Implode-Explode Heavy Industries news feed

Piketty's Gold? - The New York Sun

Tue, 22 Apr 2014 18:38:15 GMT

What could have marked 1971 as the year the picture began to change in respect of inequality in America? It turns out that was the year America defaulted on its obligation under Bretton Woods to redeem in gold dollars held by foreign governments and the era of fiat money began.
...
It doesn't take a Ph.D. from MIT or Princeton to imagine that in an age of fiat money, the top decile would have an easier time making hay than would the denizens of the other nine deciles, who aren't trained in the art of swaps and derivatives.

Lawyers Sue Stock Market for Being Rigged

Tue, 22 Apr 2014 13:20:03 GMT

``On March 30, Michael Lewis went on "60 Minutes" and said that the stock market is "rigged." This past Friday, some plaintiffs' lawyers filed a lawsuit against, um, the stock market. This raises many questions, of which the most pressing is, what took so long? The lawsuit is basically just a synopsis of Lewis's book, "Flash Boys," and, I mean, how long can that take?''

Failed Banker Chosen as Alabama CU Regulator

Tue, 22 Apr 2014 05:14:27 GMT

``Moore's profile also said she was executive vice president and chief operations officer at Colonial Bank and Colonial BancGroup from 2000 to 2003, and served from 1987 to 1996 as an audit manager at Coopers & Lybrand, which merged with PriceWaterhouse in 1998.
Colonial's colossal failure prompted the first lawsuit filed by the FDIC against a failed bank's accountants, according to court records and media reports.

"Colonial's closure was triggered by the discovery that its largest mortgage banking customer, Taylor Bean & Whitaker Mortgage Corp., had committed a massive, multi-year fraud against Colonial, resulting in financial statements that grossly misstated Colonial's true financial condition," according to a lawsuit filed Oct. 31, 2012 by FDIC against PwC, which served as the bank's external auditor and Crowe Horwath, which provided internal audit services.''

Fargo foreclosure manual on trial | New York Post

Tue, 22 Apr 2014 05:13:31 GMT

``At a hearing in lower Manhattan on April 8, Judge Allan Gropper admitted the manual into the bankruptcy case of a local homeowner in foreclosure, and he approved a request by his lawyer to be allowed to dig deeper.
Now Wells must produce a witness with knowledge of the manual who can answer lawyer Linda Tirelli's questions under oath.

Tirelli is alleging that endorsements on the homeowner's note are "fraudulent in nature." A note is an IOU to the bank, while a mortgage ties a given property to the loan.''

Why Jesus Was REALLY Killed: Challenging the Money Changers

Tue, 22 Apr 2014 00:47:51 GMT

Jesus did not go to the temple to cleanse. He came to the temple to announce the destruction of a whole way of life. Those who operated the temple had no power to silence Jesus and put him to death. Those powers were held by the Roman retainers.

JPY Drops, Nikkei Pops As Japanese Trade Balance Nears Record Deficit (36th In A Row)

Mon, 21 Apr 2014 13:19:01 GMT

``Perhaps I can shed some light on Japanese Prime Minister Abe's missing J-curve; i.e., why Japan's trade deficit seems to be increasing rather than decreasing after massive monetary intervention to reduce the purchasing power of the yen. Monetary debasement does NOT result in an economic recovery, because no nation can force another to pay for its recovery.''

Matt Taibbi: The SuperRich in America Have Become 'Untouchables' Who Don't Go to Prison

Mon, 21 Apr 2014 13:15:47 GMT

``over and over again, I would cover these very complex and often very socially destructive capers committed by white-collar criminals. And the punchline to all of the stories were basically the same: Nobody would get indicted; nobody went to jail. And after a while, I started to become interested specifically in that phenomenon. Why was there no enforcement of any of this? ''

Prelude to Economic Disaster: Billionaires Liquidating Real Estate in China; Stocks in US

Sat, 19 Apr 2014 02:22:41 GMT

``As these in-the-know elites unload their positions, average investors depending on their financial advisers to tell them the truth are slamming money into these stocks and paying, in some cases, 500 times earnings. Real estate investors are, likewise, overpaying for homes based on the idea that markets are "hotter" than they've been in years. ''

Bankers are Behind the Wars

Fri, 18 Apr 2014 22:35:39 GMT

"Throughout the century that I examined, which began with the Panic of 1907 ... what I found by accessing the archives of each president is that through many events and periods, particular bankers were in constant communication [with the White House] -- not just about financial and economic policy, and by extension trade policy, but also about aspects of World War I, or World War II, or the Cold War, in terms of the expansion that America was undergoing as a superpower in the world, politically, buoyed by the financial expansion of the banking community."

US financial showdown with Russia is more dangerous than it looks, for both sides

Fri, 18 Apr 2014 14:10:37 GMT

The strategy relies on hegemonic control over the global banking system, buttressed by a network of allies and the reluctant acquiescence of neutral states. Let us call this the Manhattan Project of the early 21st century...
[But] the US Treasury faces a more formidable prey with Russia, the world's biggest producer of energy with a $2 trillion economy, superb scientists and a first-strike nuclear arsenal. It is also tightly linked to the German and east European economies. The US risks endangering its own alliance system if it runs roughshod over friends. It is in much the same situation as Britain in the mid-19th century when it enforced naval supremacy, boarding alleged slave ships anywhere in the world, under any flag, ruffling everybody's feathers.

