Archive - Jan 26, 2014

Following the quiet update that HSBC had decided to withhold large cash withdrawals from some if its clients - demanding to know the purpose of the withdrawal before handing over the customers' money - it appears the anger among the over 60 thousand readers who found out about HSBC's implied capital shortfall just on this website, has forced HSBC's hands. The bank issued a statement (below) this morning defending their actions - it's for your own good - but rescinding the decision - "following feedback, we are immediately updating guidance to our customer facing staff to reiterate that it is not mandatory for customers to provide documentary evidence for large cash withdrawals." After all the last thing the bank, which over the past few years has been implicated in aiding an abetting terrorists and laundering pretty much anything, wants is an implied capital shortfall to become an all too explicit one.

Despite the claims of shale oil boosters, the era of cheap energy is over and it's likely to weigh on economic growth in the years ahead.

Because only class war imposters spend anything less than CHF460 on "snacks."

The big money has jumped into the fray.

Don't try this at home...

What a difference half a year makes. It seems like it was yesterday when Blackrock head Larry Fink, when discussing the future of capital markets with the now defunct money honey, uttered these infamous words about any and all possible risks: "it doesn't matter." Suddenly, it matters. Speaking in Davos, Fink warned there is 'way too much optimism' in financial markets as he predicted repeats of the market turmoil that roiled investors this week.  As Bloomberg reports, Fink warned a Davos panel that "the experience of the marketplace this past week is going to be indicative of this entire year... We’re going to be in a world of much greater volatility."

As if emerging markets didn't have enough things to worry about following a week in which both the Turkish and Argentina currencies are in free fall, overnight we got a stark reminder from Thailand that the country where the 1997 Asian Crisis originated, is also on the brink and getting worse following news that a anti-government protest leader was shot and killed. Reuters reports, citing a spokesman for the national police, that the dead man as Suthin Tharatin - one of the protest leaders- was shot in the head and in the chest.

Leading Scientist On Fukushima Radiation Hitting West Coast of North America: “No One Is Measuring So Therefore We Should Be Alarmed”