Financial Crisis

[yoshiwara]

BTW I already said I love England and that extends to the UK. I still tell you that I will celebrate in the street if I hear that the UK pulled out of the EU and took its sovereignty back. I think the UK made a mistake subjecting itself to the EU, much of which is backward compared to the UK.

From my perspective, The UK rocks compared to most of the rest of the EU, with the possible exception of Germany. But Germany seems to call all of the shots for the Eurozone (and it's hard to blame them) but the UK has the history and culture to be proud of. I'm very happy for the UK that it kept its own currency. I'm betting that Germany wishes it had.

I wish only the best for the UK.

Throwaway junk observations.

[yoshiwara]

The trade was to get in ahead of the US jobs report today. Forget the self-important pontificating of you-know-who on this thread. Concentrate on putting one's money where one's mouth is. His vague generalising a strong indicator that nothing is on the table.

[mccw]

""(Reuters) - Six former Bank of America Corp employees have alleged that the bank deliberately denied eligible home owners loan modifications and lied to them about the status of their mortgage payments and documents.

The bank allegedly used these tactics to shepherd homeowners into foreclosure, as well as in-house loan modifications. Both yielded the bank more profits than the government-sponsored Home Affordable Modification Program, according to documents recently filed as part of a lawsuit in Massachusetts federal court.

The former employees, who worked at Bank of America centers throughout the United States, said the bank rewarded customer service representatives who foreclosed on homes with cash bonuses and gift cards to retail stores such as Target Corp and Bed Bath & Beyond Inc.

For example, an employee who placed 10 or more accounts into foreclosure a month could get a $500 bonus. At the same time, the bank punished those who did not make the numbers or objected to its tactics with discipline, including firing.

About twice a month, the bank cleaned out its HAMP backlog in an operation called "blitz," where it declined thousands of loan modification requests just because the documents were more than 60 months old, the court documents say.

The testimony from the former employees also alleges the bank falsified information it gave the government, saying it had given out HAMP loan modifications when it had not.

""

- biz insider app.

[12DrinkMore]

Hey!

I haven't been around here for awhile. Maybe with all the rain I should come back again?

Not only is this crisis not over, but now the UK is blaming the foreigners for the problems.

Well, really!!!! I thought this xenophobia only existed in developing countries and France.

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/50120956-d665-11e2-b03f-00144feab7de.html#axzz2WO7ILbo5

"Foreign-owned bank branches in Britain made the country’s financial crisis worse, shrinking their loan books by almost half at the height of the credit crunch, according to Bank of England research.

In the latest sign of the BoE’s concern surrounding the impact of international banking on the UK economy, research by the central bank showed lending from foreign-owned banks boomed in the run-up to the crisis before collapsing by 45 per cent between the third quarter of 2007 and the same period in 2009.

It blamed a higher proportion of lending to businesses, which are more prone to booms and busts than households, as well as a greater reliance on more fickle forms of bank funding, especially those from abroad, for the retrenchment."

It is those bloody fickle foreigners what started it all.

I always knew this.

Buggers.

It certainly was nothing to do with the failed UK banks, failed UK regulators and failed UK politicians.

Nope.

Bloody foreigners, it is ALWAYS the bloody foreigners.

Innit?

Just like here in Thailand.

Edited June 16, 2013 by 12DrinkMore

[pistachios]

China's turn?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/china-business/10123507/Fitch-says-China-credit-bubble-unprecedented-in-modern-world-history.html

[ajarnpot]

There it is - what happened to the "Great" Britain

Methinks it got overrun by PC leaders and Muslims and is now best called Britain. Nah, Great Britain is correct. Still, if I mean Scotland or Ireland or England or Wales, I say so.

As usual your thinking is hazy. Please refer to the Act of Union 1801 which superseded the one of 1707.

As per your 'overrun' comment typical of reactionary junk one might expect from someone who fails to understand why their observations are mostly dismissed as lightweight.

