Bottom line: Walter has never worked at a private sector productive job her entire life. That Obama is nominating her means that she will play ball with Wall Street crony insiders and crush any upstarts trying to crack the oligarchy. She has the perfect resume for this. LINKAs everyone who reads this blog knows, the rate of enforcement and prosecution of financial markets crimes under Obama has declined by over 25% from the Bush administration. This is not political demagoguery or biased commentary, this is black and white numerical fact. And this decline comes despite some of the most grand scale big bank open theft of customer funds in the history of this country.
Today it was announced that SEC head jester, Mary Shapiro, is leaving the SEC and stepping down from her scandal-laced chairmanship. One would think that it would be an ideal time for Obama to make amends with his voting supporters and undertake steps to completely overhaul the SEC, right? Instead, we get a retread from the Bush administration as Obama's new appointee, Elisse Walter. This particular appointment will not require Congressional (Senate) approval as she is already a Commission member. What reinforces the bad decision on this appointment is the fact that apparently Harry Reid recommended it (Harry Reid, the guy who went from being a pauper with a failed law practice to being worth millions once he was elected to the Senate by the good-gaming State of Nevada and no doubt a big beneficiary of Steve Wynn's political largesse).
You can read about Ms. Walter's background here: LINK Yes on the surface her educational credentials make her look impressive. But note that she is clearly connected to both the Bush dynasty via Yale and to Obama via Harvard Law School. Harvard Law has successively bred some of the most corrupt financial markets operators in history (see Robert Rubin's history). In fact, Ms. Walter was involved with the CFTC when Rubin ran the Treasury Dept and Shapiro ran the CFTC. That time period lives in infamy with financial market historians as being the time when Brooksley Born attempted to reign in and regulate derivatives, but was promptly stuffed and politically punished by Rubin, Greenspan and Shapiro. Ms. Walter was a complete non-event as a regulator at FINRA.
Even more troubling is the fact that it appears as if Ms. Walter, in her capacity as one of the SEC commissioners under Ms. Shapioro, was nothing more than a rubber-stamp vote for Shapiro's policy proposals: "Ms. Walter was often the only reliable vote for Ms. Schapiro’s rule-making effort." What rule-making efforts? The SEC refused/failed to enforce the rules that are already on the books. You can read about Ms. Shapiro's failures as the chief securities industry regulator and Ms. Walter's affirmation of these failures here: LINK
While Obama supporters and Romney haters are still wallowing in their victory 3 weeks ago, I'm sure this Obama appointment will get buried by the mainstream media and overlooked by the few credible analysts who try to report the facts. But the truth is that Obama further demonstrated his true lack of desire and ability to reform our system. Either that or he reaffirmed that fact that he is largely a Manchurian President, a mere dish-rag for those elitists who paid for his election both times around.
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Embry also spoke about the new head of the Bank of England: “Mark Carney has just given up his post as the head of the Bank of Canada to take over as the head of the Bank of England. Well, he’s an ex-Goldman Sachs guy. So that puts Carney as the head of the Bank of England, Draghi as the head of the ECB, and Monti running Italy, even though he wasn’t elected. These are all ex-Goldman Sachs guys. This is scary stuff. Goldman is everywhere.”
ReplyDeletehttp://kingworldnews.com/kingworldnews/KWN_DailyWeb/Entries/2012/11/26_We_Are_About_To_Crush_15_Years_Of_Resistance_In_Gold_%26_Silver.html
At least he can speak English. What other country would put a foreigner in charge of it's finances. The last Englishman to stand up for his rights was Edward ll and he gets pilloried in every Hollywood movie as a result just look at Braveheart as an example.
DeleteSince the Glorious Revolution (what a label) England has been a land of slaves.
