Monday, December 1, 2014

Did they want more violence in Ferguson? 10 'coincidences' too glaring to ignore

Was it a conspiracy or was it incompetence? Those appear to be the only two alternatives that we are left with after the horrific violence that we witnessed in Ferguson on Monday night. The first round of Ferguson rioting back in August took everyone by surprise, but this time authorities had more than three months to prepare. They had the ability to control precisely when the grand jury decision would be announced and how many cops and National Guard troops would be deployed on the streets. 

But despite all this, the violence in Ferguson on Monday night was even worse than we witnessed back in August. Either this was a case of almost unbelievable incompetence, or there was someone out there that actually wanted this to happen. If someone out there is actually trying to provoke more violence in Ferguson, then the rioters are being played like a fiddle. 

Most of them have no idea that they could potentially just be pawns in a game that is far larger than they ever imagined. The only other alternative to explain what we just saw is incompetence on a level that is absolutely laughable. 

Something definitely does not smell right about all of this, and let us hope that at some point the American people get the truth. 

The following are 10 "coincidences" from Monday night in Ferguson that are too glaring to ignore... 

#1 Federal, state and local law enforcement authorities had more than three months to prepare for the violence that would follow the announcement of the grand jury decision. The mainstream media endlessly hyped this controversy and everyone knew that trouble would be brewing. But despite an enormous amount of time to prepare, very little was actually done to prevent any violence from happening. 

#2 Someone made the decision to make the public announcement about the grand jury decision in the evening. Anyone involved in law enforcement knows that crowd control is far more difficult after dark. This also ensured that instead of being tied up with work or school, a maximum number of protesters would be able to be involved in the violence. 

#3 Fortunately for the mainstream media, the announcement of the grand jury decision was perfectly timed to provide the largest possible number of prime time viewers for the big news networks. 

#4 Just like back in August, no law enforcement authorities of any kind responded while dozens of businesses were vandalized, looted and set of fire. 

#5 According to Ferguson Mayor James Knowles, National Guard troops were purposely held back from intervening in the rioting that was unleashed when the grand jury decision was made known to the public...
In a press conference, he called the delay "deeply concerning" and said the Guard troops were available but were not deployed when city officials asked.

The troops had been readied last week by Gov. Jay Nixon as the grand jury announcement neared. But as gunshots rang out in the night and looters torched buildings, they were nowhere to be seen.
#6 It is being reported that the heavily armed National Guard troops were limited to "keeping the peace at a courthouse, patrolling the outskirts of town and preventing disturbances in other suburbs" as horrific violence raged in the heart of Ferguson on Monday night. 

#7 Missouri Lieutenant Governor Peter Kinder has accused Missouri Governor Jay Nixon of holding back the National Guard troops because of pressure from the Obama administration. On Monday night, he angrily made the following statement to Fox News...
"Is the reason that the National Guard was not in there because the Obama Administration and the Holder Justice Department leaned on you to keep them out? I cannot imagine any other reason why the governor who mobilized the National Guard would not have them in there to stop this."
#8 The Washington Post has documented that Attorney General Eric Holder had been in direct contact with Governor Nixon and had expressed "frustration" with the fact that the National Guard had been activated...
A top aide to Holder called the governor's office earlier this week to express Holder's displeasure and "frustration," according to a Justice Department official.

"Instead of de-escalating the situation, the governor escalated it," said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the subject. "He sent the wrong message. The tone of the press conference was counterproductive."
#9 Firefighters in Ferguson did not immediately respond to calls to put out the multiple fires that were set by protesters. As a result, many businesses essentially burned to the ground. But this did make for some amazing television footage. 

#10 In the worst of the "war zones", journalists with cameras and microphones were crawling all over the place while there were hardly any police to be seen at all. How is it possible that law enforcement could have failed so badly? Could it be possible that this was orchestrated on purpose? 

Sadly, as I have written about previously, the civil unrest that we are witnessing in Ferguson is just a small preview of what is coming to America. 