Yes if course. Always attack the messenger and let's not talk about UK or other EU immigration. Attacking the messenger makes one sound so brilliant and superior after all.

Is there anyone here including those from the EU who will defend immigration policies, or talk about what it's doing to government deficits?

Or is the EU perfect in every way, and totally immune from problems?

I would like to take you up on the immigration thing. It has been a success in England and we need more of it. Middle East money, African money, Indian money, we need more migrants bringing more money and money ideas into England. Just think what would happen if we stopped taking people in and letting them work and study. Each non domestic student is at least an order of magnitude more valuable to the economy than a local....

[chiang mai]

Methinks it got overrun by PC leaders and Muslims and is now best called Britain. Nah, Great Britain is correct. Still, if I mean Scotland or Ireland or England or Wales, I say so.

As usual your thinking is hazy. Please refer to the Act of Union 1801 which superseded the one of 1707.

As per your 'overrun' comment typical of reactionary junk one might expect from someone who fails to understand why their observations are mostly dismissed as lightweight.

Yes if course. Always attack the messenger and let's not talk about UK or other EU immigration. Attacking the messenger makes one sound so brilliant and superior after all.

Is there anyone here including those from the EU who will defend immigration policies, or talk about what it's doing to government deficits?

Or is the EU perfect in every way, and totally immune from problems?

I would like to take you up on the immigration thing. It has been a success in England and we need more of it. Middle East money, African money, Indian money, we need more migrants bringing more money and money ideas into England. Just think what would happen if we stopped taking people in and letting them work and study. Each non domestic student is at least an order of magnitude more valuable to the economy than a local....

You are a troll I presume! No immigration has not been a sucess in England and anyone who thinks otherwise is a loon, Immigration into the UK has not been managed these past fifteen years and the results of that chaos are reflected economically and socially, the length and breadth of the country.

[mccw]

There it is - what happened to the "Great" Britain

Methinks it got overrun by PC leaders and Muslims and is now best called Britain. Nah, Great Britain is correct. Still, if I mean Scotland or Ireland or England or Wales, I say so.

As usual your thinking is hazy. Please refer to the Act of Union 1801 which superseded the one of 1707.

As per your 'overrun' comment typical of reactionary junk one might expect from someone who fails to understand why their observations are mostly dismissed as lightweight.

Yes if course. Always attack the messenger and let's not talk about UK or other EU immigration. Attacking the messenger makes one sound so brilliant and superior after all.

Is there anyone here including those from the EU who will defend immigration policies, or talk about what it's doing to government deficits?

Or is the EU perfect in every way, and totally immune from problems?

I would like to take you up on the immigration thing. It has been a success in England and we need more of it. Middle East money, African money, Indian money, we need more migrants bringing more money and money ideas into England. Just think what would happen if we stopped taking people in and letting them work and study. Each non domestic student is at least an order of magnitude more valuable to the economy than a local....

The quality migrants looking to contribute should be welcomed but the problem was all the benefits scrounging broke yokels and extended families coming over simply to milk the system. Y let them in? Because they all voted labour for greater hand outs. The minimum income requirements brought in by this government go some way to sorting this out, but the refugees and EU citizens need the same test applied equally.

Then slash the benefit system so british born work force would jump at any job offer like the poles do. Free training program's to supply the skills we need and keep the money circle around with in the country instead of so much getting sent overseas.

Not likely such reforms would be coming until everything had turn a much worse shade of dire than it is today.

[mccw]

From biz insider app- and because I am too stingy to subscribe to FT

"""Cyprus' president is asking EU leaders to completely alter the country's $13 billion bailout.

This is according to an exclusive report from the FT's Peter Spiegel.

President Nicos Anastasiades warned in a letter that the small island nation might not be able to meet the terms of the rescue agreement because it had harmed the country's economy too much.

