York before being handed a Ukrainian passport. WIth Georgia on his mind.

‘Wanted Criminal’ Saakashvili Attempts a Napoleon as Governor of Odessa (RT)

Petro Poroshenko’s decision to appoint Georgia’s disgraced former President as Governor of the Odessa region just might be his most bizarre move yet. Mikhail Saakashvili is a wanted criminal suspect in his homeland. When the pro-Euromaidan activist Maxim Eristavi tweeted on Friday that Mikhail Saakashvili was to become Odessa’s new Governor, the Twittersphere didn’t seem to know whether shock or amusement was the most appropriate reaction. However, on closer inspection, the move isn’t such a surprise after all. There are myriad reasons why Saakhasvili would find Odessa’s top job attractive and equally as many why Poroshenko is most likely delighted to send him there.

It’s common knowledge that Ukraine is a tragically divided land, but Odessa is split like no other city in the country. 150 years ago, Odessa was one of Europe’s most vibrant destinations, at a time when it was a multi-ethnic smorgasbord of Russians, Jews, Greeks, Italians and Albanians. In fact, it even had two French governors – Duc De Richelieu and Count Andrault De Langeron. So famed was Odessa that in 1869, the legendary American writer, Mark Twain, predicted that it would become “one of the great cities of the old world.” Russia’s national poet Alexander Pushkin wrote of the Black Sea Pearl: “the air is filled with all Europe, French is spoken and there are European papers and magazines to read.” By 1897, 37%% of the city’s population was Jewish.

Post World War II, the Russian (largely to Moscow and Leningrad) and Jewish (mainly to Israel and the USA) elite moved out and the Soviets moved in Ukrainian villagers to replace them. The glory days have long since passed. Riddled with corruption, in the 21st century, Odessa is an extremely melancholic and economically moribund city better known for mafia activity and sex tourism (Odessa Dreams by the Guardian’s Shaun Walker is a useful read on the latter subject), than high culture. Despite its rich history, and striking Italianate architecture, any right-thinking visitor would find the place rather mournful.

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There are thousands a day now. When will Europe start shooting them?

Over 4,200 Migrants Rescued In Mediterranean In 1 Day As Crisis Grows (Reuters)

More than 4,200 migrants trying to reach Europe have been rescued from boats in the Mediterranean in last 24 hours, the Italian coastguard said on Saturday. In some of the most intense Mediterranean migrant traffic of the year, a total of 4,243 people have been saved from fishing boats and rubber dinghies in 22 operations involving ships from nations including Italy, Ireland, Germany, Belgium and Britain. On Friday the Italian navy said 17 dead bodies had been found on one of the boats off Libya. Details of the nationalities of the victims and how they died have not yet been released. The bodies and more than 200 survivors will be brought to the port of Augusta in eastern Sicily aboard the Italian navy corvette Fenice later on Saturday, the coastguard said.

Migrants escaping war and poverty in Africa and the Middle East this year have been pouring into Italy, which has been bearing the brunt of Mediterranean rescue operations. Most depart from the coast of Libya, which has descended into anarchy since Western powers backed a 2011 revolt that ousted Muammar Gaddafi. Calm seas are increasingly favoring departures as warm spring weather sets in. Last month around 800 migrants drowned off Libya in the Mediterranean’s most deadly shipwreck in living memory when their 20-metre long fishing boat capsized and sank. That spurred the European Union to agree on a naval mission to target gangs smuggling migrants from Libya, but a broader plan to deal with the influx is in doubt due to a dispute over national quotas for housing asylum seekers.

The EU plan to disperse 40,000 migrants from Italy and Greece to other countries met with resistance this week, with Britain saying it would not participate and some eastern countries calling for a voluntary scheme. Around 35,500 migrants arrived in Italy from the beginning of the year up to the first week of May, the UN refugee agency estimated, a number which has swelled considerably since. About 1,800 are either dead or missing. Most of those rescued on Friday and Saturday are expected to reach ports around southern Italy during the weekend. The British naval vessel HMS Bulwark offloaded more than 740 early on Saturday at the southeastern Italian port of Taranto. More than 200 migrants arrived at the Calabrian port of Crotone in south-west Italy on board the Belgian navy ship Godetia.

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They will keep coming. Move over and get used to it.

Kos Shows There Is No Escape From The Migrant Crisis (Guardian)

In the face of characteristic warnings (“misguided sentimentalism”) from the Daily Mail of 1938, some thousands of refugees were none the less allowed into Britain before the second world war, with 15,000 Jewish children arriving on the Kindertransport trains orchestrated by Sir Nicholas Winton. As well as finding foster parents, he had to raise £50 per head to pay for their eventual departure. The former prime minister, Stanley Baldwin, launched another fund to help refugees who needed “a hiding place from the wind, a covert from the tempest”. Margaret Thatcher’s family was among those who took in a refugee. “The honour of our country is challenged,” Baldwin said, in the years before Britons became so agitated, as in Kos, about correct refugee appearance.

But as much as they deserve international ridicule and disgust, the tales of holidaymakers’ “nightmares”, and pictures of studiously averted faces, are no more shame-inducing than Britain’s official approach to the migrant crisis, which they could not more vividly encapsulate. Our new government also averts its eyes from the hordes of displaced, regardless of their various origins and claims, and clearly has no truck with the sort of idealistic bilge once emitted by Winton and Baldwin. Nor with the principles that later made room – in an unenthusiastic Britain – for 28,000 Ugandan Asians and 19,000 Vietnamese boat people.

Rather, when the country’s honour is challenged, Cameron’s response appears to be modelled on the lines of the Sun columnist who described all the Mediterranean migrants – half of whom, says the UNHCR, are fleeing war and persecution – as “cockroaches”. After 46,000 Mediterranean migrants arrived in the first four months of this year, and more than 1,750 died or went missing, one of Cameron’s first acts, as prime minister, was to opt out of an EU proposal to allocate refugees evenly among member states. To date, Britain has formally resettled 187 refugees from Syria, a number that might be just, fractionally less inexcusable if it were accompanied by any inclination to discover and rescue eligible asylum seekers before thousands more are abused, cheated and drowned by smugglers.

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If this is not scary enough for you…

The Most Polluted City In The World?! (NY Times)

When I became a South Asia correspondent for The New York Times three years ago, my wife and I were both excited and prepared for difficulties – insistent beggars, endemic dengue and summertime temperatures that reach 120 degrees. But we had little inkling just how dangerous this city would be for our boys. We gradually learned that Delhi’s true menace came from its air, water, food and flies. These perils sicken, disable and kill millions in India annually, making for one of the worst public health disasters in the world. Delhi, we discovered, is quietly suffering from a dire pediatric respiratory crisis, with a recent study showing that nearly half of the city’s 4.4 million schoolchildren have irreversible lung damage from the poisonous air.

For most Indians, these are inescapable horrors. But there are thousands of others who have chosen to live here, including some trying to save the world, others hoping to describe it and still others intent on getting their own small piece of it. It is an eclectic community of expatriates and millionaires, including car executives from Detroit, tech geeks from the Bay Area, cancer researchers from Maryland and diplomats from Dublin. Over the last year, often over chai and samosas at local dhabas or whiskey and chicken tikka at glittering embassy parties, we have obsessively discussed whether we are pursuing our careers at our children’s expense.

Foreigners have lived in Delhi for centuries, of course, but the air and the mounting research into its effects have become so frightening that some feel it is unethical for those who have a choice to willingly raise children here. Similar discussions are doubtless underway in Beijing and other Asian megacities, but it is in Delhi – among the most populous, polluted, unsanitary and bacterially unsafe cities on earth – where the new calculus seems most urgent. The city’s air is more than twice as polluted as Beijing’s, according to the World Health Organization. (India, in fact, has 13 of the world’s 25 most polluted cities, while Lanzhou is the only Chinese city among the worst 50; Beijing ranks 79th.)

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 March 13, 2015  Posted by at 11:03 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , ,  7 Responses »


NPC Hendrick Motor Co., Carroll Avenue, Takoma Park, Maryland 1928

Rising Stocks, Homes Boost US Household Wealth To Record $83 Trillion (AP)
Rate Cuts: 24 Countries So Far And There’s More To Come (CNBC)
Watch Out: China Could Join The Currency War
The U.S. Has Too Much Oil and Nowhere to Put It (Bloomberg)
Get Ready for Oil Deals: Shale Is Going on Sale (Bloomberg)
Daniel Hannan Explains How Democracy Died In Europe (Zero Hedge)
Draghi Makes Greenspan Look Like A Rank Amateur (Albert Edwards via ZH)
Tsipras Promises Greece Will Keep Its Word Amid German Spat (Reuters)
Greece Complains About Schaeuble in Deepening Conflict (Bloomberg)
ECB Increases Greek ELA Ceiling by €600 Million (Bloomberg)
Central Bank Stimulus Is Ancient Recipe for Trouble (Bloomberg)
Tsipras Says Greece Doing Its Part In Eurozone Deal (Reuters)
Why The Fed Failed Two Of Europe’s Biggest Banks (CNBC)
How Putin Blocked the US Pivot to Asia (Whitney)
‘Claims SU-25 Shot Down MH17 Unsupportable’ (RT)
Knights Templar Win Heresy Reprieve After 700 Years (Reuters)
Arctic Melt Brings More Persistent Heat Waves to US, Europe (Bloomberg)

70% minimum (90%?!) of which is entirely virtual.

Rising Stocks, Homes Boost US Household Wealth To Record $83 Trillion (AP)

Fueled by higher stock and home values, Americans’ net worth reached a record high in the final three months of 2014. Household wealth rose 1.9% during the October-December quarter to nearly $83 trillion, the Federal Reserve said Thursday. Stock and mutual fund portfolios gained $742 billion, while the value of Americans’ homes rose $356 billion. The typical household didn’t benefit much, though. Most of the wealth remains concentrated among richer families. The wealthiest 10% of U.S. households own about 80% of stocks. Still, greater wealth could help lift spending and economic growth. Higher stock and home values can make people feel more financially secure and more willing to spend, and consumer spending fuels about 70% of the economy.

The Fed’s figures aren’t adjusted for population growth or inflation. Household wealth, or net worth, reflects the value of homes, stocks and other assets minus mortgages, credit cards and other debts U.S. corporations are also seeing sharp improvements in their finances, the Fed report showed. Businesses amassed $2 trillion in cash by the end of last year— a record high — up from less than $1.9 trillion three months earlier. Cash-rich corporations could spend more on investments in machinery, computers and other equipment. That would make workers more productive and accelerate economic growth. They could also use some of their cash to raise pay at a time when many employees have been stuck with stagnant wages.

Some economists have criticized publicly traded companies for spending heavily on repurchasing their own shares, which boosts profits and serves shareholders rather than employees. Businesses are also taking advantage of low interest rates by taking on more debt, which typically signals confidence in the economy and future growth. Business debt rose 7.2% in the fourth quarter, the sharpest quarterly increase in more than six years. During the Great Recession, which officially ended in June 2009, Americans’ net worth plummeted as stock and home values sank. Household wealth tumbled to $55 trillion in the first quarter of 2009 from a pre-recession peak of $67.9 trillion. Wealth didn’t surpass that peak until the third quarter of 2012.

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Once you get to 124, may be some will wake up.

Rate Cuts: 24 Countries So Far And There’s More To Come (CNBC)

An interest rate cut from South Korea Thursday takes the number of central banks that have stepped up their monetary easing this year to 24 and that number is likely to rise, analysts say. South Korea’s decision to cut its key rate by 25 basis points to a record low of 1.75% follows a rate cut by Thailand’s central bank on Wednesday and easing by central banks in China, India and Poland since March began. Russia and Malaysia are among the countries that economists say could join the growing list of central banks that have slashed borrowing costs since the start of the year. The main reason for such a flurry of action, they add, is a backdrop of falling or low inflation which is highlighting the need to boost lackluster economic growth.

“I find it interesting that people say that these [rate cuts] are surprises and we heard that when it happened in Australia, when it happened in India, Indonesia and today in Korea,” Joshua Crabb, head of Asian Equities at Old Mutual Global Investors, told CNBC Asia’s “Squawk Box.” “But if we look at inflation, it is coming down dramatically, real rates are high and the economy is weak so it makes a lot of sense that we see these cuts and we will see that continue to happen,” he said. Thanks in part to the sharp fall in oil prices since last June, many economies are facing falling or low inflation rates.

Data on Thursday for instance, showed Spain’s consumer price index rose to 0.2% in February from -1.6% the month before. In Indonesia, annual inflation stood at 6.29% last month, down from 6.96 in January. “Fundamentally, the easing around the world is driven by inflation turning out lower across the board,” Anatoli Annenkov, senior European economist at Societe General, told CNBC. “There is a debate about currency wars, monetary easing to push currencies lower, but fundamentally this is a story about growth and inflation,” he added.

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More rate cuts.

Watch Out: China Could Join The Currency War

Central banks may be spreading deflation by easing monetary policy and weakening their currencies, but the biggest threat is that China will wade into the battlefield, analysts say. “The three trillion dollar question is whether the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) will allow the yuan to depreciate and export their own disinflation to the rest of the world, setting off a series of competitive devaluations in the region,” Nicholas Ferres, investment director at Eastspring Investment said in a note on Friday. Twenty-four central banks have eased monetary policy this year amid slowing economic growth and deflationary pressure as oil prices hover near six-year lows. In February, the PBoC cut the one-year deposit rate by 25 basis points to 5.35%.

For now Chinese authorities continue to keep the yuan in a tight daily trading band against the U.S. dollar; the yuan has lost just 0.9% against the dollar year to date. By contrast, the dollar is up 3.3% again the Korean won and 4.2% against the Singapore dollar. But the euro’s around 12% decline against the greenback so far this year “will likely put more pressure on China to devalue the yuan… [which would] signal that China is joining the currency war,” Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Rates strategist David Woo said in a note published on Monday. “[This is] the biggest tail risk of 2015,” he said.

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“Morse and his team of analysts at Citigroup have predicted that sometime this spring, as tanks reach their limits, oil prices will again nosedive, potentially all the way to $20 a barrel.”

The U.S. Has Too Much Oil and Nowhere to Put It (Bloomberg)

Seven months ago the giant tanks in Cushing, Okla., the largest crude oil storage hub in North America, were three-quarters empty. After spending the last few years brimming with light, sweet crude unlocked by the shale drilling revolution, the tanks held just less than 18 million barrels by late July, down from a high of 52 million in early 2013. New pipelines to refineries along the Gulf Coast had drained Cushing of more than 30 million barrels in less than a year. As quickly as it emptied out, Cushing has filled back up again. Since October, the amount of oil stored there has almost tripled, to more than 51 million barrels. As oil prices have crashed, from more than $100 a barrel last summer to below $50 now, big trading companies are storing their crude in hopes of selling it for higher prices down the road.

With U.S. production continuing to expand, that’s led to the fastest increase in U.S. oil inventories on record. For most of this year, the U.S. has added almost 1 million barrels a day to its stash of crude supplies. As of March 11, nationwide stocks were at 449 million barrels, by far the most ever. Not only are the tanks at Cushing filling up, so are those across much of the U.S. Facilities in the Midwest are about 70% full, while the East Coast is at about 85% capacity. This has some analysts beginning to wonder if the U.S. has enough room to store all its oil. Ed Morse, the global head of commodities research at Citigroup, raised that concern on Feb. 23 at an oil symposium hosted by the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. “The fact of the matter is, we’re running out of storage capacity in the U.S.,” he said.

If oil supplies do overwhelm the ability to store them, the U.S. will likely cut back on imports and finally slow down the pace of its own production, since there won’t be anywhere to put excess supply. Prices could also fall, perhaps by a lot. Morse and his team of analysts at Citigroup have predicted that sometime this spring, as tanks reach their limits, oil prices will again nosedive, potentially all the way to $20 a barrel. With no place to store crude, producers and trading companies would likely have to sell their oil to refineries at discounted prices, which could finally persuade producers to stop pumping. If oil supplies do overwhelm the ability to store them, the U.S. will likely cut back on imports and finally slow down the pace of its own production, since there won’t be anywhere to put excess supply. Prices could also fall, perhaps by a lot. Morse and his team of analysts at Citigroup have predicted that sometime this spring, as tanks reach their limits, oil prices will again nosedive, potentially all the way to $20 a barrel.

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“.. the largest producer in North Dakota’s Bakken shale basin put itself up for sale..”

Get Ready for Oil Deals: Shale Is Going on Sale (Bloomberg)

A decision by Whiting Petroleum, the largest producer in North Dakota’s Bakken shale basin, to put itself up for sale looks to be the first tremor in a potential wave of consolidation as $50-a-barrel prices undercut companies with heavy debt and high costs. For the first time since wildcatters such as Harold Hamm of Continental began extracting significant amounts of oil from shale formations, acquisition prospects from Texas to the Great Plains are looking less expensive. Buyers are ultimately after reserves, the amount of oil a company has in the ground based on its drilling acreage. The value of about 75 shale-focused U.S. producers based on their reserves fell by a median of 25% by the end of 2014 compared to 2013, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

That’s opening up new opportunities for bigger companies with a better handle on their debt, said William Arnold, a former executive at Shell. “In this market, there are whales and there are fishes, and the whales are well armed,” said Arnold, who also worked as an energy-industry banker and now teaches at Rice University in Houston. “There are some very vulnerable little fishes out there trying to survive any way they can.” Smaller producers with significant debt that depend on higher prices to make money are the most likely early targets for buyers such as Exxon Mobil or Chevron, companies that have bided their time for years as the value of some shale fields soared to $38,000 an acre from $450 just a few years earlier.

The market crash is creating “a consolidation game,” Concho CEO Timothy Leach said on a Feb. 26 call with investors. “It’s harder to be a small company today than it has been in the past.” In the pre-plunge days, acquisitions were dominated by foreign buyers overpaying to get a seat at the shale boom table. That buying frenzy was followed by an explosion in asset sales as companies pieced together their ideal drilling portfolios. Joint ventures were a popular way of funding what seemed like an unstoppable drilling machine.

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Europe now exists to protect us from democracy…

Daniel Hannan Explains How Democracy Died In Europe (Zero Hedge)

With Greece on the edge of being kicked out of the Eurozone , either voluntarily or otherwise, with an anti-austerity party on the verge of taking over the reins of power in Spain, with Beppe Grillo waiting in the corridors for his chance to pounce in Italy and with Marine le Pen and her nationalist party on the verge of becoming the biggest shocker of Europe over the coming years, here, according to Daniel Hannan, is what killed democracy in Europe. Europe itself. Here are the punchlines, which are all based documented fact:

We were told the Euro would be an antidote to extremism, that it would make countries get on better, and make moderate politics more mainstream. Well, how’s that working out for you. Look at the elections in Greece – a Trotskyist party came first, a Nazi party came third. And as for the national animosities read the way the German newspaper now refer to the Greeks and vice versa. Would you say this is soothing or stoking national rivalries in Europe?

But worst of all is the impact on democratic accountability. After the Greek election results came in, the German finance minister said “elections change nothing.” He was talking specifically about Greece but this could be a watchword describing the entire Brussels racket. As Jean Claude Juncker put it the next day, “there can be no democratic choice against the European treaties.” This is the same European Commission that in late 2011 in Italy and Greece engaged in practice in civilian coups, toppling elected prime ministers and replacing them with former technocrats.

As the former president of the European Commission Barroso puts it, “democratic governments are often wrong. If you trust them too much they make bad decisions.” And so we have this syste,min Europe where power is deliberately vested in the hands of people who are invulnerable to public opinion. Being against that shouldn’t make you anti-Europe, it doesn’t make you Euroskeptic, it makes you pro-democracy. What a tragedy that in the country where democracy was born, in the part of the world that evolved this sublime idea, that our rulers should be accountable to the rest of us, in that same country that wonderful idea that laws should not be passed nor taxes raised except by our own representatives, has been abandoned.” Tragedy indeed, and while nobody else is willing to admit it, only a violent overthrow of this unelected group of self-serving oligarchs is the only probably outcome.

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Ha!

Draghi Makes Greenspan Look Like A Rank Amateur (Albert Edwards via ZH)

We have long fulminated against strategists who are unwilling to predict sharp market moves. The violent downmove in the euro over the last few weeks is a case in point. Mario Draghi and the ECB’s manipulation of asset prices makes Greenspan’s Fed look like a rank amateur. More shocking though than the plunge in the euro, and more shocking even that 25% of sovereign eurozone bonds now trade in negative territory, is what has happened to eurozone equity valuations. For, as we approach the sixth anniversary of the US cyclical bull market (a post-war record), the PE expansion of eurozone equities is simply off the scale. History suggests this will end very badly indeed. Ask Alan!

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I promise to keep insulting you…

Tsipras Promises Greece Will Keep Its Word Amid German Spat (Reuters)

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras tried to reassure euro zone partners on Thursday that Greece would stick to an extended bailout agreement with its international creditors even as a war of words rumbled on between Athens and Berlin. Tsipras used a visit to the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, an inter-governmental think-tank, to make his case for a long-term restructuring of Greece’s debt while promising to implement agreed reforms. “There is no reason for concern… even if there is no timely disbursement of a (loan) tranche, Greece will meet its obligations,” he told reporters.

“We are here in order for the OECD to put its stamp on the reforms that the Greek government wants to push on with and I believe that this stamp in our passport will be very significant to build mutual trust with our lenders.” His soothing words contrasted to the tone of recrimination between Greece and Germany over austerity, relations between their finance ministers and demands for reparations over the World War Two Nazi occupation of Greece. Greece submitted a formal protest to the German Foreign Ministry, accusing Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble of having insulted his Greek counterpart, Yanis Varoufakis, further eroding a relationship that has been strained by Berlin’s tough stance on the Greek debt crisis.

Schaeuble denied having called Varoufakis “foolishly naive”, as reported by some Greek media, telling Reuters it was “nonsense” to say he had insulted the Greek minister. Greek Foreign Ministry spokesman Constantinos Koutras told Reuters the complaint was about the general tone of Schaeuble’s remarks, questioning data presented by Greece and doubting its willingness to meet its commitments. Recounting a private meeting with Varoufakis this week, Schaeuble told reporters on Tuesday in Brussels: “He said to me ‘The media are dreadful’. So I said: ‘Yes but the first impression you made on us was that you were stronger at communication that on substance. That may have been a mistake’.”

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One for the bleachers.

Greece Complains About Schaeuble in Deepening Conflict (Bloomberg)

Greece’s war of words with Germany deepened as Greece renewed demands for war reparations and formally complained about Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble. Germany and Greece confirmed Thursday that the Greek ambassador in Berlin made an official protest late Tuesday to the German Foreign Ministry over comments made by Schaeuble. Schaeuble and his Greek counterpart Yanis Varoufakis have traded barbs in recent weeks, with Schaeuble suggesting on Tuesday that Varoufakis needed to look more closely at an agreement Greece signed in February and commenting on his fellow minister’s communication strategy. Schaeuble said Thursday that any suggestion he had insulted Varoufakis was “absurd.”

Tensions have risen between Greece and Germany since the election of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on Jan. 25 on a platform on ending the austerity his Syriza party blames Chancellor Angela Merkel for pushing. Germany is the biggest country contributor to Greece’s €240 billion twin bailouts and the chief proponent of budget cuts and reforms measures in return. The latest spat centers on Tuesday’s press conference in Brussels, when Schaeuble referred to a Feb. 20 declaration that Varoufakis had signed, saying that “he just has to read it. I’m willing to lend him my copy if need be.” He also said he talked with Varoufakis about the latter’s treatment at the hands of the media, saying that he had told his Greek counterpart: “In terms of communication, you made a stronger impression on us than in substance. But that may well have been a false impression. That he should suddenly be naive in terms of communication, I told him, that is quite new to me. But you live and learn.”

According to Deutsche Presse-Agentur, Schaeuble was cited in some Greek media as calling Varoufakis “foolishly naive” in his handling of the press. Greek Foreign Ministry spokesman Konstantinos Koutras rejected suggestions that the government’s complaint had been based on a “wrong translation” of Schaeuble’s remarks. “On the contrary, the reason for this complaint to the government of a friend, counterpart and ally country was based on the essence of what Mr. Schaeuble said,” Koutras said in an e-mail.

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Hand out.

ECB Increases Greek ELA Ceiling by €600 Million (Bloomberg)

The European Central Bank increased the maximum Emergency Liquidity Assistance that Greek banks can get from their national central bank by €600 million, according to two people familiar with the decision. The amount matches the request by the Greek central bank, said the people, who asked not to be named because the talks are private. The ECB’s Governing Council held a phone conference on Thursday to set the limit, which policy makers had increased by €500 million to €68.8 billion on March 5. The council is scheduled to review the level again on March 18.

“The ECB is saying you better reach an agreement and you better do as you’re told, or else,” said Gabriel Sterne, head of global macro research at Oxford Economics. “This is an extraordinarily small extension. It seems to say: we’re just going to drip feed you liquidity, no more, no less, just exactly what you need and no breathing space.” Greek banks didn’t absorb all ELA funds available under the previous ceiling and have about €3.5 billion in liquidity left, said a Bank of Greece official, who asked not to be named because the matter is private.

The ECB is reviewing ELA weekly, reflecting concern that banks will use it to finance the Greek government and so violate European Union law. The newly elected administration in Athens is struggling to gain access to aid payments as a cash crunch looms before the end of the month. “Where the government is unable to tap the market and where banks are unable to tap the market, in my view there are concerns about monetary financing if ELA is used to purchase treasury bills or to roll over treasury bills,” Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann said in a Bloomberg Television interview in Frankfurt after the decision.

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Funny.

Central Bank Stimulus Is Ancient Recipe for Trouble (Bloomberg)

Central bankers would do well to learn lessons about monetary stimulus from history – ancient history. The practice of governments boosting the amount of money in circulation to spur economic growth isn’t as unconventional as one might think, according to Kabir Sehgal’s new book, “Coined: The Rich Life of Money and How Its History Has Shaped Us.” In it, the 32-year-old former equities salesman at JPMorgan looks at the economics, history and psychology of currencies and the role they play in life. “You need paper money to engender short-term riches to get us out of a crisis, but what ends up happening is it’s hard to keep that in check,” Sehgal said in an interview.

“Currencies devalue, there’s inflation. Then there’s a monetary crisis which leads to an economic crisis.” After carrying out unprecedented stimulus in the wake of the financial crisis, the U.S. Federal Reserve now stands out among major central banks in accepting a higher exchange rate as a sign of economic strength. Peers from Tokyo to Frankfurt, Zurich and Sydney are cutting rates and buying government bonds to stimulate growth and, in the process, sometimes weakening their currencies Rulers have used the supply of hard and paper money to pursue economic and political goals as early as the Roman Empire and in Kublai Khan’s 13th-century Mongol Empire, according to Sehgal.

In the U.S., Benjamin Franklin and Abraham Lincoln advocated printing more paper currency to spur trade and commerce. “The lesson that keeps coming up is really a Faustian bargain,” he said. “It seems great, but eventually it leads to economic trouble.” Sehgal, also a Grammy-award winning jazz producer, left his position as a vice president for emerging-market equities at JPMorgan this week.

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“Now is the time to give a message of hope to the Greek people, not only implement, implement, implement and obligations, obligations, obligations..”

Tsipras Says Greece Doing Its Part In Eurozone Deal (Reuters)

Greece’s problems are euro zone’s problems and the single currency area should send Greece a message of solidarity as Athens stands ready to deliver on promises to reform in exchange for more loans, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said. “Greece has already started fulfilling its commitments mentioned in the Eurogroup decision of 20 Feb so we are doing our part and we expect our partners to do their own,” Tsipras told reporters after meeting the speaker of the European Parliament Martin Schulz. “And I’m very optimistic … that we will find a solution because I strongly believe that this is our common interest. I believe that there is no Greek problem, there is a European problem,” he said. Eurozone finance ministers agreed on Feb 20 to extend Greece’s financial rescue by four months, averting a potential cash crunch in March that could have forced the country out of the currency area.

But the extension was granted to give Athens time to negotiate a list of reforms by the end of April that would unblock further aid to the country, whose leftist-led government pledged to reverse austerity. Tsipras, who was also meeting European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker on Friday, called for a change in the message the euro zone was sending Greece. “Now is the time to give a message of hope to the Greek people, not only implement, implement, implement and obligations, obligations, obligations,” he said. “The message that the European institutions will give help and solidarity with particular rates, in order to over come this very bad situation at the social level,” he said referring to the unemployment rate at 26%.

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Primary dealers, you can tickle them but….

Why The Fed Failed Two Of Europe’s Biggest Banks (CNBC)

The U.S. operations of Germany’s and Spain’s largest banks had their knuckles rapped by the U.S. Federal Reserve late Wednesday. The Fed failed Deutsche Bank and Santander in key tests of their ability to withstand a future financial crisis. But what exactly have they done wrong? After all, they are two of Europe’s most prestigious and largest banks which passed the European Central Bank’s October stress tests comfortably. To start with, the Fed is anxious about having to support the U.S. operations of non-U.S. banks in the event of a future economic crisis, so it is subjecting them to tough scrutiny. While both banks were judged to have enough capital to pass the Fed’s minimum capital requirements, “widespread and substantial weaknesses across their capital planning processes” were identified by the central bank.

Essentially, the banks have not failed in terms of their capital position, but in the quality of their analysis of risk. Some investors argue that this is not much to worry about. This is the second year in a row Santander has failed the tests, while Deutsche’s U.S. unit failed them the first year it took them. However, It was the first time all of the U.S. domestic banks passed the stress tests since they began in 2009. “The European banks have only failed at the margins,” Dennis Gartman, the influential investor and author of the “Gartman Letter”, who dismissed the tests as “borderline silly”, told CNBC Thursday. “I’m not that concerned, nor do I think anyone else should be.

In the case of the stress tests, we know when they will be administered and what questions they have to answer – the fact that anyone will have failed is beyond belief.” Until the U.S. divisions of Deutsche Bank and Santander come up with new capital plans, the Fed has barred them from raising dividends or making stock buybacks. This is not likely to derail any plans for shareholder rewards this year – Deutsche Bank said it didn’t request any dividend payments anyway, and Santander has permission to keep a dividend payout announced earlier this year.

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Not a great Whitney fan necessarily, but he’s got this one quote right.

