ECB Confirms Shadow Banking System In Europe In Tatters

Yesterday we reported that the freeze in the Europe repo, asset backed paper and money markets is a broad indication that the shadow banking system - the primary conduit to broader disintermediated financial stability or in this case distress - on the continent has now locked up, which means that the three traditional bank transformations of risk, maturity and liquidity now have to be undertaken by the very non-shadow banks whose existence relies day to day on the ECB and the Fed, without any 3rd party market intermediaries (incidentally we are looking forward to tomorrow's quarterly update of the US shadow banking system and will post promptly). Today, the ECB has just confirmed our worst fears, in that the shadow situation is likely worse than expected.

 

 

We Just Had A "Rerun" Of Bear Stearns: When Is Lehman Coming?

As the attached chart showing USD liquidity swap line usage by the ECB, or more specifically by European banks, we have now seen a surge to levels last seen in August 2009. However, more importantly this is where the usage was for the first time after the failure of Bear Stearns, and when everyone thought all had been fixed... until Lehman came. We are there now, in other words, we have just experienced a behind the scenes Bear-type event. What is disturbing is just how fast the rate of change was this time around compared to before, when it took months to get to $50 billion. Now, it was one week. When "Lehman v2.0" hits and it will hit, the next step function in the Fed's global bailout will be so big and so fast, it will induce vertigo.

Rotten Contagion To Make Landfall In Denmark: CDS Set To Soar As Hedge Funds Target Country

Misquoting Shakespeare before the market open may seem like blasphemy but in a follow-up confirmation of a thesis we proposed back in July, Luxor Capital expands on the idea that something rotten is ahead for the state of Denmark. As with many of these crises, the heart of the Danish problems lie in a commercial and residential real estate boom and looming bust and with the capital/equity remaining so low in the Danish banking system (and a pitiful funding profile), it seems increasingly evident that public balance sheet support will become necessary (and perhaps not sufficient). How ironic that we pointed out, back in July, the probability that Germany will need two insolvency funds, a South-facing and now a North-facing one. Having traded in the mid 20s during H1 2011, CDS now stands at 106bps (off its September peak of 158bps) and given the interest we are seeing from hedge funds in this relatively lower cost short, we suspect this week's modest decompression will accelerate.

Full Letter From Merkozy To Van Rompu

Mr President,
To overcome the current crisis, all necessary measures to stabilize the euro area as a whole will have to be taken. We are confident that we will succeed.
We are convinced that we need to reinforce the architecture of Economic and Monetary Union going beyond the indispensable measures which are urgently needed to cope with immediate crisis resolution. Those steps need to be taken now without further delay. We consider this as a matter of necessity, credibility and confidence in the future of Economic and Monetary Union.

EU Fiscal Union = EU Debt Serfdom

The stock and bond markets are gearing up to celebrate the EU's approval this Friday of "fiscal union," the necessary surrender of sovereignty that's needed to seal the bondage of the EU's hapless citizenry to the banks and the lapdog bureaucrats slavishly devoted to their dominance. "Fiscal union" is the code-phrase for the EU nation agreeing to automatic sanctions (penalties) should their borrowing exceed what is deemed prudent. In this sense, it's little different from the 3% deficit limit that the member states agreed to via the initial treaty but conveniently ignored. The "teeth" of automatic sanctions is supposed to force nations to "tighten up" their fiscal and tax policies (including collection)--"austerity" at the fundamental economic and governmental levels. In other words, "Oops, we borrowed too much, default looms, let's paper over the insolvency by really really really promising to borrow less from now on." The mechanisms of the overborrowing--overleveraged, politically dominant banks and the euro--are left untouched. Why? For the "obvious" reasons the mechanisms of EU governance has been captured by the banks and their apparatchiks, and as a result of the quasi-religious devotion of the Eurocrats to the single currency, a catastrophically wrong-headed fantasy that they cannot give up without losing face.

