Shilling Shuns Stocks, Sees S&P At 800
In
an attempt to not steal too much thunder from Gary Shilling's
thought-provoking interview with Bloomberg TV, his view of the S&P
500 hitting 800, as operating earnings compress to $80 per share, is
founded in more than just a perma-bear's perspective of the real state
of the US economy. As he points out "The analysts have been cranking their numbers down.
They started off north of 110 then 105. They are now 102. They are
moving in my direction." The combination of a hard landing in China, a
recession in Europe, and a stronger USD will weigh on earnings and
inevitably the US consumer (who's recent spending spree has considerably
outpaced income growth) with the end result a moderate recession in the US.
The story is "there is nothing else except consumers that can really
hype the U.S. economy" and that is supported by employment but last
week's employment report throws cold water in that. "Consumers have a
lot of reasons to save as opposed to spend. They need
to rebuild their assets, save for retirement. A lot of reasons suggest
that they should be saving to work down debt as opposed to going the
other way, which they have done in recent months. So if consumers retrench, there is not really anything else in the U.S. economy that can hold things up." While the argument that the US is the best of a bad lot was summarily dismissed as Shilling prefers the 'best horse in the glue factory'
analogy and does not believe investors will flock to US equities -
instead preferring US Treasuries noting that "everyone has said, rates cannot go lower, they will go up, they will go up. They have been saying that for 30 years."Europe and USA bourses rise on successful Italian auction/Bond yields fall slightly in Spain and Italy.
Harvey Organ at Harvey Organ's - The Daily Gold and Silver Report - 6 hours ago
Good evening Ladies and Gentlemen: As I promised you yesterday, the bankers never allow an advance from a powerful outside reversal. The bankers used everything in their power to keep silver and gold in check today. Gold closed down by $3.50 to $1656.20. Silver lost 16 cents to $31.51. Today we had global risk on, as bourses reacted positively to Italy selling treasury bills of 3 months and 1
March Foreclosure Activity Plunge To 5 Year Low
While the naive public has been inundated with stories that the foreclosure pipeline has been finally unclogged following the robo-settlement (see here and here) and as a result the home "price discovery" process is well on its way, reality is just a tad different. Make that totally different. As usual, the only foreclosure report that matters, and that is even remotely close to reality, comes from RealtyTrac, and we are sad to say, it brings no good news. Quite the contrary. According to the real estate specialists, March 2012 foreclosures plunged from 206,900 in February to 198,853 in March, the first time the total number of foreclosures (either Default Notices, Foreclosure Auctions, or REOs) has dropped under 200,000 since July 2007! Which sadly means that the foreclosure dam wall has yet to crack. Of course, when it does, well "The Second Foreclosure Tsunami Is Coming, And Is About To Kill Any Hopes Of A "Housing Bottom."
How The Weather Punk'd The Fed
While every soon-to-be-retired boomer and his or her long-only asset-manager stock-broker commission-leecher
lies awake at night in the forlorn hope that Ben "I'm-all-in" Bernanke
finds another pile of printing presses to make use of in his game of
Global No-Limit Texas Central-Banking; the economy, judging by
'selective' macro data and today's Beige Book, is limping along quite
happily with no need for QE3 anytime soon (and that spells trouble for a
market that is entirely dependent on the spice flow of liquidity and not just the stock of central bank assets). The sad truth is, as we first pointed out back in early February, that the economy is significantly less upwardly mobile than it 'optically' appears (or the market signals it to be) thanks to the extreme weather that has occurred
and so while the spin-masters will attempt to make every headline look
like we are in self-sustaining recovery mode, the Fed knows full well
the reality is far different (hence Bernanke's recent comments) and yet
they have not admitted to this animal-spirits-shattering reality (yet).