How Putin Blocked the US Pivot to Asia (Whitney)

On February 10, 2007, Vladimir Putin delivered a speech at the 43rd Munich Security Conference that created a rift between Washington and Moscow that has only deepened over time.  The Russian President’s blistering hour-long critique of US foreign policy provided a rational, point-by-point indictment of US interventions around the world and their devastating effect on global security.   Putin probably didn’t realize the impact his candid observations would have on the assembly in Munich or the reaction of  powerbrokers in the US who saw the presentation as a turning point in US-Russian relations. But, the fact is, Washington’s hostility towards Russia can be traced back to this particular incident, a speech in which Putin publicly committed himself to a multipolar global system, thus, repudiating the NWO pretensions of US elites. Here’s what he said:

“I am convinced that we have reached that decisive moment when we must seriously think about the architecture of global security. And we must proceed by searching for a reasonable balance between the interests of all participants in the international dialogue.”

With that one formulation, Putin rejected the United States assumed role as the world’s only superpower and steward of global security, a privileged position which Washington feels it earned by prevailing in the Cold War and which entitles the US to unilaterally intervene whenever it sees fit. Putin’s announcement ended years of bickering and deliberation among think tank analysts as to whether Russia could be integrated into the US-led system or not.  Now they knew that Putin would never dance to Washington’s tune. In the early years of his presidency, it was believed that Putin would learn to comply with western demands and accept a subordinate role in the Washington-centric system. But it hasn’t worked out that way. The speech in Munich merely underscored what many US hawks and Cold Warriors had been saying from the beginning, that Putin would not relinquish Russian sovereignty without a fight. 

The declaration challenging US aspirations to rule the world, left no doubt that  Putin was going to be a problem that had to be dealt with by any means necessary including harsh economic sanctions, a State Department-led coup in neighboring Ukraine, a conspiracy to crash oil prices, a speculative attack of the ruble, a proxy war in the Donbass using neo-Nazis as the empire’s shock troops, and myriad false flag operations used to discredit Putin personally while driving a wedge between Moscow and its primary business partners in Europe. Now the Pentagon is planning to send 600 paratroopers to Ukraine ostensibly to “train the Ukrainian National Guard”, a serious escalation that violates the spirit of Minsk 2 and which calls for a proportionate response from the Kremlin. Bottom line: The US is using all the weapons in its arsenal to prosecute its war on Putin.

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By all means, let’s keep talking, but please not on the basis of baseless accusations..

‘Claims SU-25 Shot Down MH17 Unsupportable’ (RT)

Electronic countermeasure pods are no longer reliable source of information, so anyone who says the radar has identified a SU-25 aircraft in the MH17 tragedy is trying to mislead people, Gordon Duff, senior editor of Veterans Today newspaper, told RT.

RT: Though the preliminary results of the investigation into the crash of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 over Ukraine won’t be known until July new theories of what happened appear every day. One claim is that the Boeing was brought down by an SU-25 fighter jet. But its chief designer has now told German media that’s impossible, because it can’t fly high enough. What do you make of that?

Gordon Duff: The claim that it was an SU-25 is unsupportable. Since 2010, NATO has begun using electronic countermeasure pods. They are designed by Raytheon and BAE Systems. When attached to an aircraft, an SU-27, an SU-29 maybe even an F-15, these allow the backscattering – that is when you use radar, and this is what was said the radar identified as two SU-25 aircraft. Well these pods that attach to any plane can make a plane look like an SU-25 when it’s not an SU-25 or a flock of birds or anything else. It’s a new version of poor man’s stealth…It’s called radar spoofing, so with radar spoofing anyone who says they have identified an aircraft by radar is trying to mislead people because that’s no longer a reliable way of dealing with things.

If I could go on with the SU-25, the claimed service ceiling is based on the oxygen’s supply in the aircraft. Now there is a claim that this plane will only work to 22,000 feet. At the end of the WWII a German ME-262 would fly at 40,000 feet. A P-51 Mustang propeller plane flew at 44,000 feet. The SU-25 was developed as an analogue of the A-10 Thunderbolt, an American attack plane. The planes have almost identical performance except that the SU-25 is faster and more powerful. The A-10 Thunderbolt has a service ceiling of 45,000 feet. The US estimates the absolute ceiling, which is a different term, of the SU-25. And we don’t know whether the SU-25 was involved at all, we are only taking people’s word and people we don’t trust. But the absolute ceiling for the plane is 52,000 feet.

RT: Do you agree with the statement that “many more factors indicate that the Boeing 777 was hit by a ground-to-air missile that was launched from a Buk missile system”? How much technical expertise would it take to fire a Buk launcher?

GD: We’ve looked at this. I had an investigating team, examiners, which included aircraft investigation experts from the US including from the FAA, the FBI and from the Air Line Pilots Association. I also had one of our air traffic and air operational officers…with the Central Intelligence Agency look at this. And one of the things we settled is that in the middle of the day if this were a Buk missile the contrail would have been seen for 50 miles. The contrail itself would have been photographed by thousands of people; it would have been on Instagram, Twitter, all over YouTube. And no one saw it.

You can’t fire a missile and on a flat area in a middle of the day leaving a smoke trail into the air and having everyone not see it. There is no reliable information supporting that it was a Buk missile fired by anyone. And then additionally we have a limited amount of information that NATO and the Dutch investigators have released, forensic information, and that is contradicted by other experts that have looked at things. We don’t have reliable information to deal with but the least possible thing, the one thing we can write off immediately – it wasn’t a ground-to-air missile because you simply can’t fire a missile in the middle of the day without thousands and thousands of people seeing it and filming it with camera phones.

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“Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon”.

Knights Templar Win Heresy Reprieve After 700 Years (Reuters)

The Knights Templar, the medieval Christian military order accused of heresy and sexual misconduct, will soon be partly rehabilitated when the Vatican publishes trial documents it had closely guarded for 700 years. A reproduction of the minutes of trials against the Templars, “‘Processus Contra Templarios — Papal Inquiry into the Trial of the Templars'” is a massive work and much more than a book – with a €5,900 euros price tag. “This is a milestone because it is the first time that these documents are being released by the Vatican, which gives a stamp of authority to the entire project,” said Professor Barbara Frale, a medievalist at the Vatican’s Secret Archives. “Nothing before this offered scholars original documents of the trials of the Templars,” she told Reuters in a telephone interview ahead of the official presentation of the work on October 25.

The epic comes in a soft leather case that includes a large-format book including scholarly commentary, reproductions of original parchments in Latin, and — to tantalize Templar buffs — replicas of the wax seals used by 14th-century inquisitors. Reuters was given an advance preview of the work, of which only 799 numbered copies have been made. One parchment measuring about half a meter wide by some two meters long is so detailed that it includes reproductions of stains and imperfections seen on the originals. Pope Benedict will be given the first set of the work, published by the Vatican Secret Archives in collaboration with Italy’s Scrinium cultural foundation, which acted as curator and will have exclusive world distribution rights. The Templars, whose full name was “Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon”, were founded in 1119 by knights sworn to protecting Christian pilgrims visiting the Holy Land after the Crusaders captured Jerusalem in 1099.

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Human kindness overflowing.

Arctic Melt Brings More Persistent Heat Waves to US, Europe (Bloomberg)

The U.S., Europe and Russia face longer heat waves because summer winds that used to bring in cool ocean air have been weakened by climate change, German researchers said. Rapid Arctic warming disturbs air streams in ways that have “significantly” reduced summer storms, raising the likelihood of heat waves, the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research said in a report Thursday in the journal Science. Hot weather in Russia in 2010 devastated crop harvests and caused wildfires. “Unabated climate change will probably further weaken summer circulation patterns which could thus aggravate the risk of heat waves,” co-author Jascha Lehmann said in a statement e-mailed by the institute.

“The warm temperature extremes we’ve experienced in recent years might be just a beginning.” With heat-trapping gases from burning oil, coal and natural gas at record levels, global temperatures are set to warm by 3.6 degrees Celsius (6.5 Fahrenheit) by the end of the century, according to the International Energy Agency. That’s the quickest climate shift in 10,000 years. Temperature gains can disrupt air flows that govern storm activity, the Potsdam report showed. “When the great air streams in the sky above us get disturbed by climate change, this can have severe effects on the ground,” lead author Dim Coumou said. The study used data on atmospheric circulation in the Northern Hemisphere from 1979 to 2013.

Warming in the Arctic, where temperatures rise faster than elsewhere as ice caps melt, is believed to narrow temperature differences and thus weaken the jet stream — air motion that’s important for shaping our weather, according to the scientists. “The reduced day-to-day variability that we observed makes weather more persistent, resulting in heat extremes on monthly timescales,” Coumou said. “The risk of high-impact heat waves is likely to increase.”

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Feb 072015
 
 February 7, 2015  Posted by at 11:20 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , ,  4 Responses »


NPC Minker Motor Co, 14th Street NW, Washington, DC 1922

Currency Devaluations Are an Undeclared War (Bloomberg)
The PBOC – How To Fail In Business Without Really Flying (Russell Napier)
The Diverging Fates of China’s Provinces (Bloomberg)
Goldman Raises Alarm Over The Scariest Chart In The Jobs Report (Zero Hedge)
Stop Squeezing Syriza. We Can’t Afford Another Wrong Turn In Europe (Guardian)
Troika Trojan Horse: Will Syriza Capitulate In Greece? (Pepe Escobar)
Greece Seeks Plan C After Eurogroup Rules Out Bridge Loan (Bloomberg)
Syriza Vows To Fight Pressure To Stick To Bailout Terms (Guardian)
Greece: We Want No More Bailout With Strings (Reuters)
Defiance and Charm: A Measured First Week for New Greek Leader (Spiegel)
It’s Merkel Legacy Moment (Bloomberg)
Irish Fighting Bankers Show It’s Not Just Greeks Protesting Debt (Bloomberg)
The Biggest Loss for Scotland Since Independence Fail (Bloomberg)
Oil Production Increases Ahead: Alberta Premier (CNBC)
A Modest Proposal To Save The World (Charles Gave)
The TTIP US-EU Trade Deal -A Briefing (Guardian)
Pentagon 2008 Study Claims Putin Has Asperger’s Syndrome (USA Today)
US Navy Sailors Search for Justice after Fukushima Mission (Spiegel)
The Stuff Paradox: Dealing With Clutter (BBC)
American Sniper Is A Movie Hitler ‘Would Have Been Proud To Have Made’ (Ind.)

“The reason why this is a war is that it is ultimately a zero-sum game – someone gains only because someone else will lose.”

Currency Devaluations Are an Undeclared War (Bloomberg)

The global currency war is threatening to prove a silent killer. So says David Woo, head of global rates and currencies research at Bank of America Merrill Lynch in New York. While some question the existence of any conflict – arguing that falling exchange rates merely reflect efforts by central banks to spur lackluster domestic economies – Woo expresses concern. “There is a growing consensus in the market that an unspoken currency war has broken out,” he said in a report to clients this week. “The reason why this is a war is that it is ultimately a zero-sum game – someone gains only because someone else will lose.” The standard view on war-mongering is that by easing monetary policy, central banks from Asia to Europe are hoping to weaken their currencies to boost exports and import prices.

Trade rivals then retaliate, creating a spiral of devaluations as witnessed in the 1930s. Just this week, Reserve Bank of Australia Governor Glenn Stevens said “a lower exchange rate is likely to be needed” after he unexpectedly cut interest rates to a record low. With more than a dozen central banks injecting extra stimulus so far this year, currencies will be discussed when finance ministers and central bankers from the Group of 20 meet next week in Istanbul. For much of the past two years the G-20 has formally committed to refrain from targeting “exchange rates for competitive purposes.” That leaves Woo, a former IMF economist, declaring the war is one of “stealth” and warning the fallout from it is already roiling financial markets in a way undetected by most.

By measuring the volatility of currencies, which he calculates as the difference between the maximum and minimum exchange rate over a 26-week period, Woo estimates the dollar has been swinging about 20% against both the yen and the euro. In the past 15 years it was only higher following the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008. A second gauge of volatility that weighs currencies based on the gross domestic product of 20 major economies delivers the third-highest reading in two decades, topped only by the Asian crisis of 1997-98 and Lehman’s demise, he said.

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“.. the Costa Rican central bank has just announced that they will be floating the Colon. Those of a squeamish disposition should certainly not try googling “floating colon”..”

The PBOC – How To Fail In Business Without Really Flying (Russell Napier)

“Terrain seems a bit unstable…and there seems to be no sign of intelegent life anywhere” – Buzz Lightyear (Toy Story) “That wasn’t flying…that was falling with style” – Woody (Toy Story)

Another day, another central bank failure. In a world of currencies backed only by confidence, every failure is masqueraded as success. Like the ballet dancer who transforms the stumble into a pirouette, central bankers, knocked to the ground by market forces, smile and pretend that this was all part of the routine. Financial market participants, having bet everything on the promised omnipotence of central bankers, do indeed seem happy to see genius in every stumble. However a fall is a fall regardless of the style of the descent. So when will investors see that the earth is rapidly approaching and that style is just style? The key for investors today is to see behind the masquerade and the mask, the façade of those putting up a front behind a public face, and be able to tell the difference between the soaring flight of reflation and the perilous fall of deflation.

The more attitude you hear from policy makers, the more you can be sure it’s style compensating for the lack of real substance and that this is falling and not flying. And as the attitude becomes more high-handed, the lower the altitude gets. The attitude quotient is rising rapidly. Two weeks ago we noted the ‘flying’ undertaken by the Swiss National Bank as the market forced them to abandon their exchange-rate target. Deposit rates in Swiss Banks are now at such a low level that investors are better off converting deposits into bank notes and placing them under the bed. The Danish Central Bank has also instituted negative interest rates with the consequence that deposits in Denmark might also fly into paper. As the central bank managed to create over DKK106bn (US$16.3bn) in bank reserves, trying to stop a revaluation of their exchange rate last month, there will be no shortage of banknotes to go round should a ‘bank run’ from deposits to banknotes begin.

Taking interest rates so negative that they threaten a run on bank deposits should not be seen as success – it is failure. Creating bank reserves at that pace should not be seen as success – it is failure. The next failure may well be some government-inspired restriction on capital inflows. Well, you could call such restrictions, and risking the liquidity of banks, monetary success if you like, but then you probably also think it’s a success to throw the ball one yard from the touchline. Last week the Monetary Authority of Singapore was apparently “flying”, definitely not falling, when it cut interest rates and tried to devalue the SGD to defeat deflation. The Central Bank of Russia reduced interest rates while defending its exchange rate and, guess what, the currency fell. Most people, of course, would recognize that as simply falling, but as it was Russia you do have to ask did it just fall, or was it pushed ?

You may even have missed the news, that the Costa Rican central bank has just announced that they will be floating the Colon. Those of a squeamish disposition should certainly not try googling “floating colon” but, just take their word for it, the Colon will float. Elsewhere there were examples of more conventional falling, disguised as controlled flying, in the form of cuts in interest rates from Australia, Canada, Egypt, India, Pakistan, Peru and Turkey. The Turkish President has the perfect style for this sport and declared that interest rates had to fall as they were the cause and not the cure for inflation. As our hero himself remarked, ‘Buzz Lightyear to star command, I have an AWOL space ranger.’

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“The decline of fiscal revenue is the top risk in China and will lead to a sharp slowdown in GDP’..’

The Diverging Fates of China’s Provinces (Bloomberg)

From the biting-cold northeast bordering Siberia to the humid southwest next to Thailand, China’s growth rates are diverging almost as much as its geography. While the world’s second-largest economy slowed to a 7.4% expansion last year – just squeaking into the communist government’s “about 7.5%” target range – regional data presents a fractured landscape more akin to Europe’s than the rising-tide-floats-all-boats numbers we’re used to from China. There’s still a Germany: the wealthier export-focused and high-end manufacturing coastal region spanning Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Fujian. All were within about half a percentage point of their 2014 growth goals. The emerging provinces of Chongqing and Guizhou – later developers than their coastal cousins – look OK, too.

Let’s mark them down as China’s Poland, with lower labor and land costs attracting factories and helping exports. Both posted plus-10-percent expansions last year. The population-heavy Hunan, Hubei and Henan — with a combined 219 million people – almost matched their growth targets, with investment sustaining these massive economies. They’re way too populous to fit our European analogy, though. There’s even an Iceland-like outperformer: Tibet. The vast, mountainous region – which is about 12 times the size of tiny Iceland – was the only one of China’s 31 provinces and municipalities to match its 2014 target, racing ahead at 12%. Government-led infrastructure investment is behind its boom. Then we come to the sick men. While an expansion of about 5% would be stellar by European standards, in China that’s a slump.

The coal-dependent northern province of Shanxi missed its expansion target by a full 4 percentage points last year. Three other heavy industry and commodities driven north-eastern provinces – Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning – all lagged with expansions near 6%, below targets of 8 or 9%. While policymakers in Beijing don’t have to contend with Grexit-like threats, there are headaches ahead. “Given the sluggish economic growth and fiscal pressure from dropping land sales, local governments have become much less ambitious than before,” Deutsche Bank AG’s chief China economist Zhang Zhiwei wrote in a Jan. 30 note. “The decline of fiscal revenue is the top risk in China and will lead to a sharp slowdown in GDP” to 6.8% this quarter. Like Europe, the slowdown may prompt more monetary easing after this week’s reduction in banks’ reserve ratio requirements.

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No good US jobs report without hidden secrets.

Goldman Raises Alarm Over The Scariest Chart In The Jobs Report (Zero Hedge)

Following the January jobs report, Goldman’s chief economist Jan Hatzius appeared on CNBC but instead of joining Steve Liesman in singing the praises of the “strong” the report (which apparently missed the memo about the crude collapse), he decided to do something totally different and instead emphasize the two series that none other than Zero Hedge has been emphasizing for years as the clearest indication of what is really happening with the US labor market: namely the recession-level civilian employment to population ratio and the paltry annual increase in average hourly earnings. This is what Hatzius said:

“The employment to population ratio is still 4% below where it was in 2006. You can explain 2% of that with the aging of the population that still leaves quite a lot of room potentially, and the wage numbers are telling us we are just not that close, although we are getting closer.”

Closer to what? Why the most dreaded event for any FDIC-backed hedge fund in the world: the Fed not only ending some $3 trillion of liquidity injections but actively starting to remove liquidity by tightening monetary conditions and rising rates. Hatzius’ punchline: “I think the case for “patience” is still quite strong.” In other words, the US may be creating almost 300K jobs per month, but stocks are still not high enough. So how should one look at today’s BLS report: well, for political purposes the data is great – just look at those whopping revisions; but when it comes to the markets, please focus on the the unadjusted, ugly details beneath the headlines. Those which we have been showing for months and months.

Because there always has to be something that prevent the Fed from hiking, and killing Chuck Prince’s proverbial music, in the process ending Wall Street’s 6-year-old “dance” ever since the 666 S&P lows. At this rate soon Goldman Sachs will become a bigger “skeptical realist” than Zero Hedge. Finally, which chart is Hatzius talking about? The one below, showing the uncanny correlation between the US civilian employment to population ratio and the annual rate of increases in hourly earnings, and the fact that neither is capable of actually increasing under the “NIRP Normal” recovery.

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And that’s how simple it is.

Stop Squeezing Syriza. We Can’t Afford Another Wrong Turn In Europe (Guardian)

With Syriza having won Greece’s election on a platform to reject the Troika-imposed bailout, the eurozone has reached yet another fork in the road. Let us hope it does not take the wrong turn, again. Squeezing Syriza and humiliating Greece further, as appears to be the strategy in Germany and other powers in the EU, could be the straw that breaks the eurozone’s back. Cutting Greece any slack is opposed by a majority of Germans, even while support for Alexis Tsipras in Greece soared after his election as he fought for concessions on debt. Political space in the eurozone has shrunk to a point where it may no longer be possible to implement sensible economic policy. Which wrong turns did we take? How can we choose wisely this time?

At the outbreak of the crisis, EU leaders insisted on national solutions to what was essentially a European problem: the fragility of large often pan-European banks. This increased the final bill, as countries refused to bite the bullet and delayed recognising that their banks were bust. Even as leaders came under domestic fire for rescuing banks with taxpayer money, Greece’s fiscal problems provided a godsend distraction. Many northern Europeans promoted a narrative of “lazy Greeks” who had been “fiscally profligate”. While the unsustainability of Greek debt was recognised by many, intensive lobbying by German and French banks which owned large amounts of Greek bonds meant that the much-needed restructuring of this debt was vetoed. An ill-designed programme was imposed as condition of financial aid to Greece.

This was essentially a bailout of European banks at the expense of Greek citizens and European taxpayers. Even worse, the narrative of “lazy southerners” and a “fiscal crisis” promoted by Germany and EU institutions crowded out the reality of an untreated banking crisis. Ireland, having foolishly guaranteed its insolvent banks, was then forbidden from imposing losses on bank bondholders by the ECB. Private debt became public and the banking crisis became a fiscal one. Even though the failure to repair and restructure banks was the biggest problem in countries such as Spain, many were treated as though they had been fiscally irresponsible and prescribed austerity.

As bank uncertainty and fiscal cuts were biting and driving the eurozone into a deep recession, the narrative of a “fiscal crisis” became self-fulfilling as debt-to-GDP ratios climbed because of both bank rescues and collapsing GDPs. The problem was compounded by Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy threatening to push Greece out of the eurozone, which in turn made markets question the viability of the single currency and fuelled panic, driving Spanish and Italian spreads up to record levels. Thus the downward spiral of a badly misdiagnosed and deliberately miscommunicated problem, and a tragically ill-conceived treatment began. Bailing out the supposedly lazy southerners has stoked anti-EU sentiment in creditor economies like Germany, who want to see more, not less austerity in debtor economies. Suffering under Troika-imposed excessive austerity has fuelled the rise of anti-austerity parties such as Syriza and Podémos.

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“The ECB bought Greek public debt from private banks for a fortune [..] private banks had found the cash to buy Greece’s public debt exactly from…the ECB. This is outright theft. ”

Troika Trojan Horse: Will Syriza Capitulate In Greece? (Pepe Escobar)

The 2015 Greek tragedy is a sorry (financial) remix of the Trojan War. But now the troika (ECB, EC, IMF) has replaced Greece, and Greece is the new Troy. It is now crystal clear the ECB will pull no punches to turn Greece into a European failed state. The rationale: others – from Spain to even, in the near future, France – must not entertain funny ideas. Toe the austerity line, or we’ll get medieval on you. It was so predictable that the destiny of Athens – and in fact the euro – would ultimately rest in the hands of ECB Governor Mario ‘Master of the Universe’ Draghi, purveyor of the latest QE which in thesis will grant an austerity-ravaged Europe a little extra time to pursue ‘reforms’.

Some background is essential. The troika sold Greece an economic racket, but it’s the Greek people that are paying the price. Essentially, Greece’s public debt went from private to public hands when the ECB and the IMF ‘rescued’ private (German, French, Spanish) banks. The debt, of course, ballooned. The troika intervened, not to save Greece, but to save private banking. The ECB bought public debt from private banks for a fortune, because the ECB could not buy public debt directly from the Greek state. The icing on this layer cake is that private banks had found the cash to buy Greece’s public debt exactly from…the ECB, profiting from ultra-friendly interest rates. This is outright theft. And it’s the thieves that have been setting the rules of the game all along.

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“The next showdown is scheduled for Feb. 11 in Brussels..”

Greece Seeks Plan C After Eurogroup Rules Out Bridge Loan (Bloomberg)

Euro-area governments won’t grant Greece’s request for a short-term financing agreement to keep the country afloat while it renegotiates the terms of its financial support, said Jeroen Dijsselbloem, chairman of the bloc’s finance ministers’ group. “We don’t do” bridge loans, Dijsselbloem told reporters in The Hague on Friday, when asked about Greece’s request. “A simple extension is possible as long as they fully take over the program.” The European Union’s latest rebuff raises the stakes for Greece’s new government, which has already failed in its demands for a debt writedown. The next showdown is scheduled for Feb. 11 in Brussels, when Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis faces his 18 euro-area counterparts in an emergency meeting after Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras delivers a major policy speech on Sunday.

“After an aggressive start, which resulted in a reality check for the new government, I think they are becoming more pragmatic,” said Aristides Hatzis, an associate professor of law and economics at the University of Athens. “No matter what they say to their internal audience, what they do abroad matters most.” Varoufakis has said his government won’t accept any more cash under the terms of Greece’s existing bailout, leaving €7 billion euros of potential aid on the table, rather than complying with demands for more austerity attached to the country’s international bailout agreement.

“Practically speaking, our proposal is that there should be a bridging program between now and the end of May, which would give us space – all of us – to carry out these deliberations and in a short space of time come to an agreement” Varoufakis said after meeting German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble in Berlin on Feb. 5. The standoff risks leaving Europe’s most-indebted state without any funding as of the end of this month, following the Jan. 25 election victory of Tsipras’s Syriza party. “It will be a first step in how we want to proceed together in the next weeks, months,” Dijsselbloem said, as he cautioned that a discussion over the terms of the bailout program would mean “we no longer talk about a simple extension.”

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Why does even the Guardian choose to speak of ‘Greece’s radical Syriza government’?

Syriza Vows To Fight Pressure To Stick To Bailout Terms (Guardian)

Greece’s radical Syriza government has vowed to keep fighting pressure from its eurozone neighbours to stick to the strict terms of its bailout package as battle lines were drawn ahead of crunch debt talks next week. Eurozone finance ministers have called an emergency meeting for Wednesday night in Brussels to discuss the Greek crisis after a whistlestop tour of Europe by Yanis Varoufakis, Greece’s finance minister, made little headway. Germany wants Greece to arrive with a plan on the repayment of €240bn (£180bn) in bailout loans it received from the international community.

The special debt meeting will be followed on Friday by a summit of European leaders, the first with Alexis Tsipras, the Greek prime minister. But a government official ruled out accepting a plan based on the old bailout and said Varoufakis would ask for a bridge agreement to tide Athens over until it can present a new debt and reform programme. “We will not accept any deal which is not related to a new programme,” an official told Reuters news agency.

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“It is … necessary that Greece is given the possibility to issue T-bills, beyond the (current) €15 billion threshold, in order to cover any extra needs..”

Greece: We Want No More Bailout With Strings (Reuters)

Greece’s new leftist-led government, isolated in the euro zone and under pressure from the European Central Bank, said on Friday it wanted no more bailout money with strings attached from the EU and IMF. Instead, a government official said, it wanted authority from the euro zone to issue more short-term debt, and to receive profits that the European Central Bank and other central banks have gained from holding Greek bonds. The official said Greece was in effect asking for a “bridge agreement” to keep state finances running until Athens can present a new debt and reform program, “not a new bailout, with terms, inspection visits, etc.”.

“It is … necessary that Greece is given the possibility to issue T-bills, beyond the (current) €15 billion threshold, in order to cover any extra needs,” said the official, asking not be named. Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis returned empty-handed from a tour of European capitals in which even left-leaning governments in France and Italy insisted Greece must stick to commitments made to the European Union and IMF and rejected any debt write-off. The Athens official made clear that the new government, which came to power on a wave of anti-austerity anger in elections last month, now wanted to forego remaining bailout money that had austerity strings attached: “Greece is not asking for the remaining tranches of the current bailout program – except the €1.9 billion that the ECB and the EU member states’ central banks must return.”

Euro zone finance ministers will discuss how to proceed with financial support for Athens at a special session next Wednesday ahead of the first summit of EU leaders with the new Greek prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, the following day. However, the chairman of the finance ministers said the following meeting of the Eurogroup on Feb. 16 would be Greece’s last chance to apply for a bailout extension because some euro zone countries would need to consult their parliaments. “Time will become very short if they (Greece) don’t ask for an extension (by then),” said Jeroen Dijsselbloem. The current bailout for Greece expires on Feb 28. Without it the country will not get financing or debt relief from its lenders and has little hope of financing itself in the markets.

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Surprisingly positive piece from Der Spiegel, which just last week was very pro-Merkel. “..his left-wing government is already busy getting down to work. Many of its first moves have been the right ones.”

Defiance and Charm: A Measured First Week for New Greek Leader (Spiegel)

Syriza’s victory in the recent Greek elections set off a wave of concern in Europe. But even as the new prime minister tries to woo other leaders, his left-wing government is already busy getting down to work. Many of its first moves have been the right ones. [..] Something has happened in Greece that has not happened like this anywhere else in Europe: A handful of neophyte politicians, intellectuals and university professors have taken over the government. It feels like a small revolution instead of a handover of duties. And that’s not only because many members of the previous administration deleted their hard drives and took their documents with them, or that there initially wasn’t even any soap in the government headquarters.

No, the new government has upended the rules of the Greek political system – and spurred into action a Europe that is still unsure how it should react to the rebels. In Athens you can also see the euphoria reflected in the city’s traffic, which is a yardstick for the crisis. The streets had often been half empty, because fewer people were traveling to work, the gasoline was expensive, the mood gloomy. But now the city center is just as clogged as before. The people are once again in motion. Even though only 36% of voters chose Syriza, 60% of Greeks are happy with new government’s first few days. If there were new elections, support for the party could grow and Tsipras could renounce his coalition partner. Although he may be entertaining that scenario privately, members of the government deny that it is in the cards. But to maintain this enthusiasm, Tsipras now needs to show a real accomplishment: an end of the German “austerity mandate.” Which means that he doesn’t merely need to convince the Greeks, he needs to conquer Europe.

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“So either Tsipras turns 180 degrees or the euro area’s post-crisis, anti-contagion defenses will get their stiffest test.”

It’s Merkel Legacy Moment (Bloomberg)

It’s a legacy moment for Angela Merkel. How the German chancellor navigates the two-front crisis emanating from Moscow and Athens could determine whether she rises to her role as Europe’s dominant leader or slips into history as a risk-averse manager who couldn’t hold the region together. “The immediacy and urgency of taming the dual Greek and Ukraine nightmares are defining moments for Europe and for Merkel,” said Bud Collier, professor at the John F. Kennedy Institute of Berlin’s Free University. “The stakes are enormous.” An abundance of caution is the complaint she’s faced from the moment Greece spawned the euro financial crisis – forcing needy nations to take their medicine and suffer for budgetary sins in the name of becoming more competitive. In return, she slowly brought her reluctant electorate along and pried open her government’s checkbook.

Now the Greeks are as fed up as the Germans. They elected Alexis Tsipras as prime minister on the promise the days of pension, wage and job cuts were over. They’re also trying to get under Merkel’s skin. Standing in Germany’s finance ministry, the stone behemoth that was Herman Goering’s headquarters in Adolf Hitler’s regime, Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis touched the most sensitive spot in Germany’s collective consciousness: “Germany must and can be proud that Nazism has been eradicated here, but it’s one of history’s most cruel ironies that Nazism is rearing its ugly head in Greece, a country which put up such a fine struggle against it.” Remarks like that may explain Merkel’s exasperation with the new leaders in Athens and why she’s waiting for them to come around to see things her way. If they don’t, neither she nor her allies have expressed much interest in a middle ground.