Congress Damns Corzine but Lets Him Off the Hook
ReplyDeletePerhaps we should no longer be surprised by the arrogance of Wall Street executives. Still, the level of hubris and bullying displayed by Jon Corzine during his 19-month tenure as chairman and chief executive officer of MF Global Holdings Ltd. (MFGLQ) -- as described in a recent congressional report about the company’s 2011 collapse -- stands out for sheer offensiveness.
The 97-page report prepared by the staff for Republicans on the House Financial Services Committee panel on oversight and investigation pulls no punches when it comes to blaming Corzine for the MF Global disaster, which wiped out thousands of jobs and billions of dollars of customers’ and creditors’ money. “Jon Corzine caused MF Global’s bankruptcy and put customer funds at risk,” the report concludes flatly.
New Division
A month later, though, Corzine had set up a new division at MF Global, the Principal Strategies Group, to make big wagers with the firm’s capital, the very thing he said MF Global would not do. He fired a bunch of the firm’s traders who he thought were not capable of swinging for the fences and brought in a slew of new hires, many from Goldman Sachs, to get the job done. He also had his very own proprietary-trading account at MF Global, even though company policy required that a more senior executive always sign off on personal trading -- an impossibility in his case because he was the most senior executive. (Corzine got around that requirement by creating a subcommittee of the board of directors to oversee his personal trades.)
Tepid Law
The report makes a number of tepid recommendations about how to prevent a recurrence of what Corzine wrought at MF Global. Among them is encouraging Congress to enact a law “to restore investor confidence in the futures markets” that imposes civil liability on the officers and directors who sign a company’s financial statements or “authorize specific transfers from customer segregated accounts for regulatory shortfalls of segregated customer funds.”
Unfortunately, civil penalties have done little to deter bad behavior on Wall Street. The report lamely sidesteps the issue of criminal liability in the MF Global debacle, and the New York Times reported that “federal investigators do not expect to file criminal charges against top executives.”
To anyone who has read the House report, this is a head- scratcher.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-11-25/congress-damns-corzine-but-lets-him-off-the-hook.html
MF Global customers to seek subpoenas for Corzine, others
DeleteJudge Martin Glenn, who oversees MF Global's liquidation in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan, in February denied a similar subpoena request from another former MF Global customer, saying it would impede ongoing investigations by authorities.
Many officials, including Giddens, the Department of Justice and the FBI, have been investigating the case and have spoken to MF Global executives.
Giddens' role -- to return as much money as possible to former customers -- raises questions as to whether subpoena power for the coalition could be redundant.
Giddens has already returned to customers about 80 percent of the money in their accounts, which were frozen when the company went bankrupt. He has said he will try to recover much of the roughly $1.6 billion gap in those accounts through litigation or settlements with MF Global affiliates, regulators and counterparties.
Giddens has also joined forces with plaintiffs who have sued Corzine for alleged civil infractions.
Still, Koutoulas says customers should be able to take matters into their own hands and ask Corzine and fellow brass detailed questions about the firm's collapse.
"This case needs another kick in the butt," Koutoulas said. "It's almost like the courts are treating Corzine as a sacred cow that can't be touched."
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/11/27/us-mfglobal-subpoena-idUSBRE8AP19I20121127?
Well, that's politics. The ability to say "nice doggie" and pet the beast with one hand, while groping behind one's back with the other hand, searching for a rock with which to crush the animal's skull.
ReplyDeleteMy question is simply WHY can't a physical only group be set up to challenge any and all institutions who claim to be the controllers of precious metals.
ReplyDeleteThe policy would be that if you don't bring forth the physical you don't get anything in return. Plain and simple.
So long as derivative's as well as other facocta paper concepts are respected the charades will go on .
Yeah, I think Obama is too dumb to understand what is going on, he is a paid (he saw the money and took it to do the devil's deeds) lackey for the real power. He constantly shows how ignorant he is on basic matters, does not follow up on his promises, and when he deviates by a little from the teleprompter or script, he is lost, not at all the suave, charismatic individual who will bring about hope...