Perhaps this shockingly simple 'chart-that's-worth-a-thousand-words'
will force their hand as the correlation between regions showing
extreme positivity within today's Beige book and the regions with the
extremest weather disconnects is, well, extreme itself. It seems the Fed is caught between a rock of stagnating inaction and a hard-place of independence-removing LSAP.Bernanke's Right Hand Dove, Janet Yellen, Hints At ZIRP Through Late 2015
Last week we had the Fed's hawks line up one after another telling us how no more QE would ever happen. We ignored them because they are simply the bad cops to the Fed's good cop doves. Sure enough, here comes Bernanke's right hand man, or in this case woman, hinting that one can forget everything the hawkish stance, and that ZIRP may last not until 2014 but 2015! Which, by the way, is to be expected: since ZIRP can never expire, it will always be rolled to T+3 years, as the short end will never be allowed to rise, until the Fed has enough FRNs in circulation to absorb the surge in rates without crushing the principal, as explained yesterday.Goldman Previews Q2: Sees 150K Jobs Per Month Created, And A Slowing Of The Economy
In its latest note, Goldman is not providing any actionable "advice" which is naturally to be faded and would have been thus quite profitable, but merely updates its outlook for the second quarter, which is not pretty. The firm now expects a slowing down in the overall economy to a 2% GDP rate, and an "additional loss of momentum during the next few months", which is to be expected as every bank wants to keep the perception that NEW QE is just around the corner, as economic stagnation can rapidly become a contraction. Most importantly, the firm expects just 150,000 payrolls to be created every month, which net of the 90,000 monthly labor force increase (yes, forget what the BLS tells you - every month courtesy of demographics the American labor force grows by an average of 90k people) means that only 60k jobs will be added to offset the structural job collapse since December 2007. It also means that the pre-election rhetoric will change significantly as the economic strength from the start of the year disappears, and with it any hope of an economic upswing, providing additional ammo for exciting GOP pre-election theater.Pimco Takes Record MBS Position Even Higher, Dumps Treasurys
The trend continues: as has pointed out here every month for the past five months, Pimco's Bill Gross continues to layer into the "NEW QE" trade, only this time he is making it more clear than ever that he is certain that the Fed will have no choice but to monetize Mortgage Backed Securities. Indeed, in March the firm added another 100 bps in its MBS exposure, bringing the total to 54% of total, or a record $134 billion of the fund's $253 billion in AUM. And while before Gross would buy MBS and TSYs pari passu, that is no longer the case. In fact in March, Gross dumped the most Treasurys since February 2011, cutting his net exposure from 38% to 32%, and likely is in part or whole responsible for the big bond dump in the middle of March, now long forgotten (that or he merely piggybacked on the negative sentiment: April holdings will be indicative of that). Other notable shifts: Gross continues to sell European sovereign exposure, with Non-US Development holdings down to 6%, the lowest since April 2011, and surprisingly even cutting Investment Grade holdings to just 14%, the lowest since October 2008: is Gross smelling a bond bubble (in both IG and HY) and is getting out while the getting is good? Sure looks like it.
from Wealth Wire:
From the market peak
in May 2008 to the market low in March 2009, the S&P 500 lost a
whopping 52.8% of its value. More than eight million jobs were lost.
The unemployment rate nearly doubled from 5.4% in May 2008 to 10% by October 2009.
But believe it or not, that wasn’t a real financial collapse.
Just ask any Argentinean.
Back in 2001, after decades of a repeated inability to repay its national debts, rating agencies finally declared Argentina in “effective default.”
And then came the chaos.
People rushed to their local banks to pull out what was left of their savings. On November 30, 2001, central bank cash reserves fell by $2 billion in just one day. The president was forced to freeze bank accounts for an entire year and imposed a strict $250 per week limitation on personal bank withdrawals. The next day, mass protests over the withdrawal restrictions began.
Read More @ WealthWire.com
From the market peak
in May 2008 to the market low in March 2009, the S&P 500 lost a
whopping 52.8% of its value. More than eight million jobs were lost.
The unemployment rate nearly doubled from 5.4% in May 2008 to 10% by October 2009.But believe it or not, that wasn’t a real financial collapse.
Just ask any Argentinean.
Back in 2001, after decades of a repeated inability to repay its national debts, rating agencies finally declared Argentina in “effective default.”
