Implode-Explode Heavy Industries news feed

Blankfein Said to Buy Into $1 Billion Miami Condo Project

Mon, 09 Dec 2013 18:13:26 GMT

They came to celebrate the $1 billion Faena Miami Beach, an oceanfront development for the mega-rich whose advance buyers include Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS:US)Chief Executive Officer Lloyd Blankfein and Apollo Global Management LLC (APO:US) co-founder Leon Black, according to two people familiar with the matter, who asked for anonymity because the information isn't public.
The project will feature an 18-story tower with 47 residences priced at $3 million to $50 million, two luxury hotels and an arts center designed by Pritzker Architecture Prize winner Rem Koolhaas, said Alicia Goldstein, executive vice president of sales and marketing at Faena Group. The number of condominiums and single-family homes sold for $1 million or more in the Miami area rose 36 percent this year through October from the same period a year earlier, said Ron Shuffield, CEO of EWM Realty International/Christie's, citing data from the Miami Association of Realtors.

Wall Street frets as Volcker Rule nears vote

Mon, 09 Dec 2013 16:42:09 GMT

``Five years after the financial crisis, regulators will vote Tuesday on the "Volcker Rule,'' one of the most contested elements of the sweeping, post-crisis Wall Street reform act known as Dodd-Frank... The rule is also expected to give banks the burden of proving that any securities they do own are in their portfolios for the few remaining permitted purposes, rather than making regulators prove that the banks intend to break the rules, he said.''

J.P. Morgan Is in Talks With U.S. Over Madoff Warnings

Mon, 09 Dec 2013 16:39:20 GMT

``J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.'s alleged failure to file a key federal document more than five years ago is emerging as a critical component of a Justice Department investigation into whether the bank provided adequate warnings about the fraud of Bernard L. Madoff, people close to the probe said.''

Investors Grow Less Fearful of a Fed Taper

Mon, 09 Dec 2013 16:25:33 GMT

``A stronger-than-expected reading on the November jobs market leaves investors still debating exactly when the Federal Reserve will pull back on its stimulus efforts. However, there are signs that the Fed's message is getting through to investors that it will keep monetary policy exceptionally friendly for years to come.''

Hussman - "The Truth Does Not Change According To Our Ability To Stomach It"

Mon, 09 Dec 2013 16:21:00 GMT

``Among the litany of other classic features of a speculative bull market peak, margin debt on the NYSE has surged to the highest level in history, and at nearly 2.5% of GDP, exceeds all but two months in 2000 and 2007. The amount being borrowed to buy stocks on margin is now 26% the size of all commercial and industrial loans in the entire U.S. banking sector. As low-quality, high-risk borrowers rush to take advantage of the present speculative appetite, issuance of leveraged loans (particularly the junkier "covenant-lite" forms) has now hit a record high, already eclipsing the previous record in 2007 at the height of pre-crisis yield-seeking. New equity issuance is also running at the fastest pace since any point except the 2000 bubble peak. At the same time, Bloomberg reports that investors are plowing more into stock mutual funds than at any point since the 2000 bubble peak. Keep in mind how this works - every buyer is matched with a seller in equilibrium, so the same amount of stock is being sold by institutions and other non-retail investors. One doesn't need to think long to answer who is likely to be the "smart money" in this trade, as the history of surges in retail participation provides a rather firm answer to that question.''

Detroit ruling opens door to pension cuts across the nation http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-public-employee-pensions-20131208,0,3337836.story#ixzz2mvHMnVyJ

Sun, 08 Dec 2013 21:54:04 GMT

A bankruptcy judge's ruling that Detroit's pension funds -- like its other creditors -- can take a hit might lead other financially troubled cities down the same path, experts say.

Sprott: Silver is Below Cost of Production

Sun, 08 Dec 2013 14:10:25 GMT

``The price has fallen so fast that it has been difficult for most miners to adjust their costs appropriately and the price for silver has dropped below its marginal cost of production. In a note last month, Dundee Capital Markets revealed that the all-in cash costs of the silver producers it covers fell an average of 13%, to $20.08 per ounce, during the third quarter of this year.4 With silver languishing at approximately $19, most major miners are losing money on every ounce produced. We have already begun to see production increases curtailed in this new environment, which should give further support to the metal price in the future.''

Volcker Rule To Scrap "Portfolio Hedging", Would Make Trillions In Excess Deposits Inert

Sun, 08 Dec 2013 04:29:58 GMT

In a defeat for Wall Street, the "Volcker rule" won't allow banks to enter trades designed to protect against losses held in a broad portfolio of assets, according to people familiar with the rule. The practice, known as portfolio hedging, has become a focal point of regulators drafting the rule, a controversial plank of the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial law that seeks to prevent banks from putting their own capital at risk in pursuit of trading profits.

But it won't contain language permitting portfolio hedging, which has been "expunged" from earlier drafts of the rule, according to a person familiar with the matter. Regulators decided to remove portfolio hedging from the rule after J.P. Morgan Chase disclosed billions of dollars in losses from its so-called London whale trades in 2012.

Alex Stanczyk: Physical Supply Never Tighter, as Gold Flows East

Sun, 08 Dec 2013 04:26:54 GMT

``...At this Swiss refinery there have been several times this year on which they were unable to source gold, this shocked me. They're bringing in good delivery bars, scrap and dore from the mines, basically all they can get their hands on. This gentleman has been in the business for 37 years, he was there during the last bull market in the late seventies. I asked him when was the last time this has happened, that he was unable to source gold, he said never. And I clarified it, I asked: let me make sure if I understand what you're saying to me, in the last 37 years you've worked in the gold industry this has never happened? He said: this has never happened.''