From the Financial Times:

“[T]he economy is driven into a deep recession, leading to a further rise in unemployment and making fiscal consolidation all the more difficult,” Mr Anastasiades wrote to the heads of three EU institutions and the International Monetary Fund. “I urge you to review the possibilities in order to determine a viable prospect for Cyprus and its people.”

Mr Anastasiades has asked EU leaders to unwind the complex restructuring and partial merger of its two largest banks, which account for 80 per cent of the domestic banking sector, backed by further eurozone loans.

A senior official told the FT that failure to prepare for the bailout -- which forced the closure of its second-largest bank, restructured its largest bank, and took a haircut from depositors -- was partially the fault of the Cypriot government."""

[yoshiwara]

From biz insider app- and because I am too stingy to subscribe to FT

"""Cyprus' president is asking EU leaders to completely alter the country's $13 billion bailout.

This is according to an exclusive report from the FT's Peter Spiegel.

President Nicos Anastasiades warned in a letter that the small island nation might not be able to meet the terms of the rescue agreement because it had harmed the country's economy too much.

From the Financial Times:

“[T]he economy is driven into a deep recession, leading to a further rise in unemployment and making fiscal consolidation all the more difficult,” Mr Anastasiades wrote to the heads of three EU institutions and the International Monetary Fund. “I urge you to review the possibilities in order to determine a viable prospect for Cyprus and its people.”

Mr Anastasiades has asked EU leaders to unwind the complex restructuring and partial merger of its two largest banks, which account for 80 per cent of the domestic banking sector, backed by further eurozone loans.

A senior official told the FT that failure to prepare for the bailout -- which forced the closure of its second-largest bank, restructured its largest bank, and took a haircut from depositors -- was partially the fault of the Cypriot government."""

It was always the Greek method to attempt to slide out from whatever agreement they had previously made and Cyprus is behaving no differently. Maybe they think they have some leverage over Merkel ahead of the German election but it is still the old story of hands out palms up. Edited June 18, 2013 by yoshiwara

[yoshiwara]

and because I am too stingy to subscribe to FT

Didn't renew FT but still holding subs in WSJ and SCMP.

[chiang mai]

Er, um, scary stuff going on in China where interbank lending is now effectively frozen, and extract from the Telegraph blog sets out the picture:

08.18 Scary stuff from Patrick Chovanec, managing director and chief strategist at Silvercrest Asset Management. He reckons that unless the People's Bank of China injects emergency liquidity tonight or tomorrow, wealth management products will default en masse, which could lead to all-out bank failures.

08.13 We're hearing that the cash crunch is reaching fever pitch in China - there is so little liquidity available that banks have just stopped lending to one another.

Well-informed Beijing sources confirm China interbank market is basically frozen, rates are quoted but no transactions taking place.

Is it tin hat time?

[churchill]

Er, um, scary stuff going on in China where interbank lending is now effectively frozen, and extract from the Telegraph blog sets out the picture:

08.18 Scary stuff from Patrick Chovanec, managing director and chief strategist at Silvercrest Asset Management. He reckons that unless the People's Bank of China injects emergency liquidity tonight or tomorrow, wealth management products will default en masse, which could lead to all-out bank failures.

08.13 We're hearing that the cash crunch is reaching fever pitch in China - there is so little liquidity available that banks have just stopped lending to one another.

Well-informed Beijing sources confirm China interbank market is basically frozen, rates are quoted but no transactions taking place.

Is it tin hat time?

see g Trouble for All

'China’s credit boom could well be unprecedented, and if it pops, it will likely be felt globally. Patrick Chovanec, Silvercrest Asset Management Group managing director and former professor at Tsinghua University in Beijing, joins MoneyBeat.'

http://live.wsj.com/video/why-credit-woes-in-china-means-big-trouble-for-all/E2AD212F-5774-4C5E-8A3A-AB86C8CA0BF4.html#!E2AD212F-5774-4C5E-8A3A-AB86C8CA0BF4

[churchill]

'Chinese Bank Bailed Out Through PBOC "Targeted Liquidity Operation" Amidst Liquidity Crunch'