Europe Doesn't Get It

Many EU leaders seem to actually believe that the Treaty changes are important.  The reality is the market could care less about treaty changes.  The market cares about only one thing, that the ECB will announce new, bigger, more aggressive sovereign purchases.  That’s all the market cares about.  The market believes that the treaty changes provide an excuse for the ECB and IMF to ramp up their efforts.  The EU can do all the treaty changes it wants, but if it is not followed up with aggressive new printing policies, the markets will sell-off.

New Independent Research: Gold Is Crucial Diversification - Hedge Against Monetary and Systemic Risk

More excellent independent research was released yesterday confirming gold's unique role as a diversifier and foundation asset in the portfolios of investors, especially at a time of heightened currency and investment risk. The independent research from highly respected New Frontier Advisors (NFA) confirms the importance of gold as a portfolio diversifier to investors in Europe and to investors exposed to the euro. During a period of extraordinarily serious economic uncertainty in the Eurozone, continued concerns about economic growth in the US heading into an election year, and the possibility of an economic slowdown in China, the World Gold Council (WGC) wanted to examine the relevance of gold as a strategic asset for euro-based investors to protect their portfolios and to mitigate the systemic risks being faced. The report, ‘Gold as a strategic asset for European investors’, commissioned by the World Gold Council, explores gold as a strategic asset across five sets of asset allocation studies, including four using historical data spanning 1986 to 2010, and one using the 1999 to 2010 time frame. The third party research builds on the now considerable research and academic literature showing that gold adds significant diversifying power due to its low or negative correlation with most other assets in an investment portfolio. Gold’s relevance as a strategic asset is continuing to grow. This will continue in a world facing the real risk of a global recession and even a Depression, poor investment returns, currency devaluations and wars and very high monetary and systemic risk. Put simply, when used as a foundation asset, gold has preserved wealth throughout history and again today.

What Is the Primary Trend In Gold?

 

 

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China: Easing May Not Mean That The Economy Will Do Particularly Well

Admin at Marc Faber Blog - 1 hour ago

"But let me tell you something about easing. when Mr. Bernanke became fed chairman, the S&P 500 Index was at 1264, that was on february 1st, 2006. We're now at 1244. So the market is lower than it was at that time. In the meantime, gold has gone to 1,746 USD. The easing may not mean that the economy will do particularly well." - *in CNBC* Related, iShares FTSE/Xinhua China 25 Index ETF (FXI) *Marc Faber is an international investor known for his uncanny predictions of the stock market and futures markets around the world.* 

 

 

 

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CNBC Video: Hard Landing In China?

Admin at Marc Faber Blog - 2 hours ago

Latest CNBC video interview. Related, iShares FTSE/Xinhua China 25 Index ETF (FXI), SSE Composite Index *Marc Faber is an international investor known for his uncanny predictions of the stock market and futures markets around the world.* 

 

 

 

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California Is More Communist Than China At This Point

Admin at Jim Rogers Blog - 2 hours ago

I know the Chinese call themselves communists, but they're really the best capitalists in the world. California is more communist than China at this point. - *in Yahoo Finance* *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.* 

Art Cashin Talks Market Dramamine

As usual some highly pragmatic observations on the roller coaster stock market from the Fermentation Committee chairman.

Spanish Spreads Jump Most Since July As Italy 10Y Breaches 6% Again

Presented with little comment, except to say reality is returning as credit markets are starting to price in some disappointment. Italy 5Y is underperforming as the basis trades we mentioned yesterday are unwound and Italy 10Y has broken back over 6% as their curve remains inverted. Spanish 10Y spreads are up over 35bps today and 50bps from yesterday's tight print as Belgium and Italy follow suit. The swing in Spanish 10Y spreads, on a percentage basis, is massive, empirically, from a 4.5 standard deviation compression on Monday to a 2.5 standard deviation decompression today as today's widening in the biggest relative jump since July 11th - more small doors and large crowds?

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