The anger and frustration that are seething under the surface in this country have reached a boiling point. Instead of coming together, we are seemingly more divided than ever. Americans have been trained to hate one another, fear one another and blame one another. I fear that we are not too far away from actually becoming ungovernable. 

And when the next major wave of the economic crisis strikes and we start experiencing real suffering in this nation, the temper tantrums that we are going to witness in our major cities are going to make what is happening in Ferguson right now look like a Sunday picnic. 

So buckle up and hold on, because it is going to be a really bumpy ride from here on out. 

Ferguson is not the end - it is just the beginning of a horrible new chapter in American history.

 http://www.sott.net/article/289493-Did-they-want-more-violence-in-Ferguson-10-coincidences-too-glaring-to-ignore
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Netherlands, Germany Have Euro Disaster Plan - Possible Return to Guilder and Mark

The Dutch and German governments were preparing emergency plans for a return to their national currencies at the height of the euro crisis it has emerged. These plans remain in place.

German Gold Deutsche Mark - (Special Edition)
The Dutch finance ministry prepared for a scenario in which the Netherlands could return to its former currency - the guilder. They hosted meetings with a team of legal, economic and foreign affairs experts to discuss the possibility of returning to the Dutch guilder in early 2012. 
The Dutch finance minister during the period has confirmed that Germany also discussed such scenarios.
At the time the Euro was in crisis, Greece was on the verge of leaving or being pushed out of the Euro and the debt crisis was hitting Spain and Italy hard. The Greek prime minister Georgios Papandreou and his Italian counterpart Silvio Berlusconi had resigned and there were concerns that the eurozone debt crisis was spinning out of control - leading to contagion and the risk of a systemic collapse.
A TV documentary broke the story last Tuesday. The rumours were confirmed on Thursday by the current Dutch minister of finance, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, and the current President of the Eurogroup of finance ministers in a television interview which was covered by EU Observer andBloomberg.
“It is true that [the ministry of] finance and the then government had also prepared themselves for the worst scenario”, said Dijsselbloem.
“Government leaders, including the Dutch government, have always said: we want to keep that eurozone together. But [the Dutch government] also looked at: what if that fails. And it prepared for that.”
While Dijsselbloem said there was no need to be “secretive” about the plans now, such discussions were shrouded in secrecy at the time to avoid spreading panic on the financial markets.
When asked about Germany, Dijsselbloem said he couldn’t say whether that country’s government had made similar preparations.
German Silver Deutsche Mark - (1951-1974)
However, Jan Kees de Jager, finance minister from February 2010 to November 2012, acknowledged that a team of legal experts, economists and foreign affairs specialists often met at his ministry on Fridays to discuss possible scenarios.
“The fact that in Europe multiple scenarios were discussed was something some countries found rather scary. They did not do that at all, strikingly enough”, said De Jager in the TV documentary.
“We were one of the few countries, together with Germany. We even had a team together that discussed scenarios, Germany-Netherlands.”
When the EU Observer requested confirmation from Germany, the German ministry of finance did not officially deny that it had drawn up similar plans, stating simply:
“We and our partners in the euro zone, including the Netherlands, were and still are determined to do everything possible to prevent a breakup of the eurozone.” 
This is quite a revelation. At that time the German finance minister Wolfgang Schauble had said that the Euro could survive without Greece. Whether it could survive without the Dutch is another matter entirely.
A Euro without Holland and especially Germany is currently inconceivable. De Jager also states that other countries found the prospect of a Euro break-up frightening.
So much so that they buried their heads in the sand rather than deal with the situation facing them. It appears that no emergency contingency plans were made in the unfortunately named PIIGS nations - Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain.
One has to wonder if the plans would have been made public had a TV documentary not forced the Dutch government to confirm the claim.
It is interesting to note that it is these two countries, Germany and Netherlands, whose citizens have also been at the forefront of the gold repatriation movement currently sweeping across Europe - France's second largest party entered the fray this week.
In a climate with a lack of faith in fiat currencies, any return to a purely fiat guilder or mark would be risky in the absence of the confidence that gold backing provides.
Despite the implication that secrecy is no longer necessary because Europe is over the worst we believe the Dutch repatriation of 20% of it's sovereign gold from the U.S. indicates that the Dutch are still, wisely, preparing for the worst - whether that be a euro crisis or indeed a dollar crisis and an international monetary crisis.
Their stated reason for returning their 122 tonnes of gold to Netherland’s soil was to instil public confidence in the Dutch central bank.
The prospect of a Euro-break up is a frightening one. It would appear that most Eurozone nations are ill-prepared and indeed unprepared for. 
As always we recommend investors act as their own central bank by taking delivery of bullion or keeping gold and silver in secure, allocated and segregated vaults in safer jurisdictions such as Switzerland and Singapore.
For investors and savers currently using the euro, it begs the important question do you have a euro failure contingency plan? 
Indeed, for investors and savers internationally using other fiat currencies, it begs the important question do you have a currency failure contingency plan? 
While the risks in peripheral European nations of reversion to their national currencies and currency devaluations have diminished – some risks still remain.
The risk is that individual national governments may elect to take this route rather than suffer deflationary economic collapse and Depressions. Alternatively, it could happen through contagion or a systemic event like the collapse of a large European bank, a la Lehman Brothers, that leads to a domino effect jettisoning a member state out of the monetary union.
It could also come about should the German people and politicians decide that the European monetary project is not worth saving or they decide that it cannot be saved and elect to return to the Deutsche mark.
All significantly indebted nations, so called PIIGS and non PIIGS such as Japan, the UK and the U.S. are at risk of currency devaluations.
Competitive currency devaluations or the debasement of currencies for competitive advantage and currency wars poses real risks to the long term stability and prosperity of all democracies in the world and to the finances and savings of people in all countries.
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UC Davis Economics Professor: There Is No American Dream

