Euro Bank Run Shifts To Insurance Companies As Lloyd's Of London Pulls Cash From European Banks

First it was US money markets; then it was various European industrial concerns which somehow double up as banks; then it was China; now the bank runs shift to insurance institutions when, as Bloomberg reports, Lloyd's of London has decided to pull peripheral Euro bank deposits. What next: complete collapse of European interbank market as bank runs become a daily thing at both the retail and institutional level? Well, we already anticipated that. But it is something totally different to see it happen in practice.

French Banks Resume Tumble After ECB Announces One Bank Taps Dollar Swap Line For $500 MM Again

The French bank trio is once again on the ropes, with BNP leading the decliners at -5%, following the latest weekly Fed swap line release update from the ECB according to which one bank had subscribed for $500 million of dollars at emergency funding, confirming that anything coming out of the Libor market (where the average rate increased once again from 0.355% to 0.356% for the n^th day in a row) is pretty much irrelevant as no real dollar access is available at rates below the ECB's penalty rate which this week was 1.07%. The good news: this is not as bad as last week's two banks which needed $575 million. The bad news: we have reverted to the regime from a month ago when a bank, most likely the same bank, was forced to borrow from the ECB, and hence, from the Fed. Said otherwise, there has been no improvement in interbank liquidity conditions since August 17. Expect more weakness out of French banks especially if China steps up the war of rhetoric and announces that more (of its own massively levered) banks have cut liquidity connections with France.

UK QE To Resume In October

Our thesis that global coordinated monetary stimulus is returning is playing out, first slowly, then very rapidly, with the Fed expected to announce at least Op Twist and an IOER cut at 2:15pm today, following a currency peg by the SNB, more printing promises by the BOJ, and the ECB now assumed to return to cutting rates shortly even as it purchases sovereign bonds in the open market. Sure enough, the latest entrant in the global resumption of printing is the BOE, which in minutes presented earlier, makes it clear it won't lag behind the Fed. From Goldman: "BOTTOM LINE: (i) The September MPC minutes revealed an unchanged vote (8-1 on asset purchases; 9-0 on rates). More significantly, however, for "most members" the decision was "finely balanced" and the committee was unusually forthright in signalling the likelihood of QE2. October now looks like the most likely date for a commencement of QE2. (ii) In other important news today, the ONS announced that public borrowing has been revised down by £6bn (0.4% of GDP) in 2010/11 and by £5bn (0.3% of GDP) so far in 2011/12. This potentially opens the door to a more gradual pace of fiscal tightening, with increased capital expenditure (the so-called "Plan A+")." And with that global relative FX devaluation continues, very much as expected, as does absolute devaluation of all currencies against gold, also very much as expected.

CNBC Million Dollar Portfolio Challenge - Wednesday, Week 1;

 Bonus Bucks for Wednesday, September 21 

1.  Which of the following is NOT true of the 'Death Shirt' that's included in October's John Wayne Auction?

C. It has a red stain from fake blood

2.  What is the third most dangerous job of 2011?

D. Pilots and Flight Engineers

3.  The world's largest, second-largest and third-largest auto markets respectively for 2011 are:

A. China, US, Japan

 

Frontrunning: September 21

• China Faces ‘Hot-Money’ Surge on Financial Market Turmoil (Bloomberg)
• China Lending Curbs Help Propel Commercial Paper Yields to Record (Bloomberg)
• Italy plans reforms to rebuild growth (FT)
• US accused of unfair antitrust tactic (FT)
• Trichet urges EU banks to strengthen balance sheets (Reuters)
• Brazil seeks to help Europe via IMF (Reuters)
• Labour and Tories battle over IMF report (FT)
• Greek reforms undermined by stereotypes: minister (Reuters)

Demand for real metal is beating the futures market riggers, Norcini says

 

 

Bullion vaults run out of space on gold rally

 

 

China and India will take most of world's gold production, Leeb says

 

 

YouWalkAway.com: Bringing Moral Hazard To A Deadbeat Near You

Tonight's feel-good story of our time is a desperate stroll through the reality of the US housing market for millions of individuals (as opposed to the hope-driven must-say-something-positive spin the home-builder CEOs have been spewing recently). Notices-of-default jumped 33% in August, a nine-month high and largest month-over-month increase since August 2007 and it is becoming increasingly acceptable to walk away from contractual agreements as strategic default becomes the New American Dream.

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