tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7982981413278241287.post7953263792311009878..comments2023-10-28T17:54:39.467-06:00Comments on The Golden Truth: The Brain Damage ContinuesDave in Denverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03016238915167131989noreply@blogger.comBlogger49125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7982981413278241287.post-68127899738932280572013-09-25T06:35:36.651-06:002013-09-25T06:35:36.651-06:00Thai Gold Buyer Doubles Imports After Bear Slump: ...Thai Gold Buyer Doubles Imports After Bear Slump: Southeast Asia<br /><br />YLG Bullion International Co., Thailand’s biggest domestic gold importer, expects to more than double purchases this year after the bear market in prices spurred a surge in demand for physical metal.<br /><br />The company may import as much as 200 metric tons in 2013, from 92 tons last year, Chief Executive Officer Pawan Nawawattanasub said in an interview yesterday. First-half shipments advanced to 112 tons, accounting for 60 percent of the country’s total, she said. A ton is valued at $42.6 million.<br /><br />“Cheaper prices are attracting customers to buy bullion bars as they see it as money better spent than on something like a Hermes bag,” said Pawan, whose Bangkok-based company supplies retailers and investors in Southeast Asia’s second-biggest economy. “Demand in Thailand can continue to grow, partly because collecting gold is in our culture.”<br />Asian Consumer<br /><br />Demand in Thailand rose 58 percent to 26.6 tons in the second quarter from a year earlier, World Gold Council data show. The nation was the third-largest Asian user after India and China in 2012 and ranked seventh globally. Individual investors account for about half of gold purchases, said Pawan, who has worked in the gold and jewelry business for two decades.<br /><br />“There has been a complete change of customer profile,” said the 54-year-old mother of two, speaking in Thai from her office in Bangkok’s Sathorn business district, which she shares with her husband, daughter and son. “Huge volumes from retail investors are helping to offset a retreat from big investors.”<br /><br />http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-09-25/thai-gold-buyer-doubles-imports-after-bear-slump-southeast-asia.html<br />Gold exchange mulled Dealers: Move would enhance transparency<br /><br />Seven local gold futures dealers have proposed the central bank and capital market regulators set up a spot gold exchange to enhance Thailand as a regional gold trading hub. But Kritcharat Hirunyasiri,...<br /><br />Please credit and share this article with others using this link:http://www.bangkokpost.com/business/news/371322/gold-exchangeAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7982981413278241287.post-86137587561652510482013-09-24T15:56:56.153-06:002013-09-24T15:56:56.153-06:00“The West Will Regret All Its Financial Policies S...“The West Will Regret All Its Financial Policies Someday Soon”<br /> <br />For the September 2013 Matterhorn Interview Lars Schall interviews Eric Sprott.<br /><br />We are obviously extremely pleased to feature Eric Sprott this month. He needs no introduction and is a Grandee in the precious metals markets. There are very few people who understand this market better than Eric.<br /><br />In this interview Eric Sprott covers several hot topics such as the obvious manipulation of gold and the fact that Central Banks will eventually lose the battle. He also says that the West will regret all their policies and that these policies will lead to defaults and non-payment of commitments. Eric is very clear that there will never be an audit of the US gold and that most of it is probably not there. Silver is Eric’s favourite investment and he explains why it will outperform gold. He also gives a forecast for gold and silver in the next 12 months.<br /><br /><br />http://youtu.be/IelAXwKUGAoAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7982981413278241287.post-35104439270903441492013-09-24T14:59:18.122-06:002013-09-24T14:59:18.122-06:00Tom Fischer: Why gold's contango suggests cent...Tom Fischer: Why gold's contango suggests central bank interference<br />http://www.gata.org/node/13049<br /><br />Monday, September 23, 2013<br /><br />Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:<br /><br />Another academic study touching on gold market manipulation has been published this month, this one by Tom Fischer, professor of financial mathematics at the University of Wuerzburg in Germany. Fischer argues that gold's scarcity makes it such a superior currency that backwardation in its market -- when the spot price is higher than the price for future delivery -- should be normal and that contango, when the futures price is higher than the spot price -- should be rare.<br /><br />Fischer argues that the long period of contango preceeding the current turbulence in the gold market is evidence of interference in the market by central banks through their leasing of gold.