S&P Says Dexia Failure May Be A Bad Thing

"Well, not quite the discovery of aquatic wetness but close enough.

MILAN (Standard & Poor's) Oct. 5, 2011--Franco-Belgian banking group Dexia S.A. announced yesterday that it is preparing measures to resolve structural problems penalizing its operational activities. Standard & Poor's Ratings Services believes that this could have a negative impact on the creditworthiness of Dexia's core banks Dexia Crédit Local, Dexia Bank S.A., and Dexia Banque Internationale à Luxembourg (all rated A/Negative/A-1). We expect to publish a more detailed analysis of any impact on the credit ratings on Dexia Crédit Local, Dexia Bank S.A., and Dexia Banque Internationale à Luxembourg as soon as permitted to do so under applicable EU law..."

at http://www.zerohedge.com/news/sp-says-dexia-failure-may-be-bad-thing

Bad Financial News Keeps Pouring In: 14 Facts That Just Might Scare The Living Daylights Out Of You

"The following are 14 facts that just might scare the living daylights out of you....

#1 On Monday, the Dow was down 258 points. Lately it seems as though the Dow has been going up or down by several hundred points almost every single day, and that much volatility is not a good sign for the health of the financial system.

#2 Shares of Wall Street banking giant Morgan Stanley fell by another 8 percent on Monday. Overall, shares of Morgan Stanley have declined by more than 50 percent since February.

#3 Bank of America stock dropped down to $5.53 a share on Monday. Just a few years ago, it was trading for more than $50 a share.

#4 There are reports that Goldman Sachs may actually show a loss for the third quarter of 2011 and that yearly bonuses for employees may be slashed to next to nothing. Yes, not too many people are going to have sympathy for Goldman Sachs, but this just shows how bad things are getting out there for the big Wall Street banks.

#5 Normally Goldman Sachs is quite upbeat, but lately they have been coming out with some really frightening reports. For example, a new report from Goldman Sachs declares that there is a 40 percent chance that we are entering a "Great Stagnation".

#6 Shares of European banking giant Dexia plunged by about 10 percent on Monday on rumors that it will soon need a significant bailout. The stocks of major banks all across Europe have been getting absolutely hammered for weeks..."

at http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/bad-financial-news-keeps-pouring-in-14-facts-that-just-might-scare-the-living-daylights-out-of-you

Nomura's Bob Janjuah: Growth Is Horrible, And Politicians Are Screwing Up, So The Market Has A Lot More Left To Plunge

"Nomura's famously bearish Bob Janjuah is still really negative, arguing that growth is really weak and that politicans continue to make errors (he calls the Geithner plan for Europe a Ponzi scheme).
Bottom line. Things are going going to be bad for a long time.

My last report (Bob's World: It's only just begun) was published on 23 August. A month on I have little to add as markets and data are evolving almost exactly as expected. Most commentators now seem to accept that what is happening is not an overreaction, rather the markets are at last on the way to fully pricing in the sad state of the global economy and global markets. It may sound repetitive, but I remain firmly convinced that we are in a secular bear market where stage 1 was the late 2007 to early 2009 sell-off, stage 2 was the countertrend rally from early 2009 to April 2011, and stage 3 is the current phase, where I expect the sell-off to last at least until late 2012..."

at http://www.businessinsider.com/nomuras-bob-janjuah-growth-is-horrible-and-politicans-are-screwing-up-so-the-market-will-be-horrible-for-years-2011-10?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+clusterstock+%28ClusterStock%29#ixzz1ZkQZoljQ

Sachs: Corporatocracy is Replacing Democracy

"Jeff Sachs:

Paul Ryan, American Values and Corporatocracy, by Jeff Sachs: My new book, The Price of Civilization, describes why America needs a "mixed economy," one where a more effective federal government regulates business and invests alongside the business sector. In his review of my book, Congressman Paul Ryan, an avowed libertarian, describes my book as anti-American in its values. ...

Ryan ignores the extensive evidence in the book showing that Americans support the values of a mixed economy, not of Ryan's free-market libertarianism. Americans today by large majorities support public education, Medicare, Social Security, help for the indigent, stronger regulation of the banks, and higher taxation of the rich. ...

On issue after issue, Washington is presently bucking the public's values, rather than respecting them. A majority of the public wants to preserve social programs, but they are being cut anyway. A majority wants higher taxes on the rich, but they are being cut rather than raised. A majority wants to end the wars, but they continue anyway.

