World Bank KY Jelly Data

Roll out the KY jelly, set aside a pair of non-latex rubber gloves and if you can still bend over, get prepared for another you know what.

Here's a case of attempted damage control at its most insulting. A new report from those bureaucrats at the World Bank want to slide this one past you, according to the Financial Times: "World more equal since financial crisis, says report."

"Despite popular belief," the Times notes, discussing the report from the World Bank, "the world became a more equal place after the global financial crisis, with twice as many countries seeing declines in inequality as increases."

A guy named, Francisco Ferreira, the WB head bureaucrat for poverty research, called "the findings 'myth-breaking'," the Times notes. Besides the obvious timing of this release, there's no mention of how they arrived as such "myth-breaking" results. But that's hardly the phoniest part. All you people living in industrialized societies are better off as the gaps there declined not increased.

According to World Bank data shared with the Times, the UK was "the industrialized economy that saw the biggest decline in inequality after the crisis. Others include the US, Germany, Brazil and China." Talk about shooting a shot across the bow of those damned evil populists, Brexit and Trump supporters, not to leave out those crusty, austerity-crazy Germans, this gives you some idea of what these insulated bureaucrats and elitists think of you.

"But the new study by the World Bank researchers found that inequality within countries actually decreased since the 2008 crisis, with big industrial economies the winners," the Times went on.

Now it's obvious too the good Mr. Ferreira hasn't spent the last five years driving LA freeways otherwise his data would've included the huge increase in the number of homeless folks standing at the base of exit and on ramp lanes, holding up signs asking for jobs, money, food and whatever. Now many of these unfortunates are savvy enough to populates those spaces in wealthier areas. We don't have any data how successful they are versus the ones who stand in such place in less wealthy areas, but maybe that's a study the bureaucrats at the World Bank could undertake.

 Mr. Ferreira goes on, per the Times, to mention between 2012 and 2013 "100 million people falling out out poverty." But what he fails to state is the number of bureaucrats at places like the World Bank and the IMF falling out of reality during the same period.

We told you, these people have utter contempt for you and yours. The only things they want are your tax dollar and your vote.

It's Only A Side Agreement

The Neocons, among them Hillary, are getting you ready for war. Don't you understand that?

To do so you have to rile up the populace, create enemies, roll out the propaganda machines, not to mention the monetary printing presses. Default on the debt or go to war because they cannot pay it back, never had any intention of doing so, and now it's obvious they cannot grow their way out.

There is Money Mayweather and there is Money Madness. One is a professional entertainer, the other a gaggle of phony bureaucrats and politicians that run this gig. The only ones they seek to entertain is themselves. Now, however, it's become clear to them they're out of tricks. So create some more villains and tune up the war drums.

But before it all breaks out, see if you can't get government permission to destroy your personal computer. After all, you would not want it to fall into enemy hands.

zerohedge.com/news/2016-10-03/us-suspends-bilateral-diplomatic-relations-russia-syria

zerohedge.com/news/2016-10-03/fbi-allowed-2-hillary-aides-destroy-their-laptops-newly-exposed-side-agreements

Until Hell Freezes Over

 
Here's a story from the non-taxes-paying New York Times that actually has something positive and truthful to report, the people of Spain without a stumbling, bumbling, inept greedy government for several months. And guess what, it seems to be getting on quite well. Imagine that!

MADRID — For the past 288 days, Spain has plodded along without an elected national government. For some Spaniards, this is a wonderful thing.

“No government, no thieves,” said Félix Pastor, a language teacher who, like many voters, is fed up with the corruption and scandals that tarnished the two previous governing parties.

Mr. Pastor, a wiry, animated 59-year-old, said Spain could last without a government “until hell freezes over” because politicians were in no position to do more harm.

After two grueling national elections in six months, and with a third vote possible in December, no party has won enough seats or forged the coalition needed to form a government. For the first time in Spain’s four decades as a modern democracy, this country of 47 million people has a caretaker government. That has produced an unprecedented public spectacle: Politicians scheme and plot but reject the difficult compromises needed to form a government. Voters watch ruefully with a mix of fascination and contempt.

On Saturday, the Socialists’ leader, Pedro Sánchez, stepped down in a move that could open the way for his party to agree to the re-election of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and a government led by his conservative Popular Party. But while the Socialists’ revolt could break the deadlock, it may do little to heal Spaniards’ frustration with a crisis that has further eroded their faith in politicians.