ReplyDeleteI don't think he's necessarily stupid per se, although I refuse to believe he's as intelligent as the legend makes him out to be per your examples, but I do think he's completely bought and paid for. It's the American way, but its ESPECIALLY the Chicago way...
DeleteMarket Nuggets: CME Group: Force Majeure Declared On MTB Depository After Hurricane Sandy
ReplyDeleteMonday November 26, 2012 4:14 PM
Exchange operator CME Group says a force majeure was declared at the Manfra, Tordello and Brooks precious-metals depository in New York as a result of storm damage from Hurricane Sandy. However, holders of outstanding warrants who want load-outs during this period will still be able to do so, with MTB to make metal available from another approved depository, Brinks Inc. in New York, the exchange operator says. This applies to gold, platinum and palladium. “MTB depository has operational limitations from the East Coast storm and will not be able to load out metals at their facility until operations have been restored,” CME Group says. Still, current outstanding warrants will continue to be deliverable through all relevant delivery periods while the declaration of force majeure is in effect, CME Group says.
http://www.kitco.com/reports/kitcoNewsMarketNuggets20121126.html
http://www.mtbcoins.com/code/about.htm
CME = Crime Made Easy.
ReplyDeleteIts all rigged. Always has been, probably always will be. Et tu, Brute. Al
ReplyDeleteAbstract
ReplyDeleteThis note argues that using gold as collateral for highly distressed bonds would bring
great benefits to the euro area in terms of reduced financing costs and bridge-financing.
It is mindful of the legal issues that this will raise and that such a suggestion will be
highly controversial. For this purpose, it brings gold into the debate and outlines the value
of Europe’s gold reserves. It also explains that gold has been used as collateral in the
past and how a gold-backed bond might work and how it could lower yields in the context
of the euro crisis. This move is then compared to the ECB’s now terminated Securities
Markets Programme (SMP) and its recently declared Outright Monetary Transactions
(OMTs). Namely, a central bank using its balance sheet to lower yields of highly
distressed countries where the monetary policy transmission mechanism is no longer
working. Beyond some similarities between the moves, the specific benefits of using gold
in this manner vis-a-vis the SMP and the OMTs are highlighted. For instance, there is no
transfer of credit risk between high risk/low risk countries, losses are borne by specific
countries and not by the largest shareholder of ECB. It would turn out to be more
transparent and it would not be inflationary and would foster reforms.
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/document/activities/cont/201210/20121008ATT53122/20121008ATT53122EN.pdf
Turk - The LBMA Is Moving To Cover Up Silver Manipulation
ReplyDeleteToday James Turk spoke with King World News about steps which are being taken by the LBMA and Western central planners to cover up the corruption and manipulation in the gold and silver markets. This is the first in a series of interviews with James Turk that will be released today which reveals what is going on behind the scenes of the increasingly desperate Western central bank gold and silver price suppression scheme.
Here is what Turk had to say about what is now taking place: “They (the LBMA) are making it more and more opaque. Less and less information is being made available. Specifically, what’s happened here is that the LBMA had been reporting the silver lending rate and comparing it to the LIBOR rate.”
James Turk continues:
“For the past couple of years I have contended that this was a fictitious rate because, in reality, I believe silver is in backwardation. In other words, the future months are below the spot months, and so you should have a negative silver forward rate. But it’s not reported that way on the LBMA site.
They (the LBMA) consistently show a positive silver forward rate. Now, what the LBMA said is they are no longer going to report silver interest rates and silver forward rates.....
http://kingworldnews.com/kingworldnews/KWN_DailyWeb/Entries/2012/11/27_Turk_-_The_LBMA_Is_Moving_To_Cover_Up_Silver_Manipulation.html
Carney attacks Haldane in hint of Bank of England rift
ReplyDeleteMark Carney, the incoming Governor of the Bank of England, has attacked Andy Haldane, one of its most senior regulators and rising star, for failing to have a “proper understanding of the facts”.