... Princeton professor Harold James sees echoes of events before the First World War when Britain and France imagined they could use financial warfare to check German power.He says the world's interlocking nexus means this cannot be contained. Sanctions risk setting off a chain-reaction to match the 2008 shock...

The greatest risk is surely an "asymmetric" riposte by the Kremlin. Russia's cyber-warfare experts are among the best, and they had their own trial run on Estonia in 2007. A cyber shutdown of an Illinois water system was tracked to Russian sources in 2011. We don't know whether US Homeland Security can counter a full-blown "denial-of-service" attack on electricity grids, water systems, air traffic control, or indeed the New York Stock Exchange, and nor does Washington.

Nomi Prins on Nature of Bankers' Power

Fri, 18 Apr 2014 13:53:48 GMT

``The idea that only bankers can understand how to regulate banking, and have some sort of an inherent need to do that, has been this fallacy that has resulted in the crises which we've seen. The reality is if someone goes into Washington and realizes they can come out of Washington [later], make millions of dollars by gaining a position at a bank like Robert Rubin did ... we've seen in many cases that enabling [the banks] is the chosen route ...''

AIB trial: Pat Whelan and Willie McAteer found guilty

Thu, 17 Apr 2014 19:00:46 GMT

``Two former Anglo Irish bank chiefs have been found guilty of making loans designed to illegally prop up the bank's share price.''

Rule - Gold "Collateralization" in China is Bullish, Not Bearish

Thu, 17 Apr 2014 17:57:25 GMT

``The most important reason put out by the bullion banks and the mainstream media had to do with the study released by the World Gold Council that suggested that not all of the gold that's been imported into China has been used for central bank reserves or has gone into retail safekeeping... I would point out that what that means is that a whole class of creditors and debtors in China believes that gold is good security... So far from viewing this as a reason to sell gold, instead I think it's another affirmation of gold's timeless value, particularly through periods of stress.''

Why Crony Capitalist Brats Make Me ILL - David Stockman

Wed, 16 Apr 2014 18:22:16 GMT

During 2012 Levin's 14-person team of speculators apparently made a $2.0 billion profit on a short-term bet on about $7.5 billion of busted loans and bonds-- mainly the smoking remnants of sub-prime CDOs and private labor MBS. As head of the trading group, Leven's share was apparently the aforesaid $119 million, and this swell outcome was truly a gigs-to-riches story.
... in an honest two-way market, no one in their right mind would bet $7.5 billion on financial drek using high leverage and minimal hedges. And no 30-year old would be given leave to close his eyes and bet the ranch, as apparently Levin did, based on merely the "housing recovery" word clouds being emitted by the monetary politburo and its echo-boxes in the financial press.''

Yellen: Fed's Rate Policy Hinges on 3 'Big Questions'

Wed, 16 Apr 2014 18:19:17 GMT

``In a speech at the Economic Club of New York on Wednesday, Ms. Yellen said a too-low inflation rate is a bigger worry than the Fed's easy-money policies sparking a surge in consumer prices. She also reiterated her arguments from a late-March speech that she sees quite a bit of slack left in the labor market in measures other than the official jobless rate, which stood at 6.7% in March. The comments underscore Ms. Yellen's concern about the economy and labor market as well as the Fed's plan to keep interest rates low for many more months. ''

Haunted by soured mortgages, Bank of America loses $276 million

Wed, 16 Apr 2014 18:16:46 GMT

``Socked by mortgage-related legal expenses, Bank of America Corp. lost $276 million during the first quarter, sending its stock down sharply. The quarterly loss, its first in 2½ years, came despite lower loan losses and better than expected results in fixed-income trading, a slowing business that hurt rival JPMorgan Chase & Co. during the quarter. The results included $6 billion in litigation expense, much of it related to toxic bonds backed by housing-boom mortgages from Countrywide Financial Corp., ''

What the Heck is Going on With US Treasuries In Belgium?

Wed, 16 Apr 2014 18:12:42 GMT

``All we know for now is that someone in panic-mode yanked a pile of Treasuries away from the Fed and transferred it to some other entity... The entity could be Euroclear, which would then as custodian, and thus under its name, transfer some of them back to the Fed. Now that they're no longer in Russia's name [if this was indeed Russia], the US government would presumably have trouble freezing them as part of the sanction spiral unfolding over the Ukraine -- couldn't even credibly threaten to freeze them.''

The Best SEC [Retirement] Speech Ever

Wed, 16 Apr 2014 18:09:16 GMT

``I have had bosses, and bosses of my bosses, whose names we all know, who made little secret that they were here to punch their ticket. They mouthed serious regard for the mission of the commission, but their actions were tentative and fearful in many instances.''

Tom Deutsch of the ASF on Eminent Domain & Loan Modifications -- A Mandelman Matters Podcast

Tue, 15 Apr 2014 17:44:54 GMT

``If Professor Robert Hockett is the man behind the plan to use eminent domain to take over underwater loans and write them down for homeowners, Tom Deutsch is his arch nemesis. On this 30 minute podcast, you'll get to hear one of the chief opponents to Professor Hockett's Municipal Plan, describe in detail why he believes the plan is entirely wrong in every way, and why he believes that is will ultimately fail.''

"What's the Frequency Zenith?" - Grant Williams

Tue, 15 Apr 2014 16:53:34 GMT

``I can't speak for anybody else, but having spent those nearly thirty years immersed in equity, bond, and commodity markets all around the world, I have seen enough to absolutely confirm in my own mind that the markets are rigged.''