"As long as investors are comfortable with expected S&P 500 10-12 year total returns of less than 1% annually, with likely interim losses on the order of 50-60%, investors are free to label this situation as 'fairly valued' or with any other phrase they wish." Continue reading →
"Suddenly the ECB has made it clear that Italy's gain in a 'hypothetical' Euro zone exit would be a tremendous loss for Berlin and Merkel. We are confident that the question of 'how much' preventing such a loss would be worth to Merkel, will emerge in very short order. As for what Draghi's statement means for countries with a far smaller Target2 liability which may also consider exiting the monetary union, the answer is two words: 'green light.'" Continue reading →
Developed-world governments are joining their developing-world counterparts in governing by surprise and openly placing their citizens' wealth at risk through anti-cash messaging and actions. Continue reading →
Every day provides increased evidence that developed-world sovereign debt is quite literally "a bubble in search of a pin", as Peter Schiff put it in his 2011 book 'Crash Proof'. Continue reading →
"Mr. Mnuchin was on the board of Sears for the past 11 years, throughout its devastating decline. He is resigning now, letting the ship go down without him. Besides, he has already stolen the silver. How do you destroy a business? It’s not that hard. Rather than invest in new people and new methods, you take the money for yourself. It is even more attractive if you can borrow a lot of fake money at ultra-low rates against the company’s credit… pay it out to yourself and other financiers… and then jump ship, leaving the company, its employees, and its creditors to drown in your debt." Continue reading →
"The central bank did not say when the heist occurred or how hackers moved the funds. But so far, the attack bears some similarity to a recent string of heists that has targeted the worldwide financial system. In January 2015, hackers got a hold of an Ecuadorian bank's codes for using SWIFT, the worldwide interbank communication network that settles transactions. In October, hackers used the same technique to slip into a bank in the Philippines. Two months later, hackers tried to make fraudulent requests at a commercial bank in Vietnam. They were stopped. This past February, computer hackers stole $101 million from Bangladesh's central bank -- also by gaining access to SWIFT." Continue reading →
If these academics have their way, government-backed paper money will further approach its intrinsic value - zero. They hope that this will drive cash-based savings into bank deposits, which generate fee revenue and a source of leverage for the banks while at the same time supplying governments with taxes and police oversight of citizens' financial lives. However, governments attempting to eliminate cash usage risk destroying trust in the 'coin of the realm', leading to cash-based savings being moved into assets such as real estate, precious metals, and cryptocurrencies instead of bank deposits. Continue reading →
"Three bankers in New York, London and Siena, Italy, died within 17 months of each other in 2013-14 in what authorities deemed a series of unrelated suicides. But in each case, the victim had a connection to a burgeoning global banking scandal, leaving more questions than answers as to the circumstances surrounding their deaths." Continue reading →
"When the European Central Bank introduced a negative interest rate on lenders’ deposits two years ago, few thought things would ever go this far. This week, a German cooperative savings bank in the Bavarian village of Gmund am Tegernsee — population 5,767 — said it’ll start charging retail customers to hold their cash. From September, for savings in excess of 100,000 euros (US$111,710), the community’s Raiffeisen bank will take back 0.4 per cent. Introducing the sub-zero policy in June 2014 with a cut to the deposit rate to minus 0.1 per cent, ECB President Mario Draghi said the move was 'for the banks, not for the people.'" Continue reading →
"When the European Central Bank introduced a negative interest rate on lenders’ deposits two years ago, few thought things would ever go this far. This week, a German cooperative savings bank in the Bavarian village of Gmund am Tegernsee — population 5,767 — said it’ll start charging retail customers to hold their cash. From September, for savings in excess of 100,000 euros (US$111,710), the community’s Raiffeisen bank will take back 0.4 per cent. Introducing the sub-zero policy in June 2014 with a cut to the deposit rate to minus 0.1 per cent, ECB President Mario Draghi said the move was 'for the banks, not for the people.'" Continue reading →