<br />As much as our camp appreciates acknowledgment of central bank interference in the gold market, your secretary/treasurer often disputes the common contention repeated by Fischer -- the contention that "you can't print gold," or, as Fischer puts it, "A central bank cannot necessarily cough up just any needed amount of gold as it cannot simply print it up when required."<br /><br />To the contrary, insofar as central banks may lease virtually infinite amounts of gold as mere claims to metal that doesn't necessarily exist, and insofar as bullion banks may create similarly unbacked claims to gold through their own fractional-reserve gold banking system, claims that are seldom exercised so as to cause metal to leave any central bank or bullion bank vault, then imaginary "paper gold" in fact may be almost as easily created as ordinary fiat currency.<br /><br />Of course this assumes that no free-market organization exposes the scam so well that gold investors are induced to redeem so much "paper gold" for real metal and remove so much from the banking system that the "paper gold" system defaults. (GATA is working on that part.)<br /><br />In any case, quoting former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan's famous admission to Congress that the purpose of central bank leasing of gold is to suppress its price, Fischer is certainly correct to identify such leasing as the mechanism by which gold has been devalued to camouflage the devaluation of fiat currency, and his study substantially increases the legitimacy of the issue.<br /><br />Fischer's study is headlined "Why Gold's Contango Suggests Central Bank Interference" and it's posted in PDF format at GATA's Internet site here:<br /><br />http://www.gata.org/files/TomFischer-GoldContango.pdf<br />Michael Jacksonnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7982981413278241287.post-56494540768578656412013-09-24T14:50:16.017-06:002013-09-24T14:50:16.017-06:00and she plans to be a politican/president in the f...and she plans to be a politican/president in the future. Yeah, we're screwed. The senior citizens I know right now are spending their money like crazy as they see the cliff ahead. Unfortuately, they are spending it on the wrong stuff but on stupid stuff.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7982981413278241287.post-31160615002880175942013-09-24T14:15:20.189-06:002013-09-24T14:15:20.189-06:00There is the bell....well the end of the day. You...There is the bell....well the end of the day. You have the sign it's now over.<br />How much paper are they pushing out the door this week? I smell something burning<br /><br />Twitter S1 is the biggest comedy read Ive ever seen.....<br />I thought the worst one Ive seen ever (not an S1 but roadshow filings) was for OOMA<br />They even said in the filing what OOMA stood for.,,,Out Of My Ass., or who could forget GazProm and Nigeria doing a deal and naming it 'NigGaz'<br /><br />IF you have access to the twitter filing it is pure comedy gold......<br /><br />michael schumachernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7982981413278241287.post-39955200606409284872013-09-24T11:09:39.318-06:002013-09-24T11:09:39.318-06:00We've come a long way baby.....the plutocrats ...We've come a long way baby.....the plutocrats are thanking BB in public now. For the rest of us...---- on a shingle.<br />Carl iCahn Is Long Ben Bernanke<br /><br /> Carl Icahn ✔ @Carl_C_Icahn<br /><br />Our country owes Bernanke a great deal for pulling us out of the mess several of the largest investment banks go us into in ‘08.<br />12:20 PM - 24 Sep 2013<br />http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-09-24/carl-icahn-long-ben-bernankeAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7982981413278241287.post-70066407583223753922013-09-24T10:34:53.749-06:002013-09-24T10:34:53.749-06:00A Risk Manager’s Impossibility?
A reconsideration...A Risk Manager’s Impossibility?<br /><br />A reconsideration of the London Whale, JPMorgan’s risk management, Jamie Dimon’s oversight – and their implications for other financial institutions<br /><br />If you are a risk manager at a U.S. bank, you will be faced with difficult decisions. You’ve probably already run into one or more of what I think of as the three major problems for risk managers. The first is the lip service paid to risk management by people in leadership positions who are unfit to lead; the second is ignoring or covering up oversized risky positions; and the third is not effectively managing short positions.<br /><br />Lip Service<br /><br />Jamie Dimon, Chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase, is still lauded as the best bank manager in America. That’s a leading indicator of how difficult your job will be if you actually try to perform your role in the way it should be done. Yet, if you go-along-to-get-along, you will probably be safe only temporarily.<br /><br />http://tinyurl.com/kuk6vveAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7982981413278241287.post-64289325443963118942013-09-24T08:41:52.817-06:002013-09-24T08:41:52.817-06:00WSJ buries the lead deep on AIG’s CEO:
