Bank of England

With the Fed's June FOMC statement in just over 7 hours and a Yellen press conference to follow shortly, one in which nobody expects the Fed will announces its first rate-hiking cycle in nine years despite repeated clues by Yellen that not only is there froth in the market but that the Fed has no dry powder to contain the next crisis when it emerges (even though a rate hike will catalyze the next crisis), traders have chosen to ignore the chatter from Greece which is getting worse by the hour, and unlike recent days, have bought risk overnight based on one simple technical: of the five press conferences in ten Fed meetings held by Yellen as Chairman, the S&P finished higher 80% of the time.

• Pope urges Putin to make 'sincere, great effort' for Ukraine peace (Reuters)
• Merkel Tells Tsipras It’s Time to Back Talk With Policy Action (BBG)
• 'Greek tragedy' needs happy ending now: EU's Moscovici (Reuters)
• Vulture Funds Circle Greece Targeting Europe’s Best Trading Bet (BBG)
• Germany against third aid program for Greece under any circumstances, says daily (Reuters)
• Biggest OPEC Members Pump Record Oil With Rally in Jeopardy (BBG)
• Greek ruling reversing pension cuts will cost state 1 to 1.5 bln euros (Kathimerini)
• China’s Former Security Chief Zhou Yongkang Sentenced to Life in Prison (WSJ)
• MSCI backs itself into corner on China share inclusion (Reuters)

Central banking has truly taken over the entire planet.  At this point, the only major nation on the globe that does not have a central bank is North Korea.  Yes, there are some small island countries such as the Federated States of Micronesia that do not have a central bank, but even if you count them, more than 99.9% of the population of the world still lives in a country that has a central bank.  The global elite dominate us because we allow them to dominate us.  Their debt-based system greatly enriches them while it enslaves the remainder of the planet.  We need to expose their evil system and the dark agenda behind it while we still have time.

Mark Carney: "Real markets are essential to guarantee prosperity. Not markets that collapse when there is a shock from abroad. Not markets where transactions occur in chat rooms. Not markets where no one appears accountable for anything."  So... not markets which are artificially rigged by $22 trillion in central bank liquidity and which collapse every time the "threat" that any of this preciously liquidity may be taken away?

The European Commission has ordered 11 EU countries to enact the Bank Recovery and Resolution Directive (BRRD) within two months or be hauled before the EU Court of Justice, according to a report from Reuters on Friday.

According to Bloomberg, six Nigerian central bankers were charged with fraud in an 8 billion naira ($40.2 million with an m, not a b, not a tr) currency "scam." No chat rooms here, just a plain old "mega scam involving the theft and recirculation of defaced and mutilated currencies,” the Abuja-based Economic and Financial Crimes Commission said in a statement dated Sunday on its website.  In addition to the central bankers, among those charged are also sixteen commercial bankers who conspired with Central Bank of Nigeria regional executives.

Will global QE carry on forever...the next month may give out some clues..will it be Junemaggedon after we had May-hem??

It is time for another sacrificial gold market manipulation crackdown (the same gold market, mind you, which CFTC commissioner and HFT lobby sellout extraordinaire Bart Chilton said was completely unrigged). Only it's not Barcalys, JPM, Virtu, Citadel, the NY Fed, the Bank of England, or even the PBOC - i.e., the real market manipulators -  who is the receiving end of the CME's special breed of "justice." It is another "trade from his parents' home" Indian.

A non-bombastic look at the week ahead and a number of key events in June.  These could set the tone for Q3 and beyond.

Earlier today the Austrian Central Bank confirmed the Kronen-Zeitung report, and said that by the year 2020, it would hold 50%, or 140 tons, of its gold domestically, up from 17% currently. This means that Austria will withdraw some 140 tons of gold from the BOE which holds 80% of Austria's gold currently and send 92.4 tons back home to Vienna with another 47.6 tons being sent to Switzerland. Which is also the biggest news: Austria is explicitly demonstrating a lack of confidence in the "pro-western" system of which the Bank of England is a critical cog, and instead opting for "neutral" Switzerland, which will hold nearly 50 tons of the gold formerly located at the Bank of England.

Meet Martin "The Hammer" Mallett, chief currencies dealer at the Bank of England in 2007, and, as WSJ reports, recipient of emails that were part of an alleged campaign to rig benchmark interest rates, according to evidence presented in a London trial Wednesday. Remarkably, as we have detailed extensively, the emails were sent out with daily suggestions for where a variety of banks should set Libor. Mallett was later fired for what the central bank described as "serious misconduct," although the bank said his departure wasn’t directly related to the currencies-rigging investigation.

Which country will be next to join the ‘bring our gold home’ movement?

There has to be a very clear line between central banks and governments. The latter should never be able to influence the former, because it would risk making economic policy serve only short term interests (until the next election). Likewise the former should stay out of the latter’s decisions, because that would tend to make political processes skewed disproportionally towards finance and the economy, at the potential cost of other interests in a society. This may sound idealistic and out of sync with the present day reality, but if it does, that does not bode well. It’s dangerous to play fast and loose with the founding principles of individual countries, and perhaps even more with those of unions of sovereign nations.

The first rule of “Project Bookend” is that you don’t talk about “Project Bookend.” In retrospect, maybe the first rule should have been “you don’t accidentally e-mail ‘Project Bookend’ to a news agency.”

Six months ago we warned that Austria was considering it, and now, as Kronen-Zeitung reports, with no rigged Swiss-like referendum required, Austrian Central Bank Governor Edwald Nowotny has committed to repatriating 110 tonnes of gold. This is part of Nowotny's new "gold strategy" and with his position (on paper) as one of Draghi's foremost lieutenants, appears to be a huge stab in the back for super-Mario.  While gold withdrawals from the NY Fed are incessant, this time it appears the Bank of England faces the trust-fall as 80% of Vienna's gold is held there.