The Athenian Real Estate Panic and Banking Crisis

Posted: Oct 11 2010     By: Jim Sinclair      Post Edited: October 11, 2010 at 11:13 am
Filed under: General Editorial

Dear CIGAs,
Armstrong has delivered a valuable lesson in economics that interpolates into today’s crisis.
Click here to view the latest article from Martin Armstrong in PDF format…



Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
The largest fraud in the history of capital markets, outlined with humor and fact.





A media blackout is desired by the banksters, but will not be accomplished in the largest fraud ever in capital markets.

States broaden foreclosure probe. The attorneys general of up to 40 states plan to announce as soon as Tuesday a joint investigation into banks’ use of flawed foreclosure paperwork. Banks have been reeling from the robo-signing scandals which stemmed from the disclosure that some bank officials signed off on hundreds of foreclosure documents a day without properly reviewing the paperwork. The pressure of such a large-scale joint investigation could prompt banks to follow the lead of Bank of America (BAC), which just days ago announced a temporary halt on foreclosures in all 50 states.


Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
We sell, China sells. How stupid can the West be?

Chinese buy third of Chesapeake South Texas field CIGA Eric
The Chinese continue to covert the depreciating dollars into resource plays that support their economic plan. This investment plan remains a stark contrast to the Western plan of asset sales (divestures) and money printing. It should be no surprise that liquidity-driven economic growth with little private sector investment struggles to create jobs.
CNOOC Ltd. and Oklahoma City-based Chesapeake announced the deal worth up to $2.16 billion Sunday in the Eagle Ford Shale project between Laredo and San Antonio. A joint statement says CNOOC will pay Chesapeake $1.08 billion in cash at closing and share 75 percent of Chesapeake’s drilling and completion costs up to another $1.08 billion.
Chesapeake expects to produce 400,000 to 500,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day at the project’s peak.
Source: finance.yahoo.com
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Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
This article is correct on the demise of the dollar, to which I add the Rise of Gold.

The demise of the dollar
In a graphic illustration of the new world order, Arab states have launched secret moves with China, Russia and France to stop using the US currency for oil trading By Robert Fisk
Tuesday, 6 October 2009
In the most profound financial change in recent Middle East history, Gulf Arabs are planning – along with China, Russia, Japan and France – to end dollar dealings for oil, moving instead to a basket of currencies.
including the Japanese yen and Chinese yuan, the euro, gold and a new, unified currency planned for nations in the Gulf Co-operation Council, including Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, Kuwait and Qatar.
Secret meetings have already been held by finance ministers and central bank governors in Russia, China, Japan and Brazil to work on the scheme, which will mean that oil will no longer be priced in dollars.
The plans, confirmed to The Independent by both Gulf Arab and Chinese banking sources in Hong Kong, may help to explain the sudden rise in gold prices, but it also augurs an extraordinary transition from dollar markets within nine years.
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Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
This Cold War is economic!
Russia Bought More Than 100 Tons of Gold This Year, RIA Novosti Reports By Brad Cook – Oct 11, 2010 1:55 AM MT
Russia’s central bank has bought more than 100 tons of gold this year, all of it on the domestic market, RIA Novosti reported, citing Bank Rossii.
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Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
No bees, no bats, and food becomes an item of luxury only for the super wealthy.

What a scientist didn’t tell the New York Times about his study on bee deaths By Katherine Eban, contributorOctober 8, 2010: 1:42 PM ET
FORTUNE — Few ecological disasters have been as confounding as the massive and devastating die-off of the world’s honeybees. The phenomenon of Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) — in which disoriented honeybees die far from their hives — has kept scientists, beekeepers, and regulators desperately seeking the cause. After all, the honeybee, nature’s ultimate utility player, pollinates a third of all the food we eat and contributes an estimated $15 billion in annual agriculture revenue to the U.S. economy.
The long list of possible suspects has included pests, viruses, fungi, and also pesticides, particularly so-called neonicotinoids, a class of neurotoxins that kills insects by attacking their nervous systems. For years, their leading manufacturer, Bayer Crop Science, a subsidiary of the German pharmaceutical giant Bayer AG (BAYRY), has tangled with regulators and fended off lawsuits from angry beekeepers who allege that the pesticides have disoriented and ultimately killed their bees. The company has countered that, when used correctly, the pesticides pose little risk.
A cheer must have gone up at Bayer on Thursday when a front-page New York Times article, under the headline "Scientists and Soldiers Solve a Bee Mystery," described how a newly released study pinpoints a different cause for the die-off: "a fungus tag-teaming with a virus." The study, written in collaboration with Army scientists at the Edgewood Chemical Biological Center outside Baltimore, analyzed the proteins of afflicted bees using a new Army software system. The Bayer pesticides, however, go unmentioned.
What the Times article did not explore — nor did the study disclose — was the relationship between the study’s lead author, Montana bee researcher Dr. Jerry Bromenshenk, and Bayer Crop Science. In recent years Bromenshenk has received a significant research grant from Bayer to study bee pollination. Indeed, before receiving the Bayer funding, Bromenshenk was lined up on the opposite side: He had signed on to serve as an expert witness for beekeepers who brought a class-action lawsuit against Bayer in 2003. He then dropped out and received the grant.
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Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
QE to infinity as there is no practical way to stop the locomotive heading our way.

Fed Certain to Act in November In a Big Way: Survey Published: Monday, 11 Oct 2010
By: Steve Liesman
Following Friday’s disappointing jobs report, market participants are now virtually certain that the Federal Reserve will announce that it will resume buying assets at the conclusion of its November meeting and do so in a sizeable way, according to an exclusive CNBC Fed Survey.
Nearly 93 percent of the 70 respondents, including economists, fund managers and traders, believe the Fed will boost the size of its portfolio, up from 69 percent in the survey two weeks ago.
Of those who expect the Fed to move, 86 percent look for an announcement in November, up from 38 percent in the last survey.
Market participants forecast that the Fed will announce plans to purchase $500 billion in assets at the conclusion of the upcoming meeting, the first time the question has been asked.
Despite the $500 billion average, expectations for the November announcement span a range from $100 billion to as high as $1.5 trillion.
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