The reason is the following. America is losing its democracy as our politicians trade their votes for campaign contributions from the corporate lobbies. We have a corporatocracy rather than a democracy, and Ryan stands at the center of it. The Wall Street Journal, which commissioned Ryan's review of my book, is the leading print mouthpiece for the corporatocracy.

Since entering Congress in 1999, Ryan has helped to prevent effective oversight and regulation of the banking sector. ... Ryan's re-elections have been consistently funded by the insurance, banking, and homebuilding industries. Banks such as the Bank of America and Citigroup, two of the largest bailout recipients, have been high on Ryan's contribution list; so too have major lobbying groups for the financial industry, such as the American Bankers Association and the Securities Industry & Financial Market Association.

America's corporatocracy is governed by vested interests rather than moral or economic principles. After financial deregulation led to the 2008 collapse, Ryan's enthusiasm for free enterprise suddenly took a second place to his new enthusiasm to rescue the banks through a giant taxpayer-funded bailout. The "free-market" Wall Street Journal similarly defended the bank bailout, all of a sudden lecturing its readers about market failures and the limits of the free market.

As soon as the banks were saved with public money, Ryan, the Journal, and most of the political class swung back to deregulation. Ryan voted against reforms of Wall Street. He inveighed against taxing or otherwise controlling the bonuses received by the CEOs and senior managers of the bailed-out banks. When it comes to the poor, however, Ryan has a different response: slash Medicaid spending, come what may. ...

My views ... run to the very idea of America: a democracy of the people, by the people, and for the people, not a government of the corporations, by the corporations and for the corporations..."

at http://economistsview.typepad.com/economistsview/2011/10/sachs-corporatocracy-is-replacing-democracy.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+EconomistsView+%28Economist%27s+View+%28EconomistsView%29%29

A US recession indicator

"Interesting chart from Ruslan Bikbov at BofA Merrill Lynch.



As you see the yield curve has proved to be a very powerful recession indicator. So why is Bikbov drawing our attention to it now when the 2s5s curve is 74bps – 29 bps above its long term average?
The answer runs as follows.

We have often heard that the rates market is not priced for a recession yet because the curve remains historically steep. However, this argument ignores the fact that the Fed is at a zero bound. Because the policy rate cannot go negative, plausible paths of the future rate are either flat (Fed on hold) or rising (Fed hikes). As a result, the curve must be structurally steep relative to historical experience when the Fed had room to cut.

So Bikbov and his colleagues have created an adjusted curve, which is flatter than a pancake and flashing recession.

Because of the embedded optionality, the curve is steeper relative to what it could be if the policy rate were not already at zero. We constructed an adjusted curve by subtracting an embedded option premium from each forward rate. The curve adjusted in this way is the curve that could be observed today if the Fed were not at zero bound. As a result, the adjusted curve can be directly compared to historical experience and therefore is likely to be a better recession indicator than the unadjusted curve.
We have found that the curve adjusted for the zero bound effect has flattened to about 15bp. This is largely indistinguishable from a flat curve, especially given model uncertainty. As a result, we believe the curve could already be priced for a recession

Much like it did in Japan.

The Japan experience with rates at zero bound confirms our main findings. The BoJ had the overnight target rate at 6% at the beginning of the 1991-1993 recession. Consistent with the typical US experience, that recession was preceded by an inverted 2s5s JGB curve (Chart 4). The policy rate was cut to 50bp by October 1995 and has never exceeded this level since then, effectively bringing Japan to a permanent zero-bound regime. As a result, the curve has always remained steep despite subsequent recession episodes (Chart 4).

However, the JGB curve notably flattened before each subsequent recession. We believe that the 1997-1999 recession is especially relevant for our analysis because it followed the major 1991-1993 recession caused by the collapse of the housing and equity markets. So, if the 1991-1993 Japan recession corresponds to the 2008-2009 US recession, the next US recession might very well resemble the 1997-1999 Japan recession. The JGB curve flattened to about 90bp in the beginning of that episode. With the USD 2s5s curve already at 74bp, this provides additional evidence that the market may be already positioned for a recession.