And then came the chaos.
People rushed to their local banks to pull out what was left of their savings. On November 30, 2001, central bank cash reserves fell by $2 billion in just one day. The president was forced to freeze bank accounts for an entire year and imposed a strict $250 per week limitation on personal bank withdrawals. The next day, mass protests over the withdrawal restrictions began.
Read More @ WealthWire.com
We can only win by launching Impeach Obama 2012. Whether or not we fully impeach him, we are committed to rebuking these unconstitutional and criminal power grabs and are determined to take the case to the court of public opinion. –Alex Jones
from Before Its News:
Dr. Jerome Corsi explains the evidence that proves Obama’s birth certificate and his selective service registration are both forgeries. The identity of our illegitimate president is unknown. He is most likely an illegal alien.
A presentation by WND’s Jerome Corsi to a standing-room-only crowd has convinced a New Jersey lawmaker and a local sheriff that the issue of President Obama’s eligibility for office “will have to be addressed.”
“The easiest way to put this to rest is to have the records unsealed,” Morris County Sheriff Ed Rochford told the Huffington Post in an email following the April 4 event in Morristown. “Mr. Corsi made a very convincing argument that President Obama may not be a natural born citizen of the United States.”
My Dear Extended Family,
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
Dear CIGAs,
Today legendary chartist, Dan Norcini, told King World News that fresh gold shorts suffered large losses in yesterday’s trading. Norcini said massive bids came into the market as gold crossed $1,640, volume spiked and the shorts were squeezed. Norcini stated the buying which came into the market was intense, and caught many market participants off guard. Here is how Norcini described the gold shorts getting mauled: “The move in gold seemingly came out of nowhere yesterday. Gold had been down earlier in the session when a huge bid came into gold at the $1,640 level and that took out the shorts at $1,645.”
Dan Norcini continues:
“Earlier in the trading session when gold stabilized near the $1,635 level and pushed back through $1,640, somebody came in, out of nowhere, with huge size on the bids and there was a massive surge in volume. This took the price from $1,640, all the way up to $1,660.
So gold moved $20 very quickly, in roughly 30 minutes. It was a sharp rise in gold. There was a little bit of hesitation there and then another surge came in and took gold to $1,665.
From a technical perspective, they pushed out a bunch of brand new, fresh short positions. You might recall that last week there was a lot of selling which took place in gold as it fell through support at $1,640….
Click here to read the full interview on www.KingWorldNews.com…
Dear Jim,
Europeans may not be aware of this. A judge says the present US Administration is approaching totalitarianism
Regards,
CIGA Luis Ahlborn Sequeira
Judge says Obama approaching totalitarianism
Napolitano says White House now ‘dangerously close’
Not many weeks ago, Barack Obama announced that Congress was being uncooperative, so he would have to go it alone with executive orders to make changes he wanted for America.
Then he stated he is confident that the Supreme Court would not choose to overturn his health care law, through which the government requires Americans to buy a product approved by the federal bureaucracy or face fines.
His diminishment of two of the three co-equal branches of government has caught the attention many citizens, and now a legal expert has weighed in with a stark warning about the future of the nation.
“I think the president is dangerously close to totalitarianism,” Judge Andrew Napolitano, a Fox News analyst, said. “A few months ago he was saying the Congress doesn’t count. The Congress doesn’t mean anything. I am going to rule by decree and by administrative regulation. Now he’s basically saying the Supreme Court doesn’t count. It doesn’t matter what they think. They can’t review our legislation.
More…
French economy grinds to a halt CIGA Eric
A combination of austerity, excessive debts, and political indecisiveness have been hampering economic growth in the European Union. The weaker members such as Greece, Portugal, Spain, etc. have been the primary victims but even the larger economies of France and Germany are beginning to feel the pain. The solution will be liquidity to ∞ for the western world.