So either Tsipras turns 180 degrees or the euro area’s post-crisis, anti-contagion defenses will get their stiffest test. The next signals are likely at the EU’s Feb. 12 summit. Also on the agenda at that gathering is what to do about Putin. As with Tsipras, she’s not optimistic. Unlike with Greece, though, Merkel has few cards to play. She’s stuck between the U.S. and Russia, herding the EU’s 28 governments and is largely the point person because of geography. She has stopped seeing Putin as a rational actor, according to German government officials, but is the closest to an interlocutor that she has. As she arrives for talks in Moscow with French President Francois Hollande and the fighting intensifies, the united anti-Putin front is at risk amid dwindling options: tougher sanctions that many EU leaders are resisting, arming the government in Kiev or yielding to the breakup of Ukraine.

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“About 117,000 home-mortgage accounts are in arrears, according to central bank figures, and the Free Legal Advice Centres group said last month that a “substantial spike” in repossessions may be on the way.”

Irish Fighting Bankers Show It’s Not Just Greeks Protesting Debt (Bloomberg)

Byron Jenkins says he would rather destroy his home than hand it over to the banks. The former builder owes about €750,000 euros on his house in a Co. Kildare town about 40 miles west of Dublin. After 15 court appearances, he’s still fending off repossession. “All they’ll get back is a pile of bricks,” Jenkins said. “I’ve told them that.” Banks lodged 10,000 applications to foreclose on family homes in the year through September, a legal rights group said last month, four times as many as in the previous year. The legacy of western Europe’s worst real estate crash is entering a new phase, bringing with it a very Irish version of the backlash against the establishment sweeping Europe.

As Greeks turned to Alexis Tsipras to reverse five years of austerity, and anti-immigrant parties gain ground in countries like France and Sweden, in Ireland, homeowners are increasingly organizing resistance. Jenkins is part of a group of activists allied to the Land League, named after a 19th century organization that battled with landlords when Ireland was ruled from London. In the 21st century, the fight is against bankers. “We have been creating mayhem, if by mayhem you mean keeping people in their homes,” said Jerry Beades, a developer who has spent almost a decade in disputes with banks and financial regulators and is now leading the League. “We are reflecting the anger that’s out there about the level of debt that just can’t be serviced.” About 117,000 home-mortgage accounts are in arrears, according to central bank figures, and the Free Legal Advice Centres group said last month that a “substantial spike” in repossessions may be on the way.

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“Aberdeen has been the focus of a classic oil boom..”

The Biggest Loss for Scotland Since Independence Fail (Bloomberg)

In Aberdeen, a city built out of granite on Scotland’s North Sea coast, a diamond merchant checks the price of oil every day. Until recently, the dealer, Oscar Ozdaslar, had been accustomed to North Sea oil workers stopping in to buy 3,500-pound ($5,260) diamond rings and earrings in his store on Union Street. “This Christmas was very quiet compared to the Christmas before,” said Ozdaslar, 50. “The oil guys didn’t come in.” Just six months ago, Aberdeen was the economic linchpin of Scotland’s campaign to split from the U.K. as oil traded above $100 a barrel. In the wake of the independence referendum’s failure, it serves as a microcosm of how crude’s slump to nearer $50 is hurting cities from Calgary to Kuala Lumpur.

“Aberdeen has been the focus of a classic oil boom,” said Gordon Hughes, a professor of economics in the University of Edinburgh. “There’s no doubt that the city will go through a bad period now that it’s over.” What’s more, the North Sea basin is among the most expensive in the world from which to extract oil. About 20% of U.K. production is “uneconomic” at $50 a barrel, trade group Oil & Gas U.K. says. After rallying this week, brent for March settlement traded at $57.72 a barrel on the ICE Futures Europe exchange on Friday. BP CEO Bob Dudley said this week it feels like the 1980s when he was living in Aberdeen working as an artificial lift engineer for Amoco before it merged with BP. Prices fell about 70% in a few months after Saudi Arabia increased production and didn’t recover until 1990. Regions worldwide that depend on the industry are having an “enormous shock,” he said.

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“We’ll actually be experiencing production increases over the next two years, notwithstanding low oil prices.”

Oil Production Increases Ahead: Alberta Premier (CNBC)

The steep drop in oil prices will lead to some slowdown of economic activity in Alberta, Canada, and the deferral of large capital investments in its oil sands, but Alberta Premier Jim Prentice told CNBC Friday its economy is resilient and will weather the rout. “This will be a difficult time. We’re assuming this will carry on for next 18 months or so and that we’ll be in a low-price environment,” he said in an interview. “We expect there will be some falloff in conventional drilling activity, shale drilling activity as well, clearly, but at the end of the day our economy is resilient.” Canadian rig count is down 13 rigs from last week, to 381, according to Baker Hughes. It is down 240 rigs from last year. However, oil production is going to increase. “We’ll actually be experiencing production increases over the next two years, notwithstanding low oil prices.”

Most of the oil in the region comes from oil sands, which produce about 1.9 million barrels of oil a day. In fact, Alberta’s oil sands are the third-largest crude oil reserve in the world. The province has proven oil reserves of 170 billion barrels. Prentice expects to see economic to slow down in cities like Calgary, but said Alberta has a strong public balance sheet and strong companies. About 121,500 citizens are directly employed in Alberta’s mining, oil, and gas extraction sectors. “I think there will be some consolidation to strength as we work our way through this. And certainly there will be implications and we’re concerned about that and we’re planning for that,” he said. That said, while he’s seen a deferral of large capital investments on new increments of oil sands investments and a reduction in capital expenditure in traditional oil and gas activity, Prentice sees a light at the end of the tunnel. “This will be part of a cycle, and we’ll eventually see the other side of this.”

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“..the final mission of any truly modern government must be to redirect the inventory of savings for the benefit of the rich (while, of course, claiming it is acting for the poor).”

A Modest Proposal To Save The World (Charles Gave)

As such, it seems that the ultimate aim of policy must be to transfer the nation’s entire wealth to an ever smaller number of rich people, most of who work in finance. Perhaps this is as it should be, since as already noted, money and only money can create value. Hence, the final mission of any truly modern government must be to redirect the inventory of savings for the benefit of the rich (while, of course, claiming it is acting for the poor). Interestingly, Europe’s socialists and the Democrats in the US have the ideal political cover to carry out this important exercise. And this, of course, brings us to Greece and my own big solution.

The lack of final demand in that benighted country shows that Alexis Tsipras must manage an economy suffering from not enough government spending. In response, Athens should issue unlimited sums of perpetual zero coupon bonds, which will be bought by the ECB. Next, the Italian, French and Spanish governments should follow suit. The proceeds can be transferred to local government districts in order for civil servants to be hired in earnest. The effect would be to greatly boost the local GDP, by the amount of the salaries paid to the civil servants, while the debt-to-GDP ratio will fall accordingly. The Bundesbank will be happy. Of course, the simple minded (non-economist fellows) might wonder who will buy this paper.

The answer is simple: the authorities must slap a 100% reserve requirement on all products held by insurance companies, banks and pension funds, and ‘hey presto!’ bond issues will be oversubscribed. Of course, if the choice is between a zero coupon perpetual bond and shares in the stock market, I have no doubt that the Dow will be at 100,000 in no time. At the same time, since the only competition for the perpetual zeros will be cash, the use of bank notes will need to be outlawed. Some smart fellows have already started working on this highly progressive idea. The only thing that I do not understand is why it has not yet been adopted. It must be the fault of incompetent politicians, advised by poorly trained economists. There is no other explanation.

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Again: the resistance to TTIP is not nearly strong enough.

The TTIP US-EU Trade Deal -A Briefing (Guardian)

What’s the story? It’s been called the most contested acronym in Europe, a putative free-trade deal between the world’s two richest trading powers that will either unleash untold prosperity or economic and cultural ruin, depending on your point of view. The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) is an ugly mouthful, and not just in name. The aim is not just to reduce tariffs between the EU and US but to remove regulatory barriers and standardise rules so that companies can access each other’s market more easily. It has the potential to be the biggest trade deal ever concluded. But there are formidable pitfalls and obstacles along the way. Europeans hope the talks, which embark on an eighth round this week after almost two years of deliberation, will result in access to financial services in the US.

Washington is resisting. The Americans are eyeing up the food markets that serve the EU’s 500 million mouths. Europeans are concerned this will bring lower US food standards to a continent that prizes its Italian hams and French champagnes. Above all, public scepticism to the trade accord is spreading across Europe, where growing numbers are suspicious of their political leadership and disenchanted by two decades of globalisation. The treaty has been in the works for 12 years, and came about as it became apparent that bigger global trade deals would be hard to achieve. Negotiations started in 2013 and involve at least 100 participants. [..]

The biggest problem with TTIP is that the most significant gains are to be made from an area that the public is queasiest about: deregulation. Negotiators know that just removing tariffs is the easy bit – and not worth nearly as much as reforming, reducing and/or harmonising the differing regulations that govern business and industry in the US. But one person’s regulation is another’s protection, and opponents of TTIP argue that it could threaten consumer protection, social rights, health, the environment and data protection. Some even fret that it could open the door to privatisation by allowing, for example, US health companies to run parts of Britain’s publicly owned National Health Service.

The Europeans have already secured the exclusion of audio-visual services to protect the French film industry, a neuralgic issue for leaders in Paris. The question is: will the long list of other exceptions that already include GM food and hormone-fed beef dilute the deal to make it less worthwhile? An even bigger stumbling block is another clunky acronym, ISDS (Investor State Dispute Settlement), which would allow businesses to sue governments for action that would hurt future profits. Supporters of the bill have argued that ISDS plays an essential role in ensuring smooth transatlantic negotiations. Critics fret that it would bypass national laws and subjugate the interest of governments to those of big business.

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Fun with sketchy ‘science’.

Pentagon 2008 Study Claims Putin Has Asperger’s Syndrome (USA Today)

A study from a Pentagon think tank theorizes that Russian President Vladimir Putin has Asperger’s syndrome, “an autistic disorder which affects all of his decisions,” according to the 2008 report obtained by USA TODAY. Putin’s “neurological development was significantly interrupted in infancy,” wrote Brenda Connors, an expert in movement pattern analysis at the U.S. Naval War College in Newport, R.I. Studies of his movement, Connors wrote, reveal “that the Russian President carries a neurological abnormality.” The 2008 study was one of many by Connors and her colleagues, who are contractors for the Office of Net Assessment (ONA), an internal Pentagon think tank that helps devise long-term military strategy.

The 2008 report and a 2011 study were provided to USA TODAY as part of a Freedom of Information Act request. Researchers can’t prove their theory about Putin and Asperger’s, the report said, because they were not able to perform a brain scan on the Russian president. The report cites work by autism specialists as backing their findings. It is not known whether the research has been acted on by Pentagon or administration officials. The 2008 report cites Dr. Stephen Porges, who is now a University of North Carolina psychiatry professor, as concluding that “Putin carries a form of autism.” However, Porges said Wednesday he had never seen the finished report and “would back off saying he has Asperger’s.”

Instead, Porges said, his analysis was that U.S. officials needed to find quieter settings in which to deal with Putin, whose behavior and facial expressions reveal someone who is defensive in large social settings. Although these features are observed in Asperger’s, they are also observed in individuals who have difficulties staying calm in social settings and have low thresholds to be reactive. “If you need to do things with him, you don’t want to be in a big state affair but more of one-on-one situation someplace somewhere quiet,” he said.

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And what do they meet, of course? Denial.

US Navy Sailors Search for Justice after Fukushima Mission (Spiegel)

On March 11, 2011, the American aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan received orders to change course and head for the east coast of Japan, which had just been devastated by a tsunami. The Ronald Reagan had been on its way to South Korea when the order reached it and Captain Thom Burke, who was in charge of the ship along with its crew of 4,500 men and women, duly redirected his vessel. The Americans reached the Japanese coastline on March 12, just north of Sendai and remained in the region for several weeks. The mission was named Tomodachi. The word tomodachi means “friends.” In hindsight, the choice seems like a delicate one. Three-and-a-half years later, Master Chief Petty Officer Leticia Morales is sitting in a café in a rundown department store north of Seattle and trying to remember the name of the doctor who removed her thyroid gland 10 months ago.

Her partner Tiffany is sitting next to her fishing pills out of a large box and pushing them over to Morales. “It was something like Erikson,” Morales says. “Or maybe his first name was Eric, or Rick. Oh, I don’t know. Too many doctors.” In the last year-and-a-half, she has seen oncologists, radiologists, cardiologists, blood specialists, kidney specialists, gastrointestinal specialists, lymph node experts and metabolic specialists. “I’m now spending half the month in doctors’ offices,” she says. “This year, I’ve had more than 20 MRTs. I’ve simply lost track.” She swallows one of the pills, takes a sip of water and smiles wryly. It was the endocrinologist who asked her if she had been on the Ronald Reagan. During Tomodachi? Yes, Morales told her. Why?

The doctor answered that he had removed six thyroid glands in recent months from sailors who had been on that ship, Morales relates. Only then did Morales make the connection between the worst accident in the history of civilian atomic power and her own fate. The Fukushima catastrophe changed the world. Nuclear reactors melted down on live television and twice as much radioactive material was released as during the Chernobyl accident in 1986. The disaster drove 150,000 people from their towns and villages, poisoned entire landscapes for centuries and killed hundreds of thousands of farm animals. It also led countries around the world to rethink their usage of nuclear energy. Fukushima is more than just a place-name, it is an historical event – and it would seem to have changed the life of Leticia Morales as well.

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“It doesn’t make them happy – it’s a cover-up. We get so busy maintaining stuff, keeping it, making sure there’s a place for it. It’s not greed. It’s trying to fill up a hole that’s so big it will never be filled..”

The Stuff Paradox: Dealing With Clutter In The US (BBC)

While more and more Americans struggle to make do with less due to economic hardship, others are making a conscious choice to shed their possessions. When Courtney Carver was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2006, she took a long, hard look at her life and decided to focus on only the things that were really important. And that meant reducing the amount of “stuff” cluttering her space and her time. “At first it seemed completely overwhelming and not manageable,” she recalls. “Even the thought of decluttering my closet felt like this huge accomplishment, and paying off tens of thousands of dollars of debt felt impossible.” But Carver persevered and discovered that casting off her possessions also reduced her stress levels and she began to feel better. “I’m not saying crazy lifestyles cause illness, but they certainly exacerbate issues,” she says.

“Freeing up a lot of resources allows me to give more of my time and attention and money to things that I care about.” She began blogging about her experience and eventually left her advertising job in Salt Lake City, Utah, to launch a website BeMoreWithLess.com. Her Project 333 – how to pare down a wardrobe to just 33 items – has attracted a large online following and she has just launched a similar initiative to reduce food in the kitchen. The point is to free up time and mental energy that would otherwise be spent on the everyday preoccupation of eating and fashion. Of course minimalism itself is nothing new. Some of the ancient Greek philosophers were advocates, most religions extol the virtues of austerity and figures as diverse as the Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy and the Indian civil rights leader Mahatma Gandhi have preached the benefits of a simple life. But a recent survey reveals that 54% of Americans feel overwhelmed by clutter and 78% have no idea what to do with it. [..]

Bev Hitchins is the founder of Align, a professional decluttering service based in Alexandria, Virginia. She has never met some of her clients and often provides counselling online. “I work with people who are poised to make a change,” she says. “They realise they’re stuck and have to do something about it. One of the easiest ways to get unstuck is to declutter.” That’s because most people accumulate possessions for psychological reasons, she says. “People gather stuff to protect themselves. It’s an illusion though. It doesn’t make them happy – it’s a cover-up. We get so busy maintaining stuff, keeping it, making sure there’s a place for it. It’s not greed. It’s trying to fill up a hole that’s so big it will never be filled. “But there’s a tremendous transformation that goes on if they stay with the process. You can go into therapy or you can start decluttering.”

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“I think when you make a film like American Sniper you have to be in decline.. You’re not a world leader any more..”

American Sniper Is A Movie Hitler ‘Would Have Been Proud To Have Made’ (Ind.)

The British documentarian Nick Broomfield has said that the controversial biopic American Sniper is a film which Adolf Hitler would have been proud to have made. In an interview for The Independent Magazine, the award-winning filmmaker branded it an example of ‘American fascism’ that made him question his decision to live in the United States. “After you’ve watched a film like American Sniper, you think “My God, what the fuck am I doing here?” He went on to say: “I think Adolf would have been proud to have made it”. Directed by Clint Eastwood, American Sniper is a biopic of the Navy SEAL sniper Chris Kyle, played by Bradley Cooper. Based on Kyle’s memoir, the film tells the story of how he rose to legendary status within the armed forces by making 164 confirmed “kills” during four tours in Iraq.

The film has been a runaway success at the US box office. American sniper Chris Kyle had over a 100 ‘kills’ to his name American sniper Chris Kyle had over a 100 ‘kills’ to his name Asked whether he agreed with criticism of America Sniper as propagandist Broomfield – who is promoting his new documentary Tales of the Grim Sleeper – labelled it a product of a country locked in an existential struggle with its own history and future. “It’s been amazing watching the whole Obama thing. Just seeing how deep-rooted it [American fascism] is. That’s really what Tales of the Grim Sleeper is about: incredible racism that really goes back to slavery and the country has not in any way got over it. “I think when you make a film like American Sniper you have to be in decline,” he added.

“You’re holding on to your bootstraps and you’re turning inwards. You’re not a world leader any more. I think it makes people very insecure and they sort of retreat to their most basic fears .The fact that that film has been such a touchstone here is worrying.” [..] Broomfield’s new documentary, Tales of a Grim Sleeper, investigates the murders of over 150 prostitutes, mostly African-American, in South Central Los Angeles. It is Broomfield’s 30th documentary – a number of which have been set in the US. “If you were making films in the 1850s when the British Empire was pre-eminent, you would undoubtedly be more interested about making films in Britain, about British people,” he explained. “But I think, in a way, it’s about to change. People look to the United States for things that are about to happen in the future.”

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Feb 032015
 
 February 3, 2015  Posted by at 11:56 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , ,  10 Responses »


DPC City Hall subway station, New York 1904

US Consumer Spending Declined in December by Most in Five Years (Bloomberg)
US Household Spending Tumbles Most Since 2009 (Zero Hedge)
Q1 Energy Earnings Shocker: Then And Now (Zero Hedge)
Exxon Revenue, Earnings Down 21% From YoY, Sales Miss By $5 Billion (Zero Hedge)
BP Hit By $3.6 Billion Charge, Cuts Capex On Oil Prices (CNBC)
Greece Finance Minister Varoufakis Unveils Plan To End Debt Stand-Off (FT)
Germany Will Have To Yield In Dangerous Game Of Chicken With Greece (AEP)
The Truth About Greek Debt Is Far More Nuanced Than You Think (Telegraph)
Greece Standoff Sparks Ire From US, UK Over Economic Risks (Bloomberg)
Varoufakis Is Brilliant. So Why Does He Make Everyone So Nervous? (Bloomberg)
Greece’s Damage Control Fails to Budge Euro Officials (Bloomberg)
What is Plan B for Greece? (Kenneth Rogoff)
Why The Bank Of England Must Watch Its Words (CNBC)
More Than 25% Of Euro Bond Yields Are Negative, But … (MarketWatch)
Draghi’s Negative-Yield Vortex Draws in Corporate Bonds (Bloomberg)
China Debt Party Nears The End Of The Road (MarketWatch)
Global Deflation Risk Deepens As China Economy Slows (Guardian)
Canada Mauled by Oil Bust, Job Losses Pile Up (WolfStreet)
Aussie Gets Crushed – How Much More Pain Lies Ahead? (CNBC)

But don’t worry: nothing Bloomberg can’t spin: “Consumers are in a good mood coming into 2015, and we think that’s likely to continue..”

US Consumer Spending Declined in December by Most in Five Years (Bloomberg)

Consumer spending fell in December as households took a breather following a surge in buying over the previous two months. Household purchases declined 0.3%, the biggest decline since September 2009, after a 0.5% November gain, Commerce Department figures showed Monday in Washington. The median forecast of 68 economists in a Bloomberg survey called for a 0.2% drop. Incomes and the saving rate rose. Consumers responded to early promotions by doing most of their holiday shopping in October and November, leading to the biggest jump in consumer spending last quarter in almost nine years. For 2015, a pick-up in wage growth will be needed to ensure households remain a mainstay of the expansion as the economy tries to ward off succumbing to a global slowdown.

“Consumers are in a good mood coming into 2015, and we think that’s likely to continue,” said Russell Price, a senior economist at Ameriprise, who correctly forecast the drop in outlays. “The prospects for 2015 look very encouraging.” Stock-index futures held earlier gains after the report. Projections for spending ranged from a decline of 0.6% to a 0.2% gain. The previously month’s reading was initially reported as an increase of 0.6%. For all of 2014, consumer spending adjusted for inflation climbed 2.5%, the most since 2006. Incomes climbed 0.3% in December for a second month, the Commerce Department’s report showed. The Bloomberg survey median called for a 0.2% increase. November’s income reading was revised down from a 0.4% gain previously reported. While growth in the world’s largest economy slowed in the fourth quarter, consumption surged, with household spending rising at the fastest pace since early 2006, a report from the Commerce Department last week showed.

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Recovery.

US Household Spending Tumbles Most Since 2009 (Zero Hedge)

After last month’s epic Personal Income and Spending data manipulation revision by the BEA, when, as we explained in detail, the household saving rate (i.e., income less spending ) was revised lower not once but twice, in the process eliminating $140 billion, or some 20% in household savings… there was only one possible thing for household spending to do in December: tumble. And tumble it did, when as moments ago we learned that Personal Spending dropped in the month of December by a whopping 0.3%, the biggest miss of expectations since January 2014 and the biggest monthly drop since September 2009!

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“By December 31, the estimated growth rate fell to -28.9%. Today, it stands at -53.8%.” Just a little off.”

Q1 Energy Earnings Shocker: Then And Now (Zero Hedge)

Here is what Factset has to say about forecast Q1 energy earnings: “On September 30, the estimated earnings growth rate for the Energy sector for Q1 2015 was 3.3%. By December 31, the estimated growth rate fell to -28.9%. Today, it stands at -53.8%.” Just a little off. This is what a difference 4 months makes.

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“XOM did the best with margins and accounting gimmickry it could under the circumstances..”

Exxon Revenue, Earnings Down 21% From YoY, Sales Miss By $5 Billion (Zero Hedge)

Moments ago, following our chart showing the devastation in Q1 earning forecasts, Exxon Mobil came out with its Q4 earnings, and – as tends to happen when analysts take a butcher knife to estimates – beat EPS handily, when it reported $1.56 in EPS, above the $1.34 expected, if still 18% below the $1.91 Q4 EPS print from a year earlier. A primary contributing factor to this beat was surely the $3 billion in Q4 stock buybacks, with another $2.9 billion distributed to shareholders mostly in the form of dividends. Overall, XOM distributed $23.6 billion to shareholders in 2014 through dividends and share purchases to reduce shares outstanding.

This number masks the 29% plunge in upstream non-US earnings which were smashed by the perfect storm double whammy of not only plunging oil prices but also by the strong dollar. Curiously, all this happened even as XOM actually saw its Q4 worldwide CapEx rise from $9.9 billion a year ago to $10.5 billion, even though capital and exploration expenditures were $38.5 billion in the full year, down 9% from 2013. However, while XOM did the best with margins and accounting gimmickry it could under the circumstances, there was little it could do to halt the collapse in revenues, which printed at $87.3 billion, well below the $92.7 billion expected, and down a whopping 21% from a year ago. And this is just in Q4 – the Q1 slaughter has yet to be unveiled!

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Set to get much worse.

BP Hit By $3.6 Billion Charge, Cuts Capex On Oil Prices (CNBC)

BP revealed plans to cut capital expenditure (capex) on Tuesday, after it was hit by tumbling oil prices and an impairment charge of $3.6 billion. “We have now entered a new and challenging phase of low oil prices through the near- and medium-term,” said CEO Bob Dudley in a news release. “Our focus must now be on resetting BP: managing and rebalancing our capital program and cost base for the new reality of lower prices while always maintaining safe, reliable and efficient operations.” BP reported a replacement-cost loss of $969 million for the fourth quarter of 2014, after taking a $3.6-billion post-tax net charge relating to impairments of upstream assets given the fall in oil prices. On an underlying basis, replacement cost profit came in at $2.2 billion, above analyst expectations of $1.5 billion.

In the news release, BP said it was “taking action to respond to the likelihood of oil prices remaining low into the medium-term, and to rebalance its sources and uses of cash accordingly.” The company said that organic capex was set to be around $20 billion in 2015, significantly lower than previous guidance of $24-26 billion. Capex for 2014 came in at $22.9 billion, lower than initial guidance of $24-25 billion. “In 2015, BP plans to reduce exploration expenditure and postpone marginal projects in the Upstream, and not advance selected projects in the Downstream and other areas,” said the company.

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“Attempting to sound an emollient note, Mr Varoufakis told the Financial Times the government would no longer call for a headline write-off of Greece’s €315bn foreign debt. Rather it would request a “menu of debt swaps..”

Greece Finance Minister Varoufakis Unveils Plan To End Debt Stand-Off (FT)

Greece’s radical new government unveiled proposals on Monday for ending the confrontation with its creditors by swapping outstanding debt for new growth-linked bonds, running a permanent budget surplus and targeting wealthy tax-evaders. Yanis Varoufakis, the new finance minister, outlined the plan in the wake of a dramatic week in which the government’s first moves rattled its eurozone partners and rekindled fears about the country’s chances of staying in the currency union. After meeting Mr Varoufakis in London, George Osborne, the UK chancellor of the exchequer, described the stand-off between Greece and the eurozone as the “greatest risk to the global economy”.

Attempting to sound an emollient note, Mr Varoufakis told the Financial Times the government would no longer call for a headline write-off of Greece’s €315bn foreign debt. Rather it would request a “menu of debt swaps” to ease the burden, including two types of new bonds. The first type, indexed to nominal economic growth, would replace European rescue loans, and the second, which he termed “perpetual bonds”, would replace European Central Bank-owned Greek bonds. He said his proposal for a debt swap would be a form of “smart debt engineering” that would avoid the need to use a term such as a debt “haircut”, politically unacceptable in Germany and other creditor countries because it sounds to taxpayers like an outright loss. But there is still deep scepticism in many European capitals, in particular Berlin, about the new government’s brinkmanship and its calls for an end to austerity policies.

“What I’ll say to our partners is that we are putting together a combination of a primary budget surplus and a reform agenda,” Mr Varoufakis, a leftwing academic economist and prolific blogger, said. “I’ll say, ‘Help us to reform our country and give us some fiscal space to do this, otherwise we shall continue to suffocate and become a deformed rather than a reformed Greece’.” [..] Mr Varoufakis said the government would maintain a primary budget surplus — after interest payments — of 1 to 1.5% of gross domestic product, even if this meant Syriza, the leftwing party that dominates the ruling coalition, would not fulfil all the public spending promises on which it was elected. Mr Varoufakis also said the government would target wealthy Greeks who had not paid their fair share of taxes during the nation’s six-year economic slump. “We want to prioritise going for the head of the fish, then go down to the tail,” he said.

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“The creation of the euro was a terrible mistake but breaking it up would be an even bigger mistake. We would be in a world where anything could happen:”

Germany Will Have To Yield In Dangerous Game Of Chicken With Greece (AEP)

Finland’s governor, Erkki Liikanen, was categorical. “Some kind of solution must be found, otherwise we can’t continue lending.” So was the ECB’s vice-president Vitor Constancio. Greece currently enjoys a “waiver”, allowing its banks to swap Greek government bonds or guaranteed debt for ECB liquidity even though these are junk grade and would not normally qualify. This covers at least €30bn of Greek collateral at the ECB window. “If we find out that a country is below that rating – and there’s no longer a (Troika) programme – that waiver disappears,” he said. These esteemed gentlemen are sailing close to the wind. The waiver rules are not a legal requirement. They are decided by the ECB’s governing council on a discretionary basis. Frankfurt can ignore the rating agencies if it wishes. It has changed the rules before whenever it suited them.

The ECB may or may not have good reasons to cut off Greece – depending on your point of view – but let us all be clear that such a move would be political. A central bank that is supposed to be the lender of last resort and guardian of financial stability would be taking a deliberate and calculated decision to destroy the Greek banking system. Even if this were to be contained to Greece – and how could it be given the links to Cyprus, Bulgaria, and Romania? – this would be a remarkable act of financial high-handedness. But it may not be contained quite so easily in any case, as Mr Osborne clearly fears. I reported over the weekend that there is no precedent for such action by a modern central bank. “I have never heard of such outlandish threats before,” said Ashoka Mody, a former top IMF official in Europe and bail-out expert. “The EU authorities have no idea what the consequences of Grexit might be, or what unknown tremors might hit the global payments system. They are playing with fire.

The creation of the euro was a terrible mistake but breaking it up would be an even bigger mistake. We would be in a world where anything could happen. “What they ignore at their peril is the huge political contagion. It would be slower-moving than a financial crisis but the effects on Europe would be devastating. I doubt whether the EU would be able to act in a meaningful way as a union after that.” In reality, the ECB cannot easily act on this threat. They do not have the political authority or unanimous support to do so, and historians would tar and feather them if they did. The ground is shifting in Paris, Rome and indeed Brussels already. Jean-Claude Juncker, the European Commission’s president, yielded on Sunday, accepting (perhaps with secret delight) that the Troika is dead. French finance minister Michel Sapin bent over backwards to be accommodating at a meeting with Mr Varoufakis. There is no unified front against Greece. It is variable geometry, as they say in EU parlance.

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“if Greece were to measure its debt using corporate accounting standards, which take account of interest rates and maturities, its debt burden could be lower than 70pc of GDP.”

The Truth About Greek Debt Is Far More Nuanced Than You Think (Telegraph)

“Greek debts are unsustainable” Greece’s debts are, as a proportion of GDP, higher than most countries in the eurozone. But, by the same measure, the interest rates it pays on those debts are among the lowest in the currency bloc; the maturities on its loans are the longest. Eurozone countries calculate their debt according to the Maastricht definition, which means that a liability is valued in the same way whether it is due to repaid tomorrow or in 50 years’ time. Greece’s debts are 175pc of GDP under this definition. Some people have calculated that if Greece were to measure its debt using corporate accounting standards, which take account of interest rates and maturities, its debt burden could be lower than 70pc of GDP.