Benmosche s...WSJ buries the lead deep on AIG’s CEO:<br />Benmosche says outrage at AIG bonuses was “just as wrong” as lynchings of blacks (Columbia Journalism Review)<br /><br /> At AIG, Benmosche Steers a Steady Course<br /><br /> CEO Stabilizes Insurer, Focuses on Core Mission<br /><br />Up high in the story: Benmosche’s assurance that “‘too big to fail’ has been solved”<br /><br />Left on the cutting-room floor: Benmosche’s comments saying the national outrage about AIG’s bonuses was comparable to the lynching of blacks in the South.<br /><br /> The uproar over bonuses “was intended to stir public anger, to get everybody out there with their pitch forks and their hangman nooses, and all that-sort of like what we did in the Deep South [decades ago]. And I think it was just as bad and just as wrong.<br /><br />So nutty AIG paranoia about the potential of hayseeds with pitchforks stringin’ ‘em up is “just as bad and just as wrong” as the actual murder of thousands of black people by hayseeds with pitchforks.<br />Matt Taibbi says on Twitter, “Just when you thought nothing could ever be dumber than Charlie Munger’s “Suck it In and Cope” line…”, referring to Warren Buffett’s billionaire sidekick’s comment that Wall Street bailouts were justified, but regular folks slammed by the fallout of Wall Street’s actions should “Suck it in and cope, buddy. Suck it in and cope.” Taibbi’s right: Benmosche’s comment enters the Stupidest Quotes of the Crisis charts at No. 1 (Somewhere in the Top Twenty, Benmosche’s comment to Bloomberg in an interview at his seaside villa in Dubrovnik that “Retirement ages will have to move to 70, 80 years old.”)<br /><br />Where Bloomberg led its 2010 scoop on the Munger comments with that quote, the Benmosche newsmaker—amazingly—doesn’t even make the Journal’s story, which only says he “solidified his reputation as one of the most outspoken executives on Wall Street.”<br />http://www.cjr.org/the_audit/wsj_buries_the_lead_deep_on_ai.php<br /><br /><br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7982981413278241287.post-12197148030150350292013-09-24T07:04:02.764-06:002013-09-24T07:04:02.764-06:00Two thoughts/theories about gold:
1. Gold will be...Two thoughts/theories about gold:<br /><br />1. Gold will be the vehicle to restore the balance sheets of banks and other financial institutions. Buy now and these levels and hold. <br /><br />2. The SDR review is 2015 and some believe gold will be added to the SDR basket and possibly the SDR will bailout countries in the same manner the US bailed out banks and other financial institutions... "October 2011, IMF discussed possible reform options of the existing criteria for broadening the SDR currency basket." IMF website<br /><br />Please ignore if already discussed or posted.Scott Patrickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03970438933642644104noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7982981413278241287.post-26764279243481175772013-09-24T06:05:13.476-06:002013-09-24T06:05:13.476-06:00We're no different than some 3rd world country...We're no different than some 3rd world country............<br /><br /><br />Chelsea Clinton's Secret Holding Company <br /><br />Many high net worth individuals put their assets, especially their residences, in holding companies to shelter them against personal liabilities that may arise and also to protect their privacy.<br /><br />Whoops, the privacy thing isn't going so well for Chelsea and her husband.<br /><br />As I have preciously reported, Chelsea and her husband Marc Mezvinksy paid $9,250,000 for a four-bedroom apartment in the Whitman condominium building on Madison Square Park.<br /><br />But now we know, thanks to NyPo digging, the secret holding company used by Chelsea and Marc to purchase their apartment. NyPo reports:<br /><br /> Clinton and Mezvinsky purchased the property using a company called Cafema LLC. They took out a $5 million mortgage in addition to a $500,000 line of credit, records show.<br /><br /><br />Here is the public filing of Cafema LLC:<br /><br /> NOTICE OF FORMATION OF Cafema, LLC.<br /> Articles of Organization filed with the Secretary of State of NY (SSNY) on 12/18/2012. Office location: New York County. SSNY has been designated as agent upon whom process against it may be served. The Post Office address to which the SSNY shall mail a copy of any process against the LLC served upon him is Cafema, LLC C/O Ellyn Roth Mittman, Esq., 110 East 59th Street, 23rd Fl, New York, NY 10022. Purpose of LLC: To engage in any lawful act or activity.<br /><br />Avenue Magazine lists Mittman as an elite top NYC woman attorney specializing in real estate.<br />http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2013/09/chelsea-clintons-secret-holding-company.html<br /><br />Chelsea Clinton Buying $10 Million NYC Apartment<br />File under: It's a wonderful world for children of elitists and crooked politicians,<br /><br />Chelsea Clinton is buying a $10.5 million spread right across the street from Madison Square Park, reports NyPo. The apartment is 5,000 square feet and is located in the Whitman.