Headline: French economy grinds to a halt
PARIS (Reuters) – France’s economy posted no growth in the first quarter and there are no sign of a strong recovery in activity in the coming months, according to a Bank of France survey on Tuesday. In its monthly report, the Bank of France indicated that the euro zone’s second largest economy avoided a recession, after it grew by 0.2 percent in the fourth quarter. However, it said that activity was likely to remain stable in the coming months, a picture confirmed by soft manufacturing data on Tuesday from the INSEE national statistics office. The Bank of France said that its business sentiment indicator for industry was unchanged in March at 95, a 3-month low it reached in February. It noted that industrial activity improved, with rises in pharmaceuticals and chemicals, transport equipment and hi-tech goods. "Forecasts suggest that activity will remain stable in the short term," the bank said. Economists said that with fiscal tightening across Europe weighing on external demand for French goods and with rising domestic unemployment likely to peak next year above 10 percent, it was no surprise the growth outlook was weak.
Source: finance.yahoo.com
More…
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
Surprise! You owe another $54 billion
A new report forces the question: How could Illinois pols do this to taxpayers April 8, 2012
"Previous legislators and previous governors even awarded taxpayer funded health insurance benefits to themselves and 82,000 retirees, where 90 percent of them pay nothing on their insurance premiums. This lack of fiscal accountability has cost us dearly today."
—Gov. Pat Quinn, Feb. 22, 2012
"All told, state government is on pace to spend nearly $1 billion on retiree health care benefits in fiscal year 2013, more than double what it spent in 2003. Worse yet, these liabilities are growing more than twice as fast as tax revenues."
—Illinois Policy Institute, April 9, 2012
The state of Illinois admits to $83 billion in pension underfunding, a staggering weight on today’s and tomorrow’s taxpayers. Add to that the as yet uncalculated billions in unfunded pension obligations for city, county and other local governments. During a Tribune forum Wednesday, Mayor Rahm Emanuel explained how that overhang — some estimates run far higher — deters businesses from locating in Chicago: Companies don’t want to buy shares in a phenomenal tax burden that will unfold over decades.
One nice thing about pension obligations: When you know the number of employees and their ages, the actuarial estimates start falling into place. The mystery is the investment return a pension fund will earn over time.
A second, often overlooked time bomb merrily ticking for governments nationwide is the cost of health insurance for all those retirees. That number, too, is hard to gauge, because health care costs — like future investment returns — are unknowable. Yet governments typically don’t put aside money for future health care, as they do for future pensions. The culture is to pay-as-you-go.
More…
![clip_image001[5]](http://www.jsmineset.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/clip_image0015_thumb1.jpg "clip_image001[5]")
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
"De prijs van dit edelmetaal wordt kunstamtig laag gehouden do"or de zakenbank JP Morgan Chase."
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
India offers tax breaks on Iran exports despite U.S. pressure By Manoj Kumar
NEW DELHI | Thu Apr 5, 2012 8:19am EDT
(Reuters) – The Indian government will offer tax incentives to exporters for sales in rupees to Iran, in the latest effort by New Delhi to bolster exports in return for oil from the Islamic Republic squeezed by Western sanctions, a finance ministry official said.
Following U.S. and European Union sanctions against Tehran over its nuclear program, New Delhi is under pressure to cut oil imports from its second-biggest supplier, which provides about 12 percent of its oil needs.
India has publicly taken a stand alongside other rapidly emerging countries, including China and Brazil, that it would follow only U.N. sanctions, a position criticized by conservatives in Washington.
To skirt the sanctions, India this year decided to buy oil through a mechanism that lets refiners deposit rupees, which are not freely traded on global markets, for about 45 percent of Iranian crude purchases in an account at India’s UCO Bank.
India sent a trade delegation in March to Iran to boost merchandise exports as a way of securing oil in return. But the delegation came back empty handed, and Indian exporters have complained of difficulties in trading through the new mechanism.
More…
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
Portugal’s domestic banks tap ECB for record amounts of funding
Bank of Portugal says domestic banks’ use of European Central Bank’s facilities rose to a record €56.3bn in March
The reliance of eurozone banks on the European Central Bank was demonstrated on Monday when Portugal revealed that its domestic banks were tapping the central bank for record amounts of funding.
