Dylan Grice Deconstructs The "Perpetual Ponzi Machine" Of Global Finance, Sees Gold At $10,000 In A World Of Dishonesty

Everyone, especially various textbook "schools" of postmodernist Keynesianism which (in addition to apparently never having actually been in the real world) believe there is such a thing as a free lunch as long as a reserve currency can issue infinite debt, and stubbornly fail to see the creeping currency devaluation which ultimately represents itself in hyperinflation, should read the following note from SocGen's Dylan Grice who explains pretty much... everything, including why in world starved for honesty, gold is the benchmark, and is now worth $10,000. To wit: "Gold might be a mere lump of dense, useless shiny metal, but it’s one which crackpot central bankers can’t print. Indeed, benchmarked against the printing of The Ben Bernak, the price of gold at which the US dollar would be fully gold-backed is now $10,000. You might think such a ‘price target’ is far-fetched (and I might agree with you). But bear in mind that the last time honesty was perceived to be so scarce – in the 1970s gold mania – the dollar was over-backed by gold (see chart below). If it happened then, why not again?"

 

China Storms Back To Put Things Back In Order, Says Willing To Buy Debt Of Crisis Nations

Well, that was a brief hiccup for the ponzi scheme. Luckily, the market has forgotten that it priced in China bailing out Europe two days ago so it is time the vacuum tubes are reminded. From Bloomberg: "China's NDRC says China using foreign reserves to support investment abroad; NDRC Vice Chairman says in transcript of remarks on website double-dip recession abroad is “avoidable,” willing to buy bonds of sovereign-debt crisis nations. National Development and Reform Commission Vice Chairman Zhang Xiaoqiang spoke in an interview with the media in Dalian today, according to transcript distributed on the planning agency’s website today." EURUSD predictably soars... for at least a few more minutes, when we start the whole bailout rotation all over again, first with Russian, then Brazil, etc, etc. In the meantime, what all this means, read the post by Dylan Grice on how to deal with a whole world gone pathlogically rogue, and willing to lie and cheat in order to preserve the status quo.

‘Perfect Storm’ Of Global Banking and Sovereign Debt Crisis To Lead to Global Currency Crisis

Volatility and wild gyrations in all financial markets continues due to a confluence of negative data, news and fundamentals. French banks have been downgraded and Chinese Premier Wen’s call that Europe get its own house in order quashed the unsubstantiated and unsourced rumors regarding massive Chinese intervention to solve the Eurozone debt crisis. European banks are hemorrhaging deposits as savers and money funds pile into other perceived havens such sterling, dollar and Swiss franc deposit accounts. Retail and institutional deposits at Greek banks fell 19 percent in the past year and almost 40 percent at Irish lenders in 18 months.  A tiny fraction of these European deposits has gone into gold with the majority going into other fiat currency deposits. It is not just the saver of periphery nations who are opening non euro deposit accounts - many German savers are opening up deposit accounts in Switzerland. Greece’s inevitable default is being prepared for despite the usual denials. A conference call among Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel is set for 16:00 GMT.

Fed Swap Line Tapped Again - Eurobank Funding Concerns Surge After Two Banks Borrow Dollars From ECB

About a month ago, European USD funding concerns came to the fore with a bang after one bank had borrowed $500 million dollars from the ECB in a 7 day operation, indicating that, as had been documented before and after courtesy of a rise in Libor that has yet to see a down day in the last 40, dollar funding is becoming a threshold factor (for at least one bank). Well, today we learn that 3M USD Libor, which just rose yet again to 0.349% from 0.347% (full breakdown of who is getting locked out shortly) has become a prohibitive funding mechanism yet again, after the ECB just announced that following 3 weeks of quiet, not one but two banks were "forced" to borrow $575 million from the ECB  (the most since June 2010) which in turn had to resort to using the Fed's swap line - expect to see the appropriate number in the FRBNY's swap line ledger with the ECB and the Fed's H.4.1 next Thursday when this data is updated on the US side. Basically despite the market rallying on news that the Moody's downgrade of French banks was "better than expected" the truth is that the situation continues to get step wise worse.

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Why Were Gold And Bonds Moving Together?

