Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Monday, January 28, 2008
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Bank failures, currency mystery
Small Bank Failure is First of 2008
Regulators closed the first bank of 2008 late Friday, shutting $58 million-asset Douglass National Bank in Kansas City, Mo.
http://watchingamerica.com/frankfurterallgemeine000009.shtml
For the international police authority Interpol , the case is of the highest priority. For nearly 20 years and in great quantities, counterfeit 100-Dollar-Notes of impeccable quality have been in circulation. Interpol has been looking to find the source of the notes, but so far has been unable to identify it.
In March 2005, Interpol issued a so-called "orange notice." With an "orange notice," Interpol member countries are notified of a special threat situation. At the end of July 2006, Interpol hosted a crisis conference for central banks, police investigators and members of the high security printing industry over the Supernotes.
http://www.kba-giori.com/
ORGANISATION GIORI
Gualtiero Giori was a direct descendant from a long line of Italian security printers established in Milan in the 19th century. He pioneered multi-colour intaglio printing by developing the revolutionary 6-colour intaglio printing press in 1947. Following this success and recognising the global need for the highest quality machines to produce the most secure banknotes he formed "Organisation Giori " in 1952.
KOENIG & BAUER Koenig & Bauer was founded in 1817 and enjoys a rich and colourful history as the oldest manufacturer of printing machines in the world. Based in Würzburg, Germany the company has evolved to become a world leader in print technology and innovation.
In 1952, Organisation Giori signed a co-operation agreement with Koenig & Bauer entrusting them with the production of the security printing machines.
What started as a simple alliance between a strong industrial power and a man with an incredible vision has changed the world of banknotes and security printing forever.
Today we can see the results of this historic partnership standing as a symbol of integrity, security and excellence in every corner of the world…a living testimony to the genius behind the dream.
KBA-GIORI S.A. Following many years of successful partnership with the De La Rue Group, our company was acquired by Koenig & Bauer in June 2001.
This logical development and new structure will simplify our business operations and consolidate our technical and market activity under one strategy.
The new company, KBA-GIORI remains focused on the core activity of serving and protecting the global security print market by offering a full range of services, systems and machines to economically produce more secure banknotes and security documents.
Today's banknotes are more complex, more secure and carry more features than ever before. We are at the forefront of this evolution with our partners and customers around the world. The threats and opportunities created by new technology will continue to grow.
KBA-GIORI is uniquely positioned to positively channel this technology to make tomorrow's banknotes even better. This will enable nations around the world to guarantee the integrity of their currency and security documents and to protect them as symbols of national pride and identity.
Friday, January 25, 2008
Be Wary – BofA shuts comods desk in London, Market rebounds
http://uk.reuters.com/article/businessNews/idUKWLB624820080124
Bank of America shuts London commods trading desk
YOU SHOULD BE WARY OF THIS MARKET REBOUND
DOW opens up but starting to slip
Home Prices Fell in '07 for First Time in Decades
BoC sees "incredibly slow growth" in U.S.
Banks 'face a further $300bn sub-prime hit'
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Monday, January 21, 2008
World Financial Disaster – End Times
Stocks Plummet In Germany, Hong Kong, India, Brazil
$120B Lost In Euro Stock Crash - Black Tuesday For US
TSX Canadian Stocks Plunge 600 Points
Global Markets Plunge On US Recession Fears
Day Of Reckoning In The US Glasshouse
Look Who's Bailing Out (Buying Up) Wall Street
Next Banking Crisis Will Dwarf Mortgage Crash
Biggest Drop In US Housing Starts Since 1980
Disasterous Dow Dives Again - 10 Month Low
Wall Street Drops - Bush Rescue Plan Disappointment
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Artificial Intelligence: Pac Man Reinforcement Learning RL
http://www.robotworldnews.com/100389.php In the latest feat of artificial intelligence (AI), researchers have taught AI agents to play Ms. Pac-Man - and sometimes do it better than humans. The study, performed by Istvan Szita and Andras Lorincz from the Department of Information Systems at Eotvos University in Hungary, showed that AI agents can successfully be taught how to strategize through reinforcement learning. The researchers hope that teaching Ms. Pac-Man will be an ideal means to explore what artificial intelligence is still missing.
