Implode-Explode Heavy Industries news feed

CFTC probes 1m US swap contracts

Wed, 15 May 2013 00:27:00 GMT

A top US financial regulator has launched a broad inquiry into the legitimacy of more than 1m energy and metals transactions by the biggest traders in commodities markets over the past two years, reports the Financial Times.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has issued a "special call" asking Wall Street banks and other traders to provide documents that would prove recent derivatives transactions known as "exchanges of futures for swaps" were legal. Lawyers at the CFTC enforcement division are also scrutinising the trades for possible violations.

There Will Be Haircuts - Bill Gross

Mon, 06 May 2013 04:15:12 GMT

``... this sounds a little like Chuck Prince and his dance floor metaphor does it not? His example proved that dancing, and full heads of hair are not forever. So give your own portfolio a trim as the year goes on. In doing so, you will give up some higher returns upfront in order to avoid the swift hand of Sweeney Todd. There will be haircuts. Make sure your head doesn't go with it.''

Did Corporate Raider T.Boone Pickens Take Parenting Classes From Joan Crawford?

Sun, 05 May 2013 02:10:31 GMT

Texas oil millionaire T. Boone Pickens is trying to use the Dallas state courts to squash his son's first amendment rights after Mike Pickens wrote a tell-all blog about the famed hedge fund manager's troubling family dynamics. The blog titled 5 days in Connecticut posted `my story' which centers on how 85-year old Boone's emotional abuse caused his 55-year old son's drug and alcohol abuse along with a litany of other alleged facts going back to childhood whippings.

"We Wish" - James Howard Kunstler

Sat, 04 May 2013 15:34:11 GMT

``Wishful thinking now runs so thick and deep across the USA that our hopes for a credible future are being drowned in a tidal wave of yellow smiley-face stories recklessly issued by institutions that ought to know better. A case in point is the Charles C. Mann's tragically dumb cover story in the current Atlantic magazine -- "We Will Never Run Out of Oil" * -- setting out in great detail the entire panoply of techno-narcissistic "solutions" to our energy predicament. Another case in point was senior financial writer Joe Nocera's moronic op-ed in last week's New York Times beating the drum for American "energy independence."''

Swiss Central Banker: "Maybe We Will Buy Gold"

Sat, 27 Apr 2013 23:10:55 GMT

``Swiss National Bank President Thomas Jordan won't exclude increasing the central bank's gold holdings at some point and said most of its reserves are held domestically.''

Japan's 'wall of money' proves elusive for global markets

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 12:40:26 GMT

Japanese investors are repatriating funds from around the world at an accelerating pace, dashing hopes that stimulus from the Bank of Japan will flood global asset markets with newly-printed money.

Very interesting. This shows that psychology has changed dramatically in japan from the mid-late 2000's "Mrs. Wantanabe" carry-trade era. Basically, Japanese investors are "ducking and covering", despite the promised flood of new money. This suggests the Yen devaluation and domestic-inflationary effect of the printing will be unexpected multiples of what it was up until now.

Azerbaijan's State Oil Fund buys 1 more ton of Gold

Tue, 09 Apr 2013 11:56:26 GMT

``Azerbaijan's State Oil Fund (SOFAZ) purchased one more ton of gold on the first week of this month to make the total at 4 tons.''

Cyprus crisis: Moscow will not bail out Russian savers

Mon, 01 Apr 2013 11:42:36 GMT

``A 10bn-euro bailout from the EU and IMF - required to keep the debt-laden Cypriot economy afloat - will only be granted if Cyprus itself raises 5.8bn euros, most of which looks likely to come from depositors with more than 100,000 euros in Bank of Cyprus and Laiki (Popular Bank).''

American shale gas project is a bubble about to burst -- Gazprom CEO

Mon, 01 Apr 2013 10:40:59 GMT

``The extraction of shale gas in the US is unprofitable and this "soap bubble will burst soon," believes the CEO of Russian gas giant Gazprom Aleksey Miller. "Currently, there aren't any projects that we know of where shale gas production would be profitable," Miller stated, adding that "absolutely all the boreholes" are in the red. ''

Monterey Shale: Government believes there could be 15.4 BILLION barrels of crude oil buried beneath fertile California farmland

Sat, 02 Mar 2013 00:28:38 GMT

``California has an estimated 15.4 billion barrels of crude oil beneath its fertile farmland - and now companies are scrambling to get their hands on it, putting the lush landscape in danger... the oil could also prove a massive area of conflict between the oil companies and the state's powerful environmental interests, as campaigners protest against the use of fracking to extract it.''

