China issues more gold and silver coins to meet soaring demand

 

Confidence in currencies collapsing, Turk tells King World News

 

 

Two Operation Twist 2/QE3 Confirmations Courtesy Of Today's Dual POMO; Or Does No QS2 And QN3 Flip Mean QE3? 

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 06/20/2011 14:26 -0400

When we provided our advance look at today's dual POMO day we said that: "while we expect Dealers to go balls to the wall in flipping the just auctioned off 10 Year reopening in the form of Cusip QN3, their interest in flipping the recently auctioned off QS2 will be far more muted." As a reminder, this is predicated by our interpretation of Bill Gross' tweet from last Monday, that "QE3 [is] likely to take form of "extended period" language or interest rate caps on 2-3 year Treasuries [sic]" and a result Dealers who believe Gross' prediction will hold off on flipping On The Run just issued bonds, a practice widely espoused across the curve up until the date of Gross tweet. Indeed, we already saw that during last week's 2 Year POMO not a single OTR was flipped back to the Fed, an outcome which at the time puzzled us (we had not noticed Gross' tweet). Well, the results are in... and we were half right. As we predicted, there was not a single OTR 3 Year bond (the QS2 Cusip) sold to the Fed by the dealer community during the just concluded 2:00 pm $4.6 billion POMO: a development in stark contrast to events as recent as 2 weeks ago, when the then 3 Year On The Run QM3 was massively flipped back to the Fed, just a week ahead of Gross tweet. Yet we were also half wrong: we expected that guided by Gross' expectation that the upcoming "Operation Twist 2" would focus on the front end (2-3 Years), would mean major flipping of the OTR 10 Year, as per the first POMO today. Wrong. In fact, just as during the 3 Year POMO, not a single 10 Year OTR (Cusip: QN3) was sold to Brian Sack. It appears that Dealers are now virtually certain the Fed will proceed with some form of Operation Twist, but are simply unsure whether the Fed will focus on the 2-3 Year Space, or go all the way to the 10 Year: the point that David Rosenberg predicted would be the threshold for interest rate caps. That this is happening despite a substantial drop in yields, and thus profit, for all the Dealers who hold the OTRs since auction day (both the QN3 and QE2) makes the case all that stronger. The FOMC announcement this Wednesday just got very interesting as there appears to be a substantial pricing in of an interest rate cap disclosure in some format, just as Bill Gross has predicted. Translation: that would be the start of QE3, and would explain the paradoxical strength of the Euro in the face of simply horrendous news out of Europe over the past week.

Ron Paul Releases Four-Part Statement On Budget Targets And Restoring Fiscal Discipline 

Ron Paul, who over the weekend won the straw vote at the Republican Leadership Conference held in New Orleans, with 40% of the vote, has just released a list of 4 points that will frame his budget priorities if elected president. As Jesse Benton, Paul campaign chairman says “The American people want and deserve someone who will tell them the truth, tell them what needs to be done, and who has an untouchable record of consistency to back it up." Whether everyone will agree with the proposed framework is unclear. However, what is true is that Paul, of all politicians on either side of center, has been the most steadfast in his message over the years, and the fringe benefit, naturally, will be the gradual elimination of Paul's arch-nemesis: the Federal Reserve. 

PIMCO On Central Planning And "Financial Repression" By Central Banks To Keep Rates Low 

PIMCO Scott Mather has released a fascinating Q&A in which the key topic of discussion is the artificial push to keep rates low in developed economies, also known as central bank hubris to maintain the "great moderation" in which he clearly explains i) what this means for global fund flow dynamics (using developed country reserves and purchasing EM bonds) and ii) for the future of a system held together with glue and crutches. To wit: "Financial repression is any public policy that is designed to influence the market price of financing government debts, either through government bonds or the nation’s currency. Direct methods of repression include things like setting target interest rates, monetizing government debt or implementing interest rate caps. Indirect methods include polices designed to change the amount of debt or currency at a given price. Examples include requirements to hold minimum amounts of government debt on bank balance sheets or establishing minimum requirements for government bonds in pension funds." Just in case anyone is confused why central planning is a bad idea: "Governments may take these steps to improve their ability to finance public debt and forestall more painful adjustment processes, though there can be other motives, and because these methods are less transparent, and thus less controversial, than direct tax hikes or spending cuts. Investors should be wary of financial repression because it is primarily a tool to redistribute wealth from creditors (citizens) to debtors (governments) to the detriment of creditors, fixed income investors and savers." Needless to say, central planning always fails: "It is important to realize these methods as practiced are only partially effective and cannot go on forever, as advanced economies continue to add significantly to their public debts despite low financing costs. Some intensification of financial repression, fiscal austerity, or stronger growth must occur to lower the likelihood of a future debt crisis." Bottom line: "kicking the can" can only go on for so long before EMs (read why below) provide a natural counterbalance to an artificial market created by developed world central banks. PIMCO's advice: get out of balance sheet risky DM bonds ahead of central planning failure, and buy up every EM bond possible, or bypass paper and just buy EM currencies as "EM policymakers who have resisted appreciation will eventually allow more appreciation over the next three to five years as they nurture domestic consumption and their economies become less dependent on export demand." We expect to see much more on this topic as the MSM realizes the implications of this new risk regime change.