Mr Carney, who is chairman of the global regulator the Financial Stability Board (FSB), criticised Mr Haldane, the Bank’s executive director for financial stability, for proposals he made to simplify bank regulation and encourage banks to break up.
Mr Haldane, considered a leading contender for a deputy governor role at the Bank, argued in his celebrated “dog and the frisbee” speech in August that the Basle III rules on banking Mr Carney has championed were so complex they would inevitable fail.
Instead, he called for simple reforms – smaller banks, and more straightforward but stronger rules. “Regulation of modern finance is almost certainly too complex. That configuration spells trouble... Because complexity generates uncertainty, it requires a regulatory response grounded in simplicity, not complexity,” he said.
The future Governor’s decision to single out Mr Haldane for criticism is striking, given the likely shake-up that Mr Carney’s arrival will bring about at the Bank when he joins in June. Mr Haldane is seen as one of the Bank’s best minds, who is not afraid to take on establishment views.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/9705748/Carney-attacks-Haldane-in-hint-of-Bank-of-England-rift.html
L’Union Européenne de Goldman Sachs
Deletehttp://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/2012/11/lunion-europeenne-de-goldman-sachs.html
The 0.1% Circles the Wagons: Buffett Pumps for Dimon as Treasury Secretary
ReplyDeleteWell, given that our current Treasury secretary was forgiven for being a tax cheat (Turbo Timmy never did settle up for his underpaid taxes that were beyond the IRS statute of limitations), there is a certain logic in upping the ante with his replacement. Having a Treasury secretary who is a slam-dunk case for criminal Sarbanes-Oxley violations (see here and here) as well as running a bank where the auditors signaled the worst level of accounting failure short of signaling “going concern” worries is par for the course for the ever-risinng level of corruption among what passes for our elites.
So what is Buffett’s angle in recommending Dimon? Is it simply that he’s the least tainted looking bank exec around (well, least tainted only if you put on super thick rose colored glasses?). Wells Fargo, a long-standing Buffett investment, is piling on mortgage exposures, even more so that the other major player in the residential mortgage space, JP Morgan. Dimon has such a monster ego if he were in the Treasury, he’d make sure to protect JPM from any “unforeseen” events. And while JPM remains too complex and international to fail, Wells a largely domestic bank could in theory be resolved (although its size makes that a stretch; Continental Illinois was taken over in 1984 and was under government operation for a full seven years). Of course, the idea that these banks would ever get in trouble again is dismissed by Dimon and his peers as ridiculous; they even deny they were in trouble in 2008.
Read more at http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2012/11/the-0-1-circles-the-wagons-buffett-pumps-for-dimon-as-treasury-secretary.html#JJcROJcVZfCTqiLP.99
Kabul Bank fraud profited elite, leaked audit says
ReplyDeleteAfghans walk past a branch of the Kabul Bank (file photo) Investors withdrew their savings amid claims of corruption and mismanagement
Afghanistan's failed Kabul Bank was involved in a fraud that funnelled almost $900m into the pockets of a small number of the political elite, an independent auditors' report says.
One of President Hamid Karzai's brothers, Mahmoud, is said to be a beneficiary. He denies any wrongdoing.
Details of the audit were revealed in a leaked report seen by the New York Times newspaper.
Revelations of corruption led to a run on the bank in 2010.
Foreign donors bailed it out fearing its failure could lead to the collapse of Afghanistan's fragile economy.
But according to the report by Kroll Associates, when the bank's assets were seized, the vast majority of its loans - almost $900m (£561m) - were made to just 19 people and companies.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-20512713
Dear England
ReplyDeleteIn 2005 Stephen Harper won an election, in part, because he promised never to goose the taxes on high-paying, popular income trusts. On Halloween night the next year he did just that. Poor F was pushed in front of the TV cameras and fed live to the voracious media. He claimed the feds would lose “billions” in taxes if trusts weren’t spanked, but never proved it.