Spain’s leaders warned that having no government would mean chaos and deprivation. Instead, more than anything, the crisis seems to have offered a glimpse of life if politicians simply stepped out of the way. For many here, it has not been all that bad. “Spain would be just fine if we got rid of most of the politicians and three-fourths of government employees,” Rafael Navarro, 71, said inside his tiny storefront pharmacy in Madrid. Too little government is better than too much, he said. In some ways, this is a phantom crisis for ordinary Spaniards. There has been no United States-style government shutdown. There are no mounds of uncollected garbage, no unpaid police officers, no shuttered ministries, no public trains or buses halted.

Budget money is still flowing. Government ministries are functioning. Social service recipients and civil servants are being paid. Even if no new government has been formed when the 2016 national budget expires this fall, the old budget will simply become the new budget for 2017.

But government is paralyzed in other ways. Nobody is proposing legislation, debating international affairs or even rotating Spain’s ambassadors. Funding for many infrastructure and government projects is frozen. And nationalist movements in Catalonia and the Basque region continue to roil national politics.

Spain has been in political limbo since last October, when Mr. Rajoy called a general election while he held a parliamentary majority. His Popular Party then won the most votes in December and June, but did not win a majority. It now holds 137 of the 350 seats in Parliament. The stalemate has come at an opportune moment. After a severe recession ended in 2013, Spain’s economy rebounded. Growth is forecast to be 2.9 percent this year, almost twice the 1.6 percent eurozone average expected by the European Commission. Interest and energy rates are at historic lows.

Spain, a tourism superpower, expects 74 million visitors this year, six million more than last year, as terrorism fears elsewhere send visitors here. Cafes and museums are crowded, and hotels are booked solid. But after trudging to the polls twice already in the last year, weary voters are in no mood to vote again. The political calendar dictates a vote on Christmas if no agreement to form a government can be reached by Oct. 31.

The impasse has dragged on so long that “it’s like ‘Groundhog Day’ every day,” said Pedro Rodríguez, an assistant professor of international relations at a private university in Madrid.

Until the recent and chaotic revolt within the Socialist Party, said Nacho Cardero, the editor of El Confidencial, a news website, reader clicks on stories about the crisis had dropped steadily.

“People are exhausted,” Mr. Cardero said. “They don’t want to hear one more thing from these politicians.” Spaniards were hopeful for better government in December, after two new parties, for the first time, won a third of the seats in Parliament. That set off a political free-for-all because no single party has been able to muster a majority.

  

.nytimes.com/2016/10/03/world/europe/spain-socialists-sanchez-rajoy.

Not Good Enough

There's a reason why one should never keep more than the minimum, if that, of one's expenses in banks. Any banks. And here's just one reason. The list of other reasons is almost as long as some of the lies both sides in this upcoming election are spreading daily.

While it now seems that Friday's rumor of a substantially reduced Deutsche Bank settlement with the DOJ, which sent the stock price soaring from all time lows, was false following a FAZ report that CEO John Cryan has not yet begun the renegotiation process, and in the "next few days" is set to fly to the US to discuss the proposed RMBS misselling settlement with the US Attorney General, Germany's largest lender continues to be impacted by the public's declining confidence, exacerbated over the weekend by a disturbing "IT glitch."

For one, it remains unclear if Friday's report halted, or reversed, the outflow of cash from DB's prime brokerage clients, which as Bloomberg first reported last week was a major catalyst for the swoon in the stock price. However, as UniCredit's chief economist Erik Nielsen notes in a Sunday notes, one thing is certain: "so long as a fine of this order of magnitude ($14 billion) is an even remote possibility, markets worry."

There is also the threat of the bank's massive derivative book, which despite attempts of many pundits to gloss over, over the weekend none other than JPM admitted that that is what the markets will likely be focusing on for the foreseeable future: "In our opinion it is not so much funding issues but rather derivatives exposures that more likely to trouble markets going forward if Deutsche Bank concerns continue.  This is especially true if these concerns propagate into a confidence crisis inducing more rapid unwinding of derivative contracts."
Indeed, as we first hinted last Thursday...

...  and as CNBC's Jeff Cox correctly observed subsequently, at the core of this week's investor angst is a word that came up during Bear's demise: "novation," or a request by hedge funds that deal with the bank to have others take their place in derivatives trades. In the case of Bear Stearns, word in March 2008 that Goldman Sachs had refused a novation request spread panic through Wall Street.

If it's not good enough for insiders like Goldman Sachs, it ought not be good enough for you.

zerohedge.com/news/2016-10-02/some-deutsche-bank-clients-unable-access-cash-due-it-outage

The Moral Of The Story

Who doesn't dislike paying taxes?

Only criminals, thieves and the underhanded of the business world, so the incessant MSM rap goes.

