Japan trade deficit hits record as yen weakens

Japan's monthly trade deficit hit a record in January after its recent aggressive monetary policy stance weakened its currency sharply.

Exports rose in January, the first jump in eight months, as its goods became more affordable to foreign buyers.

However, a weak currency also pushed up its import bill resulting in a monthly trade deficit of 1.6tn yen ($17.1bn; £11.1bn), a 10% jump from a year ago.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-21515024

EES: Currency Wars Heat Up With G20 Meeting

The G20 recently met to discuss the so called "Currency Wars" orcompetitive devaluation of domestic currencies by central banks.

http://seekingalpha.com/article/1204401-currency-wars-heat-up-with-g20-meeting

Iceland Foreshadows Death of Currencies Lost in Crisis - Bloomberg

Iceland is hinting its currency may be too small to survive in the volatile world left behind by the global financial crisis.

Less than five months after Finance Minister Katrin Juliusdottir said the krona probably will never be restored to a free floating regime, central bank Governor Mar Gudmundsson is signaling the same.

Iceland Foreshadows Death of Currencies Lost in Crisis - Bloomberg

Saxo Bank CEO Says Euro Is Doomed as Currency Woes Resurface

Lars Seier Christensen, co-chief executive officer of Danish bank Saxo Bank A/S, said the euro’s recent rally is illusory and the shared currency is set to fail because the continent hasn’t supported it with a fiscal union.

“The whole thing is doomed,” Christensen said yesterday in an interview at the bank’s Dubai office. “Right now we’re in one of those fake solutions where people think that the problem is contained or being addressed, which it isn’t at all.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-02-17/saxo-bank-ceo-says-euro-doomed-as-single-currency-woes-resurface.html

G-20 Takes Harder Line on Currencies

Group of 20 finance chiefs sharpened their stance against governments trying to influence exchange rates as they sought to tame speculation of a global currency war without singling out Japan for criticism.

Two days of talks between G-20 finance ministers and central bankers ended in Moscow yesterday with a pledge not to “target our exchange rates for competitive purposes,” according to a statement. That’s stronger than their position three months ago and leaves Japanese officials under pressure to stop publicly giving guidance on their currency’s value.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-02-16/g-20-pleges-not-to-target-exchange-rates-to-aid-economies.html

Why Bankers Rule the World - It’s the Interest

In the 2012 edition of Occupy Money released last week, Professor Margrit Kennedy writes that a stunning 35% to 40% of everything we buy goes to interest. This interest goes to bankers, financiers, and bondholders, who take a 35% to 40% cut of our GDP. That helps explain how wealth is systematically transferred from Main Street to Wall Street. The rich get progressively richer at the expense of the poor, not just because of “Wall Street greed” but because of the inexorable mathematics of our private banking system.

http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article39053.html

EES: The Best Way To Trade The Currency Wars - Buy Gold Yen

So what's the best way to trade the currency wars, and to go long gold?

XAU/JPY

The simple answer is to be long gold/yen, or XAU/JPY. On a day like today when gold is down, instead of buying the normal XAU/USD which is what most investors would do, the best way to play both the JPY decline and potential rise in gold is to go long XAU and short JPY. It's possible to buy Gold against major currencies now and even some exotics.

http://seekingalpha.com/article/1188621-the-best-way-to-trade-the-currency-wars-buy-gold-yen

EU Seeks Broad Transaction Tax

The European Union proposed a tax on financial transactions that could be collected worldwide as soon as the start of next year by the 11 nations that have so far signed up to participate.

The proposal, which marks a new stage in the EU’s efforts to raise revenue from the financial industry, came under immediate fire from banking groups. The EU plan would harm the German economy as a whole, eight lobby groups that represent industries ranging from the commercial country’s banks to skilled tradesmen said in a joint statement today.

The EU plan invokes “residence” and “issuance” ties to firms in participating countries, in a bid to prevent traders from escaping the levy by trading outside the tax’s zone, according to the proposal unveiled by EU Tax Commissioner Algirdas Semeta today in Brussels. To escape the proposed tax entirely, firms in other nations would have to entirely cease financial-services business with the 11 nations involved, according to the EU.

With the proposal, the EU is trying to curb what it sees as a “patchwork” of local levies. Like a prior, failed proposal for all 27 EU nations, today’s plan would set a rate of 0.1 percent for stock and bond trades and 0.01 percent on derivatives trades.

The EU estimates the arrangement could raise 30 billion euros ($40 billion) to 35 billion euros per year. To become law, the proposal has to be approved by the nations that agree to participate. They now comprise Belgium, Germany, Estonia, Greece, Spain, France, Italy, Austria, Portugal, Slovenia and Slovakia. All 27 EU nations can sit in on the talks and have the option to join.

EU Seeks Broad Transaction Tax to Curb Rules ‘Patchwork’ - Bloomberg

Putin goes long Gold

When Vladimir Putin says the U.S. is endangering the global economy by abusing its dollar monopoly, he’s not just talking. He’s betting on it.

Not only has Putin made Russia the world’s largest oil producer, he’s also made it the biggest gold buyer. His central bank has added 570 metric tons of the metal in the past decade, a quarter more than runner-up China, according to IMF data compiled by Bloomberg. The added gold is also almost triple the weight of the Statue of Liberty.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-02-10/putin-turns-black-gold-into-bullion-as-russia-out-buys-world.html 

Berlusconi is Back, and So Is the Eurozone Debt Crisis

Since the beginning of the year, the markets have been behaving as if the Eurozone debt crisis has been magically solved.