The Bank of Portugal said the use by domestic banks for the various facilities available from the ECB rose to €56.3bn in March – up from €47.5bn in February and greater than the previous record level of €49.1bn in August 2010.
Bailed out by the EU and International Monetary Fund in April 2011 for €78bn, Portugal has €12bn earmarked for bolstering its banks’ capital positions if necessary in the months ahead.
The plight of Portugal’s banks was revealed following the cash injection by the ECB in February when the central bank lent €529bn to 800 banks across the eurozone through its long-term refinancing operation (LTRO).
Portuguese banks were among those frozen out from the wholesale funding markets – where banks borrow from each other or professional investors – during the height of the eurozone crisis and as a result are among a number in the eurozone that utilise ECB funding.
"I think it’s natural and reasonable for banks to have taken advantage of these funds under the circumstances, especially after the ECB relaxed some collateral requirements before February’s injection," Teresa Gil Pinheiro, chief economist at Banco BPI in Lisbon, told Reuters.
More…
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Dr. Jerome Corsi explains the evidence that proves Obama’s birth certificate and his selective service registration are both forgeries. The identity of our illegitimate president is unknown. He is most likely an illegal alien.
A presentation by WND’s Jerome Corsi to a standing-room-only crowd has convinced a New Jersey lawmaker and a local sheriff that the issue of President Obama’s eligibility for office “will have to be addressed.”
“The easiest way to put this to rest is to have the records unsealed,” Morris County Sheriff Ed Rochford told the Huffington Post in an email following the April 4 event in Morristown. “Mr. Corsi made a very convincing argument that President Obama may not be a natural born citizen of the United States.”
Silver Update 4/11/12 Wallstreet Looters
My Dear Extended Family,
From the new fuzzy, friendly, transparent US Federal Reserve came two voices quoted today.
The first voice was exactly what you would expect after the Dow
tanked over 200 points. It also wins the award of world class oxymoron
of the century. "Sterilized QE" is now on the table. This must be debt
monetization that does not monetize debt. The age of miracles is clearly
not over. Today we got proof from the Fed. Soon the almighty Fed will
invent water that does not get you wet. That was good for plus 100 on
the Dow.
Not to be outdone, the second voice of the Fed announced that things
economic would have to get "really bad" before any QE was considered.
Clearly this means we need to have a minus 300 day in order to open the
money spigots wide. That release was for the purpose of cooperation with
the new Fed policy of transparency and to control gold. They once again
distinguished themselves for speaking total monetary nonsense.
Apparently one talent any member of the Fed must have when speaking
publicly is that you must never mind if you are told to say what makes
you look like a total fool. The thesis must be in the New Normal that
people forget fast, lacking attention spans of more than 19 seconds. My
problem is I can’t forget a damn thing. I remember every trade I ever
made.
The New Normal is madness personified on financial TV day after day.
Respectfully,
Jim
Jim
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
Any question of why politicians have broken the bank with deficits is answered below.
Dear CIGAs,
Today legendary chartist, Dan Norcini, told King World News that fresh gold shorts suffered large losses in yesterday’s trading. Norcini said massive bids came into the market as gold crossed $1,640, volume spiked and the shorts were squeezed. Norcini stated the buying which came into the market was intense, and caught many market participants off guard. Here is how Norcini described the gold shorts getting mauled: “The move in gold seemingly came out of nowhere yesterday. Gold had been down earlier in the session when a huge bid came into gold at the $1,640 level and that took out the shorts at $1,645.”
Dan Norcini continues:
“Earlier in the trading session when gold stabilized near the $1,635 level and pushed back through $1,640, somebody came in, out of nowhere, with huge size on the bids and there was a massive surge in volume. This took the price from $1,640, all the way up to $1,660.
So gold moved $20 very quickly, in roughly 30 minutes. It was a sharp rise in gold. There was a little bit of hesitation there and then another surge came in and took gold to $1,665.