Behind the scenes was a smart but stealthy civil servant at the Department of Finance who was responsible for this shocking reversal – a dude named Mark Carney. Within months the Conservative government rewarded him with an appointment to head the Bank of Canada, promoting the tender 42-year-old over the heir apparent at the Bank, Paul Jenkins. It soon became clear on Parliament Hill that Carney was a close confidant of F’s, and the guy was untouchable.
At the meeting of the Parliamentary Finance Committee called to confirm his appointment, I started asking weasel questions about the trust affair, before seeing if Carney approved of 40-year mortgages with zero down payments. The Conservatives on the body hooted me down while the chairman (now the junior finance minister) ruled me out of order. Later they all beat the crap out of me in the parking lot
A year before economies imploded in a real estate-induced frenzy, ripping into financial markets and bringing capitalism to the brink, I asked Carney – soon to become bank governor – if he was worried about the housing market. He said no. His subsequent actions proved that. In fact the guy could be called the architect of the situation we have today, when the average Toronto family can’t afford the average home, Vancouver has been destroyed by land speculation and we’re on the verge of a nasty correction.
Mr. Carney said nothing when his pal F pushed through forty-year amortizations and allowed zero down payment loans to be covered by CMHC.
http://www.greaterfool.ca/2012/11/26/dear-england/
Whalen: Deutsche Bank’s Absurd Claims About Banks
ReplyDeleteA gentleman named Jan Schildbach of Deutsche Bank (DB) has published a research report “Universal banks: Optimal for clients and financial stability; Why it would be wrong to split them up.” This report is remarkable for many reasons, but not because it makes a convincing investment case for mega banks. Rather, it proves that anybody can make a case for any proposition so long as one carefully avoids touching any inconvenient facts.
But, again, this is completely wrong. Not only do large universal banks have lower nominal and risk-adjusted returns than smaller banks, but the periodic need to be bailed out by government renders the largest banks a nightmare for investors and the public. In the case of C and JPM, for example, these institutions require massive subsidies from the public that the DB analyst does not even mention in his report. Even in nominal terms, banks such as C and JPM have been consistent value destroyers.
http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2012/11/whalen-deutsche-banks-absurd-claim-about-banks/
GOLD STANDARD RECALL
ReplyDeleteThe law can be stated: The Gold Standard will return from a sheer standpoint of value, stability, and resistance to storms based in failed bond auctions, debt writedowns, and insolvency consequences. Only a hard asset backed new currency can replace a fiat paper currency reserve.
The law can be stated: The bond monetization known as Quantitative Easing (QE) powers the upward move in the cost structure for the global economy. The result is a shrinking profit margins imposed on the entire economies, felt in job cuts and reduced budgets for expansion, even maintenance.
The law can be stated, as a profound consequence: The combination of ZIRP & QE lead to capital destruction and systemic breakdown. Observe the fast falling Money Velocity while money supply grows at a staggering pace.
http://www.silverdoctors.com/jim-willie-immutable-gold-laws/
Can we trust China’s gold reserve figures – or anyone else’s either
ReplyDeleteThe general public is beginning to question government and Central bank figures to a degree not seen in the past, as witness the pressure on Germany’s Bundesbank to audit its gold reserves held in vaults in other countries, notably in the USA and the UK – a pressure which is finding similar support in other European democratic nations. Indeed recent scandals in the financial sector casts yet more doubt on the veracity of much of the information reported by government and banks that has been totally accepted by the general public in the past. A recent survey by Which magazine in the U.K. has come up with the startling fact that one of the country’s best known financial institutions – a major high street and global bank nonetheless- is the least trusted brand name in the U.K. Not so long ago your friendly local bank manager would have been considered as being perhaps the most upright citizen in the town, at the peak of propriety. Now the banks are considered among the least respected of all the professions. How the mighty have fallen!