DAVIS (CBS13) — A UC Davis economics professorhas determined there is no American Dream.
Gregory Clark is sharing his research as a hard truth with no hope—whether or not you can get ahead in America is as predictable as any formula.
In fact, he says, the formulas for social mobility in the United States show there’s nothing to dream about.
“America has no higher rate of social mobility than medieval England, Or pre-industrial Sweden,” he said. “That’s the most difficult part of talking about social mobility is because it is shattering people s dreams.”
Clark crunched the numbers in the U.S. from the past 100 years. His data shows the so-called American Dream—where hard work leads to more opportunities—is an illusion in the United States, and that social mobility here is no different than in the rest of the world.
“The status of your children, your grandchildren, your great grandchildren your great-great grandchildren will be quite closely related to your average status now,” he said.
UC Davis students CBS13 spoke to dismissed the findings.
“The parents’ wealth has an effect on ones life but it’s not the ultimate deciding factor,” Andy Kim said.
Clark has heard the naysayers before.
“My students always argue with me, but I think the thing they find very hard to accept, is the idea that much of their lives can be predicted from their lineage and their ancestry,” he said.
Stuck in a social status is no American Dream—Clark says it’s the American reality.
“The good news is that this is coming from an economist, because economists are used to being unpopular, and so we are the right people to bear this message that the world is a limiting place,” he said.
There’s one caveat to the study, and that is for any one of us, there is always an exception to the rule.
Clarks’ study was published by the Council on Foreign Relations.

http://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2014/11/26/uc-davis-economics-professor-there-is-no-american-dream/
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Sunday, November 23, 2014

Regin, new computer spying bug, discovered by Symantec

A leading computer security company says it has discovered one of the most sophisticated pieces of malicious software ever seen.
Symantec says the bug, named Regin, was probably created by a government and has been used for six years against a range of targets around the world.
Once installed on a computer, it can do things like capture screenshots, steal passwords or recover deleted files.
Experts say computers in Russia, Saudi Arabia and Ireland have been hit most.
It has been used to spy on government organisations, businesses and private individuals, they say.
Researchers say the sophistication of the software indicates that it is a cyber-espionage tool developed by a nation state.
They also said it likely took months, if not years, to develop and its creators have gone to great lengths to cover its tracks.
Sian John, a security strategist at Symantec, said: "It looks like it comes from a Western organisation. It's the level of skill and expertise, the length of time over which it was developed."
Symantec has drawn parallels with Stuxnet, a computer worm thought to have been developed by the US and Israel to target Iran's nuclear program.
That was designed to damage equipment, whereas Regin's purpose appears to be to collect information.

