for life and liberty

The £240million private jet with a Turkish bath, boardroom and concert hall

"When you have £16billion in the bank, a Cessna is simply not an option. Instead, Prince Alwaleed bin Talal al-Saud is about to take delivery of an Airbus A380, the world’s biggest private jet. The same model is used by Singapore Airlines and Emirates and can fly 800 passengers 8,000 miles before refuelling. But the Saudi prince doesn’t need 800 seats, so he will have them removed to make room for an opulent, marble-finished Turkish bath and a parking space for his Rolls-Royce. The Western-educated prince, 57, is known as the Warren Buffett of the Middle East because of his reputation as a shrewd investor. He also owns 7 per cent of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation." Continue reading →

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Bank of America supplied answers on ‘independent’ foreclosure review

"The Independent Foreclosure Review is the government’s main effort to compensate homeowners for harm they suffered at the hands of banks - and, as its name indicates, it’s supposed to be independent. But until recently, that was hardly the case with Bank of America. Supposedly independent, third-party reviewers would sit at a computer, analyzing each homeowner’s case. But the reviewers weren’t starting from a blank slate. Bank of America employees had already supplied the answers, which the reviewers would have to override if they did not agree." Continue reading →

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Banks Seek a Shield in Mortgage Rules

"The legal protection stems from the Dodd-Frank Act, the sweeping regulatory overhaul passed in 2010 to help repair the financial system. The legislation mandated that loans be affordable, but Congress conceded that banks might fear the legal consequences if the mortgages did not comply. So lawmakers created a type of home loan that would have legal protection, called a 'qualified mortgage.' In practice, the protection will make it harder for borrowers to sue their lenders in the case of foreclosure." Continue reading →

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HSBC to spend $700m vetting clients

"HSBC will spend $700m on a global 'know your customer' programme, as part of a 26-point plan agreed with US regulatorsto settle money laundering and sanctions breaches. The UK bank, which signed up to the A-Z programme of management changes covering both its US and global operations, reiterated apologies for its failure to prevent Mexican money launderers and countries subject to sanctions, including Iran, from using its network." Continue reading →

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David Galland: Justice

"Regardless of what the popular corruption indexes show, when you take into account the systematic skewing of the judicial and electoral systems to favor the entrenched politicos and their friends in high places, the level of corruption in the Anglosphere would make an African despot blush. It's not an accident that the Republicans and the Democrats, two sides of the same coin despite all the rhetoric, are never remotely at risk of losing their collective grip on power – the system has been carefully and thoroughly rigged to prevent that from happening." Continue reading →

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Argentina Deploys Troops To Contain Looting

"What started with the ouster Thursday afternoon of a supermarket in the Patagonian resort town of Bariloche quickly spread to other parts of the country, with thousands of looters attacking supermarkets and shops in the cities of Rosario, Campana and Zárate. In the central city Rosario, two people were killed during the incidents and 137 people arrested. The Kirchner administration deployed 400 federal agents Thursday night at the request of Río Negro Province's governor to help restore order in Bariloche after inhabitants of a shantytown looted at least one supermarket and attacked several other supermarkets and shops." Continue reading →

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Bill Bonner: Promises Will Be Broken

"Growth rates began to decline at least 40 years ago. Today's rates are not extraordinarily low. And nobody really knows why this is happening. A steadily declining GDP growth rate seems to defy our assumptions about the way the world works. This discussion might be merely inconsequential; instead, the future of the United States of America, Europe, Japan and the entire world economy hangs on it. Growth − more GDP... more jobs... more revenue... more people − is also what every government in the developed world desperately needs. Without it, their deficit spending (all are running in the red) leads to growing debt and eventual disaster." Continue reading →

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Doug Casey on the Fiscal Cliff

"Stimulated, or let's say 'simulated' – signs of recovery aren't needed if people have savings, accumulated capital, that can be deployed. Instead, today they mostly have debt. Government stimulation won't work if capital doesn't exist or is punished for being used. If you've destroyed people's jobs, taxed them more for investing wisely, piled on so many regulations that you can't sell lemonade without decades of permitting and clinical trials, all the stimulus in the world won't create a vibrant economy." Continue reading →

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Fitch expects ‘Bond Bubble’ carnage when rate cycle turns

"Yields on 10-year US corporate bonds have fallen to the lowest levels in history as a result of central bank liquidity, halving from 4pc to well under 2pc since early 2011. Fitch said a 'sudden rise' would devastate the portofolios of life insurers, pension funds, and other fixed-income institutions. 'If interest rates were to revert rapidly, a typical BBB-rated US corporate bond could lose 15pc of its market value, with longer duration bonds suffering a 26pc loss,' it said. Fitch said the authorities face an ugly dilemma. If they persist with ultra-loose policies, they will push investors deeper into 'low-coupon securities' that are most vulnerable to rising yields." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingFitch expects ‘Bond Bubble’ carnage when rate cycle turns