Greece’s debts might actually be a distraction from bigger issues. One is the requirement that, under the bailout conditions, Greece must run a primary surplus of 4.5pc of GDP. Another is the so-called fiscal compact, which requires EU governments with debts of more than 60pc of GDP to reduce the excess by one-twentieth a year. Are Greece’s debts unsustainable? Maybe and maybe not. Are these targets unattainable? Probably.

“The eurozone can withstand ‘Grexit’ now” This rather depends on what you mean by “withstand”. It is certainly true that the eurozone is in a better financial position to deal with Greece quitting or being ejected from the euro than when the last crisis flared up in 2012. It now has a rescue fund and has embarked on a quantitative easing programme. Even as yields on Greek sovereign debt have shot up in recent weeks, those in Spain, Portugal and Italy have stayed at or near record lows, suggesting the markets believe the potential fallout from Greece won’t spread to other southern European countries.

It is less clear that the eurozone could handle the existential threat posed by a Grexit. Membership of the currency bloc would no longer by irrevocable. The markets would scent blood. And the political and diplomatic repercussions are almost impossible to predict: Would it subdue or embolden the various anti-austerity and anti-euro factions that are gaining ground elsewhere in the region? Would it help foster an Orthodox alliance between Greece and Russia? Does Brussels really want to find out?

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“Calling the meeting with Osborne a “breath of fresh air,” Varoufakis said: “we are highly tuned into finding common ground and we already have found it.”

Greece Standoff Sparks Ire From US, UK Over Economic Risks (Bloomberg)

U.S. and British leaders are expressing frustration at Europe’s failure to stamp out financial distress in Greece and the risk it poses to the global economy. U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne, whose government faces voters in three months, became the latest critics, following comments by Britain’s central banker, Mark Carney, and U.S. President Barack Obama. “It’s clear that the standoff between Greece and the euro zone is fast becoming the biggest risk to the global economy,” Osborne said after meeting Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis in London. “It’s a rising threat to our economy at home. Varoufakis travels to Rome Tuesday, along with Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, in a political offensive geared to building support for an end to German-led austerity demands, a lightening of their debt load and freedom to increase domestic spending even as they rely on bailout loans.

Tsipras, who went to Cyprus on Monday, also heads to Brussels and Paris. Calling the meeting with Osborne a “breath of fresh air,” Varoufakis said, “we are highly tuned into finding common ground and we already have found it.” Osborne’s comment came a day after Obama questioned further austerity. “You cannot keep on squeezing countries that are in the midst of depression,” he said on CNN. “When you have an economy that is in freefall there has to be a growth strategy and not simply an effort to squeeze more and more out of a population that is hurting worse and worse.” Greece’s economy has shrunk by about a quarter since its first bailout package in 2010. Tsipras was elected Jan. 25 promising the end the restrictions that have accompanied the aid that has kept it afloat.

The premier issued a conciliatory statement on Jan. 31, promising to abide by financial obligations after Varoufakis said the country won’t take more aid under its current bailout and wanted a new deal by the end of May. Before his appointment as finance minister, he advocated defaulting on the country’s debt while remaining in the euro. The Greek finance minister told bankers in London he wants the country’s “European Union-related” loans to be restructured, leaving debt to the IMF and the private sector intact. “A priority for them is to address the high level of debt,” said Sarah Hewin, head of research at Standard Chartered, who was at the meeting. “They’re looking to restructure EU bilateral loans and ECB loans and leave IMF and private-sector debt alone. At the moment, they’re working at a broad case without being specific on how this restructuring will take place.”

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“Varoufakis knows as much about this subject “as anyone on the planet,” Galbraith says. “He will be thinking more than a few steps ahead” in any interactions with the troika.”

Varoufakis Is Brilliant. So Why Does He Make Everyone So Nervous? (Bloomberg)

Yanis Varoufakis, Greece’s new finance minister, is a brilliant economist. His first steps onto the political stage, though, didn’t seem to go very smoothly. Before joining the Syriza-led government, Varoufakis taught at the University of Texas and attracted a global following for his blistering critiques of the austerity imposed on Greece by its international creditors. Among his memorable zingers: Describing the Greek bailout deal as “fiscal waterboarding” and comparing the euro currency to the Hotel California, as in, “You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave.” His social-media followers seem to love the fiery rhetoric—but investors and European Union leaders are clearly less enthusiastic. Greek stock and bond markets tanked on Jan. 30 after Varoufakis said the new government would no longer cooperate with representatives of the troika of international lenders who’ve been enforcing the bailout deal.

At an awkward Jan. 30 meeting with Jeroen Dijsselbloem, head of the Eurogroup of EU finance ministers, Varoufakis appeared to make things worse by calling for a conference on European debt. “This conference already exists, and it’s called the Eurogroup,” an obviously irritated Dijsselbloem told reporters afterwards. The reaction from Berlin was even frostier, with Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble saying Germany “cannot be blackmailed” by Greece. Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras appeared to be scrambling to contain the damage. “Despite the fact that there are differences in perspective, I am absolutely confident that we will soon manage to reach a mutually beneficial agreement, both for Greece and for Europe as a whole,” he said on Jan. 31. But Varoufakis stayed on the offensive, with blog posts accusing news media organizations of inaccurate reporting and a BBC interview in which he blasted an anchorwoman for “rudely” interrupting him. “He may need some tips on how to handle himself on TV,” Steen Jakobsen, chief investment officer at Denmark’s Saxo Bank, wrote.

Is this really the guy Greece is counting on to negotiate a better deal with its creditors? Yes—and Varoufakis’s admirers say he shouldn’t be underestimated. “Yanis is the most intense and deep intellectual figure I’ve met in my generation,” says James K. Galbraith, an economist at the University of Texas who has worked closely with him. “Yanis knows far more about the current situation than some of the people he will be negotiating with,” adds Stuart Holland, an economist and former British Labour Party politician who has co-authored a series of papers with Varoufakis on the euro zone debt crisis. What’s more, Varoufakis’s academic specialty is game theory, the study of strategic decision-making in situations where people with differing interests try to maximize their gains and minimize their losses. Varoufakis knows as much about this subject “as anyone on the planet,” Galbraith says. “He will be thinking more than a few steps ahead” in any interactions with the troika.

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“It’s clear that the stand-off between Greece and the euro zone is fast becoming the biggest risk to the global economy..”

Greece’s Damage Control Fails to Budge Euro Officials (Bloomberg)

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’s damage-control efforts calmed investors while failing to budge European policy makers on his week-old government’s key demands. Officials in Berlin, Paris and Madrid rejected the possibility of a debt writedown raised by Greece’s anti-bailout coalition, as they held out the prospect of easier repayment terms, an offer that has been on the table since November 2012. Greek stocks and bonds rebounded following a conciliatory statement issued by the premier Saturday. He promised to abide by financial obligations, a prelude to a tour of European capitals, after Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis had prompted concern of a looming cash crunch by saying the country won’t take more aid under its current bailout and wanted a new deal by the end of May.

“The weekend statements sound less absurd than the noises from Athens last week,” Holger Schmieding, chief economist at Berenberg Bank in London, wrote in a note today. “However, the ideas of the new Greek government remain far removed from reality.” The Athens Stock Exchange index jumped 4.6%, led by Eurobank Ergasias. The yield on 10-year notes fell 22 basis points to 10.9% at 5:30 p.m. in Athens. Varoufakis was in London today, meeting Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne and then investors in sessions organized by Bank of America and Deutsche Bank.

“It’s clear that the stand-off between Greece and the euro zone is fast becoming the biggest risk to the global economy,” Osborne said in a statement after their talks. “It’s a rising threat to our economy at home.” Tsipras was in Cyprus before trips to Rome, Paris and Brussels, with Berlin not yet on the agenda. German Chancellor Angela Merkel wants to duck a direct confrontation and isolate him, a German government official said. In Nicosia, Tsipras repeated his finance chief’s call for an end to the committee that oversees the Greek economy. Dismantling the troika, which includes representatives of the European Commission, ECB and IMF, is “timely and necessary,” Tsipras said.

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“They might be right; then again, back in 2008, US policy makers thought that the collapse of one investment house, Bear Stearns, had prepared markets for the bankruptcy of another, Lehman Brothers. We know how that turned out.”

What is Plan B for Greece? (Kenneth Rogoff)

Financial markets have greeted the election of Greece’s new far-left government in predictable fashion. But, though the Syriza party’s victory sent Greek equities and bonds plummeting, there is little sign of contagion to other distressed countries on the eurozone periphery. Spanish 10-year bonds for example, are still trading at interest rates below those of U.S. Treasuries. The question is how long this relative calm will prevail. Greece’s fire-breathing new government, it is generally assumed, will have little choice but to stick to its predecessor’s program of structural reform, perhaps in return for a modest relaxation of fiscal austerity.

Nonetheless, the political, social, and economic dimensions of Syriza’s victory are too significant to be ignored. Indeed, it is impossible to rule out completely a hard Greek exit from the euro (“Grexit”), much less capital controls that effectively make a euro inside Greece worth less elsewhere. Some eurozone policy makers seem to be confident that a Greek exit from the euro, hard or soft, will no longer pose a threat to the other periphery countries. They might be right; then again, back in 2008, US policy makers thought that the collapse of one investment house, Bear Stearns, had prepared markets for the bankruptcy of another, Lehman Brothers. We know how that turned out.

True, there have been some important policy and institutional advances since early 2010, when the Greek crisis first began to unfold. The new banking union, however imperfect, and the European Central Bank’s vow to save the euro by doing “whatever it takes,” are essential to sustaining the monetary union. Another crucial innovation has been the development of the European Stability Mechanism, which, like the International Monetary Fund, has the capacity to execute vast financial bailouts, subject to conditionality. And yet, even with these new institutional backstops, the global financial risks of Greece’s instability remain profound. It is not hard to imagine Greece’s brash new leaders underestimating Germany’s intransigence on debt relief or renegotiation of structural-reform packages. It is also not hard to imagine eurocrats miscalculating political dynamics in Greece.

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“‘The question’ said Humpty Dumpty, ‘is which is to be master? The words or the girl?”

Why The Bank Of England Must Watch Its Words (CNBC)

Once upon a time, it was only Alice who vanished down a rabbit hole into Wonderland. Nowadays, we’re all falling in head-first – thanks to a bunch of central bankers. But as we’re down here, in this inverted quantitative easing (QE) world, Mark Carney, governor of Britain’s central bank, should probably heed the words of Humpty Dumpty who warned Alice that she’d only gain control of reality if she became “master of words.” In Alice’s looking-glass reality, and maybe ours too, sense has become nonsense and nonsense sense – and not just because of asset bubbles. “‘The question’ said Humpty Dumpty, ‘is which is to be master?'” The words or the girl?

All central bankers worry about being imprisoned by their own words. But it will be preoccupying Carney’s thoughts more than ever as the Bank of England prepares its historic move to publish the minutes alongside the rate setting committee’s decision, due to begin in August. The frenzied over-analysis of the U.S. Federal Reserve’s choice of words could not have escaped his attention, with its decision to drop the phrase “considerable time” dominating newspaper columns and analysts notes. One economist complained privately that his job had morphed from monetary policy to structural linguistics.

Back in March 2011, Jean-Claude Trichet, the then president of the ECB got hemmed in by his own verbal signaling. Ironically, it was one of his favourite catch phrases: “strong vigilance”. It eventually forced his hand into making an ill-advised rate hike from 1% to 1.25% despite a deteriorating economic climate, duly sending the euro zone into recession. Of course, the ECB’s current boss, Mario Draghi, understands Humpty Dumpty’s lesson about making words perform the exact meaning one wants, though €1.1 trillion of QE and a crisis in Greece might now fully test “whatever it takes”.

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“Government bond yields typically fall near the beginning of central-bank led programs intended to boost shaky economies, like the ECB’s bond-buying program, due to a shortage of bonds available to meet the central bank’s demand.”

More Than 25% Of Euro Bond Yields Are Negative, But … (MarketWatch)

More than a quarter of eurozone bonds have negative yields — meaning investors are essentially paying for the privilege of lending money to a European sovereign government — but several analysts are betting that those yields will soon return to normal. The exact number of negative yielding sovereign bonds is 27%, according to Tradeweb data based on Monday’s closing rates. “We’re hoping that this is roughly the peak,” said David Keeble, head of fixed-income strategy at Crédit Agricole. “There’s certainly no reason to keep them in negative territory after five year [bonds].” So why are sovereign bond yields negative? Government bond yields typically fall near the beginning of central-bank led programs intended to boost shaky economies, like the ECB’s bond-buying program, due to a shortage of bonds available to meet the central bank’s demand.

But after two or three weeks, the effects of this stimulus programs should begin to take hold, Keeble said, resulting in stronger economic data. This in turn should whet the market’s appetite for risky assets like equities while safe investments like bonds fall out of favor. Keeble added that his prediction is contingent on the European Central Bank keeping monetary policy steady. “We’re not going to get any more rate cuts from ECB and i don’t think we’re going to see anymore QE,” Keeble added. In its latest forecast on eurozone bond yields, published Monday, Bank of America Merrill Lynch said they expect the yield on five-year eurozone bonds to fall from negative 0.05% to negative 0.10% in the second quarter, before rising in the third and fourth quarters.

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Price discovery urgently needed.

Draghi’s Negative-Yield Vortex Draws in Corporate Bonds (Bloomberg)

Credit markets are being so distorted by the European Central Bank’s record stimulus that investors are poised to pay for the privilege of parking their cash with Nestle. The Swiss chocolate maker’s securities, which have the third-highest credit ranking at Aa2, may be among the first corporate bonds to trade with a negative yield, according to Bank of America strategist Barnaby Martin. Covered bonds, which are bank securities backed by loans, started trading with yields below zero at the end of September. With the growing threat of falling prices menacing the euro-area’s fragile economy, some investors are calculating it’s worth owning Nestle bonds, even with little or no return. That’s because yields on more than $2 trillion of the developed world’s sovereign debt, including German bunds, have turned negative and the ECB charges 0.2% interest for cash deposits.

“In the same way that bunds went negative, there’s nothing, in theory, to stop short-dated corporate bond yields going slightly negative as well,” Martin said. “If investors want to park some cash, the problem with putting it in a bank or money market fund is potential negative returns, because of the negative deposit rate policy of the ECB.” Vevey-based Nestle SA’s 0.75% notes due October 2016 were quoted to yield 0.05% today, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. It isn’t the only company with short-dated bond yields verging on turning negative. Roche, the world’s largest seller of cancer drugs, issued €2.75 billion of bonds with a coupon of 5.625% in 2009. The notes, which mature in March 2016, pay 0.09%, Bloomberg data show. “The current yield is market-driven,” Nicolas Dunant, head of media relations at Basel, Switzerland-based Roche, said in an e-mail. “The bond has traded up because it has become increasingly attractive for investors in the current low-rate environment.”

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The end of omnipotence.

China Debt Party Nears The End Of The Road (MarketWatch)

Despite an interest-rate cut late last year, China’s economy has got off to a slow start, with weak factory and service-sector readings. The typical response to such data is to expect more monetary stimulus. But have we reached the point where rate cuts are no longer able to lift China’s debt-heavy economy? As China enters its third year of slowing growth, there is growing concern the debt reckoning cannot be kicked down the road any longer. Credit has been growing faster than the economy for six years, and there has always been a recognition this cannot continue indefinitely. Experience elsewhere would suggest countries coming off a multi-year, debt-fueled expansion could expect an inevitable hangover.

This would include everything from bad debts, bankruptcies and asset write-downs, together with currency weakness and perhaps a dose of austerity to restore order to finances. For China, however, we are led to expect a different economy — one where, even in a down cycle, you don’t get recessions but growth that only changes gear from double-digit to “just” 7%. While naysayers warn China’s debt binge is an accident waiting to happen, it never quite does: The bond market and shadow-banking sector have not experienced any meaningful defaults, nor has the banking system seen anything more than a limited increase in non-performing loans. China’s property market might look a lot like bubbles in the U.S., Spain or Japan at different times in history, yet here the ending is again benign, with a gentle plateauing of prices.

But elsewhere, it is possible to find evidence that an abrupt China slowdown is underway. In various global hard-commodity markets – where Chinese demand was widely acknowledged to have lifted prices in everything from iron ore to copper in the boom years — a major reversal is underway. A collection of industrial commodities has now reached multi-year lows. This suggests a lot of folk in China are already facing a hard landing. Signs are accumulating that the financial economy is now getting to a moment of reckoning. At home, slower growth puts added pressure on servicing corporate debt as profitability weakens. Overseas, tighter credit as the Federal Reserve retreats from quantitative easing means hot-money flows are no longer providing a boost to liquidity and are instead reversing.

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“The slide in global oil prices and inflation has turned out to be even bigger than anticipated..”

Global Deflation Risk Deepens As China Economy Slows (Guardian)

The risk of global deflation looms large for 2015 as surveys of China’s mammoth manufacturing sector showed excess supply and insufficient demand in January drove down prices and production. While the pulse of activity was livelier in Japan, India and South Korea, they shared a common condition of slowing inflation. “The slide in global oil prices and inflation has turned out to be even bigger than anticipated,” said David Hensley, an economist at JP Morgan, and central banks from Europe to Canada to India have responded by easing policy. “What is now in the pipeline will help extend the near-term impulse from energy to economic growth into the second half of the year.” A fillip was clearly necessary in China where two surveys showed manufacturing struggling at the start of the year.

The HSBC/Markit Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) inched a up a fraction to 49.7 in January, but stayed under the 50.0 level that separates growth from contraction. More worryingly, the official PMI – which is biased towards large Chinese factories – unexpectedly showed that activity fell for the first time in nearly 30 months. The reading of 49.8 in January was down from 50.1 in December and missed forecasts of 50.2. The report showed input costs sliding at their fastest rate since March 2009, with lower prices for oil and steel playing major roles. Ordinarily, cheaper energy prices would be good for China, one of the world’s most intensive energy consumers, but most economists believe the phenomenon is a net negative for Chinese firms because of its impact on ultimate demand.

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Canada joins the currency war: “The Bank of Canada surprised the dickens out of everyone by cutting the overnight interest rate by 25 basis points.”

Canada Mauled by Oil Bust, Job Losses Pile Up (WolfStreet)

Ratings agency Fitch had already warned about Canada’s magnificent housing bubble that is even more magnificent than the housing bubble in the US that blew up so spectacularly. “High household debt relative to disposable income” – at the time hovering near a record 164% – “has made the market more susceptible to market stresses like unemployment or interest rate increases,” it wrote back in July. On September 30, the Bank of Canada warned about the housing bubble and what an implosion would do to the banks: It’s so enormous and encumbered with so much debt that a “sharp correction in house prices” would pose a risk to the “stability of the financial system”.

Then in early January, oil-and-gas data provider CanOils found that “less than 20%” of the leading 50 Canadian oil and gas companies would be able to sustain their operations long-term with oil at US$50 per barrel. “A significant number of companies with high-debt ratios were particularly vulnerable right now,” it said. “The inevitable write-downs of assets that will accompany the falling oil price could harm companies’ ability to borrow,” and “low share prices” may prevent them from raising more money by issuing equity. In other words, these companies, if the price of oil stays low for a while, are going to lose a lot of money, and the capital markets are going to turn off the spigot just when these companies need that new money the most. Fewer than 20% of them would make it through the bust.

To hang on a little longer without running out of money, these companies are going on an all-out campaign to slash operating costs and capital expenditures. The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers estimated that oil companies in Western Canada would cut capital expenditures by C$23 billion in 2015, with C$8 billion getting cut from oil-sands projects and C$15 billion from conventional oil and gas projects. However, despite these cuts, CAPP expected oil production to rise, thus prolonging the very glut that has weighed so heavily on prices (a somewhat ironic, but ultimately logical phenomenon also taking place in the US). Then on January 21 – plot twist. The Bank of Canada surprised the dickens out of everyone by cutting the overnight interest rate by 25 basis points. So what did it see that freaked it out?

A crashing oil-and-gas sector, deteriorating employment, and weakness in housing. A triple shock rippling through the economy – and creating the very risks that it had fretted about in September. “After four years of scolding Canadians about taking on too much debt, the Bank has pretty much said, ‘Oh, never mind, we’ve got your back’, despite the fact that the debt/income ratio is at an all-time high of 163 per cent,” wrote Bank of Montreal Chief Economist Doug Porter in a research note after the rate-cut announcement. Clearly the Bank of Canada, which is helplessly observing the oil bust and the job losses, wants to re-fuel the housing bubble and encourage consumers to drive their debt-to-income ratio to new heights by spending money they don’t have.

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As predicted, Australia joins the currency race to the bottom.

Aussie Gets Crushed – How Much More Pain Lies Ahead? (CNBC)

With the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) leaving the door open to further rate cuts, the only way forward for the Australian dollar is down, say strategists. The Aussie plunged 1.9% against the U.S. dollar to $0.7655 on Tuesday after the central bank cut its benchmark cash rate by 25 basis points to a fresh record low of 2.25%. It was the currency’s biggest once-day loss since mid-2013, according to Reuters. “75 cents seems the natural progression point from here – I would expect that over the next two weeks if not sooner,” Jonathan Cavenagh, a currency strategist at Westpac told CNBC. “Beyond that, we’ll see how things unfold. If we see another rate cut, the Aussie could definitely be trading in the low-70 cent range,” he said.

The central bank struck a dovish tone in its policy statement highlighting below-trend growth and weak domestic demand in the economy, giving rise to expectations of additional easing. It also said the Aussie remained above fundamental value and that a lower exchange rate is needed to achieve balanced growth. In December, RBA Governor Glenn Stevens told local media that he would prefer to see the currency at $0.75 – levels not seen since early 2009. The Austrian dollar has already suffered a 26% decline against the U.S. dollar over the past two years, weighed by weak commodity prices and a stronger greenback. Paul Bloxham, chief economist for Australia and New Zealand at HSBC also expects the currency to come under further selling pressure. He forecasts the currency will head towards $0.70 going into 2016.

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Jan 302015
 


Harris&Ewing “Pennsylvania Avenue with snow, Washington, DC” 1918

Commodity Prices Collapse To Lowest In 12 Years (Telegraph)
Cheap Oil Burns $390 Billion Hole in Investors’ Pockets (Bloomberg)
China Shadow Banking Trusts Fuel Stocks With 28% Jump in Investment (Bloomberg)
Europe Stocks Head for Best January Since 1989 (Bloomberg)
Eurozone Slides Deeper Into Deflation (CNBC)
We Must Stop Angela Merkel’s Bullying Or Let Austerity Win (Guardian)
Lies, Damned Lies And Greece’s Debt Default (MarketWatch)
Greece Turns Left, Europe Goes Right (Bloomberg)
Open Letter To German Readers: What You Were Never Told About Greece (Tsipras)
Syriza’s Original 40 Point Manifesto (Zero Hedge)
Greece’s New Young Radicals Sweep Away Age Of Austerity (Guardian)
It’s Time For Greece To Leave The Eurozone And Move On (Telegraph)
Greece’s Predicament in One Scary Chart: Capital Flight (Bloomberg)
Russia Extends Olive Branch To Greeks (CNBC)
Japan Braces For Falling Prices As Oil Collapses (CNBC)
The Next Shot In The Currency War Will Be Fired By… (CNBC)
Denmark Surprises Market With Third Rate Cut In Two Weeks (Reuters)
Denmark, Deutschland And Deflation (BBC)
Young Workers Hit Hardest By Wages Slump Of Post-Crash Britain (Guardian)
Gorbachev Accuses US Of Dragging Russia Into New Cold War (RT)
China’s Anti-Corruption Campaign Boosts Suicide Rate (FT)
Animals In France Finally Recognized As ‘Living, Sentient Beings’ (RT)

Mother of all bubbles.

Commodity Prices Collapse To Lowest In 12 Years (Telegraph)

The world’s leading index of commodity prices has slumped to its lowest level in more than 12 years as China slows and America hints at tightening monetary policy. The Bloomberg Commodity index, which tracks the prices of 22 different commodity prices such as gold, natural gas and oil, fell 0.3pc to 99.84 in early trading, the lowest point since August 2002. The recent bout of weakness in commodity prices came as the US Federal Reserve issued an upbeat view on the state of US economy. Minutes from the Federal Open Market Committee’s December meeting said the US economy is expanding at a solid rate with strong job gains, a signal that the central bank remains on track with plans to raise interest rates.

Commodities, like all asset classes, have benefited from America’s loose monetary policy. The upbeat view from the US economy came after another sign of a slowdown in China, with official figures showing profits from the industrial sector fell 8pc in December from a year earlier. Last year, China’s annual economic growth slowed to 7.4pc—its slowest pace in nearly a quarter of a century—as the property crisis in the country holds back the economy, and there is rising debt and slower demand for its products at home and abroad. Most economists expect Beijing to set an annual-growth target for 2015 of 7pc.

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“Demand was so high that the company more than doubled the size of the offering. The debt is now trading for less than 50 cents on the dollar..”

Cheap Oil Burns $390 Billion Hole in Investors’ Pockets (Bloomberg)

Investors have a message for suffering U.S. oil drillers: We feel your pain. They’ve pumped more than $1.4 trillion into the oil and gas industry the past five years as oil prices averaged more than $91 a barrel. The cash infusion helped push U.S. crude production to the highest in more than 30 years, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Now that oil prices have fallen below $45, any euphoria over cheaper energy will be tempered by losses that are starting to show up in investment funds, retirement accounts and bank balance sheets. The bear market has wiped out a total of $393 billion since June – $353 billion from the shares of 76 companies in the Bloomberg North America Exploration & Production index, and almost $40 billion from high-yield energy bonds, issued by many shale drillers.

“The only thing people are noticing now is that gas prices are dropping,” said Sean Wheeler at law firm Latham & Watkins. “People haven’t noticed yet that it’s also hitting their portfolios.” The money flowing into oil and gas companies around the world in the last five years came from a variety of sources. The industry completed $286 billion in joint ventures, investments and spinoffs, raised $353 billion in initial public offerings and follow-on share sales, and borrowed $786 billion in bonds and loans. The crash caught investors and lenders by surprise. Eight months ago, oil producer Energy XXI sold $650 million in bonds. Demand was so high that the company more than doubled the size of the offering, company records show. The debt is now trading for less than 50 cents on the dollar, and the stock has declined 88%.

Energy XXI, which has more than $3.8 billion in debt, is one of more than 80 oil and gas companies whose bonds have fallen to distressed levels, meaning their yields are more than 10percentage points above Treasury debt, as investors bet the obligations won’t be repaid, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The stocks and bonds of Energy XXI and other struggling energy firms have been bought up by pension funds, insurance companies and savings plans that are the mainstays of Americans’ retirement accounts. Institutional investors had more than $963 billion tied up in energy stocks as of the end of September, according to Peter Laurelli at analytics firm eVestment, that gathers data on about $22 trillion of institutional strategies.

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Mother of all bubbles’ younger sister.

China Shadow Banking Trusts Fuel Stocks With 28% Jump in Investment (Bloomberg)

China’s trusts, part of the shadow-banking industry, fueled a stock-market rally by boosting their investments in equities by a record 122 billion yuan ($19.5 billion) in the fourth quarter. The increase, reported by the China Trustee Association on Friday, was the biggest by value in data starting in 2010. The 28% gain was the largest since the third quarter of 2010. China’s capital controls and weakness in the property market have helped to channel money into stocks, driving a 35% surge in the Shanghai Composite Index over three months. Trusts’ assets under management grew at the fastest pace in six quarters, gaining almost 8% to 13.98 trillion yuan. Investment in equities totaled 552 billion yuan. So-called umbrella trusts, which allow more leverage than broker financing, have played a role in the stock boom. At the end of last year, China had 369 “risky” trust products valued at 78.1 billion yuan, the statement showed, down from 82.4 billion yuan three months earlier.

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Mother of all bubbles’ elder sister.

Europe Stocks Head for Best January Since 1989 (Bloomberg)

European stocks were little changed, with the Stoxx Europe 600 Index heading for its best start to a year since 1989. The Stoxx 600 added less than 0.1% to 368.85 at 9:53 a.m. in London, having slipped as much as 0.3% and risen as much as 0.4%. The gauge has advanced 7.7% in January as the European Central Bank unveiled a 1.1 trillion-euro ($1.2 trillion) quantitative easing program. A report at 11 a.m. Frankfurt time is projected to show a second month of deflation in the euro area, after a German consumer-price index turned negative for the first time since 2009.

“We’ll see a pickup in growth after QE, but it will be modest,” said Henrik Drusebjerg at Carnegie Investment Bank in Copenhagen. “Most European countries still need to do more reform. We are beginning to take a look at some European companies. I’m curious how aggressive to see Greece will be on their election promises.” Greece’s ASE Index rose for a second day, paring its weekly drop to 11%. Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras promised not to spring any surprises on Greece’s troika of official creditors. The nation’s banks slid this week amid concern a coalition led by Syriza, which won Sunday’s election, will challenge austerity measures. They recovered some losses after the head of ECB’s Supervisory Board said yesterday that the nation’s lenders can survive the current market turbulence.

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Stocks higher, prices lower. Makes a lot of sense.

Eurozone Slides Deeper Into Deflation (CNBC)

The euro zone slid further into deflation in January, underlining the case for the European Central Bank’s full-blown bond-buying program, announced earlier this month. Prices fell by 0.6% year-on-year in January, official flash estimates showed Friday, below the 0.5%-slide forecast by analysts polled by Reuters. In December, the region fell into deflation for the time since 2009, when prices fell by 0.2%. January’s further slide in prices was driven by an accelerating fall in energy costs, Eurostat said. Energy prices fell by a sharp 8.9% in January, compared with 6.3% in December. Prices in January for food, alcohol, tobacco and non-energy-related industrial goods also fell; only prices for services were seen rising. January’s figures come two weeks after after the ECB announced the launch of QE.

The program’s main purpose will be to boost inflation back towards the “just under 2%” level targeted by the central bank and sovereign bond purchases will start in March. In some much-needed good news for the euro zone, however, official figures also revealed that the region’s jobless level had fallen. Eurostat announced Friday that seasonally-adjusted unemployment in the single currency zone fell to 11.4% in December — the lowest recorded in the region since mid-2012, and down from 11.5% in November. By comparison, the unemployment rate stood at 5.6% in the U.S. in December 2014.

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“All Europe’s leaders have to offer is broken societies and broken people.”

