Barclays boss under pressure as bank inquiry launched

The first derivatives domino is rocking back and forth.  Can Barclay's "stabilize"(sweep under the rug/publicly ignore) the situation before events get out of hand?  Reuters.  Excerpts:

Pressure grew on Barclays Plc Chief Executive Bob Diamond to quit as Britain launched an inquiry on Monday into a market-rigging scandal, saying a "culture that flourished in the age of irresponsibility" among bankers had to end.
Barclays Chairman Marcus Agius resigned on Monday, saying "the buck stops with me" as the scandal over manipulating Libor interest rates claimed its first major scalp.
But his departure did not take the heat off Diamond, who ran Barclays' investment banking arm when the rate rigging took place, drawing a record fine for the lender last week in a scandal likely to involve many more banks.
"The buck in Barclays stops with Bob Diamond, and it is Bob Diamond who must accept responsibility," said John Mann, an opposition Labor member of a parliamentary committee that later this week will question Agius and Diamond.

"He must resign. He's got to go," Mann told Sky News.



Anger with the culture of bankers in London, a world financial capital and major part of the British economy, crossed the political divide with Conservative finance minister George Osborne outlining the parliamentary inquiry.


"The behavior of some in the financial services has damaged the reputation of an industry that employs hundreds of thousands of people and is vital to the economic prosperity of the country," Osborne told parliament. "It's time to deal with the culture that flourished in the age of irresponsibility and hold those who allowed it to do so to account."


Barclays has admitted that some of its traders tried to manipulate the London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor), which is used worldwide as a benchmark for prices on about $350 trillion of derivatives and other financial products across a range of currencies and loan durations.

Well, gosh!  I ain't never heard of no derivatives!  They really couldn't kill the global economy, could they?  Yes.  Yes they could..

Mike Krieger: Where Food Stamps Go to Die

We live in fun times.  Guest post from Zero Hedge.  Excerpts:


Nothing exemplifies the ghetto status of the U.S. economy more than the success of Wal-Mart in the face of the ongoing destruction of what was once a vibrant and strong middle class. In case you missed it, Marion Nestle, Professor in the Department of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health at NYU, came out with some interesting tidbits regarding the food stamp program. One of them is extraordinarily disturbing. She shows that Wal-Mart’s gets as much as 25% to 40% of revenue at some stores from food stamp dollars. This says it all folks. Food stamps are or course the perfect business for Wal-Mart and JP Morgan, which as I pointed out previously makes a lot of money running the program and keeping the populace in perpetual serfdom. Meanwhile, guess what another of the best performing stocks this year is? Corrections Corp of America, ticker CXW, up 41% YTD! Guess what they do? Yep, you guessed it. They lock up the serfs that get out of line. This is the Bloomberg description of CXW.



Corrections Corporation of America provides detention and corrections services to governmental agencies. The Company owns correctional and detention facilities in the United States and the United Kingdom. Services include design, construction, ownership, renovation, and management of new or existing jails and prisons, as well as long distance inmate transportation services.
There you have it folks. What sectors are leading the American economy in the “recovery”: Food stamps and Prisons. They are actually perfectly complimentary. If the food stamps don’t work the prisons will.

Or hip hop.  Don't forget the hip hop..

Spain is About to Enter a Full-Scale Collapse

Be..  What's Spanish for afraid?  Be that.  Zero Hedge.  Excerpts:

Spain is about to enter a full-scale Crisis.


A few facts about Spain:
• Total Spanish banking loans are equal to 170% of Spanish GDP.
• Troubled loans at Spanish Banks just hit an 18-year high.
• Spanish Banks are drawing a record €316.3 billion from the ECB
(up from €169.2 billion in February).


Things have gotten so bad that Spanish citizens are pulling their money out of Spain en masse: €65 billion left the Spanish banking system in March 2011 alone.


As bad as they are, even these data points don't do justice to the toxic sewer that is the Spanish banking system.


Case in point, over HALF of all Spanish mortgages are owned by Spanish cajas.


If you're unfamiliar with the caja banking system, let me give you a little background...