Pass the tin hat."

at http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2011/10/03/691266/a-us-recession-indicator/

In case you haven’t noticed, the protesters are winning

"Not that many Occupy Wall Street participants are actively checking their stock quotes or anything but it appears that they are actually winning. Today two of the last remaining Wall Street giants are getting the Gulliver in Lilliput treatment as their stock prices are tied down and speared to death in a classic sell-first-ask-questions-later hellstorm in the equity markets.

No one trusts Morgan Stanley (now majority owner of Smith Barney) and Bank of America (Merrill Lynch) may actually be better off dead than alive if you were to read The Street's consensus opinion into it's unimaginable share slide down to the sub-$6 level. In the meantime, Credit Suisse is out with a report predicting a massive loss for Goldman Sachs this quarter and UBS is still running around like a Swiss chicken with its head cut off in the wake of the $2 billion "unexpected" trading loss and the CEO's departure."

at http://www.housingwire.com/2011/10/03/in-case-you-haven%e2%80%99t-noticed-the-protesters-are-winning?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+housingwire%2FuOVI+%28HousingWire%29

CMBS delinquency rate edges higher: Trepp

"Delinquencies on commercial mortgage-backed securities edged slightly higher in September, finishing up a volatile five-month period in which the rate rose and fell sharply month-to-month, analytics firm Trepp said..."

at http://www.housingwire.com/2011/10/03/cmbs-delinquency-rate-edges-higher-trepp?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+housingwire%2FuOVI+%28HousingWire%29

Oil: Serial Equities Killer

at http://paul.kedrosky.com/archives/2011/10/oil-serial-equities-killer.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+InfectiousGreed+%28Paul+Kedrosky%27s+Infectious+Greed%29

China will retaliate if US imposes sanctions

"Last week, we heard Europe was to blame for US economic woes. The President said that “some of the challenges that we've had over the last several months actually have to do with the fact that in Europe we haven't seen them deal with their banking system and their financial system as effectively as they needed to.” This is undoubtedly true. Nevertheless, the implication was that US problems were made in Europe instead of the US.

This week, we are to hear that China is to blame for US economic woes. Congress will meet to take up legislation to threaten sanctions against China for currency manipulation. The Chinese currency is artificially low, making the US situation that much harder. Paul Krugman gives voice to the anxiety:

Respectable opinion is aghast. But respectable opinion has been consistently wrong lately, and the currency issue is no exception.

Ask yourself: Why is it so hard to restore full employment? ... The answer is that we used to run much smaller trade deficits. A return to economic health would look much more achievable if we weren’t spending $500 billion more each year on imported goods and services than foreigners spent on our exports.
-Holding China to Account, by Paul Krugman, Commentary, NY Times:

While it is true that China’s currency creates a bilateral deficit with the US, the US does have a multilateral deficit. Stephen Roach wrote last year correctly that:

Unless the problems that have given rise to the multilateral trade deficit are addressed, bilateral intervention would simply shift the Chinese portion of America’s international imbalance to someone else. That “someone” would most likely be a higher-cost producer – in effect, squeezing the purchasing power of hard-pressed US consumers.

He says GD II awaits if China bashing rhetoric turns into protectionism..."

at http://www.creditwritedowns.com/2011/10/china-will-retaliate-if-us-imposes-sanctions.html

Lying with Statistics?

"According to the latest CNN/Orca International Poll, "an overwhelming number of Americans -- 90% -- say that economic conditions remain poor."

Many U.S. government statistics, meanwhile, suggest otherwise.

Given the fact that sentiment and statistical data loosely tracked one another up until about a year-and-a half ago, it would seem that something is out of whack.



Hmmm, I wonder what the issue is?"

at http://www.financialarmageddon.com/2011/09/lying-with-statistics.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+financialarmageddon+%28Financial+Armageddon%29

Trade War Threat Looms Once Again; Senate Takes Up Bill to Punish China for Manipulating Currency; How Many Jobs Would Tariffs Create?

"Trade wars and tariffs never solve anything. Nonetheless Congress addresses Chinese currency manipulation

After years of trying, Congress is taking another stab at retaliating against what many see as Chinese manipulation of its currency to make its exports to the United States cheaper and U.S. goods more expensive in China.

The Senate is expected to take up legislation Monday that would impose higher U.S. duties on Chinese products to offset the perceived advantage that critics say China gets by undervaluing its currency.

The Senate bill has bipartisan support and is expected to clear a procedural hurdle Monday evening. But intense lobbying against it by American-based multinational corporations and their trade associations could spell trouble for the legislation.