<br /><br />http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2013/03/chelsea-clinton-buying-10-million-nyc.htmlAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7982981413278241287.post-86438870630484983742013-09-24T05:55:38.387-06:002013-09-24T05:55:38.387-06:00Building a strong economic and financial security ...Building a strong economic and financial security barrier for China<br />Presenting another translation of an article from one of the leaders in the Chinese gold industry. The original version appeared on 1 August 2012 in Qiushi magazine, the main academic journal of the Chinese Communist Party’s Central Committee. Sun Zhaoxue is the president of China National Gold Corporation, China's biggest mining company that produced 160 tons of gold in 2010 and will produce 260 tons in 2015. He is also president of the China Gold Association, that acts as a bridge between the Chinese government and gold producers in protecting business interests and providing information, consultancy, co-ordination and intermediary services for them. In the article he explains that China needs to hoard gold in order to safeguard the country’s economic stability and to strengthen its defense against external risks. <br /><br />Watch how the show, broadcasted on prime time with orchestral music, moving camera's and women in cocktail dresses, emphasizes the importance gold and glorifies the guy digging it out of the ground. In his acceptance speech Sun said the price of gold will rise and China should seize the opportunity to act accordingly.<br />On the Lujiazui financial reform and opening up Forum in 2009 he said China should not only boost it's official reserves, civil hoarding is just as important for economic stablilty, he recommends to invest 20 % of savings in gold.<br /><br /><br />Although other sites (ie the Financial Times) have quoted from Sun's oncoming article, none of them published the whole thing. This MUST READ is translated for us by Soh Tiong Hum (click for his very interesting +Google page).<br />the state will need to elevate gold to an equal strategic resource as oil<br />Building a strong economic and financial security barrier for China<br />- Actively build and implement national gold strategies<br />http://koosjansen.blogspot.nl/2013/09/building-strong-economic-and-financial.html<br /><br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7982981413278241287.post-45206182514104086462013-09-24T05:43:23.131-06:002013-09-24T05:43:23.131-06:00What you can't independently audit, you can ge...What you can't independently audit, you can get away with? ....<br /><br /><br />Empty cells like in spreadsheet....what a game.<br /><br /><br /> Why You Should Not Trust the Financials of Private Equity Owned Companies<br /><br /><br /><br />Today, we are going to examine iLevel in greater detail. We will see that this company is built from the ground up as vehicle to convince PE investors and the SEC that Blackstone and other PE firms have implemented robust financial controls over the companies they own. The reality, however, is the opposite: by design, iLevel gives PE firms unprecedented ability to cook the books of their portfolio companies while maintaining a facade of compliance.<br /><br />This may all seem like a very arcane discussion of reporting workflow, but it is important to understand that the PE firms want your eyes to glaze over. The key issue is that PE firms want their investors and the SEC to believe that their iLevel database has been constructed in a tamper-resistant fashion, which is always a central design goal of accounting software systems. If an accounting system allows people to change entries after the fact, that system is absolutely, utterly worthless. But that’s what iLevel explicitly allows to occur because, rather than extracting the data directly, it requires portfolio company employees to re-enter information into iLevel from their general ledger accounting system. Moreover, iLevel presents as one of its advantages that “key stakeholders” can “verify and approve the data”. That’s code for “tamper with”.<br /><br />Why do LPs and the SEC care about the data that goes into iLevel? In a version of its website that was labeled “test” and never posted live, but which was nevertheless crawled by Google, iLevel lays out its value proposition to PE firms in dealing with the SEC and LP investors:<br /><br /> The SEC has begun its initial ‘interviewing’ of Private Equity firms and their practice of valuing their investment holdings. The questions provided to several PE firms requests information such as supporting evidence for the valuations of all fund assets and any document establishing an assigned value for any assets owned by the fund.