From a technical perspective, they pushed out a bunch of brand new, fresh short positions. You might recall that last week there was a lot of selling which took place in gold as it fell through support at $1,640….
Click here to read the full interview on www.KingWorldNews.com…
Dear Jim,
Europeans may not be aware of this. A judge says the present US Administration is approaching totalitarianism
Regards,
CIGA Luis Ahlborn Sequeira
Judge says Obama approaching totalitarianism
Napolitano says White House now ‘dangerously close’
Not many weeks ago, Barack Obama announced that Congress was being uncooperative, so he would have to go it alone with executive orders to make changes he wanted for America.
Then he stated he is confident that the Supreme Court would not choose to overturn his health care law, through which the government requires Americans to buy a product approved by the federal bureaucracy or face fines.
His diminishment of two of the three co-equal branches of government has caught the attention many citizens, and now a legal expert has weighed in with a stark warning about the future of the nation.
“I think the president is dangerously close to totalitarianism,” Judge Andrew Napolitano, a Fox News analyst, said. “A few months ago he was saying the Congress doesn’t count. The Congress doesn’t mean anything. I am going to rule by decree and by administrative regulation. Now he’s basically saying the Supreme Court doesn’t count. It doesn’t matter what they think. They can’t review our legislation.
More…
French economy grinds to a halt CIGA Eric
A combination of austerity, excessive debts, and political indecisiveness have been hampering economic growth in the European Union. The weaker members such as Greece, Portugal, Spain, etc. have been the primary victims but even the larger economies of France and Germany are beginning to feel the pain. The solution will be liquidity to ∞ for the western world.
Headline: French economy grinds to a halt
PARIS (Reuters) – France’s economy posted no growth in the first quarter and there are no sign of a strong recovery in activity in the coming months, according to a Bank of France survey on Tuesday. In its monthly report, the Bank of France indicated that the euro zone’s second largest economy avoided a recession, after it grew by 0.2 percent in the fourth quarter. However, it said that activity was likely to remain stable in the coming months, a picture confirmed by soft manufacturing data on Tuesday from the INSEE national statistics office. The Bank of France said that its business sentiment indicator for industry was unchanged in March at 95, a 3-month low it reached in February. It noted that industrial activity improved, with rises in pharmaceuticals and chemicals, transport equipment and hi-tech goods. "Forecasts suggest that activity will remain stable in the short term," the bank said. Economists said that with fiscal tightening across Europe weighing on external demand for French goods and with rising domestic unemployment likely to peak next year above 10 percent, it was no surprise the growth outlook was weak.
Source: finance.yahoo.com
More…
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
This is activity that is criminal in its failure to act in the best interest of future generations.
You think Greece, Portugal and Italy have problems? You think that
Greece is alone in criminal acts hiding their debt with OTC derivatives?
If so, you are a victim of MSM MOPE.
The US has problems looming as large and larger than Euroland. QE
must and will go to infinity regardless of how many denials come out of
the doer, the Fed.
Surprise! You owe another $54 billion
A new report forces the question: How could Illinois pols do this to taxpayers April 8, 2012
"Previous legislators and previous governors even awarded taxpayer funded health insurance benefits to themselves and 82,000 retirees, where 90 percent of them pay nothing on their insurance premiums. This lack of fiscal accountability has cost us dearly today."
—Gov. Pat Quinn, Feb. 22, 2012
"All told, state government is on pace to spend nearly $1 billion on retiree health care benefits in fiscal year 2013, more than double what it spent in 2003. Worse yet, these liabilities are growing more than twice as fast as tax revenues."
—Illinois Policy Institute, April 9, 2012
The state of Illinois admits to $83 billion in pension underfunding, a staggering weight on today’s and tomorrow’s taxpayers. Add to that the as yet uncalculated billions in unfunded pension obligations for city, county and other local governments. During a Tribune forum Wednesday, Mayor Rahm Emanuel explained how that overhang — some estimates run far higher — deters businesses from locating in Chicago: Companies don’t want to buy shares in a phenomenal tax burden that will unfold over decades.