Goldman Caught Manipulating Brent/WTI Spread: Penalty: $40,340 

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 06/20/2011 11:53 -0400

For all those who believed that it was only JP Morgan who is manipulating the Brent-WTI spread, we regretfully have to inform you that the squid is once again front and center, having now been caught red-handed by none other than the ICE exchange, aka the home of Brent trading. From a just disclosed complaint: "On 28 January 2011 the Exchange’s monitoring detected six notable “price spikes” in the April11 Brent/WTI spread, between 14:26 hours and 14:31 hours UK time. These were investigated and found to be the result of a limit order and several large market orders placed in quick succession by a GSF trader...In relation to the events described above, the Exchange alleged that GSF had breached the following Rule: "It shall be an offence for a trader or Member to engage in disorderly trading whether by high or low ticking, aggressive bidding or offering, or otherwise." The Exchange recommended to the Committee that summary disciplinary proceedings be commenced in regard to the above mentioned allegations. The Committee subsequently considered the matter in accordance with Summary Enforcement Rule E.7...The Committee considered the behaviour of GSF and its client to be a clear case of disorderly trading, in that the  distorting price impact of the placement of such large orders in close proximity was not considered." But don't worry: the ICE naturally had to sugar coat its findings: "Having examined the instant messenger logs of the communication between the GSF trader and their client, the Committee found no evidence of intentional manipulation of the market; nevertheless it considered the breach to be of a serious nature." Well, thank god that all market manipulation occurs via perpetually recorded instant messaging. It would be inconceivable that Goldman and its "client" may have found a different way to hatch plans to defraud investors than one which involves on the record messages.. Simply inconceivable... And preposterous.

Pan-European Greek Bailout Mutiny Gathers Steam, As Calls For "Euro Without Greece" Plebiscite Grow Louder 

Just like last year at about this time, the tables are turning on the funders of the latest Greek bailout. As Athens News reports: "Austrian mass-circulation tabloid Oesterreich, expressing rising taxpayer resentment around the EU, called for an EU-wide plebiscite "to let those who have to pay for Greece decide" whether to rescue it again or preserve "a euro without Greece"...[it also said] zigzagging over Greek aid pointed to a lack of a strategy allowing "shameless financial markets (to) blackmail apparently helpless politicians", and it called for an EU-wide referendum." Elsewhere, Geert Wilders, head of the third largest Dutch political party, the Party For Freedom, said "Greece should leave the euro zone and reintroduce the drachma (pre-euro currency). No more Dutch tax money to the corrupt and de facto bankrupt Greek." So the end result is that once again neither the Greek nor the European population wants the latest bailout that is forced upon them by the banking system, which is terrified about what happens if failure is reintroduced as a final outcome. Yet while it will take a lot to organize Europe's conflicting popular interests, the immediate decision-making power resides with Greece, where in just over 24 hours the all-critical vote of confidence in the ruling party will take place, whose failure is simply unthinkable in terms of downstream effects for the Eurozone. And as anyone familiar with the constitution of "united" Europe can attest, the jettisoning of Greece from the currency union will be next to impossible without a thorough redo of the bylaws of not only the Eurozone but all other artificially unionizing constructs that will promptly be forced to unwind should Greece "just say no" to more banker bailouts.

Dizzying New Heights of Global Criminal Enterprise
By: James West  

The World Is Underweight Gold And Flooded With Dollars

posted by Admin at Marc Faber Blog - 1 hour ago

The world is actually grossly underweight gold but flooded with US dollars. - *in MoneyWeek* *Tickers: SPDR Gold ETF (GLD), IShares Silver ETF (SLV), Newmont Mining (NEM), Yamana Gold (AUY), Novagold (NG)...