http://slashdot.org/tags/ai Slashdot AI
Saturday, January 19, 2008
The End of a Powerful Week in Finance
The End of a Powerful Week in Finance Author: Jim Sinclair Posted On: Friday, January 18, 2008, 6:29:00 PM EST Nothing said by either luminary addresses the problem, including those that developed this afternoon by the downgrade of the debt of Ambac, one of the four major bond insurers, MBIA, MGIC and similar companies dealing in OTC Default Derivatives. Should S&P and Moody take similar action, which is expected, two trillion in debt should also be downgraded. The downgrade of the debt of the guarantor must impact the debt they have guaranteed. So the two trillion is debt that may well and should be downgraded now is another domino of titanic size. This afternoon's problems are new and their size says both Kings Are Wearing No Clothes" with respect to their presentations of Thursday and today. The general equities market must be calmed. Should the Dow crater, another major domino falls. Let's see how the PPT (Price Protection Team) brings the Dow in Tuesday morning in pre U.S. trading and then how Tuesday closes. The DOW better be higher each day than the indices are before U.S. trading or as the last two days demonstrated, the PPT has lost its tight control of the equities markets. Watch the pre-open indices and closing Dow very closely. If the equity markets cannot be calmed then: If you have not protected yourself, you may only have days to do so. Protection amounts to a simple act: As much as possible eliminate financial agents between you and your assets. Own gold or equivalents equal to one half of your liquid net worth. Then you insure your entire net worth. Do not have margin debt. If you have debt you must own gold fully paid equal to that debt to insure it.
http://www.jsmineset.com/
Thursday the Chairman of the Federal Reserve expressed his support for a significant fiscal and monetary stimulus as a preemptive strike against a U.S. recession. The market answered by dropping over 300 points. Today the President of the U.S. broadly outlined a non-specific plan for economic stimulation. After the Administration's plan for $150 billion of economic stimulation was made public, the DOW closed almost 60 points lower. The result of the Bernanke/Adminstration fiscal and monetary stimulus is a total Dow decline of 479 points, according to my calculations.
http://www.jsmineset.com/cwsimages/Miscfiles/5704_Dan18-01-08Fin.pdf Excellent charts from Trader Dan Norcini
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Wall St. in trouble as dollar reaches all time lows
Citigroup & Merrill Lynch At Risk Of Bankruptcy?
Major Wall St. Banks LOSSES Exceed ASSETS
Merrill Lynch Under SEC Investigation
Citigroup and Merrill Lynch take drastic steps over subprime fallout
Examining the nature of the assets being written down suggests that we are not close to the end of Wall Street's bad news. Subprime mortgages and the asset-backed derivatives thereof form a large part of the write-offs, but even in this area we do not appear to be approaching the bottom of the cycle. If, as seems likely, my own August 2006 forecast of a 15-20% decline in house prices and a $1 trillion write-off from the $11 trillion in mortgage debt is close to accurate, Wall Street should still have several hundred billion to go, even in that area - total write-offs so far, including the new Citigroup and Merrill Lynch announcements, only just top $100 billion.
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Revealed: a new bank rip-off
Some of Britain's biggest banks have unscrupulously exploited last month's base rate cut by failing to pass on the benefits to mortgage holders, yet at the same time imposing even bigger cuts on interest accruing to savings accounts.
http://money.independent.co.uk/personal_finance/invest_save/article3318006.ece
Customers may be able to win payouts of hundreds of millions of pounds from banks again this year.
http://money.independent.co.uk/personal_finance/loans_credit/article3318008.ece
Monday, January 7, 2008
Saturday, January 5, 2008
Fed pumping money, food crisis, taxpayer bailout of housing bubble
Forget oil, the new global crisis is food
the Fed is increasing its 'special auctions' to $30-billion to keep the banksters in the black
Citibank has instituted new ATM withdrawal limits
What will we do if big two go bust?
They don't know it, but taxpayers stand to lose billions as the housing bubble bursts. And in a bipartisan effort to "do something" to save the housing market, President Bush and the Democratic Congress appear set to put taxpayers on the hook for billions more.
Thursday, January 3, 2008
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
New Years News
http://www.reuters.com/article/ousiv/idUSL3013544320071230
Bin Laden remarks make Gulf dollar peg likelier
The home page of the company Web site says, "Crypto AG is the preferred top-security partner for civilian and military authorities worldwide. Security is our business and will always remain our business."
http://www.recombinomics.com/News/01010805/H5N1_Egypt_Spike.html Last season there was a spike in cases in March, but those cases were mild and there were no reported fatalities. In contrast, the current outbreak has a high frequency of reported cases couple with a high case fatality rate.
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