One nice thing about pension obligations: When you know the number of employees and their ages, the actuarial estimates start falling into place. The mystery is the investment return a pension fund will earn over time.
A second, often overlooked time bomb merrily ticking for governments nationwide is the cost of health insurance for all those retirees. That number, too, is hard to gauge, because health care costs — like future investment returns — are unknowable. Yet governments typically don’t put aside money for future health care, as they do for future pensions. The culture is to pay-as-you-go.
More…
![clip_image001[5]](http://www.jsmineset.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/clip_image00152.jpg "clip_image001[5]")
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
The following renders all manipulation of gold on the downside as
destined to fail. The following guarantees that all manipulation of gold
on the upside must succeed.
There will be another Jim Sinclair in this gold market that has both
the money, balls and knowledge to bury the sociopaths at the gold banks
All arguments to the contrary are the ranting of imbeciles without
market experience of half a century, especially the one from the expert
that dances around the stage blowing a horn and hitting a bell to tell
you gold is going to hell.
It is not!
"De prijs van dit edelmetaal wordt kunstamtig laag gehouden do"or de zakenbank JP Morgan Chase."
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
This will present a challenge to the use of the SWIFT system as a weapon against allies over Iran.
India offers tax breaks on Iran exports despite U.S. pressure By Manoj Kumar
NEW DELHI | Thu Apr 5, 2012 8:19am EDT
(Reuters) – The Indian government will offer tax incentives to exporters for sales in rupees to Iran, in the latest effort by New Delhi to bolster exports in return for oil from the Islamic Republic squeezed by Western sanctions, a finance ministry official said.
Following U.S. and European Union sanctions against Tehran over its nuclear program, New Delhi is under pressure to cut oil imports from its second-biggest supplier, which provides about 12 percent of its oil needs.
India has publicly taken a stand alongside other rapidly emerging countries, including China and Brazil, that it would follow only U.N. sanctions, a position criticized by conservatives in Washington.
To skirt the sanctions, India this year decided to buy oil through a mechanism that lets refiners deposit rupees, which are not freely traded on global markets, for about 45 percent of Iranian crude purchases in an account at India’s UCO Bank.
India sent a trade delegation in March to Iran to boost merchandise exports as a way of securing oil in return. But the delegation came back empty handed, and Indian exporters have complained of difficulties in trading through the new mechanism.
More…
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
There may be 35 Euro summit meetings and denials by the score, but whatever is required will be provided with QE to infinity.
Portugal’s domestic banks tap ECB for record amounts of funding
Bank of Portugal says domestic banks’ use of European Central Bank’s facilities rose to a record €56.3bn in March
The reliance of eurozone banks on the European Central Bank was demonstrated on Monday when Portugal revealed that its domestic banks were tapping the central bank for record amounts of funding.
The Bank of Portugal said the use by domestic banks for the various facilities available from the ECB rose to €56.3bn in March – up from €47.5bn in February and greater than the previous record level of €49.1bn in August 2010.
Bailed out by the EU and International Monetary Fund in April 2011 for €78bn, Portugal has €12bn earmarked for bolstering its banks’ capital positions if necessary in the months ahead.
The plight of Portugal’s banks was revealed following the cash injection by the ECB in February when the central bank lent €529bn to 800 banks across the eurozone through its long-term refinancing operation (LTRO).
Portuguese banks were among those frozen out from the wholesale funding markets – where banks borrow from each other or professional investors – during the height of the eurozone crisis and as a result are among a number in the eurozone that utilise ECB funding.
"I think it’s natural and reasonable for banks to have taken advantage of these funds under the circumstances, especially after the ECB relaxed some collateral requirements before February’s injection," Teresa Gil Pinheiro, chief economist at Banco BPI in Lisbon, told Reuters.
More…
![[Most Recent Quotes from www.kitco.com]](http://www.kitconet.com/charts/metals/gold/t24_au_en_usoz_2.gif)
![[Most Recent Quotes from www.kitco.com]](http://www.kitconet.com/charts/metals/silver/t24_ag_en_usoz_2.gif)
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