We Must Stop Angela Merkel’s Bullying Or Let Austerity Win (Guardian)

All Europe’s leaders have to offer is broken societies and broken people. Over half of young people in Spain and Greece are without work, leaving them scarred: as well as mental distress, they face the increased likelihood of unemployment and lower wages for the rest of their lives. Workers’ rights, public services, a welfare state: all won at such cost by tough, far-sighted people, all being stripped away. There is a certain smugness expressed in Britain: just look across the waters at how bad things could be. Certainly Britain has been free of the euro. It has employed quantitative easing on a grand scale – though for the benefit of banks rather than people, and in an unsustainable, credit-fuelled mini-boom. But in any case, British workers have suffered the biggest fall in their paypackets since the Victorian era, and one of the worst of any EU country.

Britain’s rulers, just like those everywhere else in Europe, have punished their own people for the actions of an ever-thriving elite. That’s why Greece has to be defended urgently – not just to defend a democratically elected government and the people who put it there. European elites know that if Syriza’s demands are fulfilled, then other like-minded forces will be emboldened. Spain’s Podemos, a surging anti-austerity movement, will be more likely to triumph in elections this year. Syriza has already achieved change: the European Central Bank’s limited quantitative easing is partly a response to its rise. Even that well-known radical Reza Moghadam, Morgan Stanley’s vice-chairman of global capital markets and ex-head of the IMF’s European department, confirms Syriza’s strong negotiating position.

The precedent of an exit from the eurozone would lead to the market punishing other members, and to calls for the erasing of half of Greece’s debt. A victory is possible, but it depends on popular pressure right across Europe. If Syriza extracts concessions, it will be a stunning victory for all anti-austerity forces, and will help shift the balance of power in Europe. But if Greece loses, as those governments and banks that will now try to suffocate Syriza at birth intend? Then austerity will triumph over democracy. The future of millions of Europeans – Greek, French, Spanish and British alike – will be bleak indeed. That is why a movement to defend the already ruined nation of Greece is so important. Defeated Germany benefited from debt relief in 1953, and we must demand that for Greece today.

We must champion Syriza’s call for the end of an austerity policy that has achieved nothing but social ruin, across Europe in favour of a strategy of growth. Syriza’s posters declared: “Hope is coming”. Its election must represent that everywhere, including in Britain, where YouGov polling reveals huge popularity for a stance against austerity and the power of big business. A game of high stakes indeed: one that, if lost, will mean countless more years of economic nightmare. This rerun of the 1930s can be ended – this time by the democratic left, rather than by the fascist and the genocidal right. The era of Merkel and the machine men can be ended – but it is up to all of us to act, and to act quickly.

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“Nobody forced banks to lend money to the Greek government on nearly the same terms as they lent to, say, the German or Dutch governments.”

Lies, Damned Lies And Greece’s Debt Default (MarketWatch)

Can we stop it, please, with the Greek debt panic? Can we stop pretending that this crisis is something it isn’t, or that it involves principles it doesn’t, or that there is no alternative other than more pain on the streets of Athens? There’s been a renewed flap following Sunday’s stunning Greek election victory for the radical Syriza party, which wants to renegotiate the country’s crippling debt burdens and escape the deflation trap imposed by external bankers. It’s time for some hard, yet simple, truths. Greece’s gross debts add up to around $320 billion in nominal value, according to the International Monetary Fund. That’s big compared to the Greek economy, but tiny compared to the world outside. It’s less than 3% of the entire eurozone economy, which is about $13.5 trillion.

So even if Greece refused to pay one more nickel of its debts — an outcome no one is suggesting — the eurozone could make up the difference with about eight days’ output … or an hour’s money-printing by the ECB. And the real value of the Greek national debt is even less than this nominal sum. That’s because the markets have already adjusted themselves sensibly to the situation. According to the National Bank of Greece, shorter-term government bonds are already trading at about 85 cents on the euro, while longer-term bonds are down to between 65 and 50 cents on the euro. According to calculations by Felix Brill at investment firm Wellershoff, publicly traded Greek government bonds are trading at an average of 70 cents on the euro. So, in real terms, a big chunk of that Greek debt has already been written off. Crisis? What crisis?

Second, the idea that a partial Greek debt default would somehow represent an earthquake in the world of finance, or endanger the eurozone, or be an improvident reward for the reckless and the feckless, is nonsense. Nobody forced German and other bankers to buy Greek government bonds at absurd prices during the bubble. Nobody forced banks to lend money to the Greek government on nearly the same terms as they lent to, say, the German or Dutch governments. And nobody forced the international honchos at the IMF, ECB or EC to take over those obligations from the banks a few years ago as a “bailout.”

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“.. the worse the economy, the worse for the far right and the better for the far left.”

Greece Turns Left, Europe Goes Right (Bloomberg)

Why has Greece chosen a far-left government at a time when discontented and frustrated voters elsewhere in Europe have turned to the far right? In northern Europe, the frustrated voters’ parties of choice are right wing and anti-immigrant. So how come frustrated Greeks made a sharp turn to the left, electing the near-communist Syriza party to lead the government? The choice of left over right is especially striking because Greece is a first port of call for so many new immigrants to Europe. If Spain’s Podemos party continues to grow, then the contrast between northern and southern Europe will be even more striking. A combination of economics, politics and history can shed light on the differences. The simplest – and most surprising – answer may be just this: the worse the economy, the worse for the far right and the better for the far left.

The southern European economies are in substantially deeper trouble than their counterparts in middle and northern Europe. This has two distinct political effects, which together explain the difference between a turn to the left and a turn to the right. First of all, Greece is facing austerity demands that come from the northern members of the European Union, especially Germany. That means the Greeks perceive the main bad guy as external, not internal, and see the neoliberalism of Angela Merkel as the immediate source of the pain. The resistance to reducing state employment, cutting budgets, and working harder for less money and shorter vacations becomes resistance to the market economy itself.

The ex-communist radical left is the natural place for such resistance: The economic program of the left simply denies that such measures will actually help, and instead holds the promise of telling Europe to get lost.In northern Europe, economies may be in the doldrums, but no external European political force is pressing for fundamental structural change. Frustrated voters who see their job benefits scaled down even moderately thus need a different target. Those who arrived recently – immigrants – are the traditional objects of blame. The social contract may seem to be breaking down as a result of neoliberalism, but because no one has forced this change on northern European societies, it’s much easier to blame immigrants for burdening the state and making the social contract too expensive. Never mind if it’s true: The point is to blame anyone other than yourself.

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Written pre-election.

Open Letter To German Readers: What You Were Never Told About Greece (Tsipras)

Alexis Tsipras’ “open letter” to German citizens published on Jan.13 in Handelsblatt, a leading German language business newspaper

Most of you, dear readers, will have formed a preconception of what this article is about before you actually read it. I am imploring you not to succumb to such preconceptions. Prejudice was never a good guide, especially during periods when an economic crisis reinforces stereotypes and breeds biggotry, nationalism, even violence. In 2010, the Greek state ceased to be able to service its debt. Unfortunately, European officials decided to pretend that this problem could be overcome by means of the largest loan in history on condition of fiscal austerity that would, with mathematical precision, shrink the national income from which both new and old loans must be paid. An insolvency problem was thus dealt with as if it were a case of illiquidity.

In other words, Europe adopted the tactics of the least reputable bankers who refuse to acknowledge bad loans, preferring to grant new ones to the insolvent entity so as to pretend that the original loan is performing while extending the bankruptcy into the future. Nothing more than common sense was required to see that the application of the ‘extend and pretend’ tactic would lead my country to a tragic state. That instead of Greece’s stabilization, Europe was creating the circumstances for a self-reinforcing crisis that undermines the foundations of Europe itself. My party, and I personally, disagreed fiercely with the May 2010 loan agreement not because you, the citizens of Germany, did not give us enough money but because you gave us much, much more than you should have and our government accepted far, far more than it had a right to.

Money that would, in any case, neither help the people of Greece (as it was being thrown into the black hole of an unsustainable debt) nor prevent the ballooning of Greek government debt, at great expense to the Greek and German taxpayer. Indeed, even before a full year had gone by, from 2011 onwards, our predictions were confirmed. The combination of gigantic new loans and stringent government spending cuts that depressed incomes not only failed to rein the debt in but, also, punished the weakest of citizens turning people who had hitherto been living a measured, modest life into paupers and beggars, denying them above all else their dignity. The collapse of incomes pushed thousands of firms into bankruptcy boosting the oligopolistic power of surviving large firms.

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Good series.

Syriza’s Original 40 Point Manifesto (Zero Hedge)

The daily bulletin of Italy’s Communist Refoundation Party published today the apparently official program of the Greek coalition of the left, Syriza. Here the 40 points of the Syriza program.
1) Audit of the public debt and renegotiation of interest due and suspension of payments until the economy has revived and growth and employment return.
2) Demand the European Union to change the role of the European Central Bank so that it finances States and programs of public investment.
3) Raise income tax to 75% for all incomes over 500,000 euros.
4) Change the election laws to a proportional system.
5) Increase taxes on big companies to that of the European average.
6) Adoption of a tax on financial transactions and a special tax on luxury goods.
7) Prohibition of speculative financial derivatives.
8) Abolition of financial privileges for the Church and shipbuilding industry.
9) Combat the banks’ secret [measures] and the flight of capital abroad.
10) Cut drastically military expenditures.
11) Raise minimum salary to the pre-cut level, €750 per month.
12) Use buildings of the government, banks and the Church for the homeless.
13) Open dining rooms in public schools to offer free breakfast and lunch to children.
14) Free health benefits to the unemployed, homeless and those with low salaries.
15) Subvention up to 30% of mortgage payments for poor families who cannot meet payments.
16) Increase of subsidies for the unemployed. Increase social protection for one-parent families, the aged, disabled, and families with no income.
17) Fiscal reductions for goods of primary necessity.
18) Nationalization of banks.

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“We will continue with our plan. We don’t have the right to disappoint our voters.”

Greece’s New Young Radicals Sweep Away Age Of Austerity (Guardian)

One by one they were rolled back, blitzkrieg-style, mercilessly, ruthlessly, with rat-a-tat efficiency. First the barricades came down outside the Greek parliament. Then it was announced that privatisation schemes would be halted and pensions reinstated. And then came the news of the reintroduction of the €751 monthly minimum wage. And all before Greece’s new prime minister, the radical leftwinger Alexis Tsipras, had got his first cabinet meeting under way. After that, ministers announced more measures: the scrapping of fees for prescriptions and hospital visits, the restoration of collective work agreements, the rehiring of workers laid off in the public sector, the granting of citizenship to migrant children born and raised in Greece. On his first day in office – barely 48 hours after storming to power – Tsipras got to work. The biting austerity his Syriza party had fought so long to annul now belonged to the past, and this was the beginning not of a new chapter but a book for the country long on the frontline of the euro crisis.

“A new era has begun, a government of national salvation has arrived,” he declared as cameras rolled and the cabinet session began. “We will continue with our plan. We don’t have the right to disappoint our voters.” If Athens’s troika of creditors at the EU, ECB and IMF were in any doubt that Syriza meant business it was crushingly dispelled on Wednesday . With lightning speed, Europe’s first hard-left government moved to dismantle the punishing policies Athens has been forced to enact in return for emergency aid. Measures that had pushed Greeks on to the streets – and pushed the country into its worst slump on record – were consigned to the dustbin of history, just as the leftists had promised. But the reaction was swift and sharp. Within minutes of the new energy minister, Panagiotis Lafazanis, announcing that plans to sell the public power corporation would be put on hold, Greek bank stocks tumbled. Many lost more than a third of their value, with brokers saying they had suffered their worst day ever.

While yields on Greek bonds rose, the Athens stock market plunged. By closing time it had shed over 9%, hitting levels not seen since September 2012 and losing any gains it had clawed back since Mario Draghi, the European Central Bank chief, vowed to do “whatever it takes” to save the euro. By nightfall there was another blow as Standard & Poor’s revised its Greek sovereign rating outlook, taking the first step towards a formal downgrade. The agency warned that a bank run might also be in the offing, noting that “accelerated deposit withdrawals from Greek banks had created “a credit concern”. Perhaps prepared for the onslaught, Tsipras had also acted. On Tuesday, he met the Chinese ambassador to Athens to insist that while Syriza and its junior partner, the populist rightwing Independent Greeks party, would also be cancelling plans to privatise Piraeus port authority, the government wanted good relations with Beijing. China’s Cosco group, which already controls several docks in Piraeus, had been among four suitors bidding for the port.

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RIght wing view of a left wing government.

It’s Time For Greece To Leave The Eurozone And Move On (Telegraph)

The single currency was always a mistake, and I was one of a number of commentators who has always opposed its creation. Single currency areas can work only under one of three scenarios, none of which has ever been on the cards in Greece and much of Europe First, and ideally, you need an economy with radical levels of flexibility, a small government, a well-educated and motivated entrepreneurial workforce, and labour markets that adjust to shocks. A hit to demand leads to a very speedy reallocation of resources; workers are willing to take nominal pay cuts to keep their jobs; and the country bounces back quickly from shocks without suffering from massive unemployment. That is the ideal economic system — but sadly it is not on the agenda. Many libertarian economists, especially in the US but also in Europe, backed the euro because they thought it would trigger free-market reforms, but while some have taken place, they have been insufficient in scale and scope. Ultimately, you can’t impose an economic system on a reluctant society.

Second, an ultra-mobile pan-European society. In such a world — which doesn’t exist in anything like the way I’m imagining — unemployed people in Greece are able to move en masse to parts of the eurozone with better jobs prospects. This still happens to some extent in the US, where states like Texas have been fuelled by mass intra-state migration, and poor areas such as Detroit have simply lost their population. Workers do also move within the UK, and within other countries, though generally not enough. There is now lots of migration within Europe, but even the numbers we see aren’t enough to allow economies to adjust properly. There is no single European demos; people speak different languages and have different cultures. This won’t change for the foreseeable future.

Third, a massive pan-European welfare state with a federal tax system and permanent redistribution from rich to poor areas. In such a world, where the one-size-fits-all monetary policy is unable to cater for a hit to parts of the eurozone, fiscal policy kicks in. Germany and other richer parts send billions to poor states. In return, the power of nations to borrow is dramatically curtailed: member states lose much of their sovereignty. In such a world, Greece would simply not be allowed to borrow and spend as it saw fit, and many more functions currently operated by national governments would be transferred to Brussels.

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Nothing sensational.

Greece’s Predicament in One Scary Chart: Capital Flight (Bloomberg)

If the new prime minister of Greece, Alexis Tsipras, hopes to make a deal with his country’s creditors, time is of the essence. Judging from data on capital flows, Greece’s change of political course is rapidly eroding confidence that it will stay in the European currency union. Just because the 19 countries of the euro area share a currency doesn’t mean a euro in Greece is worth as much as a euro elsewhere. If, for example, Greece’s bank depositors start to worry that the country will exit the monetary union and leave them holding devalued drachma, they’ll move their money to a safer locale such as Germany, effectively trading their Greek euros for German ones. Such capital flight can be tracked (roughly) by looking at the accounts of central banks: If €1 billion moves out of Greece, the Bank of Greece records a corresponding €1 billion liability to the rest of the euro area.

Lately, the Greek central bank’s so-called intra-Eurosystem liabilities have been rising at a pace not seen since the darkest days of the European financial crisis. In December, when the previous Greek government announced the snap presidential vote that ultimately cleared the way for Tsipras and his far-left Syriza party to take power, the liabilities increased by about €7.6 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That’s more than in any month since May 2011 – and it happened even before Syriza won the Jan. 25 parliamentary election on a platform that included promises to end austerity and renegotiate the government’s onerous debts. Here’s a chart showing the estimated three-month cumulative capital flows between Greece and the euro area, as a% of Greek gross domestic product (positive numbers are inflows to Greece):

The capital flight from Greece contrasts sharply with the progress the country had been making since mid-2012, when ECB President Mario Draghi tamed markets with his promise to do “whatever it takes” to hold together the euro area. Over the two years through June 2014, the Bank of Greece’s intra-eurosystem liabilities declined by more than €75 billion as money flowed back in.

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“(The) ruble weakened and as you might see, life still goes on here and we just keep on living..”

Russia Extends Olive Branch To Greeks (CNBC)

Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov told CNBC that Russia would consider giving financial help to debt-ridden Greece—just days after the new Greek government questioned further European Union sanctions against Russia. Siluanov said Greece had not yet requested Russia for assistance, but he did not rule out an agreement between the two countries if Greece came asking. “Well, we can imagine any situation, so if such [a] petition is submitted to the Russian government, we will definitely consider it, but will take into account all the factors of our bilateral relationships between Russia and Greece, so that is all I can say. If it is submitted we will consider it,” Siluanov told CNBC on Thursday. Siluanov’s comments come two days after Greece’s new left-wing-led government distanced itself from calls to increase sanctions against Russia—indicating that Greece could be looking east to Russia for support.

On Tuesday, EU leaders issued a statement calling for “further restrictive measures” to be considered against Russia with regard to its involvement in the ongoing conflict in eastern Ukraine. After the statement, a representative for Greece’s newly elected Syriza party reported that the EU’s statement was made “without our country’s consent” and expressed “dissatisfaction with the handling of this.” On Thursday, Siluanov said that while Western-imposed sanctions against Russia thus far had been harmful, the country has managed to adapt. “The sanctions that have already been imposed against Russia did have (a) negative effect on us. However, Russia companies have adjusted and the Russian balance of payments has adjusted. (The) ruble weakened and as you might see, life still goes on here and we just keep on living,” he said.

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Abenomics is an open festering wound.

Japan Braces For Falling Prices As Oil Collapses (CNBC)

Japan’s consumer inflation eased in December for a fifth straight month and the rate of price rises could slow further or even turn negative as the economy adjusts to lower oil prices, analysts say. The consumer price index (CPI) rose 2.5% in December from the year-ago period, government data showed on Friday, compared with Reuters’ forecast for a rise of 2.6% and down from the 2.7% print in November. The core Tokyo CPI for January, considered a leading indicator, rose 2.2% on year, in line with expectations and easing from 2.3% in December. Excluding the effects of the sales tax hike, the nationwide consumer price index (CPI) rose 0.5%.

With the collapse in oil prices yet to be reflected in consumer inflation, analysts say the numbers will look worse in the coming months, dealing a further blow to the Bank of Japan’s ambitious inflation targets. “There is a six-month lag before global LNG prices are factored into electricity prices – and it’s electricity prices, rather than the price of oil at the pumps, that counts for Japanese households,” said Credit Suisse economist Takashi Shiono. “The electricity companies are still scheduled to raise their prices in February, so we’ll have to wait until April for the lower oil prices to filter through to the headline inflation numbers,” he added. Credit Suisse is forecasting the CPI to turn negative by April, assuming that current levels of oil and the dollar-yen holds.

Shino expects CPI to fall by up to 0.3% in April and down 0.1% for the full-year ending March 2016. The BOJ has been betting that its massive quantitative easing program unleashed since April 2013 will defeat inflation for good and bring CPI stripped of sales tax hike up to 2% by financial year ending March 2016. But market watchers see the goal increasingly unlikely especially in the wake of crashing oil prices. Earlier this month, the BOJ cut its CPI forecast for 2015/16 to 1% from an earlier projection of 1.7%, reflecting the state of oil markets. “Inflation is still likely to moderate further. Less than half of the plunge in the price of crude oil has been passed on to consumers in the form of lower gasoline prices,” Capital Economics’ Marcel Thieliant said in a research note.

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New Zealand?

The Next Shot In The Currency War Will Be Fired By… (CNBC)

The currency war is getting out of control. A snapshot of the week so far in central banking: The Monetary Authorty of Singapore surprised markets Tuesday night with a policy switch to pursue a slower pace of currency appreciation, its main policy tool. Wednesday afternoon, New Zealand’s Reserve Bank kept policy unchanged, but significantly altered its language, saying it expects to see a “further significant depreciation” for the kiwi and that “the exchange rate remains unjustified in terms of current economic conditions. Hungary’s central bank struck a decidedly dovish note, hinting at easier policy ahead. The moves follow surprise policy changes from Denmark, India Canada and Switzerland earlier this month. That includes the European Central Bank. Despite a great deal of anticipation, Mario Draghi managed to surprise and impress financial markets with the ECB’s trillion-euro bond purchase program.

“The trend of central bank surprises continues, adding volatility to markets and highlighting a more uncertain global policy stance but one that is partially centered on (foreign exchange) ahead,” Camilla Sutton, chief FX strategist at Scotiabank, wrote in a note this week. “An environment of increased volatility and uncertainty is typically U.S. dollar positive.” The U.S. dollar has been the beneficiary of those moves and easy policies. In 2015 alone, the dollar has strengthened nearly 7% against the euro, more than 7% against the Canadian dollar and 6% against the New Zealand dollar. Over the past 12 months, the moves are in the double digits, with the dollar strengthening more than 20% against Sweden’s and Norway’s currencies, more than 17% against the euro and 13% against the yen.

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Can the grandstanding stop now? Denmark has real problems.

Denmark Surprises Market With Third Rate Cut In Two Weeks (Reuters)

The Danish central bank cut its key interest rate for the third time in two weeks to another historic low after intervening in the market to keep the crown within a tight range against the euro. The central bank cut its certificate of deposit rate to -0.5% from -0.35%, making a reduction of 45 basis points since Monday last week. While analysts said last week that its actions might not be enough to weaken the crown, few expected another cut so soon, especially as Denmark’s rate went below the eurozone equivalent of -0.20%, making it less attractive than the euro. Analysts have said the central bank tends to use interest rate tools after spending 10 to 15 billion crowns in intervention.

“It has become expensive to have Danish crowns and the (upward) pressure is therefore expected to ease off, but whether the rate cuts are enough to turn off the ‘stream’ into the market is still uncertain,” Danske Bank chief economist Steen Bocian said in a note. The central bank has intervened every month since September, aside from December, as the crown has strained at the upper limit of its trading band with the euro. But crown buying accelerated after the Swiss National Bank scrapped the franc’s cap against the euro. It also cut interest rates to -0.75%. Some analysts think the Danish central bank may have more cuts up its sleeve. “The objective is to push down money market rates and make it less attractive to hold crowns,” a bank spokesman said. “We expect a reaction so we don’t need to intervene and the crown will weaken.”

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“Germany was an exception to the pattern, but provisional figures for January show that is no longer the case. Deflation in Germany suggests the eurozone will experience faster falls in prices in the months ahead.”

Denmark, Deutschland And Deflation (BBC)

There have been two important, connected economic developments in Europe. New official figures from Germany show that prices have fallen, by 0.5%, over the previous 12 months. Meanwhile the Danish Central Bank has cut one of its main interest rates for the second time in a week. It is a rate paid to commercial banks for excess funds parked at the central bank. It was already below zero. Now it is even lower – minus 0.5%. It means banks have to pay to leave money at the central bank, above certain specified limits. Negative interest rates are another example of the strange financial world that has emerged in the aftermath of the financial crisis. What is the connection between falling prices – or deflation – in Germany and the Danish central bank? It is about Denmark’s 35-year policy of tying its currency, the krone, to the euro, and before that to the German mark.

That peg has come under increasing strain as the European Central Bank, the ECB, has taken steps to combat deflation. Falling prices arrived for the eurozone as a whole last month. Germany was an exception to the pattern, but provisional figures for January show that is no longer the case. Deflation in Germany suggests the eurozone will experience faster falls in prices in the months ahead. There is a debate to be had about whether deflation really is a problem and if so how serious, but the ECB clearly thinks it is. The steps it has taken to address low inflation, and then deflation, have made it harder for financial market investors to make money in the eurozone. The ECB cut interest rates and last week launched its quantitative easing programme, which also tends to reduce returns on financial assets. So investors piled into other currencies, including the krone, pushing it higher, though not so high that it has gone above the top of the central bank’s target band.

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But the economy is doing great!

Young Workers Hit Hardest By Wages Slump Of Post-Crash Britain (Guardian)

British workers are taking home less in real terms than when Tony Blair won his second general election victory in 2001, with men and young people hit hardest by the wage squeeze that followed the financial crisis, according to new research. The Institute for Fiscal Studies thinktank said wages were 1% lower in the third quarter of 2014 than in the same period 13 years earlier after taking inflation into account. Jonathan Cribb, an author of the report, said: “Almost all groups have seen real wages fall since the recession.” However, the study finds that women have been relatively cushioned from the worst of the wage cuts because they are more likely to be in public sector jobs, where wages fell less rapidly during the early years of the downturn.

Aided at the start of the crisis by the relative stability of public sector wages, women’s average hourly pay fell by 2.5% in real terms between 2008 and 2014, the IFS found, while men’s pay fell by 7.3%. The IFS also singled out younger workers as among the biggest victims of the falling living standards that have become widespread in post-crash Britain. “Between 2008 and 2014, there is a clear pattern across the age spectrum, with larger falls in earnings at younger ages,” the thinktank found in a detailed study of the state of the labour market. Labour immediately seized on the figures as evidence that Britain was trapped in a “cost of living crisis”. Rachel Reeves, the shadow work and pensions secretary, said: “This report shows David Cameron has overseen falling wages and rising insecurity in the labour market. Only Labour has a plan to tackle low pay and to earn our way to rising living standards for all.”

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“Are they completely out of their minds? The US has been totally ‘lost in the jungle’ and is dragging us there as well.”

Gorbachev Accuses US Of Dragging Russia Into New Cold War (RT)

Mikhail Gorbachev has accused the US of dragging Russia into a new Cold War. The former Soviet president fears the chill in relations could eventually spur an armed conflict. “Plainly speaking, the US has already dragged us into a new Cold War, trying to openly implement its idea of triumphalism,” Gorbachev said in an interview with Interfax. The former USSR leader, whose name is associated with the end of the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States, is worried about the possible consequences. “What’s next? Unfortunately, I cannot be sure that the Cold War will not bring about a ‘hot’ one. I’m afraid they might take the risk,” he said.

Gorbachev’s criticism of Washington comes as the West is pondering new sanctions against Russia, blaming it for the ongoing military conflict in eastern Ukraine, and alleging Moscow is sending troops to the restive areas. Russia has denied the allegations. “All we hear from the US and the EU now is sanctions against Russia,” Gorbachev said. “Are they completely out of their minds? The US has been totally ‘lost in the jungle’ and is dragging us there as well.” Gorbachev suggests the situation in the EU is “acute” with significant differences among politicians and different levels of prosperity among member nations. “Part of the countries are alright, others – not so well, and many, including Germany, are excessively dependent on the US.”

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“..suicide is often considered the most honorable course of action. That is because their death will bring about the end of any investigation into their alleged corruption..”

China’s Anti-Corruption Campaign Boosts Suicide Rate (FT)

The Chinese Communist party has launched a nationwide survey to ascertain how many of its members have committed suicide since President Xi Jinping unveiled an anti-corruption campaign two years ago. The crackdown has so far led to warnings or disciplinary action for about a quarter of a million cadres but it has also been accompanied by a sharp rise in suicides among officials, according to numerous Chinese media reports. In recent days the party has sent out a questionnaire to officials across the country asking them to identify the number and details of “unnatural deaths”, including suicides, of party members since December 2012. That is when President Xi launched the graft clean-up that has become his most prominent policy since he took power in November that year.

As well as hundreds of thousands of “flies”, as party rhetoric describes low-level officials, Mr Xi’s anti-corruption drive has also netted dozens of high-ranking “tigers”, including the former head of China’s domestic security services, Zhou Yongkang, and former vice-chairman of the Chinese military, Xu Caihou. China’s state-controlled media have published several articles vilifying allegedly corrupt officials for killing themselves while under investigation but for family members and associates of these officials suicide is often considered the most honorable course of action. That is because their death will bring about the end of any investigation into their alleged corruption, protecting any accomplices or associates and allowing their families to keep their assets, ill-gotten or otherwise.

Officials found guilty of corruption are not only handed lengthy prison sentences or even the death penalty; they and their families are invariably stripped of generous state pensions and all their assets. Children of disgraced officials are also sometimes forced to leave prestigious schools or high-profile jobs. China’s main anti-corruption body, the Central Commission for Discipline and Inspection, is in effect an extralegal entity with enormous powers to detain indefinitely and “discipline” any of the country’s 87 million party members. Legal scholars, family members and rights activists in China have raised serious concerns about the prevalence of torture in CCDI investigations and several of the “suicides” reported in the past two years are believed to be cover-ups of deaths that happened during torture sessions.

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“Until the motion was passed, animals in France, including domestic pets and farm animals, had the same status as a sofa.”

Animals In France Finally Recognized As ‘Living, Sentient Beings’ (RT)

It has taken the French parliament more than 200 years to officially recognize animals as “living, sentient beings” rather than “furniture,” finally upgrading their embarrassing status that dates back to Napoleonic times. While amendments to the Civil Code were first approved in November, the National Assembly voted on the motion Wednesday, according to AFP. The Assembly had to give its final word after debate with the Senate over several clauses, including the animals’ status. Until the motion was passed, animals in France, including domestic pets and farm animals, had the same status as a sofa. When the civil code was wrapped up by Napoleon back in 1804, animals were considered as working farm beasts and viewed as an agricultural force designated as goods or furniture.

A two-year fight led by the French animal rights organization Fondation 30 Million d’Amis (Foundation of 30 Million Friends) has resulted in the long-awaited change. The charity’s president, Reha Hutin, insisted that the new legislation was needed to stop horrendous acts of cruelty toward animals. Currently, the law on the cruel treatment of animals in France comprises the punishment of a maximum two-year prison term and a 30,000-euro fine. “France is behind the times here. In Germany, Austria and Switzerland they have changed the law so it says that animals are not just objects,” Hutin told The Local. “How can the courts in France punish the horrible acts that are carried out against animals if they are considered no more than just furniture?” she said.

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Jan 252015
 
 January 25, 2015  Posted by at 1:51 pm Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , ,  3 Responses »


DPC Sidewalk newsstand NY 1900

It’s All The Greeks’ Fault (Steve Keen)
Is Greece About To Call Time On Five Punishing Years Of Austerity? (Observer)
Draghi’s QE Promise To Greece Depends On Debt-Market Math (Bloomberg)
Spain’s Rajoy on the Defensive as New Generation Seeks Power (Bloomberg)
8 Ways ECB’s QE Will Hurt Everyone But The Wealthy (Zero Hedge)
Carney Warns Of Liquidity Storm As Global Currency System Turns Upside Down (AEP)
Devaluation And Discord As The World’s Currencies Quietly Go To War (Observer)
Oil Collapse Could Trigger Billions In Bank Losses (Telegraph)
Dalio’s Call for Doom Borne Out in Mom and Pop Fleeing Junk Debt (Bloomberg)
Get Ready For Negative Interest Rates In The US (Mises.ca)
Venezuela Currency Woes An Increasing Threat To US Corporate Profits (Reuters)
Hard Times Return As China Bids To Bring Its Economic Miracle To An End (Observer)
Ukraine Stiffs China for Billions Owed (RINF)
Fears Of Pension Chaos In Runup To UK Election (Observer)
You Don’t Understand How People Get Poor? You’re Probably A Sociopath (Guardian)
The Hunting of Billie Holiday (Politico)

Steve tackles two issues at once: austerity doesn’t work, and Greek debts were not nearly as bad as we were told.

