Implode-Explode Heavy Industries news feed

Greece runs out of funding options despite euro zone reprieve

Fri, 27 Feb 2015 20:02:29 GMT

Shut out of debt markets and faced with a steep fall in tax revenues, Athens is expected to run out of cash by the middle or end of March. Its finance minister has warned that Greece will struggle to repay creditors starting with a 1.5 billion euro IMF loan repayment due in March.
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Greece had also hoped it could tap the almost 11 billion euros of leftover money in the Greek bank stabilization fund, but euro zone finance ministers have decided the money would be returned to the Luxembourg-based euro zone bailout fund.
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A senior Greek banker said the expectation in Athens remained that the ECB would relent and allow some leeway on T-bills.
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The onus is now on Athens to rush through reforms to unlock the remaining aid.

Can a Stock-Trader-Turned-Convict Start a New Life? (THE STORY OF ROOMY KHAN)

Fri, 27 Feb 2015 19:48:55 GMT

Since January 2008, as Roomy had ostensibly been going about her usual business -- analyzing companies, gathering snippets of privileged corporate intelligence and deciding which stocks to buy and sell -- she was secretly assisting the F.B.I. in a long-running investigation into insider trading at Wall Street hedge funds. Khan was the right woman for the job: Since about 2006, she herself had been trading on inside information. When the F.B.I. caught up with her, she began helping them -- at first reluctantly and then with theatrical flair. She taped telephone calls with her bosses, business associates and even a neighbor. Most important of all, she taped calls with her ex-boss, Raj Rajaratnam, whom the government had been eyeing for a decade.
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I met Khan in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., in September, five months after she was released from prison and three months after she was transferred from a halfway house to her own home. I wanted to understand how a highly intelligent woman like Khan -- she has a degree in engineering, two in physics and an M.B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley -- wound up committing a crime like this. What sorts of calculations had she made to convince herself that the benefits of cheating outweighed the possible costs?
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In February, she received a rejection [from Wharton business school], but she's waiting to hear from several other schools. If she doesn't get in anywhere, she would like to write a book, perhaps go on the lecture circuit, sharing with aspiring traders and business people the cautionary tale of her easy slide into committing crimes

The US recovery story is a fraud: SocGen's Edwards

Fri, 27 Feb 2015 16:26:00 GMT

``"The downturn in U.S. profits is accelerating and it is not just an energy or U.S. dollar phenomenon -- a broad swathe of U.S. economic data has disappointed in February," he said in a research note published Thursday.''

The New Class War: European Banks vs. Greek Labour

Thu, 26 Feb 2015 18:51:23 GMT

``t turns out the finance ministers of Europe are not all in favor of balancing the budget if it has to be balanced by taxing the rich, because the banks know that whatever taxes the rich are able to avoid ends up being paid to the banks. So now the gloves are off and the class war is sort of back.''

Morgan Stanley to pay $2.6 billion to settle mortgage-bond claims

Thu, 26 Feb 2015 02:26:09 GMT

``Morgan Stanley said it will pay $2.6 billion to the U.S. government to resolve potential claims stemming from the sale of mortgage bonds before the financial crisis, reducing its 2014 profit by more than half.''

Big Banks Face Scrutiny Over Pricing of Peecious Metals

Wed, 25 Feb 2015 21:43:03 GMT

Prosecutors in the Justice Department's antitrust division are scrutinizing the price-setting process for gold, silver, platinum and palladium in London, while the Commodity Futures Trading Commission has opened a civil investigation, these people said. The agencies have made initial requests for information, including a subpoena from the CFTC to HSBC Holdings PLC related to precious-metals trading, the bank said in its annual report Monday.
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Also under scrutiny are Bank of Nova Scotia , Barclays PLC, Credit Suisse Group AG , Deutsche Bank AG , Goldman Sachs Group Inc., J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., Société Générale SA, Standard Bank Group Ltd. and UBS AG , according to one of the people close to the investigation.

Kick-The-Can Has Morphed Into A Blatant Farce - David Stockman

Wed, 25 Feb 2015 21:37:56 GMT

``... this is getting beyond juvenile. If there were any adults in the room they would focus on quickly shaping a workable Greek default and exist---not on perpetuating the lie that Greece can ever recover from its debt servitude to the EU superstate and IMF.''

Report: Bank of England Admits 22% of Austria's Gold is "Unallocated" (NOT THERE!)

Wed, 25 Feb 2015 21:35:13 GMT

``The ÖBRH is here writing notes that 22 percent of the state gold tonnage of the OeNB pure posting items -- so-called "unallokiertes" (and possibly multiple "beeigentümertes") gold! ''

"This Shorting Opportunity Is As Great As 2007-2009", Billionaire Crispin Odey Warns

Wed, 25 Feb 2015 17:43:29 GMT

``The last two times Crispin Odey, billionaire hedge fund owner and manager of Odey Asset Management spoke, he handed out extra generous portions of fire and brimstone, saying that in due course "equities will be devastated" and that the looming recession will be "remembered for 100 years." ''

This Is Why Hewlett-Packard Is Firing 58,000

Wed, 25 Feb 2015 17:42:20 GMT

``So why is the company axing 58 thousand workers? Simple: so it can cut enough costs on top and continue to fund its now exponential surge in stock buybacks, which in the just concluded quarter was a record $1.6 billion, an increase of 178% from a year ago, and 66% more than the company spent on CapEx, in the process making its shareholders even richer while its management team get massive equity-linked bonuses.''