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-06-20/chinese-bank-bailed-out-through-pboc-targeted-liquidity-operation-amidst-liquidity-c

'Bank Of China Denies Default'

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-06-20/bank-china-denies-default

[yoshiwara]

'Chinese Bank Bailed Out Through PBOC "Targeted Liquidity Operation" Amidst Liquidity Crunch'

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-06-20/chinese-bank-bailed-out-through-pboc-targeted-liquidity-operation-amidst-liquidity-c

'Bank Of China Denies Default'

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-06-20/bank-china-denies-default

Speculative junk of the usual high standard at zerosludge.

[churchill]

'Chinese Bank Bailed Out Through PBOC "Targeted Liquidity Operation" Amidst Liquidity Crunch'

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-06-20/chinese-bank-bailed-out-through-pboc-targeted-liquidity-operation-amidst-liquidity-c

'Bank Of China Denies Default'

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-06-20/bank-china-denies-default

Speculative junk of the usual high standard at zerosludge.

Of course 'everything ' from Zero and KWN et all is crap ....

Can you enlighten us ?

'China's Cash Squeeze Eases—for Now'

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324577904578558872792015306.html

China central bank holds line on shadow banking as rates spike

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/21/us-markets-china-bonds-idUSBRE95K07C20130621

ps ' Batman ' is wavering ....

Edited June 21, 2013 by churchill

[churchill]

More crap from Zero..

at least they report events as they happen whether one agrees or not !

Fed's Bullard Explains His FOMC Dissent: Disagrees With Tapering In Light Of Deteriorating Economy

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-06-21/feds-bullard-explains-his-fomc-dissent-disagrees-tapering-light-deteriorating-econom

[Naam]

a null-hedge report to savour (excerpts):

Dive! Take cover! Or, at least, hold on to your pants in the scramble. The Chinese bubble has just burst. It looks like the world is going to have egg on its face...

the only thing that calmed them down was the talk of a possible cash injection...

Some analysts are saying that...

That’s dicing with death some analysts reckon...

The world’s largest bank in terms of assets was mentioned as being one of those banks...

If the biggest banks in the world are currently strapped for cash, because they have been trading with that cash, then we may be preparing for another financial meltdown around the world.

...will it be bigger than the 2008 one? By the looks of it, yes.

Some are saying that the credit crisis is like nothing that we have ever had to go through yet.

The Libor surge prior to the Lehman Brother’s bankruptcy and the ensuing spiraling fall to hell recall the somber times of the financial crisis in 2008. Are we in store for the same?

http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/2013-06-21/chinese-banks-ready-go-bust

[churchill]

a null-hedge report to savour (excerpts):

Dive! Take cover! Or, at least, hold on to your pants in the scramble. The Chinese bubble has just burst. It looks like the world is going to have egg on its face...

the only thing that calmed them down was the talk of a possible cash injection...

Some analysts are saying that...

That’s dicing with death some analysts reckon...

The world’s largest bank in terms of assets was mentioned as being one of those banks...

If the biggest banks in the world are currently strapped for cash, because they have been trading with that cash, then we may be preparing for another financial meltdown around the world.

...will it be bigger than the 2008 one? By the looks of it, yes.

Some are saying that the credit crisis is like nothing that we have ever had to go through yet.

The Libor surge prior to the Lehman Brother’s bankruptcy and the ensuing spiraling fall to hell recall the somber times of the financial crisis in 2008. Are we in store for the same?

http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/2013-06-21/chinese-banks-ready-go-bust

More drivel from Naam......

What's the difference between Naam and a chef that keeps dropping his pancakes?? They're both useless tossers.

[Naam]

a null-hedge report to savour (excerpts):

Dive! Take cover! Or, at least, hold on to your pants in the scramble. The Chinese bubble has just burst. It looks like the world is going to have egg on its face...

the only thing that calmed them down was the talk of a possible cash injection...