Until recently, the caja banking system was virtually unregulated. Yes, you read that correctly, until about 2010-2011 there were next no regulations for these banks (which account for 50% of all Spanish deposits). They didn’t have to reveal their loan to value ratios, the quality of collateral they took for making loans… or anything for that matter.


So, with Spain today, we have a totally unregulated banking system sitting atop HALF of ALL Spanish mortgages after a housing bubble that makes the one that happened in the US look like a small bump.

Aye carumba..

January 10, 2012

Russia and Iran dump the dollar?  That's provocative..!  Press TV.  Excerpts:

Iranian Ambassador to Moscow Seyyed Reza Sajjadi says Iran and Russia have turned to their national hard currencies instead of the American dollar in reciprocal trade exchanges.



Sajjadi said on Saturday that the proposal for the replacement of the US dollar with the Iranian rial and Russian ruble was raised during a meeting between Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev and his Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on the sidelines of the 11th meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) last June.


Permanent SCO members include China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Iran, along with India, Mongolia and Pakistan, is an observer state to the intergovernmental mutual-security organization.


The Iranian envoy said Tehran and Moscow switched to their national currencies in preference after the meeting between their presidents.


Sajjadi also pointed to Russia' strong opposition to sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program, saying Russians have clearly announced that they will not accept fresh anti-Iran bids that target the country's Central Bank and financial institutions.

Last June?  And then they patiently waited to drop the hammer.  And now they have.  Uh-Oh! 

Escalation?  Iran sentences American to death in spy case

Or not?  Panetta: Iran not building bombs yet

No long-term lung damage from occasional marijuana use  Ha Ha!  Little by little, brick by brick, all the scary lies disintegrate..  Raw Story.  Excerpts:

People who occasionally smoke marijuana do not suffer long-term lung damage the way cigarette smokers do, and may actually experience a slight improvement, said a 20-year US study published Tuesday.



Since the research included more than 5,000 people over a long time span, the authors said it should help clear up some of the confusion about the risks of marijuana smoking, which is increasingly common in the United States.

Perfunctory "Experts' Caution:"

“Marijuana is still an illegal drug, and it has many complicated effects on the human body and its function,” said Stefan Kertesz, senior author of the research in the Journal of the American Medical Association.



“In our findings we see hints of harm in pulmonary function with heavy use, and other studies have shown that marijuana use increases a user’s likelihood of a heart attack… and impairs the immune system’s ability to fight disease.”

Romney wins New Hampshire primary  Paul's second, and Huntsman's third.  Where's Newtie?  Looks like 5th place.  Losing to Santorum must sting..  or at least froth..  Raw Story.  Excerpts:

Former governor Mitt Romney (R-MA) is the projected winner the New Hampshire primary on Tuesday, just a week after pulling out an 8-vote win over former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) in Iowa. By 8:10 ET, Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) was declared the projected second-place finisher.
..
In the one obvious hit against his fellow Republicans, Romney did address the Gingrich documentary that’s been making headlines since Sunday: “President Obama wants to put free enterprise on trial, and in the last few days we’ve seen some desperate Republicans join forces with him. This is such a mistake for our party and for our nation.” He called such attacks the “bitter politics of envy” and “resentment of success.”

Say what you want about Bullshit Mitt, I do love his cartoon show!

Global Economic Collapse: Omens and Intrigues..

A Guide to: Black Monday?  Urban Survival puts the pieces together..

NYSE Announces Third-Quarter 2011 Circuit-Breaker Levels  NYSE via Godlike Productions.  Excerpts:

The New York Stock Exchange will implement new circuit-breaker collar trigger levels for third-quarter 2011 effective Friday, July 1, 2011.

Circuit-breaker points represent the thresholds at which trading is halted marketwide for single-day declines in the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA). Circuit-breaker levels are set quarterly as 10, 20 and 30 percent of the DJIA average closing values of the previous month, rounded to the nearest 50 points.

In third-quarter 2011, the 10-, 20- and 30-percent decline levels, respectively, in the DJIA will be as follows:

Level 1 Halt

A 1,200-point drop in the DJIA before 2 p.m. will halt trading for one hour; for 30 minutes if between 2 p.m. and 2:30 p.m.; and have no effect if at 2:30 p.m. or later unless there is a level 2 halt.

