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The Cartel: How BP Got Insider Tips Through a Secret Chat Room – Bloomberg
The Cartel: How BP Got Insider Tips Through a Secret Chat Room – Bloomberg.
Halfway down a muddy, secluded road on marshland in suburban Essex sits Wharf Pool, a lake stocked with some of the biggest freshwater fish you will ever see.
A white sign with red lettering reads: “Private Syndicate: Strictly Members Only.” A metal gate, a barbed-wire fence and two CCTV cameras bar the way. Anglers hoping to spend time on the lake’s carefully tended banks must join a waiting list. Those who make it to the top pay a membership fee that buys them the chance to catch a carp that weighs more than a Jack Russell. There are hundreds of them swimming beneath the surface. It’s close to shooting fish in a barrel.
An hour away by train, in London’s financial district, the lake’s owners ply their trade. Wharf Pool was purchased for about 250,000 pounds ($388,000) in 2012 by Richard Usher, the former JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) trader at the center of a global investigation into corruption in the foreign-exchange market, and Andrew White, a currency trader at oil company BP Plc. (BP/)
The Cradle of Democracy Should Defy the Autocrats & Kleptocrats | StealthFlation
The Cradle of Democracy Should Defy the Autocrats & Kleptocrats | StealthFlation.
On the old continent, this December 29th, a succinct political showdown is scheduled to take place which may well become a defining moment for our entirely unsettled new millenium. What is at stake is none other than the prosperity of the common man pitted against the privilege of concentrated power. Lamentably, this deliberate dogmatic divide has relentlessly defined human civilization for the ages.
What is at hand isn’t so much about lofty ideals. It’s not about Socialism. It’s not about Capitalism. It’s not about Communism. It’s not about being a progressive, or a conservative or a liberal. It’s not about left vs right. Forget all those dumbed down dichotomies. It’s much more fundamental than all of that. Quite simply, it’s about People vs. Power, that’s it, nothing more. Those that have and wield institutional power, and those that do not. It’s as elementary and base as that I’m afraid.
Take a good look around, I defy you to point to a single socioeconomic construct in our supposedly enlightened and advanced society of today which is not essentially determined by that crude polarizing characterization. Whether it be our bought and paid for Political Class, our rapacious Banking Sector, our entitled Multinational Corporations, our entrenched Governmental Agencies, our marauding Military Industrial Complex, our fleecing Healthcare Providers, our muzzled Free Press, our hijacked Justice System, or our grossly overpaid CEOs, Athletes, and Entertainers, they all have one thing in common, and I assure you that it’s not the common good that they share. What they seek above all else is to expand the existing institutional dominion and their own privileges within it.
China’s Christmas Present To The World: Beijing Eases Again, Sets Non-Bank Deposit Reserve To Zero | Zero Hedge
Four years ago, on Christmas Day in 2010, China shocked the world when, unexpectedly, hiked its lending and deposits rates by 0.25% in order to battle inflation – only its second such hike in the prior 3 years. Since then things for the global economy haven’t done exactly as expected, and certainly not for China, which as the following chart of constantly downward-revised IMF growth forecasts, has seen its growth rate tumble from double digits to just hanging on to 7%, and dropping fast.
Fast forward to last night, when in another Christmas surprise, China once again decided to adjust the cost of money, only this time instead of hiking it eased, and in an effort to shore up the world’s second-largest economy, China Business News reported that:
- PBOC WAIVES RESERVE REQUIREMENT FOR NON-BANK DEPOSIT
What bank stress tests don’t tell you about banking system resilience | New Economics Foundation
What bank stress tests don’t tell you about banking system resilience | New Economics Foundation.
The Bank of England has just released the results of its first ‘stress test’ of UK banks, designed to assess whether they have enough capital to weather a severe financial storm. While headlines have focused on the fact that the Co-operative Bank failed the test, policymakers and regulators are claiming the overall results show their reforms are working, and that the system is now more resilient against future shocks.