Well, it appears one of them is the New York Times. Now we don't know about anyone else but we find this a bit unusual since it's been our experience the Times has been one of the major moralistic members of  MSM, preaching their cult like sermons about climate change, fairness and level playing fields for years. Now it appears they not only didn't pay any taxes for 2014 but received a hefty rebate. That's great work if only the proletarians could get some. Rumor has it that the Times is now checking that on FactCheck.

The New York Times has excited the Clinton campaign and the rest of the media with a revelation that Republican nominee Donald Trump declared a $916 million loss in 1995 that might have resulted in him not paying taxes in some subsequent years.
The implication, reinforced by CNN’s Jake Tapper on State of the Union on Sunday morning, is that Trump “avoided” paying taxes, when in fact his tax liability was zero.
But the Times itself has “avoided” paying taxes — in 2014, for example.
As Forbes noted at the time:

… for tax year 2014, The New York Times paid no taxes and got an income tax refund of $3.5 million even though they had a pre-tax profit of $29.9 million in 2014. In other words, their post-tax profit was higher than their pre-tax profit. The explanation in their 2014 annual report is, “The effective tax rate for 2014 was favorably affected by approximately $21.1 million for the reversal of reserves for uncertain tax positions due to the lapse of applicable statutes of limitations.” If you don’t think it took fancy accountants and tax lawyers to make that happen, read the statement again.

New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani defended Trump on Sunday, telling NBC News’ Meet the Press that Trump was a “genius” in business who was simply doing what the tax code allows every American to do by counting losses against tax liabilities, and bouncing back from failure to success.
That would include the New York Times — which, however, is still struggling.
As Jazz Shaw of HotAir.com notes, the Times — or whoever was its source — likely obtained Trump’s tax document illegally.

blacklistednews.com/The_New_York_Times_Paid_No_Taxes_in_2014.

There's a moral to this story and it's as simple as this: People who live in glass houses shouldn't tell lies. 

Oevrnight

The mess at Deutsche Bank casts a wide and well-deserved shadow late last week as Asian shared opened Monday higher. Four of five of the major markets, since some were closed for holiday, were up with one down, the Kospi at 23593.55 off -1.21%. The Nikkei  was up 1.18% at16644.05, the ASX 200 climbed 0.82%, the Hang Send rallied 1.27% and the Shanghai composite edged up 0.23%.

Though rumors floated that an agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice to settle their threatened $14 billion fine had been cut, it was later questioned as mostly MSM puff to keep a lid on the investor panic button. Deustche is Germany's largest bank and their only global one, a bank that for years has been trying to break the global monopoly of big U.S. banks like Goldman Sachs. In addition, Italy just jumped into the fray over the weekend accusing DB of similar charges involving improper selling of mortgages that date to 2008.

The Bank of Japan's third-quarter Tankan survey was the other bit of news investors seemed to focus on if ever so slightly since the results for big Japanese manufacturers' confidence came in flat and the service-sector declined to its lowest level in almost two years. Meanwhile, Tokyo's bank index rallied 1.6%, mostly on favorable rumors about a Deustche bank settlement some were pegging at $5.4 billion.

The dollar/yen changed hands at 101.34 in early trading and oil futures was trading down 0.79 percent at $47.87 per barrel while Brent futures were trading lower by 0.70 percent at $49.84 with
oil prices in September gaining, pushed up by an announcement late in the month from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries that it would aim to cut output. Brent crude settled up 4 percent for the month and U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude rose 8 percent. Investors will have to apparently wait until November to get the actual numbers for the alleged cut in production. Gold was down slightly at 1315.20.

The Great Train Bribery

Here's another idea too good to be true, but not too stupid to be horrible.

It's one that could only emanate from bureaucrats, in this case European ones.

To buck up EU young, free-train idea on a roll … Younger people used to be the main supporters of the European Union. But as the continent continues to struggle with existential problems that include economic crises and growing nationalism, the continent’s youthful are becoming disillusioned, according to a recent Eurobarometer survey. Some EU politicians have now come up with an idea to convince younger people that Europe isn’t that bad: encourage all 18-year-olds to travel the continent for free by train. –Washington Post

This is one more example of people who will stop at nothing to get what they want, allegiance to the mighty EU in this instance. The only things transparent in governments--all governments--are their bad ideas. And here's another one. We can't win your support on the merits of the circumstances so we have to bribe you for your loyalty. Our efforts to create meaningful jobs for you has failed so stupendously owing to our regulation-swamped rules, but here, kid, is a train ticket. Enjoy yourself.

