Standard Chartered

Consider our minds blown, via Bloomberg:

• *NEW YORK SETTLES PROBE OF STANDARD CHARTERED FOR $340 MLN

The life or death of STANCHART is settled - they live; and the $250 billion of 'laundering' transactions - sanctions/terrorism/drugs-related or not - are settled for a 0.14% transaction fee (that'll teach 'em!). In other words, Std Chartered's IRR for committing years of crime is 714%. Finally this is a whopping 1.9% of the bank's entire 2011 revenues, or in other words they had to hand over 7 days of revenue (assuming a 365 day work week). Of course there are other fines/penalties to come but it looks like someone got a little over-excited at the regulators or as we note, STANCHART had some bottom-drawer details no one wanted outed. And now, employees of US "regulators," "enforcers" and various other "crime fighting" organizations can look forward to submitting their resumes to the British banks all over again.

• Must be those evil speculators' fault: Oil price inflates as speculators bet on stimulus (Reuters)
• Need moar stimulus: UK Coalition plans housebuilding stimulus (FT)
• Paul Ryan brings fundraising prowess to Romney presidential bid (Reuters)
• Chinese serial killer shot dead after massive manhunt (Reuters)
• Silver Hoard Near Record As Hedge-Fund Bulls Recoil (Bloomberg)
• World powers eye emergency food meeting; action doubted (Reuters)
• Clegg Said to Have Role in Picking King Successor as BOE Chief (Bloomberg)
• Standard Chartered CEO takes charge of Iran probe talks (Reuters)
• Risks must not hide positive China trends (FT)
• BOJ should not rule out any policy options: July minutes (Reuters)
• India Says Growth Sacrifice Needed in Inflation Fight (Bloomberg)

• Oil hits 3-month high above $114 on supply concern (Reuters)
• G20 plans response to rising food prices (FT)
• First centrally planned FX, now real estate - SNB Seen Targeting Bank Capital to Curb Property Boom (Bloomberg)
• EU hedge funds face pay threat (FT)
• Euro-Area Crisis Has ‘No Obvious End in Sight,’ BOE’s King Says (Bloomberg)
• King urged to widen recovery measures (FT)
• All threats "dwarfed" by Iran nuclear work: Israel PM (Reuters)
• Obama campaign attacks Romney’s pick (FT)
• Romney, Ryan hit the road in an energized campaign (Reuters)
• Yellen Must Show How 12 Fed Opinions Become One Policy (Bloomberg)

• World’s Oldest Shipping Company Closes In Industry Slide (Bloomberg)
• Japan Growth May Slow to Half Previous Pace as Exports Wane (Bloomberg)
• China Export Growth Slides As World Recovery Slows (Bloomberg)
• Weidmann tries to muffle not spike Draghi's ECB guns (Reuters)
• Draghi lays out toolkit to save eurozone (FT)
• Concerns grow over prospects for sterling (FT)
• RIM Said To Draw Interest From IBM On Enterprise Services (Bloomberg)
• UN urges US to cut ethanol production (FT)
• Goldman Sachs Leads Split With Obama, As GE Jilts Him Too (Bloomberg)
• New apartments boost US building sector (FT)

Today we learned courtesy of Goldman's 10-Q, that the US justice department will not press criminal charges against Goldman Sachs. This, despite Senator Carl "Shitty Deal" Levin, in one of the most bombastic kangaroo court spectacles on live TV ever, asking for a criminal investigation after the subcommittee he led spent years looking into Goldman, and in which he said Goldman misled Congress and investors (and according to which billions in fraudulent RMBS misrepresentations are all still only Fabrice Tourre's fault, at that time under 30 years old). And so we pose the same answer, and provide the same anwer, as yesterday, only flipped around: "Confused Why Goldman Will Face No Criminal Charges? Here's Why."

• Gu Kailai Trial Has Ended, verdict imminent (WSJ)
• Greek unemployment rises to 23.1 pct in May, new record (Reuters)
• Greece’s Power Generator Tests Euro Fitness Amid Blackout Threat (Bloomberg)
• Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac Results May Ease Wind-Down Push (Bloomberg)
• Monti takes off gloves in euro zone fight (Reuters)
• U.S. Fed extends comment period for Basel III (Reuters)
• HP in $8bn writedown on services arm (FT) - must be good for +10% in the stock
• News Corp in $2.8bn writedown (FT) - must be good for +10% in the stock
• Japan to Pass Sales Tax Bill After Noda Avoids Election Push (Bloomberg)
• China May Set New Property Controls This Month, Securities Says (Bloomberg)

It's very simple really. Please point out where on the below list of Top 20 contributors to a randomly selected US politician, in this case New York's Chuck Schumer, can one find Standard Chartered, Barclays, or HSBC?

Only the little people are meant to suffer for their country.

The European start was quiet in terms of news-flow, with concentration still centered on the finances of the peripheral nations as Spain still refuses to accept they may need a bailout for the country as a whole. The Spanish short-end has seen a continuation of yesterday’s downside, with profit-taking noted following last weeks rally. Bund futures have seen a part-retracement of yesterday’s weakness, boosted by a well-bid 10yr German auction and as sentiment takes a turn towards safer havens. The headline event today came out of London with the Bank of England quarterly inflation report. Alongside expectation they cut growth forecasts for this year and next, although against forecasts the report and comments from Governor King were less dovish than anticipated causing strengthening of GBP, with moves to fresh highs in GBP/USD. Short sterling suffered downside following comments from King who said cutting interest rates would damage some financial institutions and would be partly counter-productive.