Some analysts are saying that...

That’s dicing with death some analysts reckon...

The world’s largest bank in terms of assets was mentioned as being one of those banks...

If the biggest banks in the world are currently strapped for cash, because they have been trading with that cash, then we may be preparing for another financial meltdown around the world.

...will it be bigger than the 2008 one? By the looks of it, yes.

Some are saying that the credit crisis is like nothing that we have ever had to go through yet.

The Libor surge prior to the Lehman Brother’s bankruptcy and the ensuing spiraling fall to hell recall the somber times of the financial crisis in 2008. Are we in store for the same?

http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/2013-06-21/chinese-banks-ready-go-bust

More drivel from Naam......

What's the difference between Naam and a chef that keeps dropping his pancakes?? They're both useless tossers.

you are right! i copied the drivel from null-hedge. what's the difference between a blind man and Churchill?

both "see" by means of hallucinations

[mccw]

From biz insider app-

By Peter schiff

""""As usual the Federal Reserve media reaction machine has fallen for a poorly executed head fake. It has fallen for this move many times in the past, and for its efforts, it has tackled nothing but air. Yet right on cue, it took the bait once more. Somehow the takeaway from Wednesday's release of the June Fed statement and Chairman Ben Bernanke's press conference was that the central bank is likely to begin scaling back, or "tapering," its $85 billion per month quantitative easing program sometime later this year, and that the program may be completely wound down by the middle of next year.

Although this scenario is about as likely as an NSA-sponsored ticker tape parade for whistle blower Edward Snowden, all of the market segments reacted as if it were a fait accompli. The stock market - convinced that it will lose the support of ultra-low, long-term interest rates and the added consumer spending that results from a nascent housing bubble - sold off in triple digits. The bond market, sensing that its biggest and busiest customer will be exiting the market, followed a similarly negative trajectory. The sell-off in government and corporate debt pushed yields up to 21 month highs. In foreign exchange markets, the dollar rallied off its four-month lows based on the belief that Fed tightening will support the currency. And lastly, the gold market, sensing that an end of quantitative easing would eliminate the inflationary fears that have partially fueled gold's spectacular rise, sold off nearly five percent to a new two-and-a-half year low.

All of this came as a result of Bernanke's mild commitments to begin easing back on permanent QE sometime later this year if the economy continued to improve the way he expected. The chairman did not really elaborate on what types of improvements he had seen, or how much farther those unidentified trends would need to go before he would finally pull the trigger. He was however careful to point out that any policy shift, be it for less or more quantitative easing, would not be dependent on incoming data, but on the Fed's interpretation of that data. By stressing repeatedly that its data goalposts were "thresholds rather than triggers," the chairman gained further latitude to pursue any stance the Fed chooses regardless of the data.

Yet the mere and obvious mention that tapering was even possible, combined with the chairman's fairly sunny disposition (perhaps caused by the realization that the real mess will likely be his successor's problem to clean up), was enough to convince the market that the post-QE world was at hand. This conclusion is wrong.

Although many haven't yet realized it, the financial markets are stuck in a "Waiting for Godot" era in which the change in policy that all are straining to see will never in fact arrive. Most fail to grasp the degree to which the "recovery" will stall without the $85 billion per month that the Fed is currently pumping into the economy.

What exactly has convinced the Fed that the economy is improving? From what I can tell, the evidence centered on the rise in stock and real estate prices, and the confidence and spending that follow as a result of the wealth effect. But inflated asset prices are completely dependent on QE and are likely to reverse course even before it is removed. And while it is painfully clear that expectations about QE continuance have made a far bigger impact on the stock, bond, and real estate markets than any other economic data points, many must be assuming that this dependency will soon end.

Those who hold this belief have naively described QE as the economy's "training wheels." (In reality the program is currently our only wheels.) They are convinced that the kindling of QE will inevitably ignite a fire in the larger economy. But the big lumber is still too dampened by debt, government spending, regulation, and high asset prices to catch fire - all we have gotten is smoke instead. A few mirrors supplied by the Fed merely completed the illusion. The larger problem of course is that even though the stimulus is the only wheels, the Fed must remove them anyways as we are cycling toward the edge of a cliff.

