Accounts of the financial crisis leave out the story of the secretive deals between banks that kept the show on the road. How long can the system be propped up for? - Click to enlarge It is a decade since the first tremors of what would become the Great Financial Crisis began to convulse global markets. Across the world from China and South Korea, to Ukraine, Greece, Brexit Britain and Trump’s America it has shaken...
Read More »American Citizen Held By Immigration Enforcement For Over 3 Years Without Lawyer
Submitted by Sovereign Man This Week's Intelligence American Citizen Held by Immigration Enforcement for Over 3 Years Without Lawyer “I am an American citizen,” Davino Watson pleaded with ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) agents, judges, and jailers. But to no avail; he was held in detention for over 3 years as a deportable illegal immigrant. What did his court appointed lawyer have to say ? Nothing, because he was never assigned one. After all, illegal immigrants are...
Read More »Can Switzerland Survive Today’s Assault On Cash And Sound Money?
Authored by Marcia Christoff-Kurapovna via The Mises Institute, “Switzerland will have the last word,” wrote Victor Hugo in the late 19th century. “It possesses one of the most perfect forms of government in the world.” A contemporary of his, Frederick Kuenzli, a scholar of the Swiss Army, boasted: “No purer type of Republican ideals, no more fixed and devoted adherence to those ideals can be found in all the world...
Read More »Bond Selloff Returns As EM Fears Rise; Oil Slides; BOJ Does Not Intervene
U.S. index futures point slightly lower open. Asian shares rose while stocks in Europe fell as energy producers got caught in a downdraft in oil prices and reversed an earlier gain after Goldman unexpectedly warned that WTI could slide below $40 absent "show and awe" from OPEC. The dollar rose, hitting a four-month high against the yen and bonds and top emerging market currencies were back under pressure on Tuesday, following last week’s hawkish rhetoric from central bankers. Nonetheless,...
Read More »Key Events In The Coming Busy Week: Fed, BOJ, BOE, SNB, US Inflation And Retail Sales
After a tumultous week in the world of politics, with non-stop Trump drama in the US, a disastrous for Theresa May general election in the UK, and pro-establishment results in France and Italy, this is shaping up as another busy week ahead with multiple CB meetings, a full data calendar and even another important Eurogroup meeting for Greece. Wednesday’s FOMC will be the main event, with the Fed expected to hike 25bp...
Read More »Europe, US Futures Slip Despite Brent Bouncing Back To $51
Asian stocks rose lifted by commodity names; European equities trade mostly lower but with little in the way of conviction or firm direction while the Italian banking index is at the highest level in a year following domestic earnings; S&P index futures are modestly in the red after the cash market closed at a record high Wednesday and investors prepared for earnings from retailers; we expect the now general vol selling program to promptly lift the S&P into new all time highs minutes...
Read More »Sweden’s Gold Reserves: 10,000 gold bars (pet rocks) shrouded in Official Secrecy
In February 2017 while preparing for a presentation in Gothenburg about central bank gold, I emailed Sweden’s central bank, the Riksbank, enquiring whether the Riksbank physically audits Sweden’s gold and whether it would provide me with a gold bar weight list of Sweden’s gold reserves (gold bar holdings). The Swedish official gold reserves are significant and amount to 125.7 tonnes, making the Swedish nation the...
Read More »Global Stocks Slide, S&P Futures Tumble Below 50DMA As “Trump Trade” Collapses
Global stocks are lower across the board to start the week, as concerns about Trump's administration to pull off a material tax reform plan finally emerge, pressuring S&P futures some 20 points lower this morning, following European and Asian shares lower, while crude oil prices fall unable to find support in this weekend's OPEC meeting in Kuwait where a committee recommended to extend oil production cuts by another 6 months. Safe havens including the yen and bonds climbed as did gold,...
Read More »United States Economic Freedom Tumbles To Historic Low
After eight years of the regulation-happy Obama administration, the United States has undergone a huge slide into the 17th most economically free country in the world, according to the Heritage Foundation’s 2017 Index of Economic Freedom. Under president Obama, the federal government issued over 600 major regulations, costing the U.S. economy hundreds of millions of dollars. Those regulations were placed on top of...
Read More »Frontrunning: February 9
Airlines, Airports to Meet President Amid Travel-Ban Uncertainty (WSJ) Legal battle pits Trump's powers against his words (Reuters) Trump’s Oval Office Tweets Force CEOs to Choose Fight or Flight (BBG) Companies Plow Ahead With Moves to Mexico, Despite Trump’s Pressure (WSJ) Trump’s Labor Pick Loves Burgers, Bikinis, and Free Markets (BBG) NATO allies lock in U.S. support for stand-off with Russia (Reuters) Sessions Takes Reins at Justice Ready to Walk the Line for Trump (BBG) Washington...
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