Putin Turns Black Gold to Bullion as Russia Outbuys World

Tue, 12 Feb 2013 16:57:07 GMT

Not only has Putin made Russia the world's largest oil producer, he's also made it the biggest gold buyer. His central bank has added 570 metric tons of the metal in the past decade, a quarter more than runner-up China, according to IMF data compiled by Bloomberg. The added gold is also almost triple the weight of the Statue of Liberty.
"The more gold a country has, the more sovereignty it will have if there's a cataclysm with the dollar, the euro, the pound or any other reserve currency," Evgeny Fedorov, a lawmaker for Putin's United Russia party in the lower house of parliament, said in a telephone interview in Moscow.

Why gasoline prices are headed even higher

Sun, 10 Feb 2013 21:25:34 GMT

On Thursday, the average U.S. price for a gallon of regular gasoline stood at $3.555, making it the most expensive average ever for that day and the highest level since Oct. 26 of last year, according to AAA. See AAA's Daily Fuel Gauge Report.
The price has risen 26.3 cents, or about 8%, this year, steeper than the 6.2% increase for the same period in 2012 and 1.6% rise for the same period in 2011, according to the motorist and leisure travel group.

Trade Deficit Narrows Sharply on Gold, Oil Exports

Sun, 10 Feb 2013 21:00:35 GMT

``U.S. exports increased $8.6 billion in December, boosted by sales of industrial supplies, including a $1.2 billion rise of non-monetary gold. In a reflection of America's current oil and natural gas boom, petroleum exports rose by nearly $1 billion to a record high level.''

The Hugo Chavez ‘Socialist Revolution' Nets Goldman Sachs et al. About 15% a Year

Sun, 03 Feb 2013 01:01:24 GMT

``While his policies drove away enough investors to keep Venezuela's borrowing costs over 12 percent on average during his tenure, or 4 percentage points higher than those of developing nations, he's never missed a bond payment.''

The Master Meme - Kunstler

Wed, 30 Jan 2013 15:05:38 GMT

``The gentlemen and ladies of the meme-o-sphere, where collective notions are birthed like sleet from clouds, have decided lately that the USA has entered a full-on broad-based bull market - a condition of general happiness and prosperity as far advanced beyond mere "recovery" as a wedge of triple-cream Saint-Andre cheese is advanced over a Cheez Doodle. It has become the master fantasy of the moment, following the birth of some junior memes such as... we have a hundred years of shale gas and the "housing sector" (i.e. the suburban sprawl-building industry) is "bouncing back." What a sad-sack nation of credulous twits we have become.''

They Are Getting Ready: "No Obvious Reason" For Why China Is Massively Boosting Stockpiles of Rice, Iron Ore, Precious Metals, Dry Milk

Tue, 15 Jan 2013 02:31:30 GMT

Why does China need four times as much rice year-over-year? Why purchase more iron when you already have a huge surplus? Why buy gold when, as Federal Reserve Chairmen Ben Bernanke suggests, it is not real money? Why build massive cities capable of housing a million or more people, and then keep them empty?
It doesn't add up. None of it makes any sense.

Unless the Chinese know something we haven't been made privy to.

China blazes trail for 'clean' nuclear power from thorium

Tue, 08 Jan 2013 13:37:40 GMT

``Mr Jiang visited the Oak Ridge labs and obtained the designs after reading an article in the American Scientist two years ago extolling thorium. His team concluded that a molten salt reactor -- if done the right way -- may answer China's prayers.''

Unusual Items: US Mint ‘Gold Disks' Made for Oil Payments to Saudi Arabia

Fri, 16 Nov 2012 14:19:34 GMT

``In the 1950's, numismatists were puzzled by these "discs" until-in 1957 -- the story emerged in The Numismatist. Aramco, required to pay royalties and other payments in gold to the Saudi government, could not obtain the gold at the monetary price fixed by the United States so the U. S. government specifically began to mint the "discs" -- actually bullion in coin form for these payments. In 1945, for example, the mint turned out 91,210 large discs worth $20, and, in 1947,121,364 small discs worth $5, according to The Numismatist.'' -- Very interesting; I have heard that the Saudis have always been getting paid in gold for their oil "on the sly"... this would qualify as strong supportive evidence (though conceivably, they moved to some more modern, and/or more roundabout way of getting it done since)

U.S. to overtake Saudi as top oil producer: IEA

Mon, 12 Nov 2012 23:12:33 GMT

The United States will overtake Saudi Arabia and Russia as the world's top oil producer by 2017, the West's energy agency said on Monday, predicting Washington will come very close to achieving a previously unthinkable energy self-sufficiency

Crumbling Deal Exposes Clash of Wealthy Family Dynasties

Thu, 18 Oct 2012 11:14:36 GMT

For more than two centuries, the Rothschild name has stood for a deft touch in European cross-border finance, as well as representing great wealth and influence.
Today, the family name, one of Europe's banking dynasties, has become ensnared in a nasty dispute after a powerful family in Indonesia appears to have outmaneuvered Nathaniel Rothschild, the five-times great-grandson of the dynasty's founder.