<br /><br />The real purpose for a PE firm using iLevel is to trick the SEC and LP investors into believing that there is a reliable basis for the data underlying a PE firm’s portfolio company valuations, which in turn affects what the PE firm gets paid. As iLevel points out in the quote above, the SEC is asking for documentation to support valuations. With iLevel, the PE firms can say to the SEC and LPs, “The data was provided directly to the iLevel database by the portfolio company, via an automated process.” The SEC and LP investors are likely to hear this statement as, “The data was extracted from the portfolio company general ledger via an automated (and inherently tamper-resistant) process, in which we – the PE firm – had no role.” What the SEC and LPs should interpret this statement to mean is, “The data was manually input by a portfolio company employee whom we – the PE firm – have hiring and firing authority over. There is no process to reconcile or audit the data input to iLevel with a portfolio company general ledger.”<br /><br />This scheme is actually quite ingenious. Whereas the SEC and PE fund limited partners have various degrees of audit authority over the PE firms themselves, that authority does not extend to the portfolio companies. If the data input into iLevel is inflated at a PE firm’s behest, neither the SEC nor the limited partners have any ready mechanism to compare the iLevel data with the portfolio company general ledger, so the fraud is overwhelmingly likely to go undetected.<br /><br /><br />http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2013/09/45223.html<br /><br /> Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7982981413278241287.post-58783044460198272162013-09-23T23:51:27.341-06:002013-09-23T23:51:27.341-06:00President Obama Asks Congress To Give Up Its Overs...President Obama Asks Congress To Give Up Its Oversight On Secret TPP Agreement<br />from the that's-not-a-good-thing dept<br /><br />http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130920/12045524592/president-obama-asks-congress-to-give-up-its-oversight-secret-tpp-agreement.shtml<br /><br />We've talked a few times about how the USTR and the administration are asking Congress for "trade promotion authority," which would effectively let it bypass Congressional oversight of the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement. In fact, in many ways the USTR has been acting as if it already has this. The specifics of "trade promotion authority" or "fast track authority" are a bit down in the weeds, but the short version is that it's the administration asking Congress to completely abdicate its authority and mandate in overseeing international trade agreements. Basically, it removes the ability of Congress to seek any fixes or amendments to a trade agreement -- only allowing them to give a yes or no vote.<br /><br />This might not be such a big deal if the TPP wasn't negotiated in near total secrecy. We've been told that a final agreement is getting close, but no official text has been released at all. What we know of the IP section is one draft that leaked out from well over a year ago. And, now, we're going to get a product that will be released to the public with little time for debate and no way to make changes should the public point out how ridiculous and dangerous it is.<br /><br />And, of course, President Obama is insisting it's necessary to undermine the authority of Congress with a secret agreement that will have tremendous impact on Americans... just because he wants it. He announced to "the President’s Export Council" that "We're going to need Trade Promotion Authority." Let's be clear: the only reason the administration "needs" TPA is so that it can ram through the agreement without letting Congress do its oversight job. Trade Promotion Authority offers no benefit to the public at all. All it does is make sure that the USTR has less oversight and fewer limitations on selling out the public for a few big special interests. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7982981413278241287.post-63612825013453776112013-09-23T17:11:12.460-06:002013-09-23T17:11:12.460-06:00If you listen to TV commentators, you’ve been told... If you listen to TV commentators, you’ve been told the worst is behind us. Growth is picking up, and Europe is coming out of its slumber. No one seems to be concerned that this tepid below-2-percent growth is being entirely fed by the central bank’s massive money printing. It’s a “growth at any price” policy. How quickly we forget.<br /><br />Back in the boom days, anyone who questioned double-digit growth in housing prices was viewed as an unenlightened Cassandra, lacking knowledge on how the new economy had fundamentally changed the law of scarcity. Austrian economists consistently warned that a boom built on foundation of easy money could only lead to a disaster. Today, most of the growth is coming from the interest rate-sensitive sectors of the economy, such as cars and housing. This should be ringing warning bells everywhere.<br /><br />The conventional wisdom is that the Fed will begin to taper when growth picks up. This is a complete misreading of what is actually happening. The Fed made a monumental mistake, and does not really know how to get out of the trap it had set upon itself.