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Saturday, November 22, 2014

Russia-China trading settlements in yuan increases 800%

Settlements in yuan between China and Russia have increased ninefold in annual terms between January and September 2014, says the Chinese Ministry of Economic Development.
"The settlement in national currencies between China and Russia in bilateral trade amounted to about 2 percent in 2013. There has been a significant growth in 2014. In particular, the use of the yuan in mutual settlements increased nine times in the first nine months of 2014." TASS quotes Lin Zhi, head of the Europe and Central Asia Department of the Chinese Ministry of Economic Development.
"About 100 Russian commercial banks are now opening corresponding accounts for settlements in yuan. The list of commercial banks where ordinary depositors can open an account in yuan is also growing."the official said.
On November 18 Russia’s Sberbank became the first Russian bank to begin financing letters of credit in Chinese yuan.
Half of the trade between Russia and China could be carried out in yuan and rubles provided China removes restrictions on currency transactions for Russian banks, said Deputy Finance Minister Aleksey Moiseyev in September. The restrictions don’t allow Russian banks to keep yuan received from exporters for a long time.
Russia and China have been boosting cooperation primarily in the financial and energy sectors and are planning to have a trade turnover of $200 billion by 2020.
Switching to settlements in domestic currencies can largely contribute to balancing the global economy by reducing the impact of the dollar on the world financial and energy markets, President Vladimir Putin said at the APEC Summit last week.
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Monday, November 17, 2014

The Real Reason Why Germany Halted Its Gold Repatriation From The NY Fed

Following the stunning announcement in January 2013 that the Bundesbank would repatriate 674 tons of gold from the NY Fed and the French Central Bank, a year later the Bundesbank followed up with a just as stunning revelation that of the 84 tons the bank was supposed to bring back home, it had managed to obtain just a paltry 37 tons, with only 5 tons originating from the NY Fed.
The reason given for this disappointing amount was as follows:
The Bundesbank explained [the low amount of US gold] by saying that the transports from Paris are simpler and therefore were able to start quickly." Additionally, the Bundesbank had the "support" of the BIS "which has organized more gold shifts already for other central banks and has appropriate experience - only after months of preparation and safety could transports start with truck and plane." That would be the same BIS that in 2011 lent out a record 632 tons of gold...

Going back to the main explanation, we wonder: how exactly is a gold transport "simpler" because it originates in Paris and not in New York? Or does the NY Fed gold travel by car along the bottom of the Atlantic, and is French gold transported by a Vespa scooter out of the country?