For more: http://www.thedailybell.com/news-analysis/europeans-should-stay-home-not-travel

Fund Ouflows

It's the financial sector, dummy.

At least that's the take in Europe, according ti. Financial Times story, "European fund outflows near $100 billion."

Redemptions from European equity funds have approached $100bn as investors race out of an asset class rattled by the uncertain health of the continent’s financial sector.

Funds invested in European stocks suffered $1.9bn of withdrawals in the week to September 28, the 34th consecutive week of outflows, according to fund flows tracked by EPFR. The exodus since mid-February has reached $95bn, the data show.

Anxiety about the European banking system, which has culminated in a rise inshort interest in Deutsche Bank, has persisted from the year’s start and weighed on the region’s nascent recovery.

The European Central Bank has unleashed a wave of stimulus in a bid to rekindle growth and inflation but has been unable to assuage investor concerns. Flight from European stocks has been accelerated by a struggling Italian financial sector as well as the UK’s Brexit vote, which is seen as a weight on economic activity throughout the bloc.

Deutsche Bank was thrust to the fore after a report said German officials were drawing up contingency plans in the event it is unable to tap financial markets to meet regulatory requirements resulting from a US fine. The bank has emphasised its strong financial position, but that has not stopped some hedge funds from pulling part of their business from the German group.

“Deutsche Bank’s travails kept mutual fund investors on their toes during the final week of September,” said Cameron Brandt, director of research for EPFR. “Sentiment towards Europe took hits from the setting of a date for Italy’s constitutional referendum and the possibility of higher oil prices sapping regional consumer confidence.”

There's that term we keep mentioning, confidence. Confidence is taking a beating on nearly every front these days and from where we view it the prospects for meaningful changes without some major pain are slim and none. Keep your eye on the globalization freaks. They have their best interests at heart, not yours.

Global Banking Fears

 
For a long time it's been the banks have it.

What's up now, however, owing greatly to zero interest rates, is banks no longer have it. Banks live off the spread on a normal yield curve. Much of this is over the current Deutsche Bank mess. MSM is trying its best to play down the systemic risk associated with Germany's biggest bank.

zerohedge.com/news/2016-10-02/about-deutsche-settlement-rumor-cryan-hasnt-even-started-negotiations-doj

Owing to an earlier International Monetary Fund release, pointing out that declines in Deutsch Bank shares spilled over to other bank shares, calling is the riskiest global bank with systemic tentacles, the debate gathers momentum. There's something in banking called the counter party relationship. It financial code for confidence and trust. Confidence and trust are critical components any financial system. Just ask the Fed, the BOJ or the ECB.

Enter stage left the greedy U.S. Department of Justice, a agency that never met a fine it wouldn't like to impose and collect. It's this administration's version of 21first Century Smoot-Hawley. The DoJ is seeking $14 billion to settle alleged bad faith mortgage deals. We don't have a figure but this administration's DoJ has collected tons of fines and nobody knows where that money wound up. One should not be surprised if it later turns up some went to a certain foundation.

With Deutsch the fine is three times the expected and only a smidgen less that the current market value of the depressed bank's share prices. But this indirectly reflects the Obama crew's real opinion of business in general. That this story was leaked also, like the current administration, smells

What this proves is nothing happens in a vacuum. Should the DoJ's greed trigger a systemic event you can bet they will deny any and all responsibility. But there's another point to all this, one about the market and investors. As a Financial Times article notes: there's a big question about something called level three assets. What's at sake here is mark to market accounting, something banks traditionally have avoided. In short, is some junk hidden in there somewhere? And if so how much?

These are charges that date to before the 2008 crisis began. For sure, this is a negotiable opening joust. But the intrigue here runs deep. High finance is high finance. And you usually will find the footprint of Goldman Sachs. Deutsche is Germany's only global bank and it has spent years trying to crack that  U.S. controlled monopoly. Say hello to GS.

This is a political game as we said, a Smoot-Hawley world, the U.S. regulators versus European ones. Goldman Sachs faced a $15 billion  DOJ  fine for financial misgivings, but GS was allowed to negotiate theirs in private, paying in the end $5 billion. It pays to have friends in government and, as one hopeful presidential candidate does, just the reverse, friends at GS.

Eight years ago hedge funds withdrew funds from Lehman Brother shortly before the what is now a PC loathed expression, the fat lady sings. Deutsche CEO John Cryan played down the problem and added he has no plan to raise capital. Couple that with Germany's austerity stances over the years and Angela Merkel's declining popularity over an endemic immigration problem and you get some idea how nitty-gritty things can get.