Maybe the Bundesbank’s and all the other nations’ gold stored in the vaults in New York and London is indeed all there, but the very fact that this is being questioned at all signifies a basic, all-pervading reduction in trust in any kind of financial institution – and almost certainly in government too – politicians have long been considered by many as just opportunists out to feather their own nests.
http://www.mineweb.com/mineweb/content/en/mineweb-political-economy?oid=163943&sn=Detail
Americans Forced to Close Their Intrade Accounts
ReplyDeleteThe Empire stretches to reach and mess around wherever it can--no doubt irritating more people in the process.
On Monday, Americans were told that they must close their Intrade.com accounts, reports John Stossel. That happened because the Commodity Futures Trading Commission yesterday sued Intrade, where people from all over the world bet about things like who will win elections.
http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2012/11/americans-forced-to-close-their-intrade.html
Bankers, Bradburys And The Carnage On The Western Front
ReplyDeleteJustin Walker tells the British Constitution Group annual conference on the 24th November 2012 of a little known historical fact which will collapse even further the reputation of the City of London.
http://youtu.be/Cb4dc1JZzgs
Gold Shortage Forcing Drastic Steps By Central Planners
ReplyDeleteThis interview brings up the recent announcement of a move to dematerialize gold in India. This move is almost definitely being forced on India by Western central planners in an effort to stop the hemorrhaging of physical gold out of Western central bank vaults.
Eric King: “There is a move to dematerialize gold in India because they can’t continue to feed the gold into India (and the rest of the world) out of the Western central bank vaults.”
Turk: “That’s exactly right, Eric. It sort of reminds me of what happened back in 1969 when they tried to dematerialize gold at that time when there wasn’t enough (available) gold, and they (the IMF) created a thing called the SDR....
http://kingworldnews.com/kingworldnews/KWN_DailyWeb/Entries/2012/11/27_Turk_-_Gold_Shortage_Forcing_Drastic_Steps_By_Central_Planners.html
Post-US world born in Phnom Penh
ReplyDeleteBy Spengler
It is symptomatic of the national condition of the United States that the worst humiliation ever suffered by it as a nation, and by a US president personally, passed almost without comment last week. I refer to the November 20 announcement at a summit meeting in Phnom Penh that 15 Asian nations, comprising half the world’s population, would form a Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership excluding the United States.
President Barack Obama attended the summit to sell a US-based Trans-Pacific Partnership excluding China. He didn’t. The American led-partnership became a party to which no-one came.
Instead, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, plus China, India, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand, will form a club and leave out the United States. As 3 billion Asians become prosperous, interest fades in the prospective contribution of 300 million Americans – especially when those Americans decline to take risks on new technologies. America’s great economic strength, namely its capacity to innovate, exists mainly in memory four years after the 2008 economic crisis.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/NK27Dj02.html
Time to dump on housing
ReplyDeleteHousing subsidies are largely a product of politicians' sentimentality. In both the United States and Britain before 1980, house prices were affordable in terms of average incomes and housing finance operations like Jimmy Stewart's Bailey Building and Loan (It's a Wonderful Life, 1946) made mortgage loans to middle-income people who had saved a sufficient down-payment.
It's likely this idyll could have continued forever but for the inflation of the 1970s, which caused interest rates to rise in both countries so that in Britain mortgages (which generally carried floating interest rates) became unaffordable and in the US the losses on fixed-rate mortgages destroyed the balance sheets and cash flows of the savings and loan associations.
The inflation of the 1970s also affected the public's attitude to housing. In both countries, houses ceased being simply places to live and became investments. From this point, the better-off ceased worrying about the upkeep costs of a large house and began to extend themselves in the mortgage market, hoping to maximize their investment profits.
The result was a massive run-up in prices in fashionable areas like London, New York and most of California, which took both housing and local jobs well out of range of ordinary people. I am by most standards quite wealthy, at least in terms of income, but I could no more afford to live comfortably in today's London than I could afford a luxury yacht and its attendant upkeep and crew.