Although Bernanke dodged the question in his press conference, the Fed has broken the normal market for mortgage backed securities. While it's true that the Fed only owns 14% of all outstanding MBS (the "small fraction" he referred to in the press conference), it is by far the largest purchaser of newly issued mortgage debt. What would happen to the market if the Fed were no longer buying? There are no longer enough private buyers to soak up the issuance. Those who do remain would certainly expect higher yields if the option of selling to the Fed was no longer on the table. Put bluntly, the Fed is the market right now and has been for years.

A clear-eyed look at the likely consequences of a pull-back in QE should cause an abandonment of the optimistic assumptions behind the Fed's forecast. Interest rates are already rising rapidly based simply on the expectation of tapering. Imagine how high rates would go if the Fed actually tried to sell some of the mortgages it already owns. But the fact is the mere anticipation of such an event has already sent mortgage rates north of 4%, and without a lifeline from the Fed in the form of more QE, those rates will soon exceed 5%. This increase will greatly impact the housing market. Speculative buyers who have lifted the market will become sellers. More foreclosure will hit the market, just as higher home prices and mortgage rates price any remaining legitimate buyers out of the market. Housing prices will fall to new post bubble lows, sinking the phony recovery in the process. The wealth effect will work in reverse: spending and confidence will fall, unemployment will rise, and we will be back in recession even before the Fed begins to taper.

In fact, the rise in mortgage rates seen over the last month has already produced pain in the financial world, with banks reporting a rapid decline in refinancing applications. By the time rates hit 5%, the current rally in real estate will have screeched to a halt. With personal income and wage growth essentially stagnant, individual buyers are extremely dependent on the affordability allowed by ultra-low rates. A near 50% increase in mortgage rates, which would result from an increase in rates from 3.25% to 5.0%, would price a great many buyers out of the market. Higher rates would also cool much of the housing demand that has been coming from the private equity funds that have been a factor in pushing up real estate prices in recent years. Falling home prices would likely trigger a new wave of defaults and housing related bankruptcies that plunged the economy into recession five years ago.

A similar dynamic would occur in the market for U.S. Treasury debt. Despite Bernanke's assurances that the Fed is not monetizing the government's debt, the central bank has been buying nearly 70% of the new issuance in recent years. Already, rates on 10-year treasury debt have creeped up by more than 50% in less than two months to over 2.5%. Any actual decrease or cessation in buying - let alone the selling that would be needed to unwind the Fed's multi-trillion dollar balance sheet - would place the Treasury market under extreme pressure. Since low rates are the life blood of our borrow and spend economy, it is highly likely that higher rates will lead directly to lower stock prices, lower GDP growth, and higher unemployment. Since rising asset prices and the confidence and spending they produce is the basis for Bernanke's rosy forecast, new lows in house prices and a bear market in stocks will likely reverse those forecasts on a dime.

Lost on almost everyone is the effect higher interest rates and a slowing economy will have on federal budget deficits. As unemployment rises, tax revenues will fall and expenditures will rise. In addition, rising rates will not only make it more expensive for the Fed to finance larger deficits, it will also make it more expensive to refinance maturing debts. Furthermore, the profit checks Fannie and Freddie have been paying the Treasury will turn into bills for losses, as a new wave of foreclosures comes tumbling in.

It's fascinating how the goal posts have moved quickly on the Fed's playing field. Months ago the conversation focused on the "exit strategy" it would use to unwind the trillions in bonds and mortgages that it had accumulated over the last few years. Despite apparent improvements in the economy, those discussions have given way to the more modest expectations for the "tapering" of QE. I believe that we should really be expecting a "tapering" of the tapering conversations.

