Archive - Jun 30, 2015

After seven long years of aggressively defending a monetary policy regime that's served to exacerbate the divide between the haves and the have-nots, the Fed looks at whether "the legend of Robin Hood" offers any helpful pointers about how to reignite America's economic growth engine. Spoiler alert: the Fed doesn't think "taking from the rich to give to the poor" would be very productive.

Presented with no comment...

It appears Central Bank omnipotence is under threat once again....

That an ETF can satisfy redemption with underlying bonds or shares, only raises the nightmare possibility of a disillusioned and uninformed public throwing in the towel once again after they receive thousands of individual odd lot pieces under such circumstances.

The relentless, limit-down trading in Chinese stocks that unfolded last week and continued into Monday (despite the PBoC's best efforts to arrest the slide with an emergency rate cut) has wreaked havoc on China's rookie money managers and their unsuspecting clients with losses amounting to as much as 80% in some structured funds.

*IMF SAYS GREECE FAILED TO MAKE PAYMENT DUE TUESDAY
*IMF BOARD INFORMED THAT GREECE IS NOW IN ARREARS

Just hours after the SEC sued Lynn Tilton for CLO fraud, the "Diva of Distress" countersued the SEC to stop it from pursuing its civil charge, alleging the SEC violated her constitutional rights or something. As she said then, "I hold hope that our nation will allow a fair fight for truth, to defend integrity and intent against allegations and provides fair forums," Tilton posted on Twitter. Our nation did not.

Despite rumors from The Time of Malta (seriously!!), Greece's largest creditor by far - the European Financial Stability Fund (EFSF) - has confirmed that "it's over": EFSF CONFIRMS GREECE FINL ASSIST PROGRAM EXPIRES TUESDAY. This means the last aid tranche is now unavailable and any remaining bank-recap funds will be cancelled. So no extension, no suspension of referendum, and no talks until the referendum is over.

When Konstantin Kosachyov, the head of the Russian Federation Council's International Relations Committee, said the protests in Armenia against a 16.7 percent power price hike follow a color revolution scenario sponsored by Western powers, many commentators rushed to compare the crisis in Yerevan with the 2014 protests in Kyiv that toppled the pro-Russian president, Victor Yanukovych. However, the street protests in Armenia have more to do with the overall economic situation in the country than with proxy clashes between foreign countries.

"N"onsense...

What has really been going on in Europe over the past 5 years, if the debt load kept creeping higher, and yet little money was actually making its way to the broader population? The answer is simple: abuse of taxpayer funding, also known as fraud and corruption. As Italy's TheLocal reports, the EU anti-fraud office, Italy currently has 61 open investigations into fraud involving EU funds. This means Italy has the second highest number of investigations in the EU, ranking just below Greece's neighbor to the north, Bulgaria.

"On a more personal level, how can public service be promoted as an ideal to young people when this sewer corrupts our Republic? At this point in early twenty-first-century America, the greatest service our nation’s young people could provide is to lead an army of outraged young Americans armed with brooms on a crusade to sweep out the rascals and rid our capital of the money changers, rent seekers, revolving door dancers, and special interest deal makers and power brokers and send them back home to make an honest living, that is, if they still remember how to do so."

Shocked...

"I think China may be more important than Greece. Stick with the drill – stay wary, alert and very, very nimble."