Dexia's Belgian Bank To Be 100% Nationalized

Earlier today, Reuters reported that the final solution for Dexia is imminent. "The governments of France, Belgium and Luxembourg reached agreement on Sunday on a rescue package for Dexia , which will be put to the stricken Franco-Belgian bank's board later in the day for approval. "The governments... have reaffirmed their solidarity in finding a solution to secure the future of Dexia," said a statement from the office of Belgium's caretaker Prime Minister Yves Leterme. "The suggested solution, which is also the result of intense consultations with all partners involved, will be submitted to Dexia's Board of Directors for approval." Sure enough, from Dow Jones:

• GOVERNMENTS AGREE TO NATIONALIZE 100% OF DEXIA'S BELGIAN BANK

We are waiting for more details but with that we have Belgium-Dexia CDS compression, an imminent Belgian rating downgrade, and the unleashing of the completely unpredictable domino effect.

Slovakia On Why It Votes "No" To EFSF Expansion: "The Greatest Threat To The Euro Is The Bailout Fund Itself"

Yesterday we reported that tiny Slovakia's refusal to ratify the expansion of the EFSF 2.0 (even though a 4.0 version will be required this week after the "Dexia-event), may throw the Eurozone into a tailspin as all 17 countries have to agree to agree to kick the can down the road: even one defector kills the entire Swiss Watch plan. Yet an interview conducted between German Spiegel and Slovakia party head Richard Sulik confirms that tiny does not mean irrelevant, and certainly not stupid. In fact, just the opposite: his words are precisely what the heads ot the bigger and far less credible countries should be saying. Alas they are not. Which is precisely why the euro is doomed.

'History Decoded' Fort Knox episode to be rebroadcast tonight

Did Foreigners Bail Out The US Stock Market... By Dumping $56 Billion In Treasurys?

Something curious happened recently: for the first time in over a decade, perhaps ever, the US saw a record $25 billion worth of Treasury bond outflows from the Treasury's custodial account in the week ended September 28. Just as curious is that in the past 5 weeks we have seen relentless selling of Treasurys from the same custodial account which, with Treasury International Capital data 3 months delayed, and largely incorrect until its annual revision, is the only real source of recent (and somewhat accurate) foreign activity in US bonds. In fact, starting with the week ended September 7, through last Thursday, foreigners appear to have dumped a massive $56 billion worth of Treasurys (don't take our word for it - check it here, courtesy of the Fed). This is quite disturbing for two reasons. One explanation for this move would be to look back to the Quant crash in early August 2007, which preceded the market's secular (and all time) high, when various quant funds blew up for reasons still not completely known. The reason why this date is important is that it was the catalyst for the next biggest concerted dump of Treasurys, when in a subsequent span of 4 weeks, foreigners sold $47 billion in Treasurys... but at least the market's precipitous move lower was prevented, if only for a few brief months. Also curious is that the recent move is in direct contrast to the Custodial Account reaction to the Lehman implosion in 2008 when 20 weeks of consecutive UST inflows, beginning September 10, saw $300 billion in "safe haven" purchases. So while the market plunge back then was accompanied by a shift into Treasurys, this time around, the biggest market volatility since Lehman has seen a record sequential exodus out of bonds. Which begs the question: did Tim Geithner make a few phone calls, and tell foreigners to dump Treasurys (knowing full well Op Twist was coming and the Fed would backstop the entire curve), and to buy stocks instead in order to prevent the next relapse of the Great Financial Crisis?

Going Against Panic

Admin at Jim Rogers Blog - 2 hours ago

Just about every time you go against panic, you will be right if you can stick it out. - *in Market Wizards* *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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Forecasts & Experts

Admin at Marc Faber Blog - 2 hours ago

As my readers can imagine, I am extremely cynical about forecasts by experts. In every major investment mania there is a large number of academics and ―experts who will justify and fuel the increase in prices by writing papers about the merits of the inflating asset class. I have experienced the implosion of high quality growth stocks in 1973/74 (for growth you can pay any price), the demise of the Japanese stock market after 1989 (then the most popular stock market in the world), the Asian crisis in 1997 (among investment strategists- Asia was at the time- the most favored investm... more » 

 

 

 

 

 

Loose Cannon On the Gold & Silver Ship Will Be Tethered Soon

Eric De Groot at Eric De Groot - 4 hours ago

The well-orchestrated paper attack on gold, silver, and quality gold share, similar to a loose cannon on deck during a hurricane, is wrecking havoc on the deck hands (investors). Falling prices engenders fear. Fear, in turn, facilitates even more selling, and margin calls grease its wheels. The cycle repeats until there’s no paper fuel left. A diffusion index (DI), already well above 60%,... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]] 

The CEO Of Failed Dexia Made €1.95 Million In 2009 And 2010 Despite A €150 Billion Government Guarantee And A Fed Bailout

Below we present some observations on the compensation package of the CEO of bank that is about to be no more (in its existing pre-BearStearns'ed form), a bank which since 2008 had operated with an implicit governmental guarantee of €150 billion and which bank was the biggest recipient of the Fed's taxpayer-funded bailout generosity during the Great Financial Crisis, confirming once again that when it comes to putting US taxpayer capital at risk for total loss, the Fed is truly second to none, without much commentary. It has all been said already numerous times...

Money, Macro And Markets Update By Sean Corrigan

A good deal of leverage has been shaken out of the system, of that there can be little doubt. Markets became horribly oversold and are now reacting accordingly and, in such conditions of these, when underlying conviction is absent and the reservoirs of both financial and reputational capital are so scanty, such reverses can be violent indeed, so being bearish is not operationally straightforward, even if being bullish seems perverse. Whether the present bounce is any more than a temporary relief, must however, remain in doubt while the underlying weaknesses lie unaddressed and the treatment prescribed for them are so palpably toxic in their side-effects. At least we have the weekend to ponder it.





Occupy Wall St – Systemic Change Please

Posted by: ilene

Post date: 10/08/2011 - 20:02

The system doesn’t work, and they don’t want to reduce this to a set of technocratic little fix its and paste-its. 

 

 

 

 

 

Politics, Money and OWS

Posted by : Bruce Krasting

Post date: 10/09/2011 - 08:50

The Obama administration is going to give the OWS protest a big boost. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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