Bank of America

As the live webcast from US AG Loretta Lynch indicates, moments ago the DOJ announced five global banks including Citi, J.P. Morgan, Barclays, RBS would plead guilty to criminal charges to conspiring to manipulate FX Prices, and would pay some $5.6 billion in combined penalties to resolve a long running U.S. investigation into whether traders at the banks colluded to move foreign currency rates in directions to benefit their own positions.

When there is so much bullshit floating around that you forget what you wrote just a month ago, and when the central planners can't even agree on what lie to agree to use, then the status quo truly be in jeopardy.

• The fake: Avon-Offer Hoax Shows It’s Easy to Put One Over on SEC’s Edgar (BBG)
• And the real: US buyout group TPG snaps up UK discounter Poundworld (FT)
• El Niño near-certain to last through summer: U.S. climate center (Reuters)
• Oil Sands Land Becomes Alberta’s Hot Real Estate as Oil Rebounds (BBG)
• SEC a stumbling block in banks' forex guilty pleas: sources (Reuters)
• Pimco’s Stocks Chief Maisonneuve to Leave as Funds Closed (BBG)
• Bank of America’s Woes Test ‘Fixer’ CEO (WSJ)
• Puerto Rico Governor, Lawmakers Agree on Revenue Proposal (BBG)

Remember MacNeil Curry, aka the second coming of Tom Stolper (even if he has a way to go to catch up to Dennis Gartman), aka the FX gift that keeps on giving? Well, he just gave another FX gift.

Water, water everywhere,but not a drop to drink

History has been so fascinated with oil and its price movements that it is indeed hard to imagine our future without oil. The world is still myopic when it comes to energy. Yes, it wants to embrace renewables but not at the cost of oil. Whatever happens to oil prices in the coming years, one thing is certain: that the age of oil isn’t ending anytime soon, at least not in the next 30 years.

What is extremely clear is that there is something amiss with the statistical headline employment and economic data. While there are indeed pockets of improvement, which should be expected following a recessionary contraction, there is a lack of widespread recovery. That sentiment is clearly reflected in every major poll of American's over the last year. What is important is that there is a clear disconnect between the financial markets, statistical economic headlines, and the reality of the vast majority of American consumers. So, riddle me this - what happens when that disconnect is eventually resolved?

In 2003, Kevin Flanagan was an information technology employee at Bank of America. They told him he was being replaced with foreign labor, and he was ordered to train his replacement. After he completed his assignment, he was laid off. Then he went to the parking lot and shot himself.  That's "free trade."

In the coming months, however many hours Clinton spends introducing herself to voters in small-town America, she will spend hundreds more raising money in four-star hotels and multimillion-dollar homes around the nation. The question is: "Can Clinton claim to stand for 'everyday Americans,' while hauling in huge sums of cash from the very wealthiest of us?" This much cannot be disputed: Clinton's connections to the financiers and bankers of this country - and this country's campaigns - run deep. As Nomi Prins questions, who counts more to such a candidate, the person you met over that chicken burrito bowl or the Citigroup partner you met over crudités and caviar?

• Ed Miliband, Nick Clegg and Nigel Farage resign as Tories sweep to victory (Telegraph)
• Bonds and stocks rebound, sterling soars after UK election (Reuters)
• Cameron Set to Return With U.K. Majority as SNP Sweeps Scotland (BBG)
• Tory win brings marked EU exit risk (Reuters)
• Why did Labour lose this election? It never tried to win it (Telegraph)
• Stock Buybacks Hit New Records (WSJ)
• Hard Money Comes Easy as Wall Street Funds Home Flippers (BBG)
• Justice Department to Investigate Baltimore Police (WSJ)
• Saudi Arabia mulling land operations on Yemen border (Reuters)

Systematic Corruption Has Metastasized throughout the U.S.  ... Making Our Once-Great Nation Deathly Ill

• ‘Flash Crash’ Overhaul Is Snarled in Red Tape (WSJ)
• ECB Considers Tighter Noose on Greek Banks (BBG)
• Dollar Falls as U.S. Data Cast Doubt on Fed Policy Tightening (BBG)
• Market U-Turn Rams Hedge Funds (WSJ)
• Greece makes 200 million euro IMF payment due Wednesday (Reuters)
• Greek unemployment was 25.4 percent in February (Reuters)
• J.P. Morgan’s Barista-Turned-Banker Sees Good Things Brewing (WSJ)

On a day full of exultation for The Oracle of Omaha, we could not help but see the irony of Warren Buffett losing yet another bet and not paying up...

The "new" Bond King joins his predecessor on the bond throne in calling German Bunds a compelling short opportunity. Just as we said last week, "when you short negative yielding bonds you have a positive carry," so why not leverage your bet 100X and get paid to wait on rising yields? 

When we first exposed in February how yet another bank - Bank of America - has been quietly preserving the post Glass-Steagall world in which cash depositing taxpayers are on the hook for a bank's stupidity, some shrugged it off and looked to stress test to solve all the problems. However, it appears - for once - the SEC is not willing to just ignore the bank's actions. Just as JPMorgan's CIO Office, aka the London Whale, took advantage of fungible, taxpayer-insured funding in the form of excess US deposits over loans, to corner the US credit market (in what was clearly a directional prop trade); so, as WSJ reports, The SEC is investigating whether BofA broke rules designed to safeguard client accounts, potentially putting retail-brokerage funds at risk in order to generate more profits using large complex trades.