RBS

• This is why the locals are furious at the US: U.S-led raids hit grain silos in Syria, kill workers (Reuters) explaining this
• Billions Fly Out the Door at Pimco: About $10 Billion Is Withdrawn After Departure of Gross (WSJ)
• Pimco’s Ivascyn Takes on Gross With Unconstrained Fund (BBG)
• Revealed - the Troika threats to bankrupt Ireland (The Independent)
• Private Bad Debt Build-Up Casts Shadow on Greek Rebound (BBG)
• Fed Questions Bank Maneuver to Reduce Hedge Funds' Dividend Taxes (WSJ)
• Yuan-Euro Direct Trading Begins Tomorrow as China Promotes Usage (BBG)
• Geneva Report warns record debt and slow growth point to crisis (FT)
• Greenberg Team to Grill Bernanke, Geithner on AIG Bailout (BBG)... sadly only metaphorically

Given the scale of indebtedness in the UK and still very high current account deficit, the pound remains vulnerable to a currency crisis. George Soros and others may still be sizing up another opportunity to break the Bank of England. Another run on the pound has been postponed ... for now ...

So much for any Scottish referendum vote "surprise": the people came, they voted, and they decided to stay in the 307-year-old union by a far wider margin, some 55% to 45%, than most polls had forecast, even as 3.6 million votes, a record 85% turnout, expressed their opinion. The gloating began shortly thereafter, first and foremost by David Cameron who said "There can be no disputes, no re-runs, we have heard the settled will of the Scottish people." Queen Elizabeth II, who is at her Scottish castle in Balmoral, is expected to make a rare comment on Friday. But while a No vote was where the smart betting money was ahead of the vote anyway, and is thus hardly a surprise, the most curious thing overnight was the complete roundtrip of cable, which was bought on the rumor and then sold off on the news, roundtripping by nearly 200 pips.

The long awaited moment finally arrived after Scots began voting at 7am BST on whether to break away from the U.K. and end the 307-year union, even as latest opinion polls show the campaign against independence maintaining a narrow lead over those favoring independence.  And while the No's are said to have a slim lead into the vote, even if it is really the Undecideds whose vote will determine the final outcome, somewhat surprisingly, the Yes camp got an unexpected boost just hours before the polls opened when 27 year old tennis star, and Scot, Andy Murray declared his support for Scottish independence in an 11th hour intervention on Thursday morning, after years of keeping silent on the issue.

• Thank you market Chief Risk Officer Bernanke/Yellen: Calpers to Exit Hedge Funds, Divest $4 Billion Stake (BBG)
• World stocks hit one-month low, caution ahead of Fed (Reuters)
• U.S. Efforts to Build Coalition Against Islamic State in Iraq, Syria Are Hampered by Sectarian Divide (WSJ)
• Time to throw away some more good money: Sears Borrows $400 Million From Lampert’s ESL Investments (BBG)
• Wildfires rage in California drought, hundreds forced to flee (Reuters)
• United Offers $100,000 Buyouts to Flight Attendants (BBG)
• Biggest Banks Said to Overhaul FX Trading After Scandals (BBG)
• You mean you have to pay? Administration threatens to cut off ObamaCare subsidies to 360,000 (The Hill)
• RBS Said to Dismiss Most of Team Overseeing Central Europe Debt (BBG) they will be hired by the ECB

• Snow is coming: OECD Cuts Economic Growth Forecasts (WSJ)
• World waits for white smoke from U.S. Fed (Reuters) - Understandable error: they meant "green"
• Scots Breakaway at 45% Odds as Economists Warn of Capital Flight (BBG)
• Ukraine President Poroshenko Faces Backlash Over EU Trade Deal Delay (WSJ)
• German Anti-Euro Party Advances in Merkel Homeland Voting (BBG)
• Clinton Hints at 2016 Run as Super-PAC Packs Iowa Steak Fry (BBG)
• Air France, Lufthansa Hit by Strikes in Fight for Future (BBG)
• U.S. sees Middle East help fighting IS, Britain cautious after beheading (Reuters)
• Ex-Billionaire Charged by Brazil With Financial Crimes (BBG)

Credit Suisse warns of a self-fuelling feedback loop of rising risks and costs to the Scottish financial and sovereign sectors, and a steady migration of capital, activity, jobs and taxes if the Scots vote "Yes". However, if the vote is a close "no", they warn "the cat is out of the bag," and risk remains.