Admin at Marc Faber Blog - 3 minutes ago

Gold bottomed out in late January and peaked out on August 23. My first thought was that the closely correlated move between treasury bonds (T-bonds) and gold was illogical. Then, I considered that investors panicked into T-bonds because of a scare that the financial system would implode (flight to safety). For the same reasons, investors rushed into gold. In other words, the gold buyers were not buying gold because of inflation fears but because they were afraid of a systemic failure. *Topics: SPDR Gold ETF (GLD), iShares Barclays 20+ Yr Treas.Bond (ETF) (NYSE:TLT) * *Marc Faber i... more » 

 

Deposit Flight at European Banks Raises Risks

Eric De Groot at Eric De Groot - 15 minutes ago

Money is flowing from European deposits to gold and a lesser degree US Dollars. This is the reason why early US bond shorts must have deep pockets. Money always flees when confidence is shaken. If it's shaken badly, and old-fashioned bank run will emerge without warning. Headline: Deposit Flight at European Banks Raises Risks European banks are losing deposits as savers and money funds spooked... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]] 

 


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Let People Go Bankrupt!

Admin at Jim Rogers Blog - 19 minutes ago

It would be good for the world, though, if they let people go bankrupt. - in CNBC *Jim Rogers is an author, financial commentator and successful international investor. He has been frequently featured in Time, The New York Times, Barron’s, Forbes, Fortune, The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times and is a regular guest on Bloomberg and CNBC.* 

 


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There Is Room For Gold To Appreciate Further

Admin at Marc Faber Blog - 21 minutes ago

I have been writing every month that people should accumulate gold. Yes, there is more room for gold to appreciate further. Most people do not own gold. Most people think gold prices are very high. Today, the gold price is cheaper than in the 1980s when it was around 400 dollars an ounce, considering the increase in global monetary base and the US money printing. *Tickers: SPDR Gold Trust ETF (GLD), Newmont Mining (NEM), Barrick Gold (ABX), Goldcorp (GG)* *Marc Faber is an international investor known for his uncanny predictions of the stock market and futures markets around the wo... more » 

Austria Fails To Ratify EFSF Expansion, EURUSD Plunges

Update: never a dull day as apparently there is a silver lining: from Reuters "Austrian finance minster says parliament only rejected changing the agenda; EFSF vote will be delayed with a special meeting to be called"
Yup, Europe is open, and the suiciding has started early.

• AUSTRIAN PARLIAMENT COMMITTEE DOESN'T APPROVE EFSF UPGRADE
• AUSTRIAN PARLIAMENT COMMITTEE NEEDED 2/3 MAJORITY

As a reminder all countries need to ratify the EFSF, even the weakest links, or else no bailout. As Peter Tchir reminds: "And Austria is AAA, it is needed for EFSF to get AAA on its size, would have to be cut back by about 15 billion EUR to still have AAA.  Though I would guess this gives other countries the courage to say enough is enough."

Germany's Roesler Suggests Time's Up For Greece

Speaking at a briefing Rome, Germany's economy minister Philipp Roesler has been dropping truth-bombs this morning. These have perhaps been responsible for the decompression in European credit spreads (SENFIN 9bps off tights). The most unequivocal, and most ultimatum-like is his noting that "Merkel and Sarkozy will send a 'clear signal' to Greece tonight on the need to meet deficit cutting goals".

SocGen Shares Plummet On No News

Apparently the market finally woke up: seconds ago SocGen shares, completely out of nowhere, just took a massive spike lower, tumbling a good 8% on no news. There is a goal seeked version that attributes the move to remarks by Noyer discussing French bank stability may have caused this but this makes little to no sense, as they were supposed to be favorable for banks. It appears like a major block was dumped as someone realized they have had enough with the rollercoaster. Now the question is: "why?"

Jim Cramer On TurboTax Tim: "If Geithner Gets To Be Treasury Secretary We Are Kaput, We Are Completely And Royally Hosed As A Nation"

As if one admittedly market manipulating clown interviewing another admittedly tax challenged clown is not the biggest time waster in the world, here is an actual moment of honesty from at least one of the clowns (the other one should be completely ignored: after all it was him who said that there is no chance the US will be downgraded three months before it was... why anyone listens to this pathologically wrong liar is beyond us). So... without further ado here is Cramer's 2008 rant on Tim Geithner: "If Tim Geithner, the much praised and ballyhooed NY Fed Chairman gets to be Obama's Treasury secretary, and he looks like a shoo in for the job, let me just tell you something, we are done, we are kaput, we are finished, we are completely and royally hosed as a nation... Geithner should be facing a senate investigation, not a senate confirmation...I am predicting he will be a total disaster as he has been as a New York Fed Chairman. Please I am beginning you: don't hire Tim Geithner, he is an academic and all he has going for him is that he is a democrat" For once we agree with at least one of the two clowns.

