Corruption
RBS Lays Out 10 Key Points For 2016, Warns "Political Risk" Will "Break" QE-Infinity Equilibrium
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 11/18/2015 19:02 -0500"The equilibrium, for now, is QE infinity – but political risk could be the breaking point"...
"People Are Voting With Their Feet": PIMCO No Longer EM Bond King As Fund's AUM Tumbles 62%
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 11/18/2015 11:15 -0500Amid souring bets on Brazil and the general malaise across EM, PIMCO has been dethroned as the king of emerging market bonds. A fund run by Ireland-incorporated Stone Harbor has overtaken PIMCO's EM Local Bond Fund as the world's largest emerging market fixed income fund by AUM as rollercoaster bets on Brazil and the departure of both El-Erian and Gross weighs on investor sentiment.
US May Bring Criminal Charges Against JP Morgan, RBS Executives, Prosecutors Pretend
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 11/18/2015 09:56 -0500Is the US about to go Icelandic (or Chinese) on Wall Street executives for their role in packaging bad mortgages in the lead up to the financial crisis? Probably not, but at least we can pretend...
Future Of Brazil's Oil Industry In Serious Doubt
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 11/17/2015 12:48 -0500Brazil is expected to increase oil production by 180,000 barrels per day in 2015, hitting 3.04 million barrels per day (mb/d). But 2016 is a different story. Petrobras has been embroiled in a corruption scandal since last year, which has cost the company tens of billions of dollars. Given that Petrobras was already the most indebted oil company in the world, major cut backs in spending were in order. OPEC sees Brazilian oil production plateauing as soon as next year. That is a pretty significant development considering the fact that, not too long ago, Petrobras thought output would continue rising rapidly through the rest of the decade.
The Delirium Of Milliards - How Monetary Heroin Tempts Hyperinflation
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 11/16/2015 20:30 -0500"New banknotes were being delivered daily in boxcar loads. In October 1923, banknote circulation amounted to 2,496,822,909,038,000,000 and everyone called for more. It is this last fact that is most telling, that every group believed that the solution was simply more money. They failed to grasp that what was needed was to simply cease all manipulation of the system and let the free market return. Their failure assured that the only possible outcome was the collapse of the system."
Nomi Prins: Crony Capitalism & Corruption - An Entirely Rigged Political-Financial System
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 11/16/2015 19:30 -0500The notion of free markets, mechanisms where buyers and sellers can meet to exchange securities or various kinds of goods, in which each participant has access to the same information, is a fallacy. Transparency in trading across global financial markets is a fallacy. Not only are markets rigged by, and for, the biggest players, so is the entire political-financial system.
A Storm Of Bad "Incoming Data" Strikes As The World Economy Rolls Over
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 11/14/2015 12:30 -0500Brutal news is pouring in from pretty much everywhere. The world, in short, is rolling over. Debt monetization on the scale so far attempted has failed to stop the implosion of tens of trillions of dollars of bad paper, growth has stalled and geopolitics has begun to turmoil. And none of this is a surprise. It’s just what you get when you put monetary printing presses in the hands of governments and/or big banks.
Russian Track And Field Athletes Banned From International Competition
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 11/14/2015 10:45 -0500Earlier this week, the “independent” anti-doping commission WADA found that Russia engaged in state-sponsored doping and more importantly, recommended that Russia’s track and field athletes be suspended from Olympic competition in 2016. On Friday evening, that’s exactly what happened because as WSJ reports, “track and field’s world governing body provisionally suspended Russia’s athletes from international competition indefinitely."
Incumbents Are Being Swept From Office Around The World
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 11/12/2015 14:00 -0500Evidently, voters are in a very bad mood just about everywhere. Unfortunately, they are bereft of good choices in most places. Usually one essentially gets to exchange one bunch of psychopathic looters for another – so it is like jumping from the frying pan into the fire. Very often, things will simply go from bad to worse, as the underlying basic problems are usually misdiagnosed, resp. there is no-one willing to actually tackle them. Investors should pay very close attention to this trend...When the performance of financial markets diverges from underlying social mood trends, it is usually time to be very careful.
Maduro Nephews Arrested After Attempting To Smuggle 800 Kilos Of Cocaine Into The US
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 11/12/2015 13:40 -0500Two nephews of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro were set to appear in front of a New York judge today after the pair was accused of attempting to smuggle some 800 kilos of coke into the US. The case raises further questions about drug smuggling among Venezuelan officials and individuals with ties to powerful figures. For his part, Maduro tweeted the following:"The fatherland will follow its course. Neither attacks nor imperialist ambushes can harm the people of the liberators."
The Stench Of Freddie Mac Is Back - An $18 Billion Spree Of Crony Capitalist Thievery
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 11/12/2015 13:20 -0500Washington’s capacity to foster crony capitalist larceny and corruption never ceases to amaze. But as we recently noted, Wall Street’s shameless thievery from US taxpayers is about to get a whole new definition.
Spain's Black Swan In Muddied Waters As Court Ruling, Political Turmoil Threaten Catalan Secession Bid
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 11/12/2015 11:41 -0500Spain's Constitutional Court has ordered the suspension of Catalonia's independence bid and threatened to arrest its leader Artur Mas. Separately, Mas lost a bid for re-election as the same lawmakers who support his push for independence are unwilling to support him as President citing corruption.
"The Populist Upsurge is Real" When A Liberal College Professor Finds Common Ground With The Tea Party
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 11/11/2015 18:00 -0500People are going to be pissed off no matter who wins this election and that is a very important social dynamic that is vastly under appreciated by the majority of mainstream pundits and analysts out there. The truth is, the American public is tricked into thinking they disagree with each other on the big issues, when in reality there’s enormous overlap. Until we stop being tricked, the status quo will continue to suck the economy dry through their religious-like embrace of corruption and crony capitalism. Unfortunately, the people who could benefit the most from reading this post, will never see it.
U.S. Dollar: The Barbarous Relic
Submitted by Sprott Money on 11/11/2015 05:57 -0500There is “a barbarous relic” in our global monetary system. It is the U.S. dollar: the worthless, monetary relic of an empire in decline.
Billionaire Chinese "Beverly Hillbilly" Pays $170 Million For Naked Woman At Christie's
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 11/10/2015 09:25 -0500In what's being described as a "palpably tense" tense auction, a "Chinese Beverly Hillbilly" dubbed "The Eccentric Mr. Liu" paid the second highest price at auction in history for a Modigliani.