<br /><br />The Fed embarked on a “we know best” policy of QE3 in the fall, and induced a market bubble in the spring. The S&P 500 gained 12 percent from January to June 2013 while growth remained subdued. The Fed realized its mistake, and now wants to get out. The problem is that in economics, as with most things in life, it’s much easier to get into trouble than out of it. The FED wants to take away the punch bowl, but knows that interest rates will rise, the stock market will crash, and the economy will tank. The longer it waits, the greater will be the inevitable adjustment.<br /><br />If we do not learn from history we are bound to repeat it. We have been here before. The depression of 1920 and Roosevelt recession of 1937 show us what happens when excessive monetary printing is followed by tepid tapering.<br /><br />The 1937 Recession is a perfect example of Austrian business cycle theory. It was severe but short. Output fell by 11 percent and industrial production by 32 percent. Unemployment surged back up from 14 percent to 19 percent. <br /><br />http://mises.org/daily/6538/Fear-the-Boom-Not-the-Bust#IDComment724338066Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7982981413278241287.post-3643454853864112362013-09-23T17:06:47.812-06:002013-09-23T17:06:47.812-06:00A very good read on the debase of Rome's coins...A very good read on the debase of Rome's coins and how it lead to its downfall.<br /><br />http://mises.org/daily/3663<br /><br />History is repeating history.....Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7982981413278241287.post-78019362270666432762013-09-23T17:05:50.373-06:002013-09-23T17:05:50.373-06:00The Fed doing reverse repo today. Another clue or...The Fed doing reverse repo today. Another clue or tell they are planning for something.<br /><br />The same thing thing was done in Sept. 2008 although the main difference between today and then is the actual mechanics of the so called "operation". 2008 was an outright cash grab back by the FED in Sept. '08 via reverse repo process at the worst (depending on one's perspective) possible time. <br /><br />This assisted (or caused IMO) the cascade of asset driven selling that started the slide. <br /><br />Today was not really a reverse-repo as classified by the Feds own terminology, its' just called that. The reverse-repo's of the past have been miniscule compared to this so it's no wonder that the treasury decided to play along today with collateral "help". <br /><br />Tick, tock, tick, tock......michael schumachernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7982981413278241287.post-8266946188178177282013-09-23T14:30:43.100-06:002013-09-23T14:30:43.100-06:00The Fed goes too far
Commentary and weekly watch b...The Fed goes too far<br />Commentary and weekly watch by Doug Noland<br /><br />With this New Age (experimental) marketable credit infrastructure crumbling, the Bernanke Fed resorted to a massive inflation of the Fed's balance sheet - an unprecedented monetization of government debt and mortgage-backed securities. What unfolded was a historic reflation of global securities prices, along with further massive issuance of marketable debt securities.<br /><br />In spite of all the "deleveraging" talk, the growth of outstanding global debt securities went parabolic. Central bank holdings of these securities grew exponentially. Instrumental to the credit boom, Fed policy spurred trillions to leave the safety of "money" for long-term US fixed income, international securities and the emerging markets (EM).<br /><br />It is unknown how many trillions of leveraged speculative positions were incentivized by global central bankers. The combination of an unprecedented policy-induced inflation of prices across securities markets and a low tolerance for investor/speculator losses creates a very serious and ongoing dilemma for the Fed and its global central bank cohorts.<br /><br />Over the years, I've chronicled monetary management descending down the proverbial slippery slope. Actually, monetary history is rather clear on the matter: loose money and monetary inflations just don't bring out the best in people, policymakers or markets. I definitely don't believe a massive bubble in marketable debt and equity securities is conducive to policymaker veracity. I don't believe a multi-trillion dollar pool of leveraged speculative finance - that can position bullishly leveraged long or abruptly sell and go short - promotes policy candor. Actually, let me suggest that a global credit and speculative Bubble naturally promotes obfuscation and malfeasance. Invariably, it regresses into a grand confidence game with all the inherent compromises such an endeavor implies. <br /><br />http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/GECON-01-230913.htmlAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7982981413278241287.post-1243279916499243562013-09-23T12:09:59.470-06:002013-09-23T12:09:59.470-06:00Was This Whistle-Blower Muzzled?