Supposedly, there was another reason: "The bullion stored in Paris already has the elongated shape with beveled edges of the "London Good Delivery" standard. The bars in the basement of the Fed on the other hand have a previously common form. They will need to be remelted [to LGD standard]. And the capacity of smelters are just limited."
Or, simply said, generic pretexts for a failure to follow through with the Bundesbank's original intention of redomiciling physical gold, especially after Zero Hedge posted in November 2012 proof of collusion between the 1968 Bank of England and the Fed seeking to defraud Deutsche Bank: 'Bank Of England To The Fed: "No Indication Should, Of Course, Be Given To The Bundesbank..."
The charade ended with a thud in June of this year, when instead of continuing the farce, Germany simply gave up, providing an even more laughable reason why it can no longer even pretend to collect its physical gold located at New York's 9 Liberty Street.
Germany has decided its gold is safe in American hands. “The Americans are taking good care of our gold,” Norbert Barthle, the budget spokesman for Merkel’s Christian Democratic bloc in parliament, said in an interview. “Objectively, there’s absolutely no reason for mistrust.”
And that was it: not a single word more from Germany on the topic of its failed gold repatriation initiative. Until this week, when Deutsche Bank - the bank which is Germany's equivalent to America' Goldman Sachs in terms of policy decision-making - once again revealed just what the true reason behind the failure of Germany's attempt to bring its gold back. From Robin Winkler's special report:
... the gold community paid great attention to the decision of the German Bundesbank to “bring German gold home”. At the beginning of 2013, the Bundesbank announced it would repatriate 300 tonnes of gold stored in the US by 2020. It is well behind schedule, citing logistical difficulties. Yet diplomatic difficulties are more likely to be the chief cause of the delay, especially seeing as the Bundesbank has proven its capacity to organise large-scale gold transports. In the early 2000s, the Bundesbank incrementally repatriated 930 tonnes of German gold held by the Bank of England.
Because if anyone knows what really happened behind the scenes in Germany, and inside closed doors at the Bundesbank, it is Deutsche Bank.
And there you have it: it wasn't transportation, or "good delivery standards" concerns, or anything remotely related to Germany "decididng its gold is safe in American hands", but just the opposite: Germany was pressured to keep its gold in the US after a "diplomatic" line of communication was opened, most likely the result of the Fed making it all too clear clear to the Bundesbank not only who runs the show, but what the assured failure to repatriate Germany's gold would mean for "price stability."
Which has, for now at least, ended Germany's gold repatriation demands.
Now the question is, just how will the US pressure the Swiss "diplomatically" to make sure its own gold repatriation referendum does not succeed. Because if Germany failed miserably to obtain 674 tons of gold in 2013, it is assured that Switzerland will find absolutely nothing in its quest to obtain more than double, or 1,500 tons, of gold as a successful November 30 referendum outcome would require.
Then again, considering it was Obama's action that destroyed the Swiss banking sector after the US crushed the centuries-long tradition of "Swiss banking anonymity", this could be just the right action with which "neutral" Switzerland could finally take its revenge on the regime that cost it what was for centuries the primary source of capital inflow into the small and so very prosperous (until then) central-European nation.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-11-16/real-reason-why-germany-halted-its-gold-repatriation-ny-fed
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Sunday, November 16, 2014

Lira looks set for comeback

Italy is heading for the exit. While it might seem fanciful for one of the founding members to consider leaving the euro, there is a growing sense that no more than a couple of years from now, Rome will once again be administering its own currency.
Figures last week revealed a country in deep crisis. With GDP still almost 10% smaller than before the financial crisis, it is stuck in a deep depression.
All efforts to revive the economy have failed, such is the sclerotic nature of its tax rules, business markets and labour laws. Combined, they have prevented progress to a more effective economy unencumbered by traditional subsidies and benefits.
Meanwhile, Spain and Ireland have contrived to push through reforms, bolster their banks, and move ahead. Even Greece’s economy is growing, according to the most recent official figures.
There was a time when Italy’s middle-income earners would dismiss talk of a euro exit. Their savings were held in euros and all their other assets, especially their property, enjoyed a secure value in the common currency. To leave the euro would be to court a huge drop in wealth.
That fear appears to be evaporating. Beppe Grillo’s Five Star Movement has moved its position to one of outright opposition to the euro. The comedian-turned-politician is promoting a petition to pull out. More broadly, promise after broken promise of growth has undermined support for Brussels and the European Central Bank.
Italians have waited three years for ECB boss Mario Draghi to copy the money-printing exercises at the Bank of England and US Federal Reserve. Draghi talks endlessly of pumping funds into the eurozone’s ailing economies, only to pull back. Last week he was at it again.
But even when a Draghi boost comes, it is unlikely to be effective. Italians know themselves. They need a currency devaluation. It is the only saviour. The Japanese have done it. And as the other major country funding a massive public sector debt, it looks like a good role model.
Make no mistake, a return to the lira will be painful. Yet it looks like something voters are willing to contemplate to stop the economy forever sliding backwards.
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Friday, November 14, 2014

Apple Now Worth More Than Entire Russian Stock Market

With Apple at record highs, its market capitalization is now bigger than Russia's entire stock market (the 20th largest market in the world). What's more,as Bloomberg notes, there would be enough money left over after selling Apple and buying Russia to purchase over 190 million contract-free 64Gb iPhone6 Pluses (enough for every Russian).