It’s All The Greeks’ Fault (Steve Keen)

If the polls are right, then this Sunday Greece will elect Syriza, the left-wing coalition party (its name is actually a Greek acronym for “Coalition of the Radical Left”). This will bring to power the first staunchly anti-austerity party in the EU, and the first element in their policy document is to “Write-off the greater part of public debt”. That is likely to lead to some fractious negotiations with the EU, and possibly even a messy exit from the Euro. Before that happens, there will be some messy commentary in the media as well, and I fully expect most commentators to take a line like that in my title. After all, it’s common knowledge that the Greeks lied about their levels of public debt to appear to qualify for the EU’s entry criteria, which include that aggregate public debt should be below 60% of GDP.

Though there’s an argument that Goldman Sachs, many of whose ex-staff are now leading Central Bankers, helped the Greeks make this alleged lie, the responsibility for it will be shafted home to the Greeks, and that in turn will be used to argue that the Greeks deserve to suffer. The story, in other words, will be that the Greeks were architects of their own dilemma, and that therefore they should pay for it, rather than making the rest of the world suffer through a write-down of their debts. Emotion will rule the debate rather than logic. So to cast a logical eye over this forthcoming debate, I’m going to consider who is really to blame for the Greek dilemma by considering another country entirely: Spain.

Spain’s situation lets us get away from Greece’s emotional baggage. Today, Greece and Spain are in very similar situations, with unemployment rates of well over 25%—higher than the worst the USA recorded during the Great Depression (see Figure 1). But unlike Greece, Spain before the crisis was doing everything right, according to the EU. More importantly still, Spain’s government debt when the EU imposed its austerity regime (mid-2010) was still well below America’s, even though both had risen substantially since the crisis. Spain’s government debt ratio was 65% of GDP then, versus 78% for the USA.

The whole purpose of the EU’s austerity program was to reduce government debt levels. Reducing government debt was the political topic du jour in America as well from 2010 on, but the various attempts to impose austerity came to naught: instead, after shooting up because of deliberate policy at the time of the crisis America’s budget deficit merely responded to the state of the economy. Politically paralyzed Washington talked austerity, but never actually imposed it. So who was more successful: the deliberate, policy-driven EU attempt to reduce government debt, or the “muddle through” USA? [..] muddle through was a hands-down winner: the USA’s government debt to GDP ratio has stabilized at 90% of GDP, while Spain’s has sailed past 100%.

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“The European policy towards Greece has been determined by the will to experiment with the feasibility of shock therapies.”

Is Greece About To Call Time On Five Punishing Years Of Austerity? (Observer)

For Professor Constantine Tsoukalas, Greece’s pre-eminent sociologist, there is no question that, come Monday, Europe will have reached a watershed. I first met Tsoukalas in January 2009, in his lofty, book-lined apartment in Kolonaki. For several weeks Athens had been shaken by riots triggered by the police shooting of a teenage boy. The violence was tumultuous and prolonged. Looking back, it is clear that this was the start of the crisis – a cry for help by a dislocated youth robbed of hope as a result of surging unemployment and enraged by a system that, corrupt and inefficient, favoured the few. Tsoukalas knew that this was “the beginning of something” although he could not tell what. But with great prescience he spoke of the degeneration of politics – both inside and outside Greece – the rise of moral indignation, and the emptiness of a globalised market “that was supposed to put an end to ideology but, in crisis, has instead created this moment of great ideological tension”.

Six years later, following the longest recession on record, he is in little doubt that anger has fuelled the rise of Syriza. On the back of rage over austerity, the leftists have seen their popularity soar from 5% before the crisis to as high as 35% – more than the combined total of New Democracy and left-leaning Pasok, the two parties that have alternated in power since the restoration of democracy in 1974. Neo-Nazi Golden Dawn, the group that has been the other beneficiary of despair – but whose support has dropped amid revelations of criminal activity – may yet surprise if it succeeds in coming in third. “The European policy towards Greece, to a large extent, has been determined by the will to experiment with the feasibility of shock therapies,” says Tsoukalas. “It worked, but the reaction is going to be a leftwing government. Europe cannot survive as it is. The rise of fascism … should be sufficient [evidence] to everyone that it has to change.”

If Greece’s rebellion was to occur in a coherent way, Tsoukalas, who is being fielded by Syriza as an honorary candidate, believes it would be only a matter of time before it was replicated in other parts of the continent. “These elections are important because they are a reminder to the people of Europe that there is another way out,” he insists. “That neoliberal orthodoxy is not an immovable problem.” The business community, no ally of the left in a nation where communists were hounded for much of the 20th century, is bracing itself for the inevitable. But it has found it hard to conceal its anxiety. With bailout funds guaranteed only until the end of February – and negotiations with creditors at the EU, ECB and IMF still stalled over the need for further austerity – there are fears of a bank run, or worse.

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Nice math.

Draghi’s QE Promise To Greece Depends On Debt-Market Math (Bloomberg)

Greece’s inclusion in the European Central Bank’s bond-buying plan this year doesn’t just depend on its new government sticking to a bailout program. It also relies on some debt-market arithmetic. When ECB President Mario Draghi presented his quantitative- easing program on Jan. 22 in Frankfurt, he offered Greece the prospect of eligibility as existing securities roll off in the middle of the year. Those redemptions, he said, would bring the Mediterranean nation back below the ECB’s cap at 33% of an issuer’s debt, which the central bank imposed as Draghi presented initial guidelines. Even after debt matures in July and August, the institution’s share of Greek bonds won’t drop below 33% for the whole of 2015, assuming no new securities are issued, according to calculations based on data compiled by Bloomberg.

It takes the inclusion of treasury bills to bring the ECB’s holdings below the cap. It currently owns just under 33% of the entire Greek debt market, and that would fall further, creating room for QE purchases, once the 2015 bonds owned by the ECB mature. That calculation is based on the supply of bills, or short-term money-market securities, remaining constant. The ECB has yet to say precisely what will be included in its calculations on the allowance for its purchases and an ECB spokesman declined to comment on the calculations. The ECB and euro-area central banks currently own about €27 billion ($30.4 billion) of Greek bonds, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, comprising 40% of the total outstanding market of about €67.5 billion.

At the end of this year, by which time €6.6 billion of bonds held by the ECB and in euro-area central banks’ investment portfolios under the Securities Markets Program are due to have been repaid, it would own €20.4 billion out of a total €60.5 billion. That equates to about 34%, still exceeding the limit set by Draghi. If the stock of bills remain the same and are included in the calculation, the ECB’s holdings would drop to 30% by the end of July and 27% by the end of the year. [..] “There are obviously some conditions before we can buy Greek bonds,” Draghi said Jan. 22 in Frankfurt. “There is a waiver that has to remain in place, has to be a program. And then there is this 33% issuer limit, which means that, if all the other conditions are in place, we could buy bonds in, I believe, July, because by then there will be some large redemptions of SMP bonds and therefore we would be within the limit.”

The ECB will buy €60 billion of public and private securities a month, starting in March, Draghi said, adding that the central bank will buy bonds due between two- and 30-years. About €45 billion probably would be sovereign debt, according to a central bank official. ECB buying will be carried out in proportion to each euro- area country’s contribution to the central bank’s capital, Draghi said. Adjusted for non-euro-region central banks, that works out as a 2.9% share for Greece, according to calculations based on data on the ECB’s website, equating to a pace of about €1.3 billion a month, if all other conditions are met.

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One more technocrat needs to go.

Spain’s Rajoy on the Defensive as New Generation Seeks Power (Bloomberg)

Mariano Rajoy is struggling to convince Spaniards he can lead the country into a new period of prosperity as a younger generation of politicians challenges his grip on power. The 60-year-old prime minister has been eclipsed in recent surveys by Pablo Iglesias, 36, the leader of the newly created anti-austerity party Podemos, while the 42-year-old Socialist leader Pedro Sanchez says Rajoy is out-of-date. Even within the government, 43-year-old Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria’s approval rating was 11%age points higher than her bosses, in a Metroscopia poll for El Pais newspaper released last month. Spanish voters are desperate for change after a seven-year economic slump pushed unemployment to a record 26% in 2013.

While Rajoy has stabilized the economy and forecasts the fastest growth in seven years for 2015, his support has plunged amid a series of corruption scandals. “Youth is not a political asset in itself, but Rajoy looks very old,” Podemos founder and executive committee member Juan Carlos Monedero, 51, said in an interview. “He would look like a member of the soviet old guard if he was sat round a table with Sanchez and Iglesias.” The prime minister will kick off his battle to prove his enduring relevance to Spaniards Friday in Madrid when his People’s Party begins its national conference. That will mark the beginning of a year of campaigning which will include local and regional elections in May and a ballot in Catalonia in September before a general election due around the end of year.

Rajoy appointed 33-year-old lawmaker Pablo Casado spokesman for the local election campaign Jan. 12. While the official agenda will be focused on PP plans to nurture the economy and boost living standards, talk on the sidelines may be dominated by the release on bail last night of the party’s former treasurer, Luis Barcenas. Barcenas told the National Court in 2013 that he helped manage a secret party slush fund over 20 years. He named Rajoy among the beneficiaries and gave the court handwritten ledgers showing the payments. Rajoy has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing. Prosecutors are seeking a 42 1/2-year jail term for Barcenas for his role in the scheme.

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“..even the benefits to those who stand to gain the most from QE are only temporary. Because the same asset prices which rise thanks to money printing are only transitory, and ultimately mean reverting.”

8 Ways ECB’s QE Will Hurt Everyone But The Wealthy (Zero Hedge)

Over the past 48 hours, the world has been bombarded with a relentless array of soundbites, originating either at the ECB, or – inexplicably – out of Greece, the place which has been explicitly isolated by Frankfurt, that the European Central Bank’s QE will benefit everyone. Setting the record straight: it won’t, and not just in our own words which most are familiar with as we have been repeating them since 2009, but those of JPM’s Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou, who just said what has been painfully clear to all but the 99% ever since the start of QE, namely this: “The wealth effects that come with QE are not evenly distributing. The boost in equity and housing wealth is mostly benefiting their major owners, i.e. the wealthy.” Thank you JPM. Now if only the central banks will also admit what we have been saying for 6 years, then there will be one less reason for us to continue existing.

And of course, even the benefits to those who stand to gain the most from QE are only temporary. Because the same asset prices which rise thanks to money printing are only transitory, and ultimately mean reverting. To wit: “It potentially creates asset bubbles by lowering asset yields by so much relative to historical norms, that an eventual return to normality will be accompanied with sharp price declines.” So enjoy your music while it lasts dear 0.1%. Collateral eligible for monetization is becoming increasingly scarce and by our calculations there is about 2 years worth of runway left for G3 assets before central bank interventions in the private market result in a complete paralysis of virtually every asset class, and the end of capital markets as we know them. As for everyone else, here is a list of 8 ways that the ECB’s QE will hurt, not help, by way of JP Morgan.

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“The big question for us now is about liquidity cycles that come from fund managers that don’t have leverage. It’s $35 trillion of mutual funds that invest in relatively illiquid securities..”

Carney Warns Of Liquidity Storm As Global Currency System Turns Upside Down (AEP)

The Governor of the Bank of England has warned markets to brace for possible trouble in 2015 as the US Fed tightens monetary policy and liquidity evaporates, fearing that the new financial order has yet to face its first real test. Mark Carney said diverging monetary policies in the US, Britain, Europe, and Japan may set off further currency turbulence and “test capital flows across the global economy, including to emerging markets.” It is the latest sign that officials at Threadneedle Street are worried about the global fall-out from the rising dollar, which poses a mounting threat to companies in the developing world that have borrowed up to $9 trillion in US dollars. Mr Carney said regulators have cleaned up the banks and tried to prepare for the tectonic shift taking place in the international currency structure but major risks remain.

“This will test the resilience of that new financial system. It has a potential feedback and we have to be aware of that,” he told an elite group of central bankers at the World Economic Forum. “We are particularly concerned about an illusion of liquidity that has existed in a number of financial markets. I would say that illusion of liquidity is gradually being disabused,” he said, adding that the so-called ‘flash crash’ in the US Treasury market last October was a wake-up call even if the “bouts of losses” have been small so far. Mr Carney said the global authorities have clamped down on excess leverage and the sort of behaviour by banks that caused the financial crisis seven years ago, but new worries have emerged. “The big question for us now is about liquidity cycles that come from fund managers that don’t have leverage. It’s $35 trillion of mutual funds that invest in relatively illiquid securities,” he said.

Global watchdogs say the scale is so large – and subject to “clustering” and crowd psychology – that these funds may all rush for the exits at the same time in a crisis and amplify the effects. The concerns were echoed by Benoît Cœuré, board member of the ECB. “The system is untested. We had a wave of new financial regulation, which has mostly focussed on banks, so we’re pretty sure that banks are much safer,” he said. Mr Cœuré said the ECB was forced to throw caution to the winds and launch a €60bn blitz of bond purchases on Thursday, given that inflation expectations in the eurozone have collapsed, with outright deflation in December. “It was pretty clear we had to do something. The only discussion was how to do it,” he said.”Being patient is a risk that we just don’t want to take. We need growth in Europe. With entrenched unemployment, people are being forced out of the labour market, and we are seeing the whole foundation of the European project being weakened. This cannot last for too long,” he said.

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“Arguably Draghi is only reacting to the US and UK, which printed money to devalue the dollar and sterling immediately after the Lehman collapse, and the Japanese, who have halved the cost of their exports to the US in the last year..”

Devaluation And Discord As The World’s Currencies Quietly Go To War (Observer)

There is every sign that the European Central Bank’s €1.1 trillion stimulus package is going to unleash a long period of beggar-thy-neighbour currency wars. Maybe not quite in the way that wrecked the global economy in the 1930s – triggering retaliatory trade tariffs and sending industrial production spiralling downwards. But enough to dampen the enthusiasm of exporting companies which might be thinking of expanding output. This is a war that pits the central banks of the world’s major trading blocs against each other and, as currencies yo-yo in value, creates a nervousness and caution among investors that can create years of stagnation. Two economists who warned of a looming credit crunch in 2007 are now warning about the onset of competitive devaluations driven by central bank policies.

Before Davos, William White, a senior OECD official and a former chief economist to the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), told the Daily Telegraph: “We’re seeing true currency wars and everybody is doing it, and I have no idea where this is going to end.” In the Guardian before Christmas, Nouriel Roubini, the economist known as Dr Doom for his prescient predictions of calamity, warned that while it was possible for one or two small nations to quietly devalue, a look around the world revealed almost every country devaluing against the dollar and each other. The euro has fallen almost 20% against the dollar over the past seven months and is destined to take another dive following the announcement last Thursday of the ECB’s QE scheme. Who knows, the euro could be below $1 in a few months’ time.

Last year it was worth almost $1.40. ECB president Mario Draghi says the value of the euro is not an official target. Yet he has talked at previous meetings about his concern that the currency is out of step with the poorly performing eurozone economy. He hoped currency traders would do his work for him. In the end he has been forced to print money, and lots of it, to drive down the euro’s value. Arguably Draghi is only reacting to the US and UK, which printed money to devalue the dollar and sterling immediately after the Lehman collapse, and the Japanese, who have halved the cost of their exports to the US in the last year by doing the same. In November, Japan’s central bank cranked up the printing presses further, saying it planned to increase QE asset purchases to $700bn a year. Ask Tokyo officials about the policy and they will say it is legitimate as a short-term fix while deeper structural reforms are pushed through. How long is the short term? Prime minister Shinzo Abe won’t say.

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Could? “Wells Fargo and JPMorgan have both been bookrunners on almost $100 billion [of leveraged oil and gas loans] since the start of 2011..”

Oil Collapse Could Trigger Billions In Bank Losses (Telegraph)

British banks including RBS and Barclays may be sitting on billions in losses from the collapse in oil prices after a surge in junk loans to the industry. UK banks have been behind more than $50bn of leveraged loans – high-yield, non-investment grade debt – to the oil and gas industry in the past four years, according to data from Dealogic. Although British lenders are not the most exposed to the oil collapse, with most debt issuance arranged by US and Canadian institutions, leveraged loans arranged by UK lenders have more than doubled since 2011 amid the North American shale boom. While low prices are likely to give a shot in the arm to consumers and manufacturers, many oil producers, particularly in America’s shale gas fields, are likely to be driven out of business. A lengthy period of cheap crude is likely to trigger widespread defaults and many oil and gas loans are now changing hands for well below their face value as investors fear they will not get their money back.

Banks will offload many of the loans and hedge their losses, and some will have stricter lending standards for high-yield loans than others. Losses will also depend on how long the oil price stays low, so it is unclear precisely how exposed the banks are to the energy industry’s woes. Some lenders have privately indicated that they consider the oil price fall to have a positive impact, with the wider economic benefits offsetting the loans they are writing off. However, significant losses are seen as inevitable if prices fail to rebound. Chirantan Barua at Bernstein Research has estimated that the combined losses of Barclays, RBS, HSBC and Standard Chartered from falling oil prices could amount to $3.4bn. “Someone is feeling the pain,” said Mr Barua. “When you see [this much] high-yield issuance in a sector that has been levering up across the supply chain, any shocks in the underlying business will have risk ripples across the financial system.”

According to Dealogic’s data, RBS has arranged $14.3bn of leveraged oil and gas loans in the past four years, making it the biggest UK player in the high-yield space. This compares to $10.5bn for Barclays and $4.7bn for HSBC, but is far less than the biggest Wall Street players. Wells Fargo and JPMorgan have both been bookrunners on almost $100bn since the start of 2011. Leveraged loans to the industry hit a record high of $72.7bn in the second quarter of last year, before crude’s collapse. They then fell to $53.4bn in the third quarter and $47.8bn in the fourth quarter of 2014.

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“The juicy yields that were around during the aftermath of the crisis are gone, and some investors, it would appear, are opting to just hang onto their cash instead.”

Dalio’s Call for Doom Borne Out in Mom and Pop Fleeing Junk Debt (Bloomberg)

The promise of yet another trillion-dollar cash infusion from a central bank isn’t enough to bring individual investors back into the market for risky corporate debt. In fact, they keep bailing. Investors pulled $523 million from global high-yield bond mutual and exchange-traded funds in the week ended Jan. 21, according to data compiled by EPFR Global. They withdrew $868 million from funds that buy U.S. speculative-grade loans, bringing their total assets below $100 billion for the first time since September 2013, Wells Fargo data show. The goal of the European Central Bank’s new 1.1 trillion ($1.3 trillion) euro bond-buying program announced Thursday is to push investors into less-creditworthy notes for bigger – or even just positive – returns.

So, why aren’t junk bonds getting a serious boost? Individual investors are either leaving a seemingly indefatigable party in risky debt too early, or their sentiment is a harbinger of a deeper, more worrisome idea: That policy makers’ main tool to ignite growth isn’t working so well anymore. With yields so low, “the transmission of the monetary policy mechanism will be less effective,” said Ray Dalio, the US hedge fund manager. “We have a deflationary set of circumstances,” which makes it appealing to just stuff your money under a mattress, he said at a panel discussion in Davos, Switzerland, this week. The $2 trillion market for global high-yield bonds was one of the biggest beneficiaries of the Federal Reserve’s record stimulus in recent years.

The debt gained an annual 16.4% on average in the six years after 2008, with yields shrinking to 7% from a peak of 23% at the height of the credit crisis, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch index data. Average borrowing costs are up from a low of 5.6% last year on concern that plunging oil prices will leave speculative-grade energy companies unable to meet their obligations. While the Fed successfully got individuals to chase these risky credits, the ECB may now have a harder time doing the same. The juicy yields that were around during the aftermath of the crisis are gone, and some investors, it would appear, are opting to just hang onto their cash instead.

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Thing is, it wouldn’t make any difference. The dollar will continue to travel home no matter what they do.

Get Ready For Negative Interest Rates In The US (Mises.ca)

I predict that the Fed will start charging negative interest rates on bank reserve accounts, which will ripple through the markets and result in negative interest rates on savings at banks. I make this prediction only because it is the logical action of the Keynesian managers of our economy and monetary policy. Our exporters will scream that they can’t sell goods overseas, due to the stronger dollar. So, what is the Fed’s option? Follow the lead of Switzerland and Denmark and impose negative interest rates in order to drive down the foreign exchange rate of the dollar. It is the final tool in the war on savings and wealth in order to spur the Keynesian goal of increasing “aggregate demand”. If savers won’t spend their money, the government will take it from them.

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Not just pennies either. Ford $800 million, Kimberly-Clark $462 million in pre-tax charges.

Venezuela Currency Woes An Increasing Threat To US Corporate Profits (Reuters)

Venezuela’s deepening economic troubles, and in particular the weakness of the bolivar and restrictive currency controls, have hurt U.S. corporate profits for the fourth quarter of 2014 and are set to inflict further pain this year. In a likely sign of things to come from a number of companies this results reporting season, Ford on Friday said it was taking a pre-tax charge of $800 million for its Venezuela business. It blamed Venezuelan exchange control regulations that have restricted the ability of its operations in the country to pay dividends and obligations in U.S. dollars. Ford also said that it was unable to maintain normal production in Venezuela with the availability of vehicle parts constrained.

Also on Friday, diaper and tissue maker Kimberly-Clark said it took a fourth-quarter charge of $462 million for its Venezuelan business. That was after it concluded that the appropriate rate at which it should be measuring its bolivar-denominated monetary assets should be a Venezuelan government floating exchange rate – currently at around 50 bolivars to the dollar – rather than a fixed official rate of 6.3 to the dollar that it had previously been using. Kimberly-Clark blamed increased uncertainty and lack of liquidity in Venezuela for the move.

Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro said on Wednesday he was shaking up the complex currency controls in the socialist-run country, where dollars are sold on the black market for about 184 bolivars to the U.S. dollar instead of the country’s three-tiered exchange rate system that has ranged from the 6.3 official rate to two other rates, currently at about 12 and the one at around 50. Those latter two tiers of the system would be merged, he said, though it is not immediately known at what rate that would happen. Maduro also announced that another new rate would be introduced into the system to offer dollars via private brokers to vie with the black market rate.

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“Her analysis of Chinese data suggests growth is actually considerably slower than official figures suggest.”

Hard Times Return As China Bids To Bring Its Economic Miracle To An End (Observer)

China’s president, Xi Jinping, calls it the “new normal” – but strikes are increasing, wages going unpaid and businesses are struggling to survive as the vast economy adjusts to a more sedate pace of growth after more than a decade of explosive expansion. Official figures published last week showed that China’s GDP expanded by 7.4% in 2014. That was a significant drop from the 7.7% seen in 2013, and the weakest rate of growth since 1990, when the country was grappling with international sanctions in the wake of the Tiananmen Square massacre. And while the government has spun the downturn as a good thing, as it deliberately shifts from an unsustainable, export-led boom to relying on demand at home to fuel economic growth, people across the country are feeling the heat.

Coal and copper prices are down owing to lack of demand; strikes and protests are becoming increasingly common. The prospect of weaker demand from China has also been a key factor behind plunging global oil prices. “From an industry point of view, obviously the hardest hit are the miners and the upstream players – the iron ore industry, steel, refineries, they’re all being really squeezed,” said Andrew Polk, a senior economist at research group The Conference Board. “China’s consumption has held up relatively well so far, but [the slowdown] looks to be finally feeding through to the consumption side as well.” And while the downturn is, on one level, intentional, policymakers face a tough challenge in engineering a slowdown while maintaining enough control over the financial system to prevent a crash.

Growth is expected to slow further over the next three years, as officials act to control the sliding property market and rein in excessive borrowing by local government — the International Monetary Fund has projected a 2015 growth rate of 6.8%. “The financial crisis dealt a mortal blow to the export-led growth model, for two reasons,” said Diana Choyleva, an expert on China at consultancy Lombard Street Research. “One was the slowdown in global demand, and the other was the adjustment of the yuan against the dollar. Not only has the size of the pie reduced, but their ability to carve out ever-larger parts of it has diminished.” Her analysis of Chinese data suggests growth is actually considerably slower than official figures suggest.

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Note: the finance team in Kiev is now made up of Americans.

Ukraine Stiffs China for Billions Owed (RINF)

China paid Ukraine $3 billion two years ago for grain still not delivered, now demands refund. Another $3.6 billion that’s owed to China will probably also default. Russia’s RIA Novosti News Agency reported, on January 17th, that China is demanding refund of $1.5 billion in cash and of an additional $1.5 billion in Chinese goods that were paid in advance by China (in 2013), for a 2012 Chinese order of grain from Ukraine, which goods still have not been supplied to China. According to RIAN, “State Food and Grain Corporation of Ukraine supplied grain in 2013, elsewhere, but not to China. The new Kiev authorities had an opportunity to fix the short-sighted actions ‘of the [previous] Yanukovych regime,’ and to present a positive economic image to the Chinese.” But it didn’t happen.

Furthermore: “Prior to the Presidency of Yanukovych [which started in 2010], China’s leadership had simply refused to do business with the pre-Yanukovych Administration’s Yulia Tymoshenko, and they planned to wait until Yanukovych became President. He then came, and since has been ousted, and yet still only $153 million of grain has been delivered.” (None of the $1.5 billion cash that China advanced to Ukraine to pay for growing and shipping grain has been returned to China, but only the $153M that had essentially been swapped: Chinese goods for Ukrainian grain.) This $153 million was approximately as much as the interest that would be due on China’s prepayment, and so Ukraine still owes China the full $3 billion ($1.5 billion in cash, + $1.5 billion that China supplied in goods).

The RIAN report goes on to quote Alex Luponosov, a Ukrainian authority on Ukraine’s banking system, who says, “Ukraine won’t be able to supply the grain to China, because we don’t have it.” The reason he gives is that “there is a big shortage of technicians: combiners, adjusters, mechanics, farm-machinery operators — all of them were taken by the army.” Those men are being required to fight in Ukraine’s ‘ATO’ or ‘Anti Terrorist Operation,’ that’s occurring in Ukraine’s former Donbass region (the far-eastern tip of Ukraine), the place where the residents don’t accept the new Ukrainian Government’s legitimacy, and they are therefore being called ‘Terrorists’ by this new Government, which is thus bombing them, supposedly in order to convince them that this new Government’s authority over them is legitimate (even though the residents there never participated in its selection, and have been cut off even from Ukraine’s social-security payments).

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The policy may be a good idea, but the timing is unashamedly intended to buy votes.” Actually, the policy is toxic.

Fears Of Pension Chaos In Runup To UK Election (Observer)

Ministers have warned people who will be 55 or over this spring to delay exercising new rights to cash in their pension pots in April, amid rising fears that the industry will not be able to cope and that insufficient advice systems are in place. The cautionary message, issued by pensions minister Steve Webb, reflects growing nervousness in government that the pensions revolution of the chancellor, George Osborne – which he said would give people the right to “choose what they do with their money” from April – could turn into a fiasco in the runup to the 7 May general election. Leading pension providers and industry experts, although supporting the government’s objective of giving people greater access to their pensions savings, told the Observer that pensions companies face being swamped by demands for cash after 6 April, before the industry is ready, or customer advice networks have been established.

Tom McPhail, head of pensions research at leading pensions company Hargreaves Lansdown, said the government had tried to force through the changes at “reckless” speed in what seemed a clear attempt to make people feel richer before election day. “There is widespread support for these reforms, both from the pensions industry and from investors,” McPhail said. “The problem is the reckless pace with which the changes are being introduced. “There’s a pretty transparent political agenda to unlock billions of pounds of pension money just a month before the general election. The policy may be a good idea, but the timing is unashamedly intended to buy votes.” He added: “With such radical and profound reforms as these, under normal circumstances you’d expect to take at least another year before implementing them, in order to make sure all the various players involved were ready. Unfortunately the industry does not have that luxury and as a result many pension providers will be woefully unprepared on 6 April.”

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Good argument.

You Don’t Understand How People Get Poor? You’re Probably A Sociopath (Guardian)

I don’t understand how the people in charge of us all don’t understand. If you are genuinely unable to apply your imagination and extend your empathy far enough – and you don’t have to do it all at once; little by little will suffice, but you must get there – then you are a sociopath, and we should all be protected from your actions. If you are in fact able and choose not to, then you’re something quite a lot worse. So, these are the questions I’d like to see pursued once the televised prime ministerial debates begin (if enough speakers agree to turn up, natch): have you ever had a bad day? Have you ever been really, really tired? Have you ever been alone, or frightened, or not had a choice about something? If yes, was your response unique among man? If no, are you a madman or a liar? Do tell. Do tell.

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Big fan. Billie and Callas.

The Hunting of Billie Holiday (Politico)

One night, in 1939, Billie Holiday stood on stage in New York City and sang a song that was unlike anything anyone had heard before. ‘Strange Fruit’ was a musical lament against lynching. It imagined black bodies hanging from trees as a dark fruit native to the South. Here was a black woman, before a mixed audience, grieving for the racist murders in the United States. Immediately after, Billie Holiday received her first threat from the Federal Bureau of Narcotics. Harry had heard whispers that she was using heroin, and—after she flatly refused to be silent about racism—he assigned an agent named Jimmy Fletcher to track her every move. Harry hated to hire black agents, but if he sent white guys into Harlem and Baltimore, they stood out straight away. Jimmy Fletcher was the answer.

His job was to bust his own people, but Anslinger was insistent that no black man in his Bureau could ever become a white man’s boss. Jimmy was allowed through the door at the Bureau, but never up the stairs. He was and would remain an “archive man”—a street agent whose job was to figure out who was selling, who was supplying and who should be busted. He would carry large amounts of drugs with him, and he was allowed to deal drugs himself so he could gain the confidence of the people he was secretly plotting to arrest. Many agents in this position would shoot heroin with their clients, to “prove” they weren’t cops. We don’t know whether Jimmy joined in, but we do know he had no pity for addicts: “I never knew a victim,” he said. “You victimize yourself by becoming a junkie.”