Yellen navigates tricky path on interest rates

Wed, 25 Feb 2015 15:55:38 GMT

``After keeping its key short-term rate near zero for six years, the Fed must now maneuver a difficult transition from keeping rates super low for a prolonged period to beginning to raise rates without triggering a volatile reaction in financial markets that have grown used to ultra-low rates.''

Emma Thompson and her husband refuse to pay 'a penny more' in taxes until the HSBC tax evaders go to jail

Wed, 25 Feb 2015 15:52:10 GMT

"I want to stop paying tax, until everyone pays tax," Wise told the Evening Standard. "I have actively loved paying tax, because I am a profound fucking socialist and I believe we are all in it together. But I am disgusted with HMRC. I am disgusted with HSBC. And I'm not paying a penny more until those evil bastards go to prison."
HMRC has come under fire in the HSBC scandal because of a failure to carry out a criminal investigation against the bank, which has its headquarters in the UK. While the agency found more than 1,000 tax evaders among the almost 7,000 UK clients of HSBC Suisse, only one individual has been prosecuted. About £135m has been recovered in tax, a lower figure than in other European countries.

Probably not a bad idea for the US as well...

JPMorgan tops list of risky banks: government study

Tue, 24 Feb 2015 19:20:58 GMT

``The bank had a "systemic risk score" of 5.05 percent for 2013 in a group of 33 large U.S. bank holding companies, the study by staffers at the Treasury Department's Office of Financial Research (OFR) said... The method is designed by the Basel Committee of global bank regulators, but that body does not publicly release its rankings of the riskiness of banks.''

Yellen Faces Congress Amid Direst Threat to Fed Since 2010

Tue, 24 Feb 2015 18:51:49 GMT

``If critics from both parties forge common ground, the resulting legislation may deliver the most significant overhaul of Fed authority since the Full Employment and Balanced Growth Act of 1978. That law shaped the modern Fed, giving it mandates for full employment and stable prices and requiring the chairman to testify before Congress twice a year. ''

Euro zone backs Greek aid extension, seeks clearer reforms

Tue, 24 Feb 2015 18:42:30 GMT

``Greece secured a four-month extension of its financial rescue on Tuesday when its euro zone partners approved a reform plan that backed down on key leftist measures and promised that spending to alleviate social distress would not derail its budget... On Saturday, Tsipras called the tentative accord a victory for Greece, but participants said Athens was isolated in the talks and forced to make humiliating concessions because its banks were running out of cash.''

Why the World Is So Bad at Tracking Dirty Money

Tue, 24 Feb 2015 14:19:08 GMT

``Michael Levi of Cardiff University and Peter Reuter of the University of Maryland have studied the global anti-money-laundering system (PDF) and conclude that it has helped facilitate some criminal investigations and prosecutions. But at best, it snares just a fraction of 1 percent of criminal income flows. A lower-end estimate for global laundering transactions is 2 percent of global gross domestic product--or about $1.5 trillion. Global money laundering convictions involve at the most hundreds of millions. In the U.S., a generous estimate of seizures would amount to a mere 0.2 percent of all laundered funds.'' -- This barely scratches the surface. The problems discussed in this article totally omit the type of control fraud which, e.g., allowed Madoff to continue running his scheme for some 16 years after he was first flagged for further investigation.

Greece to miss deadline to submit draft reforms

Mon, 23 Feb 2015 20:35:26 GMT

``The formal submission, which missed its original Monday deadline and is expected to be sent to Brussels on Tuesday morning, will then be discussed in a teleconference by eurozone finance ministers, who will decide whether or not to approve a bailout extension.''

Greece draws up €7.3bn tax hit list aimed at oligarchs and criminals

Mon, 23 Feb 2015 17:33:35 GMT

The German tabloid Bild reported that the Greek government hopes to garner €2.5bn in tax receipts from the fortunes of powerful Greek tycoons, citing sources close to the hard-left Syriza government.

A similar amount would be drawn from back taxes owed to the state by individuals and businesses, Bild said. The report said an additional crackdown on illegal smuggling of petrol and cigarettes would yield another €2.3bn for the government coffers

U.S. Banks Hoard $2 Trillion of Ultra-Safe Bonds, Suggesting Weak Recovery

Mon, 23 Feb 2015 17:25:44 GMT

``Part of the buildup has to do with rules that require banks to hold more high-quality assets in the wake of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. But it also reflects how borrowers, particularly among Americans scarred by the housing bust, are still repairing their finances rather than going into debt to splurge on big-ticket items. And that may mean the U.S. recovery isn't quite as robust as all the upbeat data would suggest.''

CFTC subpoenaed HSBC Bank USA for documents on metals trading

Mon, 23 Feb 2015 16:39:11 GMT

``The Commodity Futures Trading Commission issued a subpoena to HSBC Bank USA in January seeking documents related to the bank's precious metals trading operations, HSBC said in its annual report and accounts statement on Monday... HSBC was one of a number of banks named in lawsuits filed in U.S. courts last year alleging a conspiracy to manipulate gold, silver, platinum and palladium prices, plus precious metals derivatives, during the daily precious metals fixes.''