Dr. Marc Faber; "World Central Bankers Are Going To Bankrupt The World"

Sun, 08 Dec 2013 04:20:09 GMT

While the headline statement is sensationalist, it is always good to get a general (and in this case, comprehensive) market update from Faber.

LME faces tough job in releasing data to boost transparency

Sun, 08 Dec 2013 04:19:09 GMT

``The London Metal Exchange (LME) faces a tough job as it gears up to provide more data about long and short positions, including delivering what many investors crave - information on flows of speculative money that move markets.''

Leeb - China Mining Some Gold For A Staggering $2,500 An Ounce

Sun, 08 Dec 2013 04:16:05 GMT

``So here you have a country that is buying gold hand-over-fist, and they are mining gold as if they know it's going to be priced at a minimum of $2,000 to $2,500. As an investor, I'm not going to fight them. It's one thing to say, ‘They are buying gold.' Well, they are buying gold at around $1,200, but it's another thing to see them mining gold at all-in cash costs in the $2,000 to $2,500 range on some of these projects in China.'' -- There's another implication not mentioned here. If China really is mining some gold (internally) at a much higher price, while simultaneously buying it off Western exchanges at around $1200/oz, the only logical reason to do so would be if it could not physically get as much gold as it wanted from the West (or expected that very soon it would not be able to).

Europe repeating all the errors of Japan as deflation draws closer - Telegraph

Sun, 08 Dec 2013 03:45:12 GMT

``Europe's slide towards deflation is replicating what happened in Japan in the 1990s at the onset of its lost decade, when trouble crept up on the country unawares. Near zero inflation seemed harmless until world events suddenly intruded: the Russian default and the East Asian crisis of 1998, the dotcom bust in 2001-2002.''

REFILE-China's biggest jeweller sees gold in the masses

Sun, 08 Dec 2013 03:41:22 GMT

``Chow Tai Fook's fashion jewellery, which costs between HK$200 and HK$2,000 ($26 and $260), is a far cry from the luxury offerings that have traditionally accounted for over 80 percent of sales, and which on average cost about 10 times as much... the shift to expand mass-market retail is already paying off. Chow Tai Fook saw its net profit rise by a forecast-beating 92.3 percent in the six months ended September, with same-store sales growing 33.2 percent.''

Bull market or bear market -- where does gold stand now?

Sun, 08 Dec 2013 03:40:14 GMT

``Rick Rule in his presentation on the Tuesday pointed back to 1975 as being what he thinks is likely to happen again. Those with long enough memories may recall that gold virtually halved in price back then over a 2 year period down to close to $100. Commentators and analysts at the time were predicting falls back towards the $40 level from whence it had risen over the previous three years. It had been truly written off, but this was the inflection point after which gold rose about eight times up to around $800 plus before it came crashing back down again to settle at the level from which the recent, or current if that's your viewpoint, bull market developed.''

Treasury Chief to Declare Big Gains in Financial Reform

Sun, 08 Dec 2013 03:35:24 GMT

``Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew will assert on Thursday that the Obama administration's vast overhaul of the financial system is close to accomplishing its goal of shielding society from the dangers posed by giant banks.'' -- "Mission Accomplished"?

The `GE Three', Vilified by Taibbi, Go Free

Sun, 08 Dec 2013 03:34:02 GMT

``"Someday, it will go down in history as the first trial of the modern American mafia," Taibbi began his June 2012 opus about Dominick Carollo, Steven Goldberg and Peter Grimm. "Over 10 years in the making, the case allowed federal prosecutors to make public for the first time the astonishing inner workings of the reigning American crime syndicate, which now operates not out of Little Italy and Las Vegas, but out of Wall Street."... Then came a surprise last week, right before Thanksgiving. A federal judge ordered the men released from prison. An appeals court had reversed their convictions the day before, without explanation. An opinion would be issued "in due course," it said. Bloomberg News ran a short story this week. The rest of the news media barely noticed.''

Gold Is Disappearing from the West: Alasdair Macleod

Sat, 07 Dec 2013 18:37:32 GMT

``Price suppression can only be a temporary stop-gap, and there has never been sufficient supply to allow the central banks to retrieve their leased gold from the bullion banks. Therefore, Frank Veneroso's conclusion in 2002 that there had to be existing leases totalling 10-15,000 tonnes is a starting point from which leases and loans have increased...''

Auto Lending Standards Plunge: New Car Loans Average 110% LTV; Used Car Loans 133% LTV with 55% Subprime!

Sat, 07 Dec 2013 17:52:54 GMT

``Repossessions are up sharply, but who cares about that? No doubt the loans are sliced, diced, tranched, and securitized to make them appear as AAA. Pension funds are probably dumping gold to load up on them.''

Turkey imported 270.7 tonnes of gold till Nov

Sat, 07 Dec 2013 17:41:31 GMT

``Turkey imported 270.7 tonnes of gold in the first 11 months of the year, data from Borsa Istanbul showed, more than double 2012's full-year imports of 120.8 tonnes. Turkey, like most of the price-sensitive markets, saw this year's lower price level as an opportunity to replenish stocks and release some of the pent-up demand that has been building as consumers have been priced out of the market," Cameron Alexander, an analyst with Thomson Reuters GFMS, said. "Official coin demand has more than doubled, investment demand has also more than doubled, and jewellery demand has rebounded by around a fifth this year."