But when policymakers claim this, they’re making an implicit assumption that the resilience of the system equals the sum resilience of all individual banks. They’re also assuming resilience can be understood purely in terms of the size of banks’ buffers against shocks, rather than their inherent tendency to generate those shocks in the first place.
As the financial crisis taught us, things are a lot more complicated in reality. Even if the stress tests show individual banks are now ‘resilient’ (a big if, given that Lloyds and RBS only just scraped through – and that the real impacts of any future shock are inherently uncertain), does that mean the same is true of the system as a whole? Not necessarily.
We need to consider the system as a whole
For one thing, economists are starting to learn what ecologists and engineers have known for decades: that the same components can be assembled into a more or less resilient system depending on how they’re connected. Stress tests purport to show what might happen to an individual bank in a stress scenario, but they don’t fully capture the ways in which that shock might rebound around the system.
IMF holds back Cyprus bailout funds | World news | theguardian.com
IMF holds back Cyprus bailout funds | World news | theguardian.com.
The International Monetary Fund has said it will not release a further €88m (£69m/US$108m) in bailout money for Cyprus on Friday after the country’s parliament delayed a key foreclosure law that was due to take effect at the end of December.
“Following today’s suspension of the existing legislation on foreclosure, critical requirements for the completion of the fifth programme review are now no longer met,” the IMF said in a statement. Its board had been set to discuss Cyprus’s progress with the loan programme on Friday and was thought likely to release the next instalment of aid.
Cyprus needed an international bailout of €10bn (£7.8bn/US$12bn) from the European commission and the monetary fund in early 2013, largely due to problems in its banking sector.
The eurozone released its latest tranche of bailout loans to Cyprus in November after the government amended laws on foreclosures and on forced sales of mortgaged property in line with the conditions of the loan. The original laws would have made it easier for the country’s hobbled banks to start collecting on bad loans, which account for around half of all loans.
Banking culture breeds dishonesty, scientific study finds | Reuters
Banking culture breeds dishonesty, scientific study finds | Reuters.
(Reuters) – – A banking culture that implicitly puts financial gain above all else fuels greed and dishonesty and makes bankers more likely to cheat, according to the findings of a scientific study.
Researchers in Switzerland studied bank workers and other professionals in experiments in which they won more money if they cheated, and found that bankers were more dishonest when they were made particularly aware of their professional role.
When bank employees were primed to think less about their profession and more about normal life, however, they were less inclined to dishonesty.
“Many scandals… have plagued the financial industry in the last decade,” Ernst Fehr, a researcher at the University of Zurich who co-led the study, told reporters in a telephone briefing. “These scandals raise the question whether the business culture in the banking industry is favoring, or at least tolerating, fraudulent or unethical behaviors.”
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Russia to launch alternative to SWIFT bank transaction system in spring 2015 — RT Business
Russia to launch alternative to SWIFT bank transaction system in spring 2015 — RT Business.
Russia intends to have its own international inter-bank system up and running by May 2015. The Central of Russia says it needs to speed up preparations for its version of SWIFT in case of possible ”challenges” from the West.
“Given the challenges, Bank of Russia is creating its own system for transmitting financial messaging… It’s time to hurry up, so in the next few months we will have certain work done. The entire project for transmitting financial messages will be completed in May 2015,” said Ramilya Kanafina, deputy head of the national payment system department at the Central Bank of Russia (CBR).
Calls not to use the SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication) system in Russian banks began to grow as relations between Russia and the West deteriorated over sanctions. So far, SWIFT says despite pressure from some Western countries to join the anti-Russian sanctions, it has no intention of doing so.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Ways to Create a Democratized Economy | Grassroots Economic Organizing
Ways to Create a Democratized Economy | Grassroots Economic Organizing.