Further trouble ahead as another sovereign--yes we still use the term, Italy--has jumped into the DB fray. German market is closed Monday, but the ADR trades on New York. Let's see how MSM tries to spin this one.

zerohedge.com/news/2016-10-01/deutsche-bank-charged-italy-market-manipulation-creating-false-accounts

yahoo.com/news/german-bank-regulator-warns-negative-perception-spiral-report

Is a government bailout close at hand? Given the current turmoil and the history of Germany's stance on austerity it may have painted itself into a difficult corner.

A year ahead of national elections, German leaders are keen to avoid upsetting voters with a bank bailout - something EU banking rules were designed to prevent.
In July, hardline Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble opposed the Italian government rescuing troubled lender Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena.

"The rules must stick, otherwise what is the use of giving ourselves rules?" he asked

thelocal.de/20160930/6-things-to-know-about-crisis-hit-deutsche-bank

Exploit And Plunder

I

If you want to know about banks and their mark to market gambols here is a decent read for you. And this is related to those Italian banks and the recent turmoil over Deutsch Bank, Germany's only global bank and it's largest.

Leave your money in those places at your peril in these perilous times. We have talked before about the power of one's purchasing power. When you leave excessive cash in banks it's an indirect diluting of your purchasing power. As the article below notes, these people care nothing about you except when they need to use your money to bail them out. And thanks those august politicians on both sides of aisle, they continue to exploit and plunder the masses.

If you want too see financial dereliction and in-your-face arrogance, see Wells Fargo and the Omaha
Hypocrite.

zerohedge.com/news/2016-10-01/three-reasons-why-banking-system-rigged-against-you

Exhibit A: Governments are working to make banks LESS safe

Yesterday an unelected bureaucrat that no one has ever heard of made a stunning announcement that has sweeping implications for anyone with a bank account.

Dombrovskis is Europe’s top financial services official, so he controls bank regulations in the European Union.

He issued a stern warning to global bank regulators yesterday that he is prepared to reject any further plans they might have to tighten bank capital requirements.

This might sound rather dry, but it’s incredibly important.

“Bank capital” is the most critical component of any bank balance sheet.

Capital is like a bank’s rainy day fund; when things start to go bad, a bank’s capital provides a margin of safety to ensure that their depositors’ funds are safe.

Strong banks have ample capital and are able to withstand crises.

Weak banks with low levels of capital collapse. And that’s precisely what happened in 2008.

Most banks across the west had very low levels of capital. They had spent years making appallingly stupid ‘no money down’ loans with 0% teaser interest rates to borrowers with pitiful credit.

When that bubble burst, the banks lost billions of dollars. And it turned out that most of the banks at the time had razor thin levels of capital.

If you’re wondering why, the answer is quite simple: the less capital a bank maintains, the more money it can invest… so poorly capitalized banks tend to make more money.

Lehman Brothers was quite profitable.

But the bank infamously had capital worth just 3% of its total assets… meaning that if Lehman’s investments fell by just 3%, they would be wiped out.

Lehman’s investments fell by a lot more than 3%… so the bank’s capital was totally insufficient to weather the storm. The bank folded, and a huge crisis erupted.

Regulators vowed to never let that happen again.

And in the years since, the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, the primary global bank regulator, has been pushing banks to increase their capital levels higher.

European banks in particular still have pitiful balance sheets.

Their investment portfolios are stuffed full of negative-yielding bonds issued by bankrupt European governments.

And their capital levels are still so low with many of them that there are whispers of taxpayer funded bailouts, from Italy’s Monte dei Paschi to Germany’s global titan Deutsche Bank.

But despite these pitiful bank fundamentals, Dombrovskis is rejecting the Basel Committee’s latest push to make banks safer.

According to the Financial Times, Dombrovskis is specifically complaining that the Basel proposals might lead to a “significant” increase in the amount of capital that banks would maintain.

… so in other words, the head of European financial services thinks it’s a bad idea for banks to have an extra margin of safety.

Bank profits are being prioritized over depositor safety, even at a time when so many of the banks are seeking taxpayer-funded bailouts.

In the eyes of the bureaucracy, bank profits come before depositor safety… which makes it completely obvious how rigged the system is against you.

* * *

Exhibit B: The Volker Rule farce

In another effort to make banks safer, the US government passed the Volker Rule as part of their new post-crisis financial regulation.

The Volker Rule forces banks to sell their riskiest assets, i.e. the stuff they shouldn’t have been buying to begin with, especially with their depositors’ savings.

Problem is, those risky assets aren’t worth very much, and the banks are having a hard time finding a buyer willing to pay them 100 cents on the dollar.