If you owned Apple Inc., and sold it, you could purchase the entire stock market of Russia, and still have enough change to buy every Russian an iPhone 6 Plus.

...

Russia, the 20th largest among the world’s major markets, is not the only one Apple has surpassed. The company, which forecasts a record holiday-sales quarter and has $155 billion in cash, is also bigger than 17th-ranked Singapore and 18th-ranked Italy.
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http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-11-14/apple-now-worth-more-entire-russian-stock-market 
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Thursday, November 13, 2014

Putin "Prepares For Economic War", Buys Whopping 55 Tonnes Of Gold In Q3

Just as China is buying 'cheap' oil with both hands and feet, so Russia, according to the latest data from The World Gold Council (WGC) has been buying gold in huge size. Dwarfing the rest of the world's buying in Q3, Russia added a stunning 55 tonnes to its reserves, as The Telegraph reports,Putin is taking advantage of lower gold prices to pack the vaults of Russia's central bank with bullion as it prepares for the possibility of a long, drawn-out economic war with the West.
Russia bought more gold in Q3 then all other countries combined...
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Vladimir Putin's government is understood to be hoarding vast quantities of gold, having tripled stocks to around 1,150 tonnes in the last decade. These reserves could provide the Kremlin with vital firepower to try and offset the sharp declines in the rouble.

Russia's currency has come under intense pressure since US and European sanctions and falling oil prices started to hurt the economy. Revenues from the sale of oil and gas account for about 45pc of the Russian government's budget receipts.

In total, central banks around the world bought 93 tonnes of the precious metal in the third quarter, marking it the 15th consecutive quarter of net purchases. In its report, the World Gold Council said this was down to a combination of geopolitical tensions and attempts by countries to diversify their reserves away from the US dollar.

By the end of the year, central banks will have acquired up to 500 tonnes of gold during the latest buying spell, according to Alistair Hewitt, head of market intelligence at the World Gold Council.

"Central banks have been consistently adding to their gold holdings since 2009," Mr Hewitt told the Telegraph.
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SocGen Warns: "Now May Be The Time To Focus On The Short Side"

As US QE has come to an end, depriving the world of US$1 trillion printed dollars a year, SocGen's Andrew Lapthorne warns, there are stillplenty of things for investors to be concerned about. Indeed with asset prices where they are, investment returns look paltry from here on, as not only is there a long list of macroeconomic issues to worry about, but bottom-up firm level indicators are also flashing red. Valuations, as measured by median price to cash flow ratios, are near historical highs...


and the spread of company valuations within the market is near historical lows...

The implication is that downside risks are mispriced.
Throw in concerns over deteriorating earnings momentum, lacklustre earnings growth and poor earnings quality, and you have a set of variables that suggest it may be worthwhile to now focus on the short-side as much as on the long side.
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So short strategies should be back on the menu
Steven Drobny of Drobny Capital is in the process of putting together his book "New House of Money" and Chapter 2, an interview with legendary short investor Jim Chanos of Kynikos Capital, is in this context chapters 1 and 2 are well worth a read.
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Brazil Builds Its Own Fiber-Optic Network... To Avoid The NSA