Yields on Spanish and Italian debt are trading more than 1% lower than at their peak, while world stock markets have soared close to all-time highs.

Unfortunately, you can expect that all of this euphoria will fade when the Italian elections take place on February 23-24.

Why?...It's summed up in two words: Silvio Berlusconi.

That's because until recently a win by the former Prime Minister wasn't seen as very likely. Not long ago, The EU establishment believed they had the Italian elections completely wired.

The socialist "Democratic party" led by Pier Luigi Bersani was expected to win and be supported by a coalition of center parties led by the EU's favorite, Mario Monti, imposed as prime minister in November 2011.

Both of these candidates were safely pro-euro, and prepared to put Italy through a fair amount of "austerity" to keep it, provided the handouts kept flowing from Germany and the European Central Bank. The status quo wouldn't be threatened.

Meanwhile, the two anti-euro candidates were supposed to be comedians.  

One is an actual comedian named Beppe Grillo, leading an eccentric "Five Star Movement," while the other  is the aforementioned Silvio Berlusconi, who is currently under indictment for sex with under-age prostitutes and therefore (in the eyes of the EU bureaucracy) not seen as a serious threat.

At best it was thought Berlusconi and Grillo might get as much as 30% of the vote between them, but it wouldn't give them any significant power. 

Well, let's just say things have changed.

http://moneymorning.com/2013/02/11/berlusconi-is-back-and-so-is-the-eurozone-debt-crisis/  

Bofa: Get Cash for storm

In what may be the first full digital storm panic, federal, state and business officials worried about the snow headed for the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast have taken to Twitter warn that a potential disaster is coming.

Bank of America led the frenzy. "Winter Storm #Nemo may bring 2 feet of #snow to New England late Fri & Sat. Prepare now - make sure you have plenty of cash on hand."

http://washingtonexaminer.com/storm-panic-hits-bofa-warns-get-cash-fema-sees-blackouts/article/2520862

Sucker Alert? Insider Selling Surges After Dow 14,000

Insiders have been pulling out of stocks just as small investors are getting in.

Selling by corporate executives has surged recently as the Dow Jones Industrial Average hit 14,000 and retail investors flooded into stocks. The amount of insider selling has usually preceded market selloffs.

There have been more than nine insider sales for every one buy over the past week among NYSE stocks, according to Vickers. The last time executives sold their company's stock this aggressively was in early 2012, just before the S&P 500 went on to correct by 10 percent to its low for the year.

"Insiders know more than the vast majority of market participants," said Enis Taner, global macro editor for RiskReversal.com. "And they're usually right over a long period of time."

http://www.cnbc.com/id/100435847

A MASSIVE Bearish Bet Against Banks Has Traders Buzzing

According to Barron's columnist Steven Sears, someone made a big bet against the financials ETF yesterday (ticker symbol XLF), and it has everybody buzzing.

The trader bought 100,000 put options on the ETF (a put option increases in value when the price of the underlying asset, in this case, the ETF, goes down).

To put that number in perspective, Sears writes, "Few investors ever trade more than 500 contracts, so a 100,000 order tends to stop traffic and prompt all sorts of speculation about what's motivating the trade." According to Sears, the trade "has sparked conversations across the market."

The trade makes money if the ETF drops below $16. It's trading just north of $17.50 today.

While the bet has everyone scratching their heads, Sears offers one possible explanation: bank stocks have been on a tear lately, so it make sense for someone who own bank stocks to hedge against a reversal by purchasing put options on the ETF that tracks bank stocks.

However, Sears says a trader trying to hedge against a short-term reversal didn't need to set up the trade this way:

To be sure, it makes perfect sense to hedge a hot fund like the financial sector SPDR. The fund has surged this year, and gained about 7.2%. But if the mystery hedger was simply concerned the financial sector exchange-traded fund would retreat from its 52-week high of 17.66, which is reasonable, there are shorter-term hedges. For instance, he could have bought puts that expire no later than March, because they would be more sensitive to near-term changes.

By choosing April puts, the mystery investor has some traders concerned that they, along with the majority of investors, are too optimistic ahead of the coming budget fight.

Read the rest at Barrons.com >

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/massive-options-bet-against-bank-etf-2013-2#ixzz2KEG0edct

Federal Reserve hacked

US central bank confirms intrusion after hacktivist group Anonymous was claimed to have stolen 4,000 bankers' details

The US Federal Reserve bank has confirmed one of its internal websites was broken into by hackers after the hacktivist group Anonymous was claimed to have stolen details of more than 4,000 bank executives.

"The Federal Reserve system is aware that information was obtained by exploiting a temporary vulnerability in a website vendor product," a spokeswoman for the US central bank said.

"Exposure was fixed shortly after discovery and is no longer an issue. This incident did not affect critical operations of the Federal Reserve system," the spokeswoman said, adding that all individuals affected by the breach had been contacted.

The admission follows a claim that hackers linked to Anonymous struck the bank on Sunday. The technology news site ZDNet separately reported that Anonymous appeared to have published information said to containing the login information, credentials, internet protocol addresses and contact information of more than 4,000 US bankers.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2013/feb/06/federal-reserve-anonymous 

Virginia moves closer to creating state’s own currency Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2013/02/06/virginia-moves-close-to-creating-states-own-currency/#ixzz2K8Cp1WNh

Lawmakers in Virginia say they want to keep their options open in case the value of the U.S. dollar ever collapses — so they’re considering minting state coinage.

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2013/02/06/virginia-moves-close-to-creating-states-own-currency/#ixzz2K8CmYIVr