Citigroup

Buildings make a statement about their owners. FIFA-Hauptquartier seems to be saying: our owners have a boatload of cash... and in a world where heavily-manipulated stock markets are constantly achieving all-time highs, the message from the 'market' is just as full of it as Blatter.

Two years ago, bank analyst Mike Mayo asked JPM chief Jamie Dimon a simple question: why should affluent customers not pick UBS over JPM due to a mismatch in capital ratios, to which Dimon's response was even simpler: "that's why I'm richer than you." To which we then added: "No logic, no rationale: all about the bottom line, which to Jamie at least is all that matters. The bottom line was indeed all, because as Bloomberg calculated overnight, over the past several years, Jamie Dimon quietly became not just "richer than you", but "much" richer: his net worth is now well over $1 billion!

• Obama signs bill reforming surveillance program (Reuters)
• Tsipras to meet Juncker in Brussels for talks on agreement (AFP)
• Spot the irony: OECD cuts global growth forecast, says recovery taking hold (Reuters)
• The Secret Money Behind Vladimir Putin's War Machine (BBG)
• Companies' Borrowing Spree Darkens Stock Market Future (BBG)
• How OPEC Hurt Big Oil (WSJ)
• What's OPEC Going to Do With Iran's Million Barrels a Day? (BBG)
• Draghi’s Europe Looks Healthiest for Years Despite Greece (BBG)
• Bund yields inch higher, euro holds ahead of ECB (Reuters)

When the "very serious people" start to admit that the entire house of cards was held together with nothing but bullshit and propaganda, it may be a time to panic...

• Senate lets NSA spy program lapse, at least for now (Reuters)
• Draghi Deflation Relief Means Little With Greek Threat Unsolved (BBG)
• Tepid factory data add to Asian gloom (FT)
• Citigroup Likely to Close Banamex USA (WSJ)
• Frugality of High Earners in U.S. Shows Long Shadow of Recession (BBG)
• Greece’s Tsipras Warns Bell May Toll for Europe (BBG)
• Carnegie Mellon Reels After Uber Lures Away Researchers (WSJ)
• Romário leads drive for Brazilian probe into Fifa (FT)
• Faster than China? India's road, rail drive could lay doubts to rest (Reuters)

"The oil rebound has run out of gas and now you are seeing nervous investors with itchy trigger fingers bailing out of USO," notes Bloomberg, as the biggest US ETF that tracks oil is heading for the largest two-month outflow in six years, raising concern that crude’s 30% rally may stall. As BNP points out, "we do not think that the bulls have enough supporting fundamental factors to make a case for a higher oil price," and judging by the mass exodus from USO, as Bloomberg concludes, knife-catching 'investors' "don’t want to get burned by another drop in oil."

• No change in Greek debt talks after another day of spin (Reuters)
• G-7 Weighs In on Greece as Government Told to Be Serious (BBG)
• FIFA Faces Mounting Pressure From Sponsors as Visa Threatens to End Deal (WSJ)
• U.S. hopes Chinese island-building will spur Asian response (Reuters)
• Japan Inc.’s $104 Billion Investor Payout Set to Surge (BBG)
• Russia masses heavy firepower on border with Ukraine (Reuters)
• China Says Its Most-Wanted Fugitive Is in U.S. Custody (BBG)

"Today, six and a half years after the collapse of Lehman, there is a Bigger Short cooking. That Bigger Short is long-term claims on paper money, i.e., bonds."

Overnight saw yet another dip at the open that was ripped by the close in Chinese markets as Year-to-Date gains for China's Shenzhen Composite now top 105%. With IPOs rising 500% with no down days, Charles Hugh-Smith unleashes his satirical sword to 'explain' just how idiotic this situation has become, and (as we detailed here) it will get worse...

• FIFA Raided by Swiss Authorities in 2018, 2022 World Cup Probe (BBG)
• Companies Send More Cash Back to Shareholders (WSJ)
• Time Warner Cable Deal Stirs Debt Concerns (WSJ)
• Qatar $200 Billion World Cup Under More Scrutiny Amid FIFA Probe (BBG)
• Philippine, Vietnamese troops play soccer and sing on disputed island (Reuters)
• The G-7's Problem: Can the World Deal With a Greek Default? (BBG)
• SocGen Deal for Bache Illustrates Commodity-Trading Woe (WSJ)
• China’s Naval Abilities Test Asia’s Insecurities (WSJ)

If governments have proven anything to us over the last seven years, it is that they will do anything to keep the banks from going down.  If just 10% of people hit their breaking points and withdrew their money in cash - there wouldn’t be enough cash in the system to support this demand. And the banks would subsequently collapse. When a government is bankrupt, the central bank is nearly insolvent, the banking system is illiquid, and an entire population suffers from interest rates that are either negative or below the rate of inflation, capital controls are a foregone conclusion. In fact, we expect the next round of capital controls will be designed to protect the banks... from you.

• Developed-Country Growth Slows, OECD Says (WSJ)
• Charter Agrees to Buy Time Warner Cable for About $55 Billion (BBG)
• Dollar hits one-month high as periphery woes weigh on Europe (Reuters)
• IMF Says Yuan No Longer Undervalued Amid Reserve-Status Push (BBG)
• Hanergy secured $200m loan ahead of solar group stock tumble (FT)
• Congressional Inaction Threatens NSA Spy Program (WSJ)
• Germany sees progress on Greece, EU officials to confer on Thursday (Reuters)
• Hayes ‘motivated by greed’, prosecutor says in Libor case (FT)
• Whistleblowers Find SEC Rewards Slow and Scarce (WSJ)

"Zero Hedge long ago gave up discussing corporate fundamentals due to our long-held tenet that currently the only relevant pieces of financial information are contained in the Fed's H.4.1, H.3 statements... it is flow not stock that matters"  - Zero Hedge, January 2010

"If there were any lingering doubt, this week’s gyrations demonstrate neatly that it is central bank liquidity, not  fundamentals, driving markets. It is the flow, not the anticipated stock, of QE which counts."  - Citigroup, May 2015

“Ignorance is not bliss – it is oblivion. Determined ignorance is the hastiest kind of oblivion.” As investors, we have all been warned. Not by the future, but by the past.

"It is troubling enough to consistently grant waivers for criminal misconduct.  It is an order of magnitude more troubling to refuse to enforce our own explicit requirements for such waivers.   This type of recidivism and repeated criminal misconduct should lead to revocations of prior waivers, not the granting of a whole new set of waivers.  We have the tools, and with the tools the responsibility, to empower those at the top of these institutions to create meaningful cultural shifts, yet we refuse to use them.  I am concerned that the latest series of actions has effectively rendered criminal convictions of financial institutions largely symbolic."