This past week Brazil announced that it will be building a 3,500-mile fiber-optic cable to Portugal in order to avoid the grip of the NSA.
What’s more, they announced that not a penny of the $185 million expected to be spent on the project will go to American firms, simply because they don’t want to take any chances that the US government will tap the system.
It’s incredible how far now individuals, corporations, and even governments are willing to go to protect themselves from the government of the Land of the Free.
The German government, especially upset by the discovery of US spying within its borders, has come up with a range of unique methods to block out prying ears.
They have even gone so far as to play classical music loudly over official meetings so as to obfuscate the conversation for any outside listeners.
They’ve also seriously contemplated the idea of returning back to typewriters to eliminate the possibilities of computer surveillance.
More practically, the government of Brazil has banned the use of Microsoft technologies in all government offices, something that was also done in China earlier this year.
The Red, White, and Blue Scare has now replaced the Red Scare of the Cold War era. And it comes at serious cost.
From Brazil’s rejection of American IT products alone, it is estimated that American firms will lose out on over $35 billion in revenue over the next two years.
Thus, as the foundation of the country’s moral high-ground begins to falter, so does its economic strength.
The irony should not be lost on anyone; on a day when Americans celebrate their veterans’ courage in fighting against the forces of tyranny in the world, we find yet another example of where the rest of the world sees the source of tyranny today.
It’s amazing how much things have changed.
In the past, the world trusted America with so much responsibility.
The US dollar was the world’s reserve currency. The US banking system formed the foundation of the global banking system. US technology became the backbone of the global Internet.
But the US government has been abusing this trust for decades.
Today the rest of the world realizes they no longer need to rely on the US as they once did.
And in light of so much abuse and mistrust, they’re eagerly creating their own solutions.
Just imagine—if Brazil is building its own fiber optic cable to avoid the NSA, it stands to reason that they would create their own alternatives in the financial system to directly compete with the IMF and the US dollar.
Oh wait, they’re already doing that too. Fool me twice, shame on me.
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Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Russia To Have SWIFT Alternative By May

As the West (US and its pressured allies) attempt to 'isolate' Russia more and more, the inevitable cornering further and further incentivizes Putin to develop alternatives to the status quo. In the past, western sanctioners have sabre-rattled cutting off Russian from SWIFT - the international inter-bank payment system - as a next step in squeezing the oligarchs into submission (though 'independent' SWIFT distanced itself from those calls). Now however, as RT reports, Russia intends to have its own international inter-bank system up and running by May 2015. The Central of Russia says it needs to speed up preparations for its version of SWIFT in case of possible ”challenges” from the West. If successful, this would pose a further challenge to the USD's reign as sanction blowback reverberates once again.

Russia intends to have its own international inter-bank system up and running by May 2015. The Central of Russia says it needs to speed up preparations for its version of SWIFT in case of possible ”challenges” from the West.

"Given the challenges, Bank of Russia is creating its own system for transmitting financial messaging... It’s time to hurry up, so in the next few months we will have certain work done. The entire project for transmitting financial messages will be completed in May 2015," said Ramilya Kanafina, deputy head of the national payment system department at the Central Bank of Russia (CBR).

Calls not to use the SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication) system in Russian banks began to grow as relations between Russia and the West deteriorated over sanctions. So far, SWIFT says despite pressure from some Western countries to join the anti-Russian sanctions, it has no intention of doing so.

Ramilya Kanafina says the system will meet all the market requirements due to its security. A center for processing messages in SWIFT format is in the process of development. It is expected that all messaging options will be operating by December 2014, she added.

The National Payments Council, a non-profit partnership comprising members of the Russian national payment system, proposed establishing a Russian version of SWIFT 100 percent owned by Bank of Russia in September.