Sens. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., along with others, have tried for at least six years to pass legislation making it easier to impose higher tariffs on Chinese goods. That would help compensate for what they say is Beijing's effort to keep its currency, the yuan, undervalued against the dollar..."

at http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2011/10/trade-war-threat-looms-once-again.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+MishsGlobalEconomicTrendAnalysis+%28Mish%27s+Global+Economic+Trend+Analysis%29

With Dexia Done, Here Is Who Is Next: A Visual Euro Bank Liquidity Vs Funding Exposure Matrix

"Now that the FT is reporting that as part of the ongoing emergency talks to rescue an expiring Dexia, one of the proposals is a spin off of a Dexia "bad bank" - something which worked for UBS, which is still a partial protectorate of Switzerland, but will most certainly not work for governmentless Belgium, the question is "who is next" Luckily, we have the following handy summary, courtesy of Reuters' Peter Thal Larsen who has pulled a chart from an Espirito Santo report, showing a 2-D matrix of liquidity (i.e. liquid assets as a % of wholesale funding assets), versus reliance on wholesale funding - the one component in European interbank markets which is now completely dead. Needless to say red is bad. And if one thinks that Dexia is about to file, then it may be last rites time for Soc Gen, BNP, Raiffeisen, and DnB Nor."



at http://www.zerohedge.com/news/dexia-done-here-who-next-visual-euro-bank-liquidity-vs-funding-exposure-matrix?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+zerohedge%2Ffeed+%28zero+hedge+-+on+a+long+enough+timeline%2C+the+survival+rate+for+everyone+drops+to+zero%29

Eurozone crisis effect

"Marc Faber : We had a bank failure in 2008 and the financial system in the western world went bankrupt. It was bailed out by governments, but the banks have learnt nothing. This is partly driven by artificially low interest rates and zero deposit rates. The banks continue to speculate on all kinds of products. What happened to UBS in London (where a rogue trader caused huge losses) can happen to any other bank.I have lots of clients and readers of my newsletters, and I don’t know anyone who owns Greek bonds. So why do the banks – particularly French banks — hold Greek bonds and Portuguese bonds and Spanish bonds and Italian bonds? This shows the banks have learnt nothing. There has to be a separation of banking activity. They can have, on one side, investment banking activity – they can call themselves UBS Giant Hedge Fund; on the other side, the banking sector has to be ring-fenced for depositors and made 100 percent safe. They shouldn’t use that to speculate – as is happening at present..."

at http://marcfaberchannel.blogspot.com/2011/10/eurozone-crisis-effect.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+MarcFaberBlog+%28Marc+Faber+Blog%29

Greece To Miss Budget Deficit Targets, As Usual, While Qatar Prepares A Bailout Pennies-For-Gold Swap

"As the Greek parliament meets to finalize huge public sector job cuts, Reuters is reporting that Greece will miss the deficit targets set in its EU/IMF bailout this year and next... We would say "again" but at this point "as usual" makes far more sense, Why this should come as a surprise to anyone is beyond us but the next steps by the Troika (as again and again targets are not met and yet still bank-extending-and-pretending-funding is provided) will be fascinating as they switch from carrot to stick and back to carrot perhaps. Assuming, of course, the "wildcat strikes" at any and all government institutions by government workers about to be sacked, allow Troika member access at some point in the near to long-term future. Although using numbers conceived on napkins as a replacement will be nothing new to either Greece, Eurostat or the Troika. Add to this the comment from the Deputy Leader of the CSU (one of Merkel's tri-party coalition) that Greece would find it easier to recover outside the currency bloc and rhetoric remains high, as do expectations for an inverse surge in the EURUSD at open in a few hours. The biggest winner: Qatar which just snuck in some recycled petrodollars into Greece, which will last the kleptocorrupt government about 1 week, in exchange for Greek gold..."

at http://www.zerohedge.com/news/surprise-greece-will-miss-budget-deficit-targets-and-better-out-eurozone

It's Going to Get Worse

"ECRI has predicted a recession in the US. In the videos below, Lakshman Achuthan talks with Yahoo Finance and the Wall Street Journal about ECRI’s new recession call..."

at http://www.creditwritedowns.com/2011/10/ecri-predicts-recession.html

The Anglo-American Precious Metals Derivatives Duopoly: Quarterly OCC Report

"The US Office of the Currency Comptroller (OCC) issues a Quarterly Report on the Derivatives exposure of US Banks and Trust. The report, including historical archives, can be found here.