THE fifth annive...Was This Whistle-Blower Muzzled?<br /><br />THE fifth anniversary of Lehman Brothers’ bankruptcy has occasioned one legacy-spinning defense after another. We’ve heard from Ben S. Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve; Henry M. Paulson Jr., the Treasury secretary at the time; and Timothy F. Geithner, then the New York Fed president and later Mr. Paulson’s successor at Treasury, about their historic decisions to use trillions of dollars of taxpayers’ money to bail out the banking system.<br /><br />But will we ever know what really happened behind all those closed doors? The seemingly appalling treatment afforded Richard M. Bowen III, a former Citigroup executive who blew the whistle on years of malfeasance there, shows that we may not. Thanks to political pressure and the revolving door between Washington and Wall Street, the events leading up to the financial crisis remain obscured and may never be fully revealed.<br /><br />At wits’ end, on Nov. 3, 2007, Mr. Bowen sent an e-mail to a small group of Citigroup executives, including Robert E. Rubin, a former Goldman Sachs executive and former Treasury secretary who was then chairman of the bank’s executive committee (and who received $126 million during his decade at Citigroup). “The reason for this urgent e-mail concerns breakdowns of internal controls and resulting significant but possibly unrecognized financial losses existing within our organization,” Mr. Bowen wrote.<br /><br />Mr. Bowen told me that the following Tuesday, a Citigroup lawyer told him of his e-mail: We’re taking it seriously. Don’t call us. We’ll call you. He sent more e-mails to the lawyer, but heard nothing. “I mean, silence,” he said. (Months later, the two men did talk about Mr. Bowen’s e-mail to Mr. Rubin.)<br />Mr. Bowen, who is now 66 and teaches accounting at the University of Texas, Dallas, was fired in January 2009.<br />In 2008, after his note to Mr. Rubin and after his responsibilities were vastly reduced at Citigroup, but before he was fired, Mr. Bowen decided to become a whistle-blower. That April, he filed a complaint, under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration claiming he had been retaliated against after writing his e-mail to Mr. Rubin. (The complaint was settled as part of his separation agreement with Citigroup.) Then, in July, Mr. Bowen went to the Securities and Exchange Commission. “I testified before the S.E.C.,” he told an audience in Texas earlier this year. “I told them what had happened.” He gave the S.E.C. more than 1,000 pages of documents. “Mr. Bowen, we are going to pursue this,” the agency told him. He never heard back. “Not only did they bury my testimony, they locked it up,” he said in his speech. (The S.E.C. has denied my numerous requests under the Freedom of Information Act for access to Mr. Bowen’s file, even though he has given his permission, claiming that the material was “confidential” and included Citigroup “trade secrets.” On Sept. 11, the S.E.C. denied my administrative appeal of its decision.)<br /><br />http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/22/opinion/sunday/was-this-whistle-blower-muzzled.htmlAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7982981413278241287.post-63014047692245541532013-09-23T11:13:15.903-06:002013-09-23T11:13:15.903-06:00RLPC: U.S. covenant-lite loans soar amid investor ...RLPC: U.S. covenant-lite loans soar amid investor demand<br /><br />(Reuters) - Huge demand for leveraged loans from billions of dollars flowing into U.S. loan funds pushed covenant-lite loan volume to a record $188.7 billion, far surpassing the record of 2007, and still going strong.<br /><br />Unrelenting investor demand for higher-yielding assets and floating-rate exposure has enabled issuers to sell these loan products that allow for future acquisitions or aggressive credit policies, but offer less protection for investors.<br /><br />Investors have poured money into floating-rate loans, fearing a rise in interest rates, and private equity firms have taken advantage of the demand to get looser debt structures.<br /><br />Covenant-lite issuance so far this year is 74 percent higher than all of 2007 before the collapse of Lehman Brothers, and more than five times the $35 billion issued in the first nine months of 2012.<br /><br />Multibillion dollar loans for computer maker Dell and hotels operator Hilton were launched this month as covenant-lite deals.<br /><br />http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/20/idUSL2N0HG1RX20130920<br /><br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7982981413278241287.post-43343611916900849922013-09-23T06:17:57.449-06:002013-09-23T06:17:57.449-06:00MUST READ: Chaos Computer Club Cracks Apple TouchI... MUST READ: Chaos Computer Club Cracks Apple TouchID<br />CONCLUSION: Forget about fingerprint identification as a secure password.<br /><br />The Chaos Computer Club reports:<br />The biometrics hacking team of the Chaos Computer Club (CCC) has successfully bypassed the biometric security of Apple's TouchID using easy everyday means. A fingerprint of the phone user, photographed from a glass surface, was enough to create a fake finger that could unlock an iPhone 5s secured with TouchID. This demonstrates – again – that fingerprint biometrics is unsuitable as access control method and should be avoided.