Level 2 Halt
A 2,400-point drop in the DJIA before 1:00 p.m. will halt trading for two hours; for one hour if between 1:00 p.m. and 2:00 p.m.; and for the remainder of the day if at 2:00 p.m. or later.

Level 3 Halt

A 3,650-point drop will halt trading for the remainder of the day regardless of when the decline occurs.

Gulp..

Police raid Milan offices of Moody's and Standard & Poor's  Guardian UK.  Excerpts:

Carlo Maria Capistro – chief prosecutor of Trani, a small Adriatic port – told Reuters that his office was checking to see whether the rating agencies "respect regulations as they carry out their work". The raids took place on Wednesday as Italy's prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, addressed parliament on the mounting crisis.

He and other leading Italian politicians often cite speculation as a cause of market storms that involve a run on the country's shares or bonds. And the media habitually depicts sell-offs as attacks on Italy.

S&P, which along with other rating agencies has been strongly criticised in Europe for downgrading countries such as Greece, said in a statement it believed the Trani inquiry "has no foundation". It added: "We shall strenuously defend our work, our reputation and that of our analysts."

 

The masses are really gonna go manshit when they figure out they're all guilty..

S&P head: Agency may downgrade U.S. again  Raw Story.  Excerpts:

The head of Standard & Poor's sovereign ratings said Sunday that the agency may downgrade the U.S. again.

"Given the economic and political situation in the U.S., which will we see, an upgrading back to AAA or further downgrades?" Fox News' Chris Wallace asked David Beers.

"We have a negative outlook on the rating and that means we think that the risk currently for the rating are to the downside," Beers said.

While explaining what the U.S. could do to get its AAA rating back, the S&P official mentioned entitlement cuts but ignored the agency's call to raise revenues.

"Does any compromise have to have entitlement reform and revenue increases to be credible?" Wallace wondered.

"The key thing is, yes, entitlement reform is important because entitlement is the biggest -- are the biggest component of spending and they are the part of spending where the cost pressures are greatest," Beers replied.

Omen Alert:  Dollar to Be 'Discarded' by World: China Rating Agency  CNBC.  Uhhh  Huhh.  Excerpts:

The man who leads one of China’s top rating agencies says the greenback’s status as the world’s reserve currency is set to wane as the world’s most powerful policy makers convene to examine the implication of S&P’s decision to strip the United States of its triple “A” rating.

In comments emailed to CNBC, Guan Jianzhong, chairman of Dagong Global Credit Rating, said the currency is “gradually discarded by the world,” and the “process will be irreversible.”

Dagong made headlines last week when it became the first rating agency to cut its U.S. credit rating from “A+” to “A” after policymakers in Washington failed to act in a timely manner to lift its debt celing.

However, the announcement failed to register in the markets as investors have yet to decide whether to take the Beijing-based company seriously.

..

But Guan’s observation—made just before S&P slashed its ratings on the world’s biggest economy—now seems strangely prescient.

Happy Monday, everyone.  Here's The Happy Mondays...

Next Stop: Black Monday.

The deal goes down starting Sunday night.  Here's the roundup.  Good luck to you in the coming weeks and months.

US loses AAA credit rating after S&P downgrade  BBC.  Excerpts:

One of the world's leading credit rating agencies, Standard & Poor's, has downgraded the United States' top-notch AAA rating for the first time ever.

S&P cut the long-term US rating by one notch to AA+ with a negative outlook, citing concerns about budget deficits.

Correspondents say the downgrade could erode investors' confidence in the world's largest economy.  Could=Will

..

The downgrade is a major embarrassment for the administration of President Barack Obama and could raise the cost of US government borrowing.  Again; Could=Will

Investment guru Warren Buffett says US downgrade ‘doesn’t make sense’  From Raw Story.  Excerpts:

Investing guru Warren Buffett criticized the Standard & Poor's downgrade of the long-term US credit rating, saying it "doesn't make sense" and would have a limited impact on markets. 

"I don't get it," the highly-respected founder and chairman of Berkshire Hathaway told Fox Business News late Friday, saying his Omaha, Nebraska-based company would hold onto its considerable trove of US Treasury bills.