The richest 400 Americans now own more wealth than the bottom 180 million taken together. The political system is in deadlock. Social and economic pain continue to grow. Environmental devastation and global warming present growing challenges. Is there any path toward a more democratic, equal and ecologically sustainable society? What can one person do?
In fact, there is a great deal one person working with others can do. Experiments across the country already focus on concrete actions that point toward a larger vision of long-term systemic change – especially the development of alternative economic institutions. Practical problem-solving activities on Main Streets across the country have begun to lay down the elements and principles of what might one day become the direction of a new system – one centered around building egalitarian wealth, nurturing democracy and community life, avoiding climate catastrophe and fostering liberty through greater economic security and free time.
Democratize Your Money!
Put your money in a credit union – then participate in its governance.
Credit unions are commonplace financial institutions that typically facilitate loans for everyday purchases like homes and cars. But behind their unexciting veneer lie transformative possibilities. Unlike the large commercial and investment banks responsible for the 2008 financial crisis, credit unions are nonprofit cooperatives that are member-owned and controlled. These democratized, one-person-one-vote banks already involve more than 95 million Americans as participant-owners. They lend to minorities and low- and moderate-income families to a far greater extent than do commercial banks. Taken together, they hold roughly $1 trillion of assets – the equivalent of one of the largest US banks, knocking Goldman Sachs out of the top five.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
How The Federal Reserve Is Purposely Attacking Savers – Chris Martenson | Peak Prosperity
How The Federal Reserve Is Purposely Attacking Savers – Chris Martenson | Peak Prosperity.
There’s something we ‘regular’ citizens wrestle with that the elites never seem to: a sense of moral duty.
For example, following the collapse of the housing bubble, many people struggled with mortgages they could no longer afford to pay, fearing the shame of default. Many believed defaulting was wrong somehow; that it was their moral obligation to pay their mortgages, no matter how dire their personal situation. And of course, the mortgages lenders did their utmost to reinforce this perception.
In a perfect world, we would honor our debts and obligations, every one of us. But the world is an imperfect place ,and moral obligation is something that almost never enters into the decision matrix of our society’s richest. Or the banking industry.
For them, the number one (and two, and three…) rule is that whatever is expedient and makes the most money is the right thing to do.
,,,click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Debunking the great Australian banking myth – The Drum (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
Debunking the great Australian banking myth – The Drum (Australian Broadcasting Corporation).
There is a certain irony about Macquarie Bank warning against new financial regulations, when only six years ago it was begging the government for help, writes Ian Verrender.
Q. What are the two greatest weapons in a businessman’s arsenal?
A. Chronic memory failure among the broader community and a compliant business media.
Macquarie boss Nick Moore used both to full effect last week when he issued a dire warning to David Murray, the man heading the inquiry into the future of Australia’s financial system.
Think twice about imposing new regulations on our banks to protect taxpayers from a collapse, Moore warned. Such regulations could backfire and cost the nation dearly.
…click on the link above to read the rest of the article…
The IMF and Austrian Theory – Ludwig von Mises Institute Canada
The IMF and Austrian Theory – Ludwig von Mises Institute Canada.
Back in the early 1960s, financial journalist Henry Hazlitt warned against efforts to create an international system to help facilitate the smooth transfer of currencies. Representatives from the world’s leading governments were attempting to increase liquidity in global markets. They wanted to make sure the banking system and sovereign governments would never had a lack of funds. Hazlitt was not fooled. “In plain English” he wrote, “they are pushing for more world inflation.” His words, though accurate, went unheeded. The International Monetary Fund, which was established decades earlier, was to play a role in facilitating endless inflation.
Half a century later, the IMF has overseen a tumultuous business cycle that came to a screeching halt in 2008. Big, overleveraged banks were on the verge of collapsing; millions of people lost their jobs and their homes; governments spent billions of dollars to maintain their welfare safety nets. The end result, which is still ongoing, is stagnant economic growth with dim prospects for recovery.
…click on the above link for the rest of the article…