<br /><br />http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2013/09/must-read-chaos-computer-club-cracks.htmlAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7982981413278241287.post-9171544520107117422013-09-22T18:49:19.022-06:002013-09-22T18:49:19.022-06:00http://finance.yahoo.com/news/us-home-sales-hit-6-...http://finance.yahoo.com/news/us-home-sales-hit-6-161157869.html<br /><br />I thought the housing market was imploding or on the verge of imploding?<br /><br />It looks like easy monopoloy money from the Fed is going to push things a lot further than we all thought.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7982981413278241287.post-48155612496555292512013-09-22T15:03:23.914-06:002013-09-22T15:03:23.914-06:00SEC Omitted Dimon Misinformed Investors on April 1...SEC Omitted Dimon Misinformed Investors on April 13, 2012 Earnings Call<br /><br />The SEC filed a cease-and-desist order on September 19, 2013 in the matter of JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s “London Whale” credit derivatives trading incident and misstatement of earnings. JPMorgan admitted it violated securities laws and agreed to pay a $920 million settlement.<br /><br />The release mentioned that JPMorgan filed inaccurate reports with the SEC: Form 8-K filed April 13, 2012 and Form 10-Q filed May 10, 2012. The SEC also listed several failures by senior management defined as the JPMorgan Chief Executive Officer, the JPMorgan Chief financial Officer, the JPMorgan Chief Risk Officer, the JPMorgan controller, and the JPMorgan General Auditor. But the report doesn’t mention them by name, and in particular, it doesn’t mention Jamie Dimon by name, even though he is both the Chief Executive Officer and the Chairman of the Board.<br /><br />Dimon’s widely reported earnings call on April 13, 2013 not only misinformed the public, Dimon was dismissive of credible news reports about huge credit derivatives positions and mounting losses in JPMorgan Chase’s Chief Investment Office unit that reported to Dimon. Not only did he dismiss the reports, he didn’t disclose the size of the losses he already knew about, and the numbers were whopping. Reported losses eventually mounted to $6.2 billion.<br /><br />Senate Investigation Showed JPMorgan Executives Misinformed the Public<br /><br />http://tinyurl.com/lcnah8tAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7982981413278241287.post-33245675411887442112013-09-22T12:13:27.663-06:002013-09-22T12:13:27.663-06:00Thought I'd throw in something here on a basic...Thought I'd throw in something here on a basic Fibo pattern noted by many, probably the only half-useful pattern they've collectively discovered.<br /><br />It's so evident they couldn't miss it, but they've all that I've read left out the little known 'flaw' in Fibo math that leaves it a little ambiguous, a guess as it were.<br /><br />Note the really big crashes and/or depressions of the past near-century:<br />1932<br />1987<br />2000<br />2008<br />...<br />This is a clear Fibo pattern targeting 2021 in a Fibo spiral of 89 years from 1932.<br /><br />decreasing fibo number of years between calamities, right, clearly showing how quicker events are coming, and note how each succeeding crash is worse than the previous!<br />89 is 55+34, or 1932-1987-2021, right?<br /><br />But<br />55+13+8+5+3+2+1+1...= 88 only?<br />that's because the math formula even states that for the nth term of a fibo sequence, the Sum of the preceding (n-1) terms will fall 1 short.<br /><br />Try it: does 144= 1+1+2+3+5+8+13+21+34+55?<br />NO, it adds to 143!<br /><br /><br />What does this mean in the real world?<br />Well, the next crash will be worse than 2008, & it's still due EITHER this year 2013, which is 2008 +fibo 5, or NEXT year 2014 due to the sequence having to "add in" that extra 1 year somewhere in a 2-step shuffle so that we get 89 from 1932 to 2021.<br /><br />No clock has timed out here anywhere saying 'no more crashes'!<br /><br />Now, all we have to do is get those clueless dumbass newsletter writers to collectively flip a coin & tell us which year it'll be.<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7982981413278241287.post-68297805766796439922013-09-22T11:07:19.279-06:002013-09-22T11:07:19.279-06:00i enjoy reading your blog! could you please specif...i enjoy reading your blog! could you please specify a little bit more what do you mean with "soon". concerning the "...it's going to start getting very "bumpy" soon....". 2013, the first half of 2014 or 2015. any idea or gut feeling or signs that tell us when it will start to become bumby. tnx. gerhardAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7982981413278241287.post-41980852707167024522013-09-22T05:58:53.217-06:002013-09-22T05:58:53.217-06:00No, your gold and silver will be revalued into Chi...No, your gold and silver will be revalued into Chinese Yuan Renminbi. It might also be a good idea to purchase a Rostta Stone course in Manderine Chinese. It will help in being able communicate in the transaction process.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com