He first saw Billie in her brother-in-law’s apartment, where she was drinking enough booze to stun a horse and hoovering up vast quantities of cocaine. The next time he saw her, it was in a brothel in Harlem, doing exactly the same. Billie’s greatest talent, after singing, was swearing—if she called you a “motherfucker,” it was a great compliment. We don’t know the first time Billie called Jimmy a motherfucker, but she soon spotted this man who was hanging around, watching her, and she grew to like him. When Jimmy was sent to raid her, he knocked at the door pretending he had a telegram to deliver. Her biographers Julia Blackburn and Donald Clark studied the only remaining interview with Jimmy Fletcher—now lost by the archives handling it—and they wrote about what he remembered in detail.

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Nov 032014
 
 November 3, 2014  Posted by at 1:11 pm Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , ,  2 Responses »


DPC Masonic Temple, New Orleans 1910

Bank of Japan Bazooka To Spark Currency War (CNBC)
China Faces Trap In Currency War (MarketWatch)
Germany Ready To Accept British Exit From Europe (Daily Mail)
For Japanese, Are Higher Prices Really A Good Thing? (Reuters)
Yen’s Worst Yet to Come in Options After Kuroda Shocks (Bloomberg)
The Experiment that Will Blow Up the World (Tenebrarum)
Boj’s Desperate QE Move To Hurt Japanese Spending Power (Steen Jakobsen)
US Consumers Resisting Enticements To Increase Spending (MarketWatch)
More Than One Fifth Of UK Workers Earn Less Than Living Wage (Guardian)
ECB Skips Fireworks for Day One of New Role as Banking Supervisor (Bloomberg)
Europe’s Crazy Finance Tax (Bloomberg)
Vicious Circle of Bad Loans Ensnaring Italian Companies (Bloomberg)
Portugal Sees Chinese Do 90% of Bids at Property Auction (Bloomberg)
Gold Bulls Retreat With $1.3 Billion Pulled From Funds (Bloomberg)
Globalisation Is Turning In On Itself And It Is Each Man For Himself (Pal)
Wanted: 500,000 New Pilots In China By 2035 (Reuters)
25 Years Ago, As The Berlin Wall Fell, Checks On Capitalism Crumbled (Guardian)
Insects Could Be On Your Dinner Menu, Soon (CNBC)
Greenhouse Gas Levels At Highest Point In 800,000 Years (ABC.au)
UN Sees Irreversible Damage to Planet From Fossil Fuels (Bloomberg)

All Asian countries MUST participate.

Bank of Japan Bazooka To Spark Currency War (CNBC)

The Bank of Japan’s (BoJ) stimulus blitz raises the specter of currency wars as a rapidly weakening yen threatens the competitiveness of export-driven economies, say strategists. “Whenever you have these kinds of disruptive moves by central banks, there’s always going to be fall out effects,” said Boris Schlossberg, managing director of FX strategy at BK Asset Management. Markets were caught off guard by the BoJ’s announcement on Friday that it would expand purchases of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and real estate investment trusts, extend the duration of its portfolio of Japanese government bonds (JGBs), and increase the pace of monetary base expansion. The yen plunged nearly 3% against the U.S. dollar on Friday and extended its selloff on Monday, falling to a fresh 7-year low in early Asian trade. It last traded at 112.71.

“The hottest currency war today is Japan vs Korea. That’s probably the one to keep an eye on. The yen-won cross rate is very sensitive as Japan and Korea compete in a lot of key areas,” said Sean Callow, senior currency strategist at Westpac. The Japanese currency has fallen around 20% against the won since the BoJ launched its unprecedented stimulus program in April 2013. Currency strategists say the BoJ’s actions could encourage the Bank of Korea (BoK) to become more defensive against local currency strength through intervention in the foreign exchange market or a rate cut. “We see increasing risks that it may cut rates by 25 basis points to 1.75% in coming months,” Young Sun Kwon, economist at Nomura wrote in a note late Friday, highlighting that Korea’s export momentum already looks weak.

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“The move will be particularly problematic for China, as its slow-crawling managed rate to the U.S. dollar renders it is effectively defenseless when confronted by currency wars.”

China Faces Trap In Currency War (MarketWatch)

Last Friday, the Bank of Japan effectively tossed a grenade into the region’s currency markets with its surprise announcement of a new round of quantitative easing sending the yen to fresh lows. The move will be particularly problematic for China, as its slow-crawling managed rate to the U.S. dollar renders it is effectively defenseless when confronted by currency wars, in which countries try to steal growth from their trading partners through competitive devaluations. It also comes at a time when Beijing is already battling foes on two fronts: hot-money outflows and an economy flirting with deflation. The consensus is that the world’s largest trading nation will resist the temptation to enter the fray with a competitive devaluation or move to a market-based exchange rate. Yet Japan’s latest actions will hurt, as they hold Beijing’s feet to the fire.

The decision last Friday by the Bank of Japan to boost its bond purchases by more than a third to roughly $725 billion a year, among other actions, sent the yen tumbling to a seven-year low as the dollar rallied to above ¥112. This means the currency of the world’s second-biggest economy has now risen by roughly a third against that of the world’s third-biggest since late 2012. That’s a significant revaluation to swallow by any measure, all the more so as Japan and China are increasingly competing with each other, say analysts. According to new report by HSBC, Japan and China are already rivals in 19 manufactured product lines, and this total is growing. Panasonic has already said it is considering “on-shoring” certain production back to Japan. The other reason Japan’s escalation of QE turns up the heat on China is that it risks exposing the vulnerabilities in Beijing’s piecemeal approach to opening up its capital account.

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Major loss of face for Cameron.

Germany Ready To Accept British Exit From Europe (Daily Mail)

Germany would rather see Britain leave the EU than allow David Cameron to tear up its rules on free movement of labour, Angela Merkel has said. The Chancellor warned the Prime Minister that he is reaching a ‘point of no return’ by pushing for reform of the bloc’s sacred free movement system. The threat has forced Mr Cameron to tone down his ambitions for any deal to curb EU immigration. The pair clashed at a summit in Brussels last month, German magazine Der Spiegel said. Citing senior officials, it said Mrs Merkel told Mr Cameron he was nearing a ‘point of no return’ with plans to introduce quotas for the number of EU workers who can come to Britain.

She threatened to abandon her efforts to keep Britain in the EU unless he backed down. One government insider was quoted on Radio Bavaria saying: ‘The time for talking is close to over. ‘Mrs Merkel feels she has done all she can to placate the UK, but will not accept immigration curbs from EU member states under any circumstances. It has come to a Mexican stand-off and it is now a question of who blinks first.’ Mrs Merkel was confident of winning the battle of wills, the insider added. It came amid reports that Mr Cameron is ditching his quota plan to appease Berlin. Ministers will focus on making the existing rules work better for Britain. A source said Mr Cameron’s plans – to be outlined before Christmas – would stretch EU rules ‘to their limits’.

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Why Abenomics and Kuroda will fail: “If prices rise, people might not buy as much.” An entirely overlooked mechanism. Abe et all think that if prices rise, people will spend more, because they’re afraid they’ll rise more.

For Japanese, Are Higher Prices Really A Good Thing? (Reuters)

Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda does not need to convince Japanese people like Kazue Shibata that deflation brings problems, but getting them to believe that higher prices will make things better is proving to be a harder sell. Shibata, 65, who runs a small dress shop in central Tokyo, worries the BOJ’s mission to hit a 2% inflation target could end up driving business away unless people also have more money in their pockets. “If prices rise, people might not buy as much,” she said, echoing a concern of many private-sector economists. On Friday, Kuroda’s BOJ doubled down on a high-stakes bet that the central bank can shake Japan’s consumers from a defensive set of expectations hardened by a decade and a half of era of falling prices, lower incomes and stop-and-go growth. “It’s important for the BOJ to strongly commit to achieving its price target to get that price target firmly embedded in people’s mindset,” Kuroda said at a news conference on Friday, after the BOJ stunned markets with an unexpected expansion of its monetary stimulus program.

“It won’t do much good in trying to shake off the public’s deflation mindset if you just say inflation will reach 2% some day,” Kuroda said. At the core of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s “Abenomics” agenda is the assumption that the outlook for sustained inflation will prompt consumers to anticipate rising prices, and that consumption will rise as a result. That represents a sea change for a country used to deflation, where clinging to cash today meant greater buying power tomorrow, a set of expectations that has proven hard to shake a year-and-a-half into an unprecedented easing by the BOJ. Kaoru Sakai, 65, who runs a hair salon in Tokyo, did not raise prices even after the national sales tax was raised to 8% to 5% in April, worried the sticker shock could scare away business. “The fact is that people don’t feel confident about the future,” Sakai said. “Our society and economy has tilted people toward lower-end options. For example, it’s like people choosing to eat at fast-food places, or standing-only soba shops even when they could, realistically, eat at proper restaurants.”

Unless Japanese people see real progress in solving fundamental problems, such as lack of wage growth, a shrinking manufacturing base, and an unsustainable welfare system, many might prefer the problem they know to the one Kuroda hopes will replace it. Classical economics would argue that consumers should welcome deflation, because it increases their purchasing power, an argument some consumers echo. “Deflation reflects the underlying economy. Our population is decreasing, production is low and we’re not seeing innovation. We are losing power compared with other countries,” said Yohei Tanaka, 33, an accountant in Tokyo. “I don’t think this is the time to drive the economy to inflation. I don’t think inflation is the end solution. Deflation, in a certain way, is good.”

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The yen will be reduced to something resembling a penny stock.

Yen’s Worst Yet to Come in Options After Kuroda Shocks (Bloomberg)

The worst is yet to come for the yen after Japan’s two-pronged attack on deflation sent the currency tumbling to its weakest level in almost seven years. Option prices show traders see a 6%chance the yen, which has already slumped 6.8% this year, will drop an additional 1.8% to 115 per dollar in the next three months, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That’s up from 18% on Oct. 30, the day before authorities surprised investors by saying the government pension fund will invest more of its money overseas and Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda will expand currency depreciating stimulus.

“The BOJ has dropped another stimulus bombshell,” Daisaku Ueno, the chief currency strategist at Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities Co. in Tokyo, said by phone on Oct. 31. “It’s quite possible the yen will drop to 112 or 113 per dollar by the end of the year, or even 115.” That level – last reached in November 2007 – is already starting to become the consensus. Companies from Nomura Holdings Inc., Japan’s biggest brokerage, to JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their year-end forecast to 115 per dollar on Friday, while Goldman Sachs said the day’s announcements made its estimate for the yen to reach that level in 12 months suddenly seem “conservative.”

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“… the markets are pouncing on the yen because they are forward-looking: the BoJ is monetizing ever more government debt and this is expected to continue, because the public debtberg has become too large to be funded by any other means. In spite of the relatively low money supply growth this debt monetization has produced so far, it also creates the perverse situation that an ever greater portion of the government’s outstanding stock of debt consists actually of debt the government literally “owes to itself”.

The Experiment that Will Blow Up the World (Tenebrarum)

In order to explain why the pursuit of Kuroda’s policy is edging ever closer to a catastrophic outcome, we have to delve a bit into the details of Japan’s monetary data. In spite of the BoJ’s “QE” reaching record highs, it mainly creates bank reserves and furthers carry trades. The economy sees no private credit growth so far. Commercial banks in Japan continue to shrink the stock of fiduciary media – this is to say, they are reducing outstanding credit, which makes more and more unbacked deposit money disappear. Hence, Japan’s money supply growth has recently decline to a mere 4.3% year-on-year, as the rate of contraction in outstanding fiduciary media (i.e., uncovered money substitutes) has accelerated to 9.4% annualized in spite of the BoJ’s pumping. The reason is a technical one: contrary to the Fed, the BoJ buys most of the securities it acquires in terms of its “QE” operations directly from banks – this creates new bank reserves at the BoJ, but no new deposit money.

By contrast, the Fed buys only from primary dealers, which are legally non-banks (even though most of them belong to banks). This creates both bank reserves and deposit money concurrently. The BoJ’s actions can only directly inflate the money supply to the extent it buys securities from non-banks, e.g. when it buys stocks in REITs to prop up the Nikkei. In short, the effectiveness of the BoJ’s pumping depends on the extent to which commercial banks are prepared to employ additional bank reserves to pyramid new credit atop them and thereby create additional fiduciary media. Japan’s banks are doing the exact opposite, mainly because there simply isn’t sufficient demand for credit. Why would anyone borrow more money, given Japan’s demographic situation?

However, one result of this is that an ever larger portion of Japan’s money supply actually consists of covered money substitutes – deposit money that is “backed” by standard money. Covered money substitutes have grown by more than 77% over the past year. Bank reserves can be transformed into currency when customers withdraw cash from their deposits, hence to the extent that deposit money is “backed” by bank reserves, it ceases to be a form of circulation credit. The narrow money supply in total now amounts to roughly 595 trillion yen; of this, roughly 139 trillion yen consist covered money substitutes and 83.4 trillion yen consist of currency (outstanding banknotes in circulation). Thus the stock of fiduciary media has shrunk to 372.6 trillion yen. It is well known that Japan has a very high public-debt-to GDP ratio. Even with the recent economic upswing, its budget deficit for the current year is projected to clock in at more than 7% of GDP – the latest in a string of huge annual deficits. What is less well known is the ratio of public debt to tax revenues, which is actually the more relevant datum.

We conclude from this that the markets are pouncing on the yen because they are forward-looking: the BoJ is monetizing ever more government debt and this is expected to continue, because the public debtberg has become too large to be funded by any other means. In spite of the relatively low money supply growth this debt monetization has produced so far, it also creates the perverse situation that an ever greater portion of the government’s outstanding stock of debt consists actually of debt the government literally “owes to itself”. On the surface, this monetarist wizardry suggests that one can indeed “get something for nothing” – but that just isn’t true. Deep down, market participants know that it isn’t true – so even though they are celebrating the promise of more liquidity by sending Japanese stocks soaring, they are also creating a fault line – and that fault line is the external value of the yen.

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” … central banks, even the desperate ones like BoJ, are and remain one-trick-pony institutions”

Boj’s Desperate QE Move To Hurt Japanese Spending Power (Steen Jakobsen)

The Bank of Japan has increased the targeted monetary base from JPY 60-70 trillion to JPY 80 trillion an increase of 25-35% and an almost desperate move to keep the Abenomics’ wheels going. The decision is quite controversial as the vote was a narrow 5/4. This is extremely unusual as big decisions like these are generally only done with full consensus, but it clearly shows Abenomics is running out of time and room as core-inflation, excluding tax, was at 1.1% vs. the 2.0% target. The International Monetary Fund has been critical of Abenomics recently telling Japan that is falling short of helping the economy. From a market perspective the move [Friday] was almost perfectly timed coming on the heels of a Federal Open Market Committee meeting which ended quantitative easing and expose the big difference on future monetary paths between the BoJ and the Fed.

There is, however, a dark side to this big move. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe needs and needs to decide soon on whether to increase sales tax, VAT, again or disappoint on his third arrow. Abenomics has not deserved its name as a new approach. it has been all about printing money and making the state take a bigger and bigger role. It is hardly a new policy but more a reflection on an inability to change a conservative society with poor demographics. Tactical and trading wise, the USDJPY has reached a new high and it’s hard to fade a central so desperate is very likely as US dollar strength the name of the game through Mid-November. The easier monetary policy will force USDJPY and NIKKEI higher as it’s a one-way street, but it will more importantly force Japanese banks to lend out and overseas. I see/hear desperate Japanese bankers trolling the world to find things to finance and it seems they are in desperate need of US dollar funding (I.e: they have not hedged proportionally).

This could make USDJPY test 125/135 over coming months but the “risk” remains China, which even prior to this action was upset at the ‘beggar thy neighbour’ policy of Japan. Overall, tactically, it confirms the world is again moving towards lower yields in G10. A new low remains my only and main call and furthermore as big a move as this is, it also tells a story of how central banks, even the desperate ones like BoJ, are and remain one-trick-pony institutions. Personally I see this as the final round – Japan was ALWAYS going to give it one more shot – now it happened.

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They have no money left to spend. And you want to tell me your economy is doing well?

US Consumers Resisting Enticements To Increase Spending (MarketWatch)

The U.S. is adding jobs at the fastest rate since the end of the Great Recession and another strong month of hiring is expected in October, but Americans still aren’t spending like good times are here to stay. The lackluster pace of consumer spending — outlays fell in September for the first time in eight months — largely explains why the U.S. is only growing at a post-recession annual average of 2.2%. Yet most economists think that could change in the near future. The reason: wages finally appear to be moving higher as the unemployment rate falls and companies find it harder to attracted talented workers. Employment costs jump for second straight quarter.

Even more jobs and higher pay for the average worker, however, might not be enough to get consumers to sharply boost spending, other economists say. Despite rising consumer confidence, they point out, many Americans still aren’t sharing in the spoils of a healing economy. And many bear psychological scars from the Great Recession that impel them to save more than they used to in order to protect themselves against another downturn. The U.S. savings rate, for example, rose to 5.6% in September to match a two-year peak, putting it twice as high as it was in the last year before the recession. “The economy is doing well for some people but very poorly for many others,” said Joshua Shapiro, chief economist at MFR Inc. in New York. “People understand that things are improving slowly, but until they see it in their paychecks it’s hard to truly believe that.”

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Three-quarters of young people make less than a living wage. And you want to tell me your economy is doing well?

More Than One Fifth Of UK Workers Earn Less Than Living Wage (Guardian)

More than a fifth of UK workers earn less than the living wage, with bar staff and shop assistants among the most likely to live “hand to mouth” because of low pay, a report warns on Monday. Published to mark living wage week, the research also finds that younger workers, women and part-timers are more likely to be paid less than the living wage, a voluntary threshold calculated to provide a basic but decent standard of living. New living wage rates will be announced on Monday, with the current rate at £8.80 per hour in London and £7.65 elsewhere. The report by consultancy firm KPMG adds to evidence of low pay remaining prevalent in Britain, despite the economic recovery. The proportion of employees on less than the living wage is now 22%, up from 21% last year, the study found. In real terms, that was a rise of 147,000 people to 5.28 million.

The Trades Union Congress (TUC) urged more employers to adopt the pay benchmark, following news that more than 1,000 companies representing around 60,000 employees are now committed to the wage and will adopt the new rate on Monday. Frances O’Grady, the TUC general secretary, said: “Low pay is blighting the lives of millions of families. And it’s adding to the deficit because it means more spent on tax credits and less collected in tax. We have the wrong kind of recovery with the wrong kind of jobs – we need to create far more living wage jobs, with decent hours and permanent contracts.” Alan Milburn, the government’s social mobility tsar, said both employers and government must do more to make Britain a living wage country. “This research is further proof that more workers are getting stuck in low paid work with little opportunity for progression,” said the former Labour cabinet minister, now chair of the government’s Commission on Social Mobility.

“It is welcome that the number of accredited living wage firms has increased. But far more needs to be done to help millions of people move from low pay to living pay.” The research, conducted by Markit for KPMG, shows 43% of part-time workers earn less than the living wage, compared with 13% of full-time employees. It found 72% of 18-21 year olds were earning less than the living wage, compared with just 15% of those aged 30-39. One in four women earn less than the benchmark, compared to 16% of men. “Far too many UK employees are stuck in the spiral of low pay,” said Mike Kelly, head of living wage at KPMG. “With the cost of living still high, the squeeze on household finances remains acute, meaning that the reality for many is that they are forced to live hand to mouth,” added Kelly, also chair of the Living Wage Foundation.

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All the wrong people do a job the ECB should never have been assigned. They can only make things worse.

ECB Skips Fireworks for Day One of New Role as Banking Supervisor (Bloomberg)

The European Central Bank is about to achieve its biggest expansion of powers since the start of the euro. No celebrations are planned. As the Single Supervisory Mechanism takes charge of the euro area’s 120 biggest institutions tomorrow, officials aren’t in the mood for fanfare. Instead, staff at the ECB’s new overseer are preparing to monitor capital issuance by banks, and processing the results of a year-long asset review that revealed a stash of soured loans in the bloc now amounts to almost €900 billion ($1.1 trillion). Led by France’s Daniele Nouy, the SSM in Frankfurt will immediately set about trying to blend 18 sets of national supervisory habits into pan-European consistency, and prod banks to take more precautions against crises. While the ECB will have the status of a new heavyweight among global regulators, that role carries with it the burden of restoring confidence in a battered banking system vulnerable to renewed economic shocks. “They have an awful lot on their plate from day one,” said Guntram Wolff, Director of the Bruegel institute in Brussels.

“There’s a very big pile of bad loans, profitability in this environment is going to be difficult, and the banking system itself probably needs to be restructured. The question is how the new supervisor can address that.” [..] While the ECB found an overall shortfall of €9.47 billion euros, that becomes €6.35 billion when discounting five failing lenders that have agreed restructuring plans or are in resolution. The outstanding sum “doesn’t seem insurmountable,” Mathias Dewatripont, a Belgian member of the new SSM board, said last week in Berlin. “I would still be happier if we had more capital in the system.” Soon to be in charge of that system is a new corps of almost 1,000 bank supervisors drawn from all over Europe, including existing authorities and the private sector. Notables among senior management include Stefan Walter, a former official of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York who will lead oversight of the biggest lenders including Deutsche Bank, and Finland’s Jukka Vesala, who oversaw the Comprehensive Assessment.

They inherit a banking industry loaded with unpaid debt. While the ECB says credit standards eased for a second quarter in the three months through September, an extra €136 billion in bad loans identified by the Comprehensive Assessment could hamper a return to growth. The path towards managing that legacy will be trodden by both the ECB’s new cadres and 5,000 national supervisors who remain in charge of the thousands of smaller banks in the euro region. The Frankfurt hub will make its presence felt by having its say on everything from bank licensing to merger approval, imposing fines and influencing international regulation.

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is it really that crazy to tax what cost us all those trillions? Bloomberg’s ed. staff is not its brightest segment.

Europe’s Crazy Finance Tax (Bloomberg)

Wrangling among the 11 euro-region nations planning to tax financial transactions is further evidence, if any were needed, that the levy is a bad idea that should be abandoned. The European Commission acknowledges that the latest version of its planned financial transactions tax (or Tobin tax, or Robin Hood tax, if you prefer) isn’t the best option. That, it says, would be a globally coordinated toll on trading – which is laughably unlikely. The narrower the tax’s coverage, the less sense it makes. That’s why Europe’s proposed transactions tax isn’t even second-best: An earlier effort to apply it across all 27 European Union members failed. In its current diluted form, the tax would charge 0.1% for nonderivative securities such as government bonds or company shares, and 0.01% on the notional value of derivatives trades. Austria, Belgium, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain are the willing 11 countries; but they can’t agree on how to divvy up the proceeds.

They’re struggling to meet a self-imposed deadline for an agreement by the end of the year, with the duty scheduled to be imposed by the end of 2015. The most fundamental question about the tax still hasn’t been answered – what’s it for? If the aim is to reduce volatility and speculation in the securities markets, it’s far from clear that the tax would work, according to a study by the consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers. If the idea is to strengthen the economy, the tax is a failure at the planning stage. Depending on how the proceeds were spent, the commission itself estimates the transactions tax would raise the cost of capital and could cut as much as 0.28% from gross domestic product — a little more than it would raise in extra revenue. With the bloc threatening to slide back into recession, you’d think any policy that risked hurting growth would be rejected out of hand. The chief motivation for the tax is populist politics: It’s mostly about vengeance for the financial crisis. Bashing bankers, regardless of the collateral damage, remains popular with European politicians.

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Get out of the EU!

Vicious Circle of Bad Loans Ensnaring Italian Companies (Bloomberg)

Italian borrowers are becoming trapped in a vicious circle. As bank loans turn sour at the rate of about €2 billion ($2.5 billion) a month, corporate lending is dwindling to the least in more than a decade. Lenders are sitting on a total €174 billion of non-performing loans, an increase of 62% from three years ago, according to the latest data from Bank of Italy. New corporate lending dropped in August to €21 billion, the lowest since at least 2003, the data show. With public debt of more than €2 trillion, Italy is battling the longest economic slump since World War II that has thrown millions of people out of work. The scarcity of lending is spurring the European Central Bank’s asset purchase program with President Mario Draghi seeking to boost economic growth by freeing up bank balance sheets.

“Banks’ failure to deal with the soured loans is partly to blame for Italy’s worsening recession,” said Riccardo Serrini, chief executive officer at Prelios Credit Servicing, a Milan-based adviser for debt sales. “Without the debt burden, they could be helping to boost the economy.” Unlike lenders from Spain to the U.K., Italian banks are proving unable, or unwilling, to offload bad debts and free up their balance sheets. About €11 billion of loans where borrowers have fallen behind on payments were sold by Italian institutions since 2011, compared with €189 billion for all European lenders, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers.

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Our world today: China prints $25 trillion and buys up Europe’s oldest civilizations with it.

Portugal Sees Chinese Do 90% of Bids at Property Auction (Bloomberg)

As bargain-hunters waited in a packed room at a property auction in Lisbon last month, one language dominated their chat: Mandarin. About 90% of the bidders for the government-owned apartments and stores on offer were Chinese, according to Jorge Oliveira, the official overseeing the asset sale. They ended up acquiring more than two-thirds of the 45 properties, he said. “A Portuguese investor bought a store to start a bakery and coffee shop, but most of the properties went to the Chinese,” Oliveira said in an interview after the sale.

Portugal is the latest target for Chinese investors who have been acquiring buildings around the world as China allows freer movement of funds in and out of the country. The Chinese accounted for almost one in five foreign property purchases in Portugal during the first nine months, according to the Lisbon-based Portuguese Real Estate Professionals and Brokers Association. Bing Wong, a 52-year-old store-owner from Shanghai who attended the Oct. 24 auction, has been buying properties in Lisbon to create a network of outlets to serve the biggest concentration of Chinese residents in Portugal. “Lisbon is cheap if you compare it with other cities,” he said. “The economy is improving and there are some good deals to be done here.”

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Expect major swings. Like everywhere else.

Gold Bulls Retreat With $1.3 Billion Pulled From Funds (Bloomberg)

Speculators cut their bullish gold bets before prices tumbled to the lowest since 2010 as demand for a hedge against inflation diminished. The net-long position in New York futures and options declined for the first time in three weeks, U.S. government data show. Gains for the American economy have eroded the appeal of bullion as a haven and helped boost the dollar to a four-year high. The Federal Reserve said last week it saw enough improvement to end its bond-buying stimulus program. More than $1.3 billion was pulled from U.S. exchange-traded products tracking precious metals in October, the biggest monthly decline this year, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

Societe Generale’s Michael Haigh, the analyst who correctly predicted gold’s slump into a bear market last year, said the crash in oil prices underscores why inflation is unlikely to accelerate and adds “ammunition” to the pressure on bullion. “We are betting on lower gold prices and telling our clients that they should have zero allocation in gold,” Atul Lele, who helps oversee $5.1 billion as the chief investment officer at Deltec International Group, said Oct. 31. “The dollar will continue to strengthen as other nations are printing money at a time when the U.S. has taken stimulus off the table. U.S. growth is another reason why people will stay away from gold.” [..] Gold climbed 70% from December 2008 to June 2011 as the U.S. central bank bought debt and held borrowing costs near 0% in a bid to shore up growth. Prices slumped 28% last year, the most in three decades. The Fed’s $4 trillion of bond purchases since 2008 have yet to generate the runaway inflation that some gold buyers expected.

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That’s the very essence of globalization.

Globalisation Is Turning In On Itself And It Is Each Man For Himself (Pal)

A few things are also appearing on my radar screen – future visions if you like – that I want to share with you. These are not conclusive, but rather a stream of unfiltered thoughts, which will develop over time. I virtually never use geopolitics to assess asset markets. I have learned the hard way over time that it is the way to the poor house. Economies run financial markets, not wars. But I do note that at the margin, the world’s geopolitics is changing. Gone are the fluffy days of Putin shaking hands with George Bush agreeing to keep the world supplied with oil, gone are the days of China helping US firms make profits using their cheap labour, gone are open-for-business days of Europe, gone is the Japanese military neutrality, gone are the Saudis as an unshakeable ally, gone is Israel also a steadfast ally, etc. What is happening is something deeply concerning. Globalisation is turning in on itself and it is each man for himself. This was always going to be the outcome of an imbalanced, debt-drowning world.

Everyone wants a cheap currency and since that doesn’t work then everyone wants to find some way to get the upper hand on their own terms. I have had recent conversations with a long-term strategy group within the Pentagon about economic threats to the US and the risk of global collapse, and the potential for it to turn into a military outcome. It seems that the Department of Defence’s deep thinkers are mulling over the kinds of issues we all are – is the inevitable outcome a military one? They don’t know either but they give it a probability and thus need to understand it and plan for it. My issue has been for a long time that the true threat to the world is not the Muslim nations we so like to beat as a scapegoat (gotta have an enemy, right?) but China. The Pentagon’s think-tank also agrees. If China has an economic collapse, which again is a high probability event, then what are the odds of massive civil unrest?

And would a military conflict put the people back on the side of the government (i.e. how the Nazis came to power)? I agree. I think this is the risk somewhere down the road. I also, along with this defence strategy group, think that there is a risk that the Western powers meddling in the time of bad economic crisis will form strong alliances between let’s say Russia and China. In direct opposition to the government, many people inside the Pentagon are saying, “Please don’t fuck with Russia, they are not threatening us militarily but securing their own borders, we cannot control the outcomes, and most of them are bad, probably not militarily but economically, and economic instability causes outcomes we can’t forecast – even seizing the assets of powerful Russians has unintended consequences”. Here, here. The law of unintended circumstances is a bitch.

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That’s great news!

Wanted: 500,000 New Pilots In China By 2035 (Reuters)

China’s national civil aviation authority says the country will need to train about half a million civilian pilots by 2035, up from just a few thousand now, as wannabe flyers chase dreams of landing lucrative jobs at new air service operators. The aviation boom comes as China allows private planes to fly below 1,000 meters from next year without military approval, seeking to boost its transport infrastructure. Commercial airlines aren’t affected, but more than 200 new firms have applied for general aviation operating licences, while China’s high-rollers are also eager for permits to fly their own planes.

The civil aviation authority’s own training unit can only handle up to 100 students a year. With the rest of China’s 12 or so existing pilot schools bursting at the seams, foreign players are joining local firms in laying the groundwork for new courses that can run to hundreds of thousands of dollars per trainee. “The first batch of students we enrolled in 2010 were mostly business owners interested in getting a private license,” said Sun Fengwei, deputy chief of the Civil Aviation Administration of China’s (CAAC) pilot school. “But now more and more young people also want to learn flying so that they can get a job at general aviation companies.”