Producer Inflation Declines Just In Time For Op Twist; Retail Sales Dive As US Consumers Withdraw

Nothing good on the US economic front as usual. After all, this is fact and data driven, not based on headline and rumors (even though the BLS does enjoy fudging the data to an extent to make a Chinaman blush). PPI came at 0.0%, in line with expectations, but PPI ex food and energy increased just 0.1%, missing expectations of 0.2%, down from July's 0.4%; it was also tied for lowest since November 2010. The 12 month change in the PPI for finished goods was up 6.5%, the lowest since March 2011. And while finished goods still retained their inflation power, it was in the intermediate space that we saw a major drop of 0.5%, the biggest in over a year and the first decline since July 2010, mostly due to energy goods: "Most of the August decline can be attributed to lower prices for intermediate energy goods, which dropped 2.3 percent. The index for intermediate materials less foods and energy also contributed to this decrease, edging down 0.1 percent. By contrast, prices for intermediate foods and feeds advanced 1.7 percent. On a 12-month basis, the index for intermediate goods moved up 10.3 percent in August." Overall, this gives more leeway for Op Twist and an IOER cut to be announced in one week by Bernanke. Which according to the Fed will be needed: Advance retail sales printed at 0.0%, below consensus 0.2% and down from a downward revised 0.3% in July. Retail ex sales and autos was the lowest since December 2010. Some comments from Bloomberg on this latest miss: Clothing sales down 0.7%, department stores down 0.3%; consumers likely cut purchasing due to rising cotton, other materials costs, says Bloomberg economist Joseph Brusuelas. "Sales disappoint as households deleveraging, real incomes decline." And scene.

Frontrunning: September 14

• World Must ’Get House in Order,’ Not Rely on China: Wen Jiabao (Bloomberg)
• Merkel bids to quash Greece default talk (FT)
• Moody’s cuts two French banks’ ratings (FT)
• Geithner Takes Tougher Tone on Europe (Bloomberg)
• Obama to propose Medicare and Medicaid cuts (FT)
• Biggest Brokers Consider Banning Market Orders (Traders Mag)
• Grifters of 'Al Saud, Inc.': How Saudi royals get their wealth (Wikileaks)
• Emerging Giants Look at Europe Aid (WSJ)

For Purely Comedic Value, Here Is The Greek 1 Year Yield...

No, Greece will not be allowed to default. Pinky swear.

Here Is Who The Next Bottleneck In The Euro Bailout Will Be...

Europe must be hoping that the Dutch aren't sensitive people.  We are all waiting for the outcome of a conference call between Germany, France and Greece.  Holland isn't on the call, yet they are the 3rd largest AAA country in Europe and are responsible for 10% of EFSF's AAA rating.  Germany has taken the time to mention Finland's demand for collateral.  Finland is only 3% of the AAA portion of EFSF, but everyone is paying attention to them, yet Holland seems to be taken for granted.  Holland has their own problem bank, ING, and came out yesterday with a statement that the Dutch government considers a Greek default as unavoidable. Today the Ministry is saying they are making all possible efforts, but didn't say that they still think the efforts will fail and a default is inevitable.  Look for the next snag in the bailout to come from growing opposition in Holland.  If I was them, I would be annoyed that their invaluable contribution seems to be taken for granted and that no one is reaching out to them in spite of their importance.


  

Obama Watergate Update: Carney Denies Involvement In Solyndra Loan Review

You know what they say about official denials:

• CARNEY SAYS WHITE HOUSE COOPERATING WITH SOLYNDRA PROBE - Bloomberg
  
• CARNEY SAYS WHITE HOUSE DIDN'T TRY TO INFLUENCE LOAN REVIEW - Bloomberg

Will a doomed solar company, and a failed economic voodoo religion be Obama's Watergate? We will know in a few weeks. In the meantime, someone should probably look into how much money Obama received courtesy of Solyndra 2, aka Mojave Solar LLC

• DOE ANNOUNCES $1.2B LOAN GUARANTEE FOR CALIFORNIA SOLAR PROJECT
• U.S. CITES LOAN GUARANTEE TO MOJAVE SOLAR LLC

Yeah, that's right: even as the PR scandal of Solyndra is threatening to sweep the administration, it continues to funnel more taxpayer capital in failed solar projects!