The ideal we should aim at is Germany, where thanks to the admirable Bundesbank there has been little inflation, so home ownership is limited. Only around 43% of the population owns a home and finance is available for at most 80% of the purchase price, normally less. German house prices have been flat or slightly declining in nominal terms for two decades, and only recently, as euro monetary policy has been by German standards excessively lax and euro interest rates have been held down below German inflation, has there been a bump of maybe 10-15% in prices.
It's not a coincidence that Germany has the most successful industrial sector in Europe. Because of its lower house prices less of its savings is wasted in home purchase, even though the rich, like the Victorian British, are substantial investors in rental properties. (They invest little in equities, substantially in bonds and not at all in hedge funds or other worthless excrescences of the Anglo-American capital markets.) Houses are affordable, either to buy or to rent, yet staff are mobile when they need to be, since only the oldest and longest established own their homes.
In short, the German housing and house finance market is a good template, and our policies should be aimed at mirroring that market.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/NK28Dj01.html
Alasdair Macleod: Custody arrangements reduce security for GLD and SLV shareholders
ReplyDeleteBy Alasdair Macleod
Tuesday, November 27, 2012
GLD, the New York Stock Exchange-listed gold exchange-traded fund, appears to have quietly removed key investor protection with the apparent agreement of United Kingdom regulators.
By imputation, the same change in regulation applies to the silver ETF SLV, though less obviously so.
A revision to GLD's prospectus appears to have absolved its custodian and trustee from having to comply fully with the custody rules of the U.K. Financial Services Authority, a change that must have been undertaken with the agreement of the FSA and by implication the Bank of England, which oversees the London bullion market and is party to the London Code for Non-investment Products (the NIPS Code). This code now guides the actions of the management, trustees, and custodians of both ETFs.
In summary, the FSA's reply to my letter confirmed that investors in GLD and SLV were protected by the scope of the FSA's rules, which have the force of law. In other words, so long as the custodians complied with the FSA's Custody Rules, the concerns about the looseness of the prospectus' wording should not be a cause for undue concern in this regard.
Then something interesting happened: GLD re-issued its prospectus.
In GLD's prospectus issued in April 2012, under "Risk Factors" an extra paragraph has been inserted toward the end, as follows:
“The custody operations of the custodian are not subject to specific governmental regulatory supervision.
"The custodian is responsible for the safekeeping of the trust’s gold bullion that the custodian allocates to the trust in connection with the creation of baskets by authorized participants. The custodian also facilitates the transfer of gold in and out of the trust through unallocated gold accounts it maintains for authorized participants and the trust. Although the custodian is a market maker, clearer, and approved weigher under the rules of the LBMA, which sets out good practices for participants in the bullion market, the LBMA is not an official or governmental regulatory body. In addition, while the custodian is subject to general banking regulations by U.S. regulators and is generally regulated in the U.K. by the FSA, such regulatory provisions do not directly cover the custodian’s custody operations in the U.K. Accordingly, the trust is dependent on the custodian to comply with the best practices of the LBMA and to implement satisfactory internal controls for its custody operations in order to keep the trust's gold secure."
This appears to confirm that subsequent to my letter, which the FSA says it passed on to "the supervisors of the relevant firms," investors in GLD are being made aware they do not have the full protection of the FSA as regulator and instead are given the protection of "good practices of the LBMA."
Investor protection afforded for safe custody assets is at least in part being substituted by a dealing and settlement code of practice backed by LBMA-recommended client agreements that applies to an unregulated market.