The report includes "all insured U.S. commercial banks and trust companies as well as other published financial data." So obviously it is not comprehensive of private funds, and banks without a US subsidiary presence.

The archives go back to 1998, but it is quite clear that the report is not so interesting prior to the repeal of Glass-Steagall and the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, also known as the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000.

The report shows that JPM has about 80 percent of the gold derivatives in the world on its book, with HSBC holding the other 20 percent. And in other commodities, JPM holds a similar position as well as part of their overall $78 trillion derivatives book which is heavily dominated by interest rate and credit derivatives. But hey, that's without netting, right? Oh yeah, counter-party risk.

JPM is not just Too Big to Fail. It IS the market. And 95% of their transactions are still OTC.

Just for the sake of perspective I did include a chart from the 2Q 2000 report here which shows both the total derivatives exposure, leverage and concentrations, and the gold market in particular.

Notice that some of the players are no longer with us, and of course there is the big combination of CMB and JPM, when the houses of Morgan and Rockefeller combined after this report was issued to become the leviathan of international banking.

At that time Chase Manhattan Bank was the biggest player with about $14 Trillion in nominal derivatives with a leverage to total assets of about 43. The gold market was a three way split amongst Chase, Morgan and Citi, with Fleet grabbing some scraps.

This is for the derivatives gold market among commercial banks. At that time the silver market was dominated by a non-bank, the now almost infamous AIG.

As Ted Butler relates in December, 2003:

"Here's how AIG got to be the biggest trader in the silver market. When Drexel Burnham Lambert went bankrupt in 1989, the DBL Trading Group was purchased by AIG, and became the AIG Trading subsidiary, which currently operates out of offices in Greenwich, Conn. You may recall DBL Trading was the subsidiary involved in the temporary gold loan default with the central bank of Portugal at that time.

Before moving over to AIG, the DBL Trading Group worked at Goldman Sachs (J. Aron) in the early 1980's, and before that began at ACLI (A.C. Leon Israel). For the sake of full disclosure, and in an interesting coincidence, I worked at Drexel Burnham Lambert in Miami, for 10 years until 1986, but had no involvement, whatsoever, with DBL Trading."

I include this not only for historical interest, but also to remind you that the derivatives market is only one facet of the markets overall, albeit a growing one that is still about 95% Over The Counter and unregulated. It also still does not include the futures markets in this data.

Here is an overall chart from the June 2011 Report. One thing that immediately jumps out is that JPM now has a total nominal derivatives position of about $78 Trillion. That's a lot of nuts.

The other unmistakable point is that besides the increased concentration, the nominal leverage of Goldman Sachs at 537:1 is that of a hedge fund and not a commercial bank or trust. Even Morgan Stanley is running at a modest 26:1..."

at http://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/2011/09/precious-metals-duopoly-quarterly-occ.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+JessesCafeAmericain+%28Jesse%27s+Caf%C3%A9+Am%C3%A9ricain%29

Another Blow For America's Banks (And Bank Of America) After California Kills Robosigning Settlement

"Anyone exiting the third quarter with a Bank of America (or Wells, or JPMorgan, or Citi) short on their books will be delighted to learn that the "other" mortgage fraud scandal, not the putback litigation which is sure to cost Bank of America billions in incremental legal fees now that that particular settlement appears to be challenged and banks even across the Atlantic are joining in the legal free for all, but the "Linda Green" robosigning affair, which various conflicted attorneys general had held a tenuous grasp over with a settlement in process, has just blown out wide into the open once again, after California joined New York AG Schneiderman in pulling out of the talks, and leaving Iowa Atty. Gen. Tom Miller with a completely lost cause. We expect all other states to promptly follow New York and California's examples. The net impact is quite adverse for all mortgage lenders, as this development will merely snarl the traditional foreclosure process for even longer, and while beneficial to borrowers, it will put even less cash into the depleted coffers of the banks that so desperately need it. Since few if any will actively pursue distressed, or any, housing sales, it will not only hinder further balance sheet repair of the banking sector, but will keep a lid on any potential housing market improvement, which as BCG confirmed a few days ago, is the most critical missing link to any economic recovery. Without it the hands of the Fed chairman are tied even more, and leave him (and the middle class) with just one, nuclear as it may be, option..."