SWIFT, is currently one of Russia’s main connections to the international banking system, and if turned off, could hurt the Russian economy, in the short-term. Globally it transmits orders for transactions worth more than $6 trillion, and involves more than 10,000 financial institutions in 210 countries. According to SWIFT’s statute, the system has national groups of members and users in each country. In Russia it’s ROSSWIFT - the second biggest worldwide SWIFT association after the US.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-11-12/russia-have-swift-alternative-may 
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Regulators fine banks $3.1bn+ for FX rates manipulation

The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), in a concerted action have imposed fines totalling $3.1bn on five banks for failing to control business practices in their G10 spot foreign exchange (FX) trading operations.Citibank, fined £225,575,000 ($358m), HSBC Bank Plc £216,363,000 ($343m), JPMorgan Chase Bank £222,166,000 ($352m), The Royal Bank of Scotland Plc £217,000,000 ($344m) and UBS AG £233,814,000 ($371m) by the FCA are in the spotlight as “failings at these banks undermine confidence in the UK financial system and put its integrity at risk,” charges the regulator. In the United States, the orders from the CFTC collectively impose over $1.4bn in civil monetary penalties, specifically: $310m each for Citibank and JPMorgan, $290m each for RBS and UBS, and $275m for HSBC.
The fines follow a year-long investigation by the FCA into claims that the foreign exchange market - in which banks and other financial firms buy and sell currencies between one another, was being rigged. In April this year the FCA said it was particularly looking into the way that firms reduce the risk of traders manipulating benchmarks; ensure confidentiality and control conflicts of interest. It also reviewed compliance with new regulations on the London Interbank Offer Rate (Libor), which were introduced in April 2013 following a number of enforcement actions for attempted manipulation of the benchmark.
The FCA found that between January 1st 2008 and October 15th 2013, ineffective controls at the banks allowed G10 spot FX traders to put their banks’ interests ahead of their clients, “other market participants and the wider UK financial system. The banks failed to manage obvious risks around confidentiality, conflicts of interest and trading conduct. These failings allowed traders at those banks to behave unacceptably. They shared information about clients’ activities which they had been trusted to keep confidential and attempted to manipulate G10 spot FX currency rates, including in collusion with traders at other firms, in a way that could disadvantage those clients and the market”.
- See more at: http://www.ftseglobalmarkets.com/news/regulators-fine-banks-$31bn-for-fx-rates-manipulation.html#sthash.ERGYGCRH.dpuf

Regulators fine banks $3.1bn+ for FX rates manipulation - See more at: http://www.ftseglobalmarkets.com/news/regulators-fine-banks-$31bn-for-fx-rates-manipulation.html#sthash.ERGYGCRH.dpuf
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China's Latest Ghost Town: A $50 Billion Fake Replica Of Manhattan

"They are building stuff that nobody really wants or needs... and there will be a day of reckoning" sums up yet another mega ghost city project under development in China. As NBC News reports, China's $50-billion knock-off of the Big Apple - near the port city of Tianjin, some 120 miles from Beijing - complete with its own Rockefeller Center and Twin Towers has been billed as the world's largest financial center in the making. But this Manhattan still has a long way to go...

China's $50-billion knock-off of the Big Apple sits on a river bend — much like its namesake — near the port city of Tianjin, some 120 miles from Beijing. Complete with its own Rockefeller Center and Twin Towers, it's been billed as the world's largest financial center in the making. But this Manhattan still has a long way to go.

A recent visit shows that construction that began in 2008 on the back of a massive credit boom unleashed in China after the global financial crisis appears to have ground to a halt. While the stunted version of “Rockefeller Center” and its Twin Towers appeared to be complete — both were empty and fenced off.

"It’s the financial crisis. The impact is big," said one man on the site who preferred not to be identified but said he worked for a transportation company. "I think there are still working on a building over there," he added, pointing down a wide and empty highway, strewn with litter.

...

It was scheduled for completion in 2019, offering 164 million square feet of office space over an area larger than Manhattan's financial district in a bid to stimulate development of vast residential districts nearby.

"They are building stuff that nobody really wants or needs — and there will come a day of reckoning," explained Gillem Tulloch, a Hong Kong-based analyst and managing director of GMT Research who has studied the growth of China's "ghost cities" across the country.

...

"Our leading economists in the West were lauding the Soviet-style system from the 1950s up until the 1980s," he said. "They were all wrong. I think it’s the same with China."
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http://www.zerohedge.com/print/497636
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