And:

The billionaire investment wizard brushed off fears that the downgrade will roil world markets.

"If nothing else takes place, meaning, if all other variables hold and there isn't say, a new problem in Europe, it won't make any difference," he said, referring to the growing eurozone debt crisis.

"The US, to my knowledge, owes no money in currency other than the US dollar, which it can print at will. Now if you're talking about inflation, that's a different question," he added.

But there are already "problems" popping up in Europe..

ECB-crisis meeting  MMNews via Google Translate.  Found it on Godlike Productions.  Excerpts:

The ECB will hold on Sunday afternoon, a crisis meeting. This was arranged by ECB chief Trichet. With this key representatives of G7 finance ministers and the Euro zone. The Reuters news agency reported.

Consequently, the central bankers fear violent turmoil in the financial markets on Monday. The crisis in the PIIGS bonds could continue to worsen, triggered by the U.S. downgrade by S & P. On the agenda is likely to be the opinion of observers from the purchase of Italy and Spain bonds. The yield on these bonds rose on Friday on a 14-year high.

The Beginning of the End  MMNews via Google Translate.  Excerpts:

The U.S. is losing its top rating, outlook negative. - The last week was dramatic on the financial markets. But it was probably just a taste of what's to come: the total erosion in the confidence of the monetary system. The crash of the stock markets as a harbinger of the total bankruptcy of all Western industrialized nations. A currency reform is more likely.

Growing up in the federal government, meanwhile, doubts whether Italy could be rescued by the European rescue EFSF, even if he tripled - Der Spiegel reports in its latest issue. An economy like Italy wasnot to support, to being too large, it is said to justify. The financial needs of the country is too huge. Also a guarantee of the entire Italian public debt of over € 1.8 trillion, after assessment of government experts from other partner countries, not to be lifted. By then the markets would suspect that Germany was overwhelmed.

AAA-rmageddon: S&P downgrade knocks off US credit crown  Story and video from Russia Today.

The beginning of the Fourth night of the Ninth Wave

Written back on July 13th, Calleman's analysis predicted the Fifth Day of the Mayan Ninth Wave would produce a global economic collapse.  I'm not saying anything more will happen from now until August 17th, when the Fifth Night begins, but don't be surprised if this does indeed happen, as momentum around the world continues to build.  First, excerpts from Calleman's article:

A couple of months ago I expressed my expectation that the Fifth day, beginning on July 31, 2011, will bring a global economic collapse, which would be the start of this end time scenario. What is going on now in this regard is that the European banks is still trying to find a solution for the Greek debt crisis by the end of July and a few days later, August 2, the decision will be made in the US whether to raise the lending ceiling or not. Meanwhile, increasing focus is placed on Italy, whose national debt in relationship to its GDP is almost as high (120%) as that of Greece (140%), but whose economy is seven times larger with correspondingly much larger potential consequences of a default on debt payments. A very delicate situation is thus already arising at the beginning of the fifth day and it remains to be seen if more money can be printed to avert a collapse.

Because it could be so painful a global financial collapse would seem to many to be a destructive event and hence not likely to occur in a period of light, a day. The economic system of the world is however probably the greatest obstacle to the development of unity consciousness that exists on our planet. I think it can even be said that a collapse of the world’s financial structure is a pre-requisite for us to be able to craft relationships of oneness between ourselves. For this reason it is not unlikely that such a collapse would occur in a day and then especially in the fifth day, which is the particular day that in the waves brings the breakthrough energy to the new frame of consciousness. Unity consciousness is thus likely to be perceived as a threat to many persons in economically dominant positions and this is part of the reason that so powerful media interests have sought to delude people about the Mayan calendar and postpone its true end date, October 28, 2011.

Around the world..

Asia markets plunge amid recession fears

From Thursday:  World stock markets in turmoil

European hijinx..  European Central Bank paralysis sparks global chaos

Crisis Exposes Rift Between ECB and Euro-Zone Governments

Stocks: Worst week since financial crisis

It's Friday night now, USA/CST.  We'll check back Sunday night when the Asian markets re-open.  Have a great weekend, and ride the Ninth Wave, babies..