There is now less than one week of campaigning remaining before the Scottish Independence Referendum, which takes place next Thursday, September 18.

The pro-union ‘no’ vote campaign is back in the lead this week after the latest opinion poll from pollsters YouGov put them at 52%, marginally ahead of the pro-independence ‘yes’ campaign.

Yesterday's YouGov poll, which saw the "No" camp regain the lead with 52% of the vote, was said by some to be the end of the "Yes" momentum observed last weekend when the Yes posted its first majority since polling began, Then moments ago, the momentum in the momentum changed once again, with the Guardian releasing the latest Scottish referendum poll by ICM which took place between September 9-11 polling a "a representative sample of 1,000 people", and where the vote was said to be "too close to call", as the margin collapsed once again, this time shifting the momentum in favor of the Yes vote, which received 49% of the vote, and No getting 51%, however 17% of the voters are "yet to make up their minds."

• Russia faces new U.S., EU sanctions over Ukraine crisis (Reuters)
• Glasgow pulls no punches in welcome to 'Save the Union Express' (Guardian)
• Pound Seen Tumbling Up to 10% on Scottish Yes Vote (BBG)
• Moscow stifles dissent as soldiers return in coffins (Reuters)
• Ukraine's leader sees no military solution of crisis, eyes reforms (Reuters)
• Venezuela Threatens Harvard Professor for Default Comment (BBG)
• Australia Raises Terror Alert to Highest Level in a Decade (BBG)
• Activist Investors Build Up Their War Chests (WSJ)

• Obama orders U.S. airstrikes in Syria against Islamic State (Reuters)
• Obama Relying on Mideast Allies to Counter Islamic State (BBG)
• Scotland Nationalists Claim U.K. Oil in 40-Year Campaign (BBG)
• Scottish Polls Embolden Catalans Pushing Rajoy for Vote (BBG)
• Royal Bank of Scotland: RBS will leave Scotland if voters back independence (Guardian)
• Most Hedge-Fund Managers Are Overpaid, Unigestion Says (BBG)
• China Inflation Softens to Four-Month Low (WSJ)
• Munger Hosts Groupies, Mocks Wall Street, Praises Buffett (BBG)

Following yesterday's confusing exuberance, which saw the sluggish market rise in the last hours of trading as the latest Scottish poll showed a reverse of the "Yes" momentum (and fading Gartman's latest reco of course), overnight European jitters have re-emerged once more following a speech by Catalonia's Artur Mas, who has long pushed for independence of the region, and who said that while there are different ways Catalonia can vote, the important issue is that Catalans vote somehow. Mas says Spanish govt will likely try to block Catalan vote "the reasons why the central government is blocking the vote are political not legal", which in turn has once again brought attention to Europe's artificial, unstable and temporary political and monetary union, which threatens a reversion of the nightmare days from 2012 when Mario Draghi was promising he would do everything in his power to send the EUR higher (as opposed to now).

Quick update, and outline of reasons to suspect anxiety over Scottish independence has peaked. 

While overnight US equity futures have done nothing notable, what everyone's attention has been fixed on, in addition to the GBP and the read-through to all things UK-ish ahead of the Scotland independence referendum, is the sudden flare up in USDJPY trading and volatility, which exploded by some 100 pips in the past 24 hours hitting fresh post-2008 highs, on what appears to be a major capital reallocation move (it surely is not driven by any news) and/or forced squeeze. What is more perplexing is the change in correlations signals, because while until recently the USDJPY was synonymous with the E-Mini, and thus the S&P, as of late the USDJPY pair has moved tick for tick with the 10Year yield: almost as if the NY Fed's favorite HFT trading shop was instructed to change its vast array of signal inputs away from the S&P and to force a gentle levitation in the 10Y.

Theory: "Theoretically, there should be no impact from the consumption tax increase on corporate spending or long-term corporate planning," said Junko Nishioka, an economist at RBS Japan Securities in Tokyo.

Practice: "...but a large number of Japanese corporations seemed to see a large impact from the hike on final demand," as Capex collapsed 5.1%.