Put another way, it appears that following my letter GLD's custodian has backed out of its previous arrangement that would enable the FSA to fulfil its mandated responsibilities.
http://www.gata.org/node/11965
Tuesday, November 27, 2012
ReplyDeleteThe Financial System: FUBAR by Goldman Sachs and Others
Let me get this straight: there is $67 trillion floating around in the black hole called The Shadow Banking System. Only banks deal there, not ordinary citizens. The $67 trillion are not normal assets but are loans or borrowings amongst the banks of the world. In other words, the $67 trillion is DEBT owed from one bank to another. That is why the financial system has been royally screwed. There are not enough people in the world to pay off that debt and there is not enough public property to privatize to pay off that debt. Nevertheless, austerity is being imposed for just such a purpose.
Now the banks are pretending that the citizens of the world or their governments owe this money to them. What a scam the banks have pulled off! How long are the central bankers, the treasury officials and the finance ministers going to play this charade for us? Is it to play out until we all are slaves to the banks?
There are no banking executives in jail for fraud because there are not enough jail cells to hold them all.
http://www.goldmansachs666.com/2012/11/normal-0-false-false-false-en-ca-x-none.html
Hong Kong Parking Costs $387,000 as Cash Moves From Homes
ReplyDeleteInvestors reacting to the Hong Kong government’s campaign to curb home buying in the world’s most expensive market are shifting money into parking spaces, pushing up prices that in high-end neighborhoods can match the cost of two U.S. homes.
The average price of a previously owned parking spot in residential complexes rose 6.7 percent to HK$640,000 ($82,600) in the third quarter, the second highest on record, from the prior three months, according to Centaline Property Agency Ltd. A space in the exclusive Repulse Bay area sold in May for HK$3 million ($387,000), the most for a single transaction and more than double the median U.S. home price, according to CarparkHK.com, a website that tallies parking-spot information.
“The circumstances are providing a perfect combination for a bubble in parking spaces,” he said. “There are demand-supply imbalances in some districts and the banks are pushing for the mortgage business.”
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-11-26/hong-kong-parking-costs-387-000-as-cash-moves-from-homes.html
Central bankers=criminals in suits
ReplyDeleteJames Turk
http://www.kingworldnews.com/kingworldnews/Broadcast/Entries/2012/11/28_James_Turk.html
Gold Higher by End of Year-Yra Harris
ReplyDeleteYra Harris is called a “trader’s trader.” He says the latest deal on Greek debt is just “pretend and extend. . . . The real problem is Spain because they’re big, they’re in debt and they have 27% unemployment.” Everyone in the Western world is dealing with the sovereign debt mess by printing money and suppressing interest rates. Harris predicts, “As long as real yields are negative, of course, gold is going to go up.” Harris is afraid inflation could get out of control and says, “It’s like being a little pregnant, you can’t really control it. Nothing destroys democracy like inflation–end of story.” If Democrats and Republicans can’t reach a deal to avoid the so-called “fiscal cliff,” then Harris contends, “Deflation . . . is bullish for gold because everybody knows what the central bank will do to answer the call . . . the Fed will become that much more aggressive.” No matter what, Harris is betting that “gold will be higher by the end of the year.” Join Greg Hunter as he goes One-on-One with trading legend Yra Harris.
http://usawatchdog.com/gold-higher-by-end-of-year-yra-harris/
Property-hoarding official suspended
ReplyDeleteSHENZHEN - An official of a neighborhood community in South China's Guangdong province was suspended from duty on Tuesday after Internet users' reports of his huge property portfolio triggered public outrage.
Zhou Weisi, deputy head of Nanlian Community Workstation, a subordinate of Longgang District Neighborhood Community in Shenzhen City of Guangdong, was outed as allegedly owning property worth at least two billion yuan ($321,000 dollars), far more than could be afforded on the income of an ordinary official.
The tip-off said Zhou has more than 80 houses, villas, factories and mansions, more than 20 luxury cars and a high-end hotel. It also mentioned that he illegally occupied and sold land through his position and offered bribes to local government.
The supervisory bureau of Longgang District launched an investigation into the issue on Tuesday.
http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2012-11/28/content_15965014.htm
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