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Reasonable historic view.

25 Years Ago, As The Berlin Wall Fell, Checks On Capitalism Crumbled (Guardian)

It was 25 years ago this month that communism ceased to be a threat to the west and to the free market. When sledgehammers started to dismantle the Berlin Wall in November 1989, an experiment with the command economy begun in St Petersburg more than 70 years before was in effect over, even before the Soviet Union fell apart. The immediate cause for the collapse of communism was that Moscow could not keep pace with Washington in the arms race of the 1980s. Higher defence spending put pressure on an ossifying Soviet economy. Consumer goods were scarce. Living standards suffered. But the problems went deeper. The Soviet Union came to grief because of a lack of trust. The economy delivered only for a small, privileged elite who had access to imported western goods. What started with the best of intentions in 1917 ended tarnished by corruption. The Soviet Union was eaten away from within. As it turned out, the end of the cold war was not unbridled good news for the citizens of the west.

For a large part of the postwar era, the Soviet Union was seen as a real threat and even in the 1980s there was little inkling that it would disappear so quickly. A powerful country with a rival ideology and a strong military acted as a restraint on the west. The fear that workers could “go red” meant they had to be kept happy. The proceeds of growth were shared. Welfare benefits were generous. Investment in public infrastructure was high. There was no need to be so generous once the Soviet Union was no more. What was known as neoliberal economics was born in the 1970s, but it was not until the 1990s that market forces reigned supreme. The free market spread to poorer parts of the world where it had previously been off limits, expanding the global workforce. That meant cheaper goods but it also put downward pressure on wages. What’s more, there was no longer any need to be inhibited. Those running companies could take a bigger slice of profits because there was nowhere else for workers to go. If citizens did not like “reform” of welfare states, they just had to lump it.

And, despite some grumbles, that’s pretty much what they did until the global financial crisis of 2008. This was a blow to the prevailing free-market orthodoxy for three reasons. First, it was the crash that should never have happened. Economists had constructed models that showed markets were always rational and self-correcting. It was quite a shock to find that they weren’t. Second, the financial crash made countries poorer. Deep recessions have been followed by historically weak recoveries characterised by falling real wages and cuts in benefits. Finally, the crisis and its aftermath have revealed the dark side of the post-cold war model. Instead of trickle down, there has been trickle up. Instead of the triumph of democracy, there has been the triumph of the elites.

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A local supermarket had them on the menu just last week.

Insects Could Be On Your Dinner Menu, Soon (CNBC)

Feeding the world’s growing population is a major issue for global policy makers, and Euromonitor thinks it has the answer: insects. The thought of eating insects may turn the stomachs in the western world, but an estimated 2 billion people worldwide eat insects, Euromonitor said in a report. Eating insects for their taste and nutritional value is popular in many developing regions of central and South America, Africa and Asia. Insects contain high levels of protein, minerals and vitamins, and are considered a healthier alternative to meat. Insects could therefore provide a viable solution to food shortages and the increasing demand for meat, the Euromonitor report said. Consumer expenditure on meat will rise by 87.9% in emerging and developing countries in 2014-2030, more than three times higher than the equivalent 25.3% growth in developed economies, according to Euromonitor’s forecasts.

At the same time, global food supply issues have become a more prominent concern. Extreme weather cycles have played havoc with harvests and crops leading to extreme spikes in food prices, protectionist policies and crop hoarding. In the past three years, Australia, Canada, China, Russia and the U.S. have all suffered huge harvest losses from floods and droughts, Reuters reported. Earlier this year, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization warned that global food production needed to increase by 60% by mid-century or risk food shortages that could bring social unrest and civil wars. “The most obvious challenge to insects becoming a viable food source for the future is that negative attitudes in Western cultures towards insects as food need to change,” said Media Eghbal, head of countries’ analysis at Euromonitor. Eghbal pointed out that as a result of the western world’s more squeamish palate, a more realistic solution could be using more insects in animal feed, demand for which is bound to increase as global demand for meat rises.

The report also highlighted other benefits of using insects as a source of food. Farming insects is better for the environment than traditional livestock farming as the process requires less land and water, it said, and produces less greenhouse gas emissions. It’s also cheaper. Consumers would pay less for these food products, which could help reduce poverty and boost economic growth. Insects are a popular source of food in countries including Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, China, Africa, Mexico, Columbia and New Guinea. The most popular delicacies include crickets, grasshoppers, ants, scorpions, tarantulas and various species of caterpillar, according to www.insectsarefood.com.

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In human history, that’s a very long time.

Greenhouse Gas Levels At Highest Point In 800,000 Years (ABC.au)

The world’s top scientists have given their clearest warning yet of the severe and irreversible impacts of climate change. The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has released its synthesis report, a summary of its last three reports. It warns greenhouse gas levels are at their highest they have been in 800,000 years, with recent increases mostly due to the burning of fossil fuels. “Continued emission of greenhouse gases will cause further warming and long-lasting changes in all components of the climate system, increasing the likelihood of severe, pervasive and irreversible impacts for people and ecosystems,” the report said. “Limiting climate change would require substantial and sustained reductions in greenhouse gas emissions which, together with adaptation, can limit climate change risks.”

IPCC chairman Rajendra Pachauri said the comprehensive report brings together “all the pieces of the puzzle” in climate research and predictions. “It’s not discrete, and [highlights] distinct elements of climate change that people have to deal with, but [also] how you might be able to deal with this problem on a comprehensive basis by understanding how these pieces of the puzzle actually come together,” Dr Pachauri said. The report reiterates that the planet is unequivocally warming, that burning fossil fuels is significantly increasing greenhouse gas emissions and the effects of climate change – like sea level rises – are already being felt.It also said most of the world’s electricity should be produced from low carbon sources by 2050 and that fossil fuel burning for power should be virtually stopped by the end of the century.

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” … it doesn’t mean we have to sacrifice economic growth”. What if it did? Why does an Institute for Climate Impact Research have a chief economist in the first place?

UN Sees Irreversible Damage to Planet From Fossil Fuels (Bloomberg)

Humans are causing irreversible damage to the planet from burning fossil fuels, the biggest ever study of the available science concluded in a report designed to spur the fight against climate change. There’s a high risk of widespread harm from rising global temperatures, including floods, drought, extinction of species and ocean acidification, if the trend for increasing carbon emissions continues, a panel convened by a United Nations body said today in Copenhagen. Humans can avoid the worst if they significantly cut emissions and do so swiftly, it said. “We must act quickly and decisively if we want to avoid increasingly disruptive outcomes,” UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told reporters in Copenhagen. “If we continue business-as-usual, our opportunity to keep temperature rises below” the internationally agreed target of 2 degrees Celsius, “will slip away within the next decades,” he said.

The report is designed to guide policy makers around the world in writing laws and regulations that will curb greenhouse gases and protect nations most at risk from climate change. It will also feed into talks among 195 nations working on an international agreement to rein in emissions that envoys aim to reach in Paris in December 2015. “We need to get to zero emissions by the end of this century” to keep global warming below dangerous levels, Ottmar Edenhofer, chief economist at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, outside Berlin, and a co-author of the report, said in a telephone interview. “This requires a huge transformation, but it doesn’t mean we have to sacrifice economic growth.”

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Nov 012014
 
 November 1, 2014  Posted by at 12:56 pm Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , ,  1 Response »


Jack Delano Window display for Christmas sale, Providence, Rhode Island Dec 1940

Japan Stimulus Likened To Bear Stearns (CNBC)
The BOJ Jumps The Monetary Shark (Stockman)
Japan Risks Asian Currency War With Fresh QE Blitz (AEP)
Markets Are Still Addicted To Money Printing (CNBC)
Central Banks Answer the Markets’ Prayers – For Now (Bloomberg)
Japan’s Shock and Awe (Bloomberg Ed.)
China’s October Factory Growth Unexpectedly Hits 5-Month Low (Reuters)
Gold Sinks To Levels Not Seen Since 2010 (MarketWatch)
Consumer Spending In US Unexpectedly Drops As Incomes Cool (Bloomberg)
Why that Glorious Economy of Ours Feels so Crummy (WolfStreet)
Top US Oil Companies See More Pressure To Clamp Down On Spending (Reuters)
The Failure of Green Energy Policies (Euan Mearns)
Riots, Clashes In France After Activist Dies In Police Grenade Blast (RT)

“First thing that’s going to happen is we’re going to get deflation over here in the U.S.”

Japan Stimulus Likened To Bear Stearns (CNBC)

Stocks closed at all-time highs after the Bank of Japan announced additional monetary stimulus Friday, but Brian Kelly of Brian Kelly Capital said the move gave him serious misgivings. “What they did is outrageous. It is a terrible idea,” he said. “It is going to have massive, massive ramifications. The U.S. stock market hasn’t woken up to it yet, but they absolutely will. “First thing that’s going to happen is we’re going to get deflation over here in the U.S.” Additionally, the country’s Government Pension Investment Fund also said it would put half its assets—roughly $1.14 trillion—in U.S. and Japanese stocks. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 17,390.52, up 1.13%, while the S&P 500 ended at 2,018.15, up 1.17%. On CNBC’s “Fast Money,” Kelly said investors would do well to buy U.S. Treasury bonds. Japan’s additional foreign investment could total about $200 billion going into the U.S. stock and bond markets, he added.

“Once again, everything is going to be manipulated, and eventually when the levee breaks, it’s going to completely fall apart,” he said. Kelly also said he had made a winning bet by being short Japanese yen coming into the trading day, adding the massive Japanese stimulus program gave him pause. “However, I felt this way before—and it was during Bear Stearns. Everybody cheered that Bear Stearns got a bailout from the Fed. And within three days, they were out of business,” he said. “So, this is Japan bailing themselves out, they had no choice. They have to raise taxes. They are now monetizing their debt—100% monetizing their debt, and buying stocks. They’re buying REITs. They’re buying ETFs. It’s insane.” Kelly clarified he wasn’t calling for a massive selloff in the near future. “I’m not saying the market’s going to fall apart on Monday morning,” he said. “I’m just saying it’s the same type of feeling where people are cheering a bailout they shouldn’t cheer.”

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” … the Japanese bond market soared on this dumping announcement because the JCBs are intended to tumble right into the maws of the BOJ’s endless bid. Charles Ponzi would have been truly envious!”

The BOJ Jumps The Monetary Shark (Stockman)

This is just plain sick. Hardly a day after the greatest central bank fraudster of all time, Maestro Greenspan, confessed that QE has not helped the main street economy and jobs, the lunatics at the BOJ flat-out jumped the monetary shark. Even then, the madman Kuroda pulled off his incendiary maneuver by a bare 5-4 vote. Apparently the dissenters – Messrs. Morimoto, Ishida, Sato and Kiuchi – are only semi-mad. Never mind that the BOJ will now escalate its bond purchase rate to $750 billion per year – a figure so astonishingly large that it would amount to nearly $3 trillion per year if applied to a US scale GDP. And that comes on top of a central bank balance sheet which had previously exploded to nearly 50% of Japan’s national income or more than double the already mind-boggling US ratio of 25%.

In fact, this was just the beginning of a Ponzi scheme so vast that in a matter of seconds its ignited the Japanese stock averages by 5%. And here’s the reason: Japan Inc. is fixing to inject a massive bid into the stock market based on a monumental emission of central bank credit created out of thin air. So doing, it has generated the greatest front-running frenzy ever recorded. The scheme is so insane that the surge of markets around the world in response to the BOJ’s announcement is proof positive that the mother of all central bank bubbles now envelopes the entire globe. Specifically, in order to go on a stock buying spree, Japan’s state pension fund (the GPIF) intends to dump massive amounts of Japanese government bonds (JCB’s). This will enable it to reduce its government bond holding – built up over decades – from about 60% to only 35% of its portfolio.

Needless to say, in an even quasi-honest capital market, the GPIF’s announced plan would unleash a relentless wave of selling and price decline. Yet, instead, the Japanese bond market soared on this dumping announcement because the JCBs are intended to tumble right into the maws of the BOJ’s endless bid. Charles Ponzi would have been truly envious! Accordingly, the 10-year JGB is now trading at a microscopic 43 bps and the 5-year at a hardly recordable 11 bps. So, say again. The purpose of all this massive money printing is to drive the inflation rate to 2%. Nevertheless, Japanese government debt is heading deeper into the land of negative real returns because there are no rational buyers left in the market – just the BOJ and some robots trading for a few bps of spread on the carry.

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You won’t have to wait long to find out just how destructive this is.

Japan Risks Asian Currency War With Fresh QE Blitz (AEP)

The Bank of Japan has stunned the world with fresh blitz of stimulus, pushing quantitative easing to unprecedented levels in a bid to drive down the yen and avert a relapse into deflation. The move set off a euphoric rally on global equity markets but the economic consequences may be less benign. Critics say it threatens a trade shock across Asia in what amounts to currency warfare, risking serious tensions with China and Korea, and tightening the deflationary noose on Europe. The Bank of Japan (BoJ) voted by 5:4 in a hotly-contested decision to boost its asset purchases by a quarter to roughly $700bn a year, covering the fiscal deficit and the lion’s share of Japan’s annual budget. “They are monetizing the national debt even if they don’t want to admit it,” said Marc Ostwald, from Monument Securities. In a telling move, the bank will concentrate fresh firepower on Japanese government bonds (JGBs), pushing the average maturity out to seven to 10 years.

It also pledged to triple the amount that will be injected directly into the Tokyo stock market through exchange-traded funds, triggering a 4.3pc surge in the Topix index. Governor Haruhiko Kuroda said the fresh stimulus was intended to “pre-empt” mounting deflation risks in the world, and vowed to do what ever it takes to lift inflation to 2pc and see through Japan’s “Abenomics” revolution. “We are at a critical moment in our efforts to break free from the deflationary mindset,” he said. The unstated purpose of Mr Kuroda’s reflation drive is to lift nominal GDP growth to 5pc a year. The finance ministry deems this the minimum level needed to stop a public debt of 245pc of GDP from spinning out of control. The intention is to erode the debt burden through a mix of higher growth and negative real interest rates, a de facto tax on savings. Mr Kuroda’s own credibility is at stake since he said in July that there was “no chance” of core inflation falling below 1pc. It now threatens to do exactly that as the economy struggles to overcome a sharp rise in the sales tax from 5pc to 8pc in April.

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100%.

Markets Are Still Addicted To Money Printing (CNBC)

Friday’s stock surge provides yet another reminder that when it comes to moving the market, there’s nothing like a little old-fashioned money printing. What waits on the other side—asset bubbles, inflation, the prospects for still greater wealth disparity—remains, of course, an issue for another day. The important thing is that the market wants what the market wants, and the Bank of Japan appears only too happy to comply, announcing a fairly aggressive stimulus package Friday that traders cheered by pushing the major averages back near record territory. The announcement came just two days after the Federal Reserve—the BOJ’s U.S. counterpart—said it was ending a quantitative easing program that saw its balance sheet swell by nearly $4 trillion since its inception. “So much for the end of QE! The Bank of Japan’s announcement today that it is stepping up its asset purchases is a timely reminder that not everyone has to follow the Fed,” Julian Jessop, chief global economist at Capital Economics, said.

“Further QE in Japan should help to support equity prices worldwide and especially in the euro zone if expectations build that the (European Central Bank) will follow with full-blown QE of its own.” Indeed, Wall Street is rubbing its hands together contemplating that at a time when global growth appears to be slowing, the willingness of central banks to crank up their virtual printing presses hasn’t abated a bit, the Fed notwithstanding. Of course there are words of caution: Jessop warned investors not to go “overboard” in their enthusiasm over the BOJ’s move. At current exchange rates, the action amounts to just more than a quarter of the $85 billion a month the Fed was adding when it it began the third leg of its QE program. Even Europe may not deliver the goods to the extent the market hopes.

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Clueless.

Central Banks Answer the Markets’ Prayers – For Now (Bloomberg)

It’s the party that just keeps going: the first batch of guests leave, the next ones arrive. Just as the U.S. Federal Reserve winds down its asset purchases, the Bank of Japan expands its own program. World stock markets, rejoice! For a while anyway. So far, quantitative easing, the policy of national bond purchases has arguably succeeded in perking up the economy, almost certainly succeeded in helping along the stock market and (this is key) certainly not led to the out-of-control inflation that critics predicted. Bloomberg Businessweek’s Peter Coy answers some of the folks who were sure bond buying would lead to economic catastrophe and still won’t admit they’re wrong.

That said, don’t get too comfortable. Central bank asset purchases dramatically lower bond returns and effectively push money into the stock market. When they end, the flow of money reverses. The idea is to do it slowly and gradually and not cause a panic. So far the Fed is succeeding. However, over the long run pulling out of the stimulus without scaring the markets is a tough difficult maneuver to pull off (and stock market returns aren’t necessarily the central bank’s concern. The Bank of Japan pulled out of its last stimulus program, in 2006, fairly smoothly. But as the chart below shows, it was the prelude to three years of market declines.

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Here’s how clueless the Bloomberg editorial staff is: “Abe has shown no great zeal for exposing farmers to foreign competition or freeing up the labor market. Japan’s agricultural protections are a double burden, because it’s holding up agreement on the Trans-Pacific Partnership free-trade pact. A breakthrough on farm trade is just the tonic Japan needs.”

Japan’s Shock and Awe (Bloomberg Ed.)

Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda stunned investors today by announcing a big expansion of the central bank’s bond-buying program. The move won’t fix Japan’s ailing economy by itself, but it might help, and Kuroda is right to try. The U.S. Federal Reserve likes to signal its intentions and avoid taking financial markets by surprise. Kuroda prefers shock and awe. Investors were wrong-footed by the scale of the BOJ’s quantitative easing when it was first announced last year. Now Kuroda has ambushed them again. Few expected the scale of purchases to be ramped up so soon – to 80 trillion yen a year ($724 billion), from 60 trillion to 70 trillion. Just three of 32 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News predicted it. Kuroda’s board was surprised as well, and was divided on the announcement. If Kuroda wanted investors to sit up and pay attention, it worked.

Fed doctrine notwithstanding, the element of surprise serves a purpose. QE works partly because it sends a message to investors that the central bank is determined to be forceful. At the moment, Japan’s economy needs all the forceful support it can get. The main worry is that inflation is falling again. After rising to 1.5% earlier this year, as the BOJ intended, the rate has since fallen back to 1%. The central bank’s target of 2% looked to be moving out of reach. Kuroda is saying he isn’t about to let that happen. The problem is that the BOJ can’t repair Japan’s economy by itself. At the moment, macroeconomic policy is pulling in two directions: bold stimulus from the central bank combined with a recent hefty sales-tax increase to cut public debt, with another tax increase planned for next year. The tax rise appears to have had a more dampening effect on the economy than expected. Yet it’s hard to deny that it was needed: After years of high borrowing and stagnant growth, Japan’s public debt is enormous.

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How long before we get some real bad numbers out of China from some unexpected source?

China’s October Factory Growth Unexpectedly Hits 5-Month Low (Reuters)

China’s factory activity unexpectedly fell to a five-month low in October as firms fought slowing orders and rising costs in the cooling economy, reinforcing views that the country’s growth outlook is hazy at best. The official Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) eased to 50.8 in October from September’s 51.1, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Saturday, but above the 50-point level that separates growth from contraction on a monthly basis. Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast a reading of 51.2.

Underscoring the challenges facing the world’s second-largest economy, the PMI showed foreign and domestic demand slipped to five- and six-month lows, respectively, with overseas orders shrinking slightly on a monthly basis. “There remains downward pressure on the economy, and monetary policy will remain easy,” economists at China International Capital Corp said in a note to clients after the data. Noting that inventory levels of unsold goods rose last month even as factories cut output levels and drew down on stocks of raw materials, the investment bank argued that the economy still faced tepid demand.

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We’re sure to have some fun conversations on gold going forward.

Gold Sinks To Levels Not Seen Since 2010 (MarketWatch)

Gold took a hard fall on Friday, at one point trading at levels not seen since 2010, as the dollar surged in the wake of a surprise stimulus move from the BOJ\. Gold for December delivery slumped $27, or 2.3%, to settle at $1,171.60 an ounce, closing out the week 5.3% lower. The precious metal shed 3.7% in October and is down 3.3% for the year to date. December silver gave up 31 cents to $16.11 an ounce. A more hawkish-than expected Fed statement has already been weighing on gold this week. The Fed’s ending of its bond-buying stimulus program on Wednesday smacked prices hard as gold shed 2.2% amid signs of a healing economy. The U.S. economy expanded 3.5% in the third quarter, data showed Thursday. “The surprisingly robust US GDP figures yesterday confirmed the Fed’s more optimistic economic outlook of the day before and thus indirectly dampened demand for gold as a safe haven,” said analysts at Commerzbank, in a note.

Gold was further pummeled after the Bank of Japan shocked markets with a move to expand the pace of quantitative easing, triggering a 5% surge in the Nikkei 225 index. The dollar touched its highest level against the yen since January 2008. The BOJ expanded the size of its Japanese Government Bond purchases to the equivalent of “about 80 trillion yen” ($727 billion) a year, a rise of ¥30 trillion on the previous amount. It also said it would buy longer-dated JGBs, and triple its purchase of exchange-traded funds and real-estate investment trusts. Gold losses speeded up as a pageant of economic numbers rolled out, including one that showed a slowdown in consumer spending. Commzerbank said gold has taken out its psychologically important $1,200 per troy ounce mark, but also its four-year low of around $1,180. Jim Wyckoff, a Kitco analyst, is more pessimistic on gold than he has been in a while, and noted that prices could be in trouble if they don’t hold the $1,183 level. “If [gold] prices fall below that, you’ll probably see a stiff leg down in prices, and a challenge of $1,000 could not be ruled out,” he warned.

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Big number. No snow, no excuses, just a bad print. With no other reason than people simply don’t have the spending power.

Consumer Spending In US Unexpectedly Drops As Incomes Cool (Bloomberg)

The drop in fuel prices couldn’t have come at a better time for the U.S. economy. Consumer spending unexpectedly dropped 0.2% in September, weaker than any economist projected in a Bloomberg survey, after rising 0.5% in August, according to Commerce Department data issued today in Washington. The report also showed incomes rose at a slower pace last month. “This is a little blip, a bit of payback, but all the numbers are pointing to solid growth between now and the end of the year,” said Nariman Behravesh, chief economist of IHS, who is among the top-ranked forecasters of consumer spending over the past two years, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. “There are a variety of factors that are playing into it. Better finances for consumers, very good jobs growth and you’ve got more money in consumers’ pockets because of lower gasoline prices.” The lowest costs at the gas pump in four years and the biggest payroll gains in more than a decade are projected to lift buying power and household purchases heading into the holiday-shopping season.

Other reports today showed consumer confidence jumped this month to a seven-year high and manufacturing in the Chicago area picked up, bolstering prospects for a rebound. The U.S. consumer spending data showed that after adjusting for inflation, which generates the figures used to calculate gross domestic product, purchases also dropped 0.2% last month after a 0.5% gain in August. The data provided a monthly breakdown of the third-quarter figures issued yesterday. That report showed consumer spending, which accounts for almost 70% of the economy, climbed at a 1.8% pace after growing at a 2.5% rate in the previous three months. The weak reading at the end of the quarter gives consumption little momentum heading into the last three months of the year. In a research note, economists at JPMorgan Chase & Co. in New York said it will probably be difficult to reach their 2.9% spending forecast for the fourth quarter, though they maintained the projection until more data are available.

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More slices cut from the same pie.

Why that Glorious Economy of Ours Feels so Crummy (WolfStreet)

That the economy grew at a “faster than expected” annual rate of 3.5% in the third quarter has been touted as a sign that now – finally, after years of false promises – it is reaching that ever elusive “escape velocity.” But instantly, people with keen eyes began to quibble with it. One big factor was military spending, which spiked 16%, the fasted since Q2 2009. This rate is based on the increase from the second quarter that is then annualized, assuming that spending wound continue at this rate for a year. This type of quarter-to-quarter annualized rate is volatile. For example, it plunged 20% in Q4 2012, jumped 17% in Q2 2009, and 18% in Q3 2008. Spikes and plunges often run in sequence (chart). In reality…. According to data from the US Treasury, the Department of Defense spent $149 billion in Q3, which was actually down a smidgen from the $150 billion it spent in Q3 2013.

This lets out a lot of hot air. That spike was likely a fluke, much like other spikes and plunges before it, and much of it may well be undone in Q4. The other two big factors in that “faster than expected” growth of GDP were inventories, which ballooned and will eventually have to be whittled back down, and exports. The surges in these three categories caused JPMorgan to cut its Q4 GDP growth forecast to 2.5% from 3.0%. “All three of these categories tend to be associated with payback the following quarter,” explained chief US economist Michael Feroli. And the crux of the economy, the consumer? “Still plodding along in a steady, but unspectacular, manner….” Whether or not that annualized quarterly rate of 3.5% was a mirage – year over year, the economy grew by just 2.3%.

A growth rate barely above 2% is exactly where the US economy has been for the last five years! Nothing has changed. For a recovery by US standards, it’s a very crummy growth rate, and far from the escape velocity that Wall Street hype artists have predicted for years in their justification for the ceaselessly skyrocketing stock market. But it gets worse. The population in the US has been growing too. And the economic pie has to be divvied up among more people. So the pie has to grow faster than the population or else, on an individual basis, that growing overall economy, gets cut into smaller slices of the pie.

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But without spending they lose even more reserves and production …

Top US Oil Companies See More Pressure To Clamp Down On Spending (Reuters)

Top U.S. oil producers, which already were reining in spending before crude prices started to slip in June, are now looking to trim more fat from their budgets while reminding investors they must spend to grow. Exxon Mobil said on Friday it would keep its current spending plan intact, though it is about 15% less than 2013. ConocoPhillips said it will spend less money next year, and Chevron said it is looking for budget “flexibility.” Crude oil prices have slumped 25% since June as global supplies grow and demand weakens. Exxon, which sets budgets using a long-term horizon, still expects to spend a little bit less than $37 billion a year from 2015 to 2017, an executive told investors on Friday on a conference call. “We always are mindful of what’s happening in the near future but I keep on pulling back that we are a long-term investor,” said Jeff Woodbury, Exxon’s head of investor relations.

Exxon tests projects “across the full range of economic parameters including price” to ensure favorable returns, he said. The Irving, Texas company saw capital spending peak at $42.5 billion last year when it was advancing projects to deliver future production growth. Exxon has spent $28 billion so far this year, down 14% versus the first nine months of 2013. ConocoPhillips, the largest independent oil and gas company, said on Thursday it plans to spend less than $16 billion next year, below the $16.7 billion it expects to spend in 2014. “(Capital spending) is going to be lower because of the commodity price environment,” Jeff Sheets, ConocoPhillip’s chief financial officer said in an interview with Reuters. “We have the flexibility in our capital program to reduce it without giving up any opportunities.”

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Not sure I’m happy with how Euan places nuclear so close to renewables.

The Failure of Green Energy Policies (Euan Mearns)

Whilst enjoying the good natured exchanges on this blog concerning the pros and cons of new renewable energy sources I decided to dig deeper into the success of Green energy policies to date. Roger Andrews produced this chart the other day and the low carbon energy trends caught my eye. It is important to recall that well over $1,700,000,000,000 ($1.7 trillion) has been spent on installing wind and solar devices in recent years with the sole objective of reducing global CO2 emissions. It transpires that since 1995 low carbon energy sources (nuclear, hydro and other renewables) share of global energy consumption has not changed at all (Figure 1). New renewables have not even replaced lost nuclear generating capacity since 1999 (Figure 2). ZERO CO2 has been abated and the world has done zilch to prepare itself for the expected declines (escalating costs) of fossil fuels in the decades ahead. If this is not total policy failure, what is?

Figure 1 Nuclear, Hydro and Other Renewables (mainly wind and solar) expressed as % of total global energy consumption. The combined low carbon share reached 13.1% in 1995. In 2013 it was 13.3%. From this chart it is easy to see that Other Renewables have simply compensated for the decline in nuclear power a point made more clear in Figure 2.

One of the main problems with Green thinking is that many Greens are against both fossil fuel (FF) based energy and nuclear power. There are some notable exceptions, James Lovelock and George Monbiot, and I recognise that a number of the “pro-renewable” commenters on this blog are at least not anti-nuclear. It would also be unfair to blame the relative decline of nuclear power since 2001 exclusively on Greens but they do have to shoulder a significant slice of that responsibility.

Figure 2 shows that the recent growth in Other Renewables does not compensate for the relative decline in nuclear power. What is more, stable base load is being replaced with intermittent supply that is seldom correlated with demand. FF generation is wrestling in the background, unloved and unappreciated, maintaining order in our society.

Figure 2 Nuclear and Other Renewables as a%age of total global energy consumption. Nuclear’s contribution peaked in 2001 and the decline in nuclear since then has not been fully compensated by the rapid expansion of renewables.

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All about a dam.

Riots, Clashes In France After Activist Dies In Police Grenade Blast (RT)

Another anti-police brutality protest turned violent in the French city of Rennes, with masked youths and police engaging in running street battles. The unrest follows the death of a young environmental activist earlier this week. Overnight Thursday, protesters in the northwestern city lobbed flairs at police and flipped over cars, some of which they set ablaze. Police responded by firing tear gas. The number of arrests or injures, if any, remains unclear. A similar protest in Paris on Wednesday also descended into violence. Around 250 people gathered outside City Hall in Paris, with some throwing rocks at police and writing “Remi is dead, the state kills” on walls, The Local’s French edition reports. At least 33 people were taken into police custody following the unrest. The protests are in response to the death of 21-year-old activist Remi Fraisse. He was killed early on Sunday by an explosion, which occurred during violent clashes with police at the site of a contested-dam project in southwestern France.

His death, the first in a mainland protest in France since 1986, has been blamed on a concussion grenade fired by police. France’s Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve, who came under serious pressure to resign following the incident, announced an immediate suspension of such grenades, which are intended to stun rather than kill. On Monday, outrage at Fraisse’s death sparked protests in several French cities. Violence erupted in Albi, the town close to the dam, as well as in Nantes and Rennes. Fraisse was one of 2,000 activists present in the southwestern Tarn region to protest the €8.4m ($10.7) million Sivens dam project. Activists said the project would harm the environment, but officials say it is needed to irrigate farm land and boost the local economy. On Friday, however, local authorities suspended work on the project, saying it would be impossible to continue in light of current events. The executive council, however, which is tasked with overseeing the project, has not ruled to abandon it all together.

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