• Regulators irate at NY action against Standard Chartered (Reuters)
• Recession Generation Opts To Rent Not Buy Houses To Cars (Bloomberg)
• Egypt launches air strikes on militants in Sinai (Reuters)
• Loan-Shark Lending Surge Feared In Japan (Bloomberg)
• US seeks $3bn for Sudan oil deal (FT)
• Home Prices Climb as Supply Dwindles (WSJ)... not really- just money laundering in the form of ultra luxury home purchases soars
• A lifeline is thrown to the periphery - Smaghi (FT)
• Standard and Who? Greece Credit-Rating Outlook Lowered by S&P as Economy Weakens (Bloomberg)
• BOE Cuts Growth Forecast, Sees Inflation Below Goal in Two Years (Bloomberg)
• S&P Takes CreditWatch Actions On Four Spanish Banks (Reuters)
• Japan Gets Reprieve as Drop in Oil Eases Trade Impact (Bloomberg)

Over the past month America's ever vigilant law enforcers have taken to task not one but two foreign (domestic bank lobbies are sufficiently large to make Congress muppets perfectly eager to look the other way as noted previously) banks: HSBC and now Standard Chartered, for money laundering. Yet, when it comes to the true elephant in the room, which is not foreign and is fully domestic, they continue to ignore events such as this one just described by the Wall Street Journal: "A Florida home that originally listed for $60 million has sold for $47 million, a record for a single-family house in Miami-Dade County. The home, in Indian Creek Village, had been on the market since early 2011, when construction was still being completed. The asking price was reduced to $52 million this year." And the punchline: "The identity of the buyer, a foreigner who purchased the home in the name of a U.S.-based limited-liability company, couldn't be learned." In other words a foreigner who may or may not have engaged in massive criminal activity and/or dealt with Iran, Afghanistan, or any other bogeyman du jour at some point in their past, and is using US real estate merely as a money-laundering front perhaps? Sadly, we will never know. Why? As explained before, it is all thanks to the National Association of Realtors - those wonderful people who bring you the existing home sales update every month (with a documented upward bias every single time) - which just so happens is the only organization that actively lobbied for and received an exemption from AML regulation compliance. In other words, unlike HSBC, the NAR is untouchable, even if it were to sell a triplex to Ahmedinejad on West 57th street.

European equities are seen in decent positive territory heading into the Wall Street bell, though a clear lack of direction has been observed as well a thin summer volumes . The FTSE-100 is the day's underperformer following last night's allegations made by the State of New York against UK bank Standard Chartered that the company violated US sanctions by making secret transactions to the tune of USD 250bln with Iran. The Spanish 10-year yield has held below the key 7.00% level, though higher than yesterday's close at 6.76 with the spread over the benchmark Bund is slightly wider by 1.2bps. Steepening seen in the Spanish 2-year over the last couple of days as ECB's Draghi commented that any periphery bond-buying programme would be in the short end has halted and is now wider by 13bps. The Italian 10-year yield briefly traded above the 6.00% level though has since pulled back to lows printed earlier, currently standing at 5.91%, its spread tighter by 10.4bps on the session.

• Standard Chartered Falls Most in 24 Years on U.S. Iran Probe (Bloomberg)
• Iran accusations wipe $15 billion off StanChart shares (Reuters)
• Hilsenrath tells us that Fed Official Calls for Open-Ended Bond Buying (WSJ) - shocking indeed
• German opposition backs fiscal union, demands constitutional change and referendum (FT)
• Gary Gensler speaks: Libor, Naked and Exposed (NYT)
• IMF Pushes Europe to Ease Greek Burden (WSJ)
• Second TSE System Error in Seven Months Halts Derivatives (Bloomberg)
• Rice Hoard Offers World Respite as Food Costs Surge (Bloomberg)
• UK coalition in crisis over parliamentary reform (Reuters)
• Ethics probe could deal losing hand to Nevada Democrat (Reuters)

Just because one foreign - note: not local because US bankers know very well where the bodies are buried -  bank (whose CEO forgot to bribe American congressmen as efficiently as some other bank CEOs), namely HSBC, was not enough to convince Americans just how active America's corrupt political muppets are when it comes to eradicating the evil banking scourge, here comes redirection target #2:

• STANDARD CHARTERED MAY FACE SUSPENSION OVER IRAN TRANSACTIONS
• BANK HAD $250 BLN IN TRANSACTIONS WITH IRAN, REGULATOR CLAIMS
• STANDARD ORDERED BY N.Y. FINANCIAL REGULATOR TO HIRE MONITOR
• STANDARD CHARTERED ORDERED TO APPEAR BEFORE N.Y. REGULATOR

• What's wrong with this headline: Obama authorizes secret support for Syrian rebels (Reuters)
• Hilsenrath promptly dusts off ashes of sheer propaganda failure, tries again: Fed Gives Stronger Signals of Action (WSJ)
• Fed Hints at Fresh Action on Economy (FT)
• Fed Poised to Step Up Stimulus Unless Economy Strengthens (Bloomberg)
• IMF Chief Lagarde Praises Greece, Spain for Efforts (Bloomberg) - efforts to beg as loud as possible?
• US sanctions against bank 'target' China (China Daily)
• Trimming China's Financial Hedges (WSJ)
• ganda central bank cuts key lending rate to 17 pct (Reuters)
• Greece Agrees €11.5bn Spending Cuts (FT) - Agrees? Or does what a good debt slave is told to do
• Germany Retains Stable AAA Outlook at S&P After Moody’s Cut (Bloomberg)
• Spain’s Bond Auction Beats Target as Borrowing Costs Rise (Bloomberg)