As a result, I expect that the Fed will continue to pantomime that an eventual Exit Strategy is preparing for a grand entrance, even as their timeline and decision criteria become ever more ambiguous. In truth, I believe that the Fed's next big announcement will be to increase, not diminish QE. After all, Bernanke made clear in his press conference that if the economy does not perform up to his expectations, he will simply do more of what has already failed.

Of course, when the Fed is forced to make this concession, it should be obvious to a critical mass that the recovery is a sham. Investors will realize that years of QE have only exacerbated the problems it was meant to solve. When the grim reality of QE infinity sets in, the dollar will drop, gold will climb, and the real crash will finally be upon us. Buckle up. """""

[yoshiwara]

From biz insider app-

By Peter schiff

...A clear-eyed look...

....the dollar will drop, gold will climb, and the real crash will finally be upon us.

A helpful summary immediately above for those who might nod off.

Yes, a clear-eyed look from Mr Swivel-Eyes himself (the only thing missing from one of his interviews is physical frothing)

[churchill]

Interesting view ..

The Australian Dollar, China’s Bubble, QE Exit and the Eurozone

http://yanisvaroufakis.eu/2013/06/22/the-australian-dollar-chinas-bubble-qe-exit-and-the-eurozone-guest-post/

[churchill]

as the Europeans continue their headless chicken dance

Europe unable to break impasse on who pays when banks fail

http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSBRE95L02G20130622?irpc=932

[manarak]

Interesting view ..

The Australian Dollar, China’s Bubble, QE Exit and the Eurozone

http://yanisvaroufakis.eu/2013/06/22/the-australian-dollar-chinas-bubble-qe-exit-and-the-eurozone-guest-post/

Intesting indeed, I too was suspecting something else going on with the AUD than was then in the news.

If there is a Chinese credit crunch and a subconsequent drop of related activity in China, probably mainly construction, I think everybody will be surprised at how little the consequences will be for the world economy.

[churchill]

Willem Buiter, chief economist at Citigroup discusses the major central banks’ stances : the Fed exit strategy, the ECB’s "open mind" and the BoJ agressive stance.

http://blogs.lesechos.fr/by-les-echos/willem-buiter-citi-the-fed-is-talking-about-exit-because-the-economy-a13114.html

[churchill]

Another shameful day for Europe as EMU creditor states betray South

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/ambroseevans_pritchard/10135734/Another-shameful-day-for-Europe-as-EMU-creditor-states-betray-South.html

[yoshiwara]

Another shameful day for Europe as EMU creditor states betray South

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/ambroseevans_pritchard/10135734/Another-shameful-day-for-Europe-as-EMU-creditor-states-betray-South.html

Just goes to show that the Telegraph has been completely detached from its moorings. Here is a paper that supposedly stands in the tradition of Thatcher's Stand On Your Own Two Feet principles wringing its own hands in an attempt to wheedle support for the ridiculous Cypriots who were roped in to finance the cheating Greek project, both parties never once retreating from holding out a begging bowl while continuing their fiddles. What you realise as the article continues that the Telegraph is on an anti-German project that trumps any sense of appropriate analysis and now look who they are standing with. The Telegraph should be reminded that if you sleep with dogs don't be surprised if you get fleas. Shameful? Shameful <deleted>.

[Naam]

Another shameful day for Europe as EMU creditor states betray South

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/ambroseevans_pritchard/10135734/Another-shameful-day-for-Europe-as-EMU-creditor-states-betray-South.html

The Right Honourable Ambrose Evans-Pritchard Esq., is well known for spreading his anti-EU and anti-German rubbish. and that applies to a number of British journalists who agree with the one and only Nigel Farage. let them froth around their mouths.

an old arab proverb comes to my mind "the dogs bark, but the caravan moves on."

[churchill]

Snowden on the way to Venezuala !

'Patrick Chovanec ‏@prchovanec

15m

Snowden denies he is fleeing US law, says he simply has "hot date" with Miss Venezuela.'