at  http://www.zerohedge.com/news/another-blow-americas-bank-after-california-kills-robosigning-settlement

Another Blow For America's Banks (And Bank Of America) After California Kills Robosigning Settlement

"Anyone exiting the third quarter with a Bank of America (or Wells, or JPMorgan, or Citi) short on their books will be delighted to learn that the "other" mortgage fraud scandal, not the putback litigation which is sure to cost Bank of America billions in incremental legal fees now that that particular settlement appears to be challenged and banks even across the Atlantic are joining in the legal free for all, but the "Linda Green" robosigning affair, which various conflicted attorneys general had held a tenuous grasp over with a settlement in process, has just blown out wide into the open once again, after California joined New York AG Schneiderman in pulling out of the talks, and leaving Iowa Atty. Gen. Tom Miller with a completely lost cause. We expect all other states to promptly follow New York and California's examples. The net impact is quite adverse for all mortgage lenders, as this development will merely snarl the traditional foreclosure process for even longer, and while beneficial to borrowers, it will put even less cash into the depleted coffers of the banks that so desperately need it. Since few if any will actively pursue distressed, or any, housing sales, it will not only hinder further balance sheet repair of the banking sector, but will keep a lid on any potential housing market improvement, which as BCG confirmed a few days ago, is the most critical missing link to any economic recovery. Without it the hands of the Fed chairman are tied even more, and leave him (and the middle class) with just one, nuclear as it may be, option..."

at  http://www.zerohedge.com/news/another-blow-americas-bank-after-california-kills-robosigning-settlement

Goldman's European Clients Are Oblivious About Developments In Europe

"In David Kostin's latest weekly chart book, in addition to the plethora of useful charts (if materially incorrect when it comes to fund flow data - never before have we seen such as disconnect between Lipper/AMG and ICI flow data, allowing one to pick and chose which data set to use depending on their point), and market statistics, the Goldman head strategist observes a rather curious psychological schism, notably as pertains to investor sentiment regarding the financial powderkeg known as Europe. Namely that while US investors just need to read a Euro-negative headline to sell everything, in Europe Goldman's clients are largely oblivious of any and all adverse developments. To wit: "Our meetings with clients in Europe and the US during the past two weeks showed investors in continental Europe to be more composed about the direction and pace of policy decisions. US and UK investors are far more anxious about potential policy solutions and the cumulative impact of a drawn out resolution." We wish we could recreate the European nonchalance, in no small part predicated by the general mindset of a socialist backstop to another global collapse, which in case of failure, will simply mean the activation of US-based FX swap lines, and thus America would have to bail out Europe once again like it did back in 2008. In retrospect we can see why nobody in Europe is too worried. Also, perhaps Goldman should do a better job at distributing the report by its own Alan Brazil saying Europe is doomed...

We wonder how many of these very unconcerned investors will step up and fill Buffett's shoes who as we disclosed yesterday has been approached to bail out one or more unnamed European banks. Kostin's conclusion: "Investors continue to vote with their feet in US equities..." Feet...Or wallets. Then again not everyone has the benefit of trading with other people's money, and in a worst case scenario, that of the Fed.

More:..."

at http://www.zerohedge.com/news/goldmans-european-clients-are-oblivious-about-developments-europe

Paper Money Collapse

"I was thrilled to discover that Detlev Schlichter’s book Paper Money Collapse is not the usual financial tract. It is a very serious work that closely engages Austrian theory and retells its main theoretical and policy points in light of today’s economic mess. It takes a close view of the literature but also has a handle on the big picture of world financial affairs – a big picture that those of us who are involved daily in the endless march of daily events tend to miss. I found his writing very compelling and logical. Overall, it is a high-quality work that draws very heavily on the masters to explain the world trajectory of events. And yes, it is something of a scary book too/

The book is one of those perfect timed things. It is selling like crazy on Amazon. The reviews have been great. He has been all over the media. It is just released and it is gaining steam day by day.
In any case, I’m thrilled that the Mises Academy is hosting an event with the author tonight. It should be extremely interesting, and it is your chance to ask him questions and get his take on the current events. Register for this and stay ahead of the curve..."

at http://blog.mises.org/18587/paper-money-collapse-2/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+MisesBlog+%28Mises+Economics+Blog%29