Citigroup

Two months ago, when the first tremors in the crude market appeared, we wondered, jokingly, if one of the biggest crude bulls, Phibro's (and formerly Citi's uber-well paid trader) Andy Hall was puking blood yet. "Any crude BWICs from Andy Hall yet?" But while we may have been joking, for Andy Hall things were only all too real. So real, in fact, he just lost his job according to Bloomberg.

OIL TRADER ANDREW HALL SAID TO LEAVE PHIBRO BY YR-END: SOURCES

So is Hall's unwind the source of what some say is a relentless, rolling liquidation within the commodity space?

"Distinguished Economist Willem Buiter Joins CFR as Senior Fellow

Willem H. Buiter, a renowned macroeconomist and global chief economist at Citigroup, has joined the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) as an adjunct senior fellow. His work will focus on geoeconomics, deglobalization, international financial institutions, and global economic governance. “We are thrilled to have someone of Willem Buiter’s experience and reputation joining CFR,” said CFR President Richard N. Haass. “His presence will make an already strong economics program that much stronger.” Buiter is the newest addition to CFR’s Maurice R. Greenberg Center for Geoeconomic Studies, which provides analysis on how economic and geopolitical forces interact to influence world affairs."

• China’s Stocks Sink Most Since 2009 as Turnover Jumps to Record (BBG)
• Greek Stocks, Bonds Tumble (WSJ)
• China tightens LGFV funding screws (BBG)
• Crude Rebounds From Five-Year Low Amid Shale-Oil Spending Curbs (BBG)
• Sexual threats, other CIA methods detailed in Senate report (Reuters)
• U.S. Takes Security Precautions Overseas Ahead of CIA Report (WSJ)
• Light-Speed Treasury Trading Governed by Rules Dating to 1998 (BBG)
• Delhi to ban all internet taxi firms after Uber rape claim (Reuters)
• Supreme Group Fined $389 Million for Overcharging Pentagon (WSJ)

Back in June, the world was speechless when Goldman's head of the ECB, Mario Draghi, stunned the world when he took Bernanke's ZIRP and raised him one better by announcing the ECB would send deposit rates into negative territory, in the process launching the Neutron bomb known as N(egative)IRP and pushing European monetary policy into the "twilight zone", forcing savers to pay (!) for the privilege of keeping the product of their labor in the form of fiat currency instead of invested in a global ponzi scheme built on capital market so broken even the BIS can no longer contain its shocked amazement. Well, the US economy may be "decoupling" (just as it did right before Lehman) and one pundit after another are once again (incorrectly) predicting that the Fed may raise rates, but when it comes to the true "value" of money, US banks have just shown that when it comes to spread between reality and the economic outlook, the schism has never been deeper.

Enter US NIRP.

• Welcome to the recovery:
  • Euro zone warning hits stocks, currency as oil plumbs depths (Reuters)
  • Japan GDP Worse Than Initially Reported (WSJ)
  • China trade data well below expectations (BBC)
  • German industrial production frustrates forecasts (FT)
• Oil Extends Retreat With European Stocks as Dollar Gains (BBG)
• California police, protesters clash again after 'chokehold' death (Reuters)
• Ruble’s Rout Is Tale of Failed Threats, Missteps (BBG), not to be confused with "Yen's Rout Is Tale Of Keynesian Success, Prosperity"
• Uber banned from operating in Indian capital after driver rape (Reuters)

52-year-old Belgian Geert Tack - a private banker for ING who managed portfolios for wealthy individuals - was described as 'impeccable', 'sporty', 'cared-for', and 'successful' and so as Vermist reports, after disappearing a month ago, the appearance of his body off the coast of Ostend is surrpunded by riddles...

Wall Street has for some time attempted to put taxpayers on the hook for its derivatives trades. A previous attempt failed, but now Wall Street is trying to sneak it into a bill needed to keep the government running. You can’t make this stuff up.

... It is hard to sum up a conference featuring fifty-eight different sessions spread across eight different streams: everyone’s impressions will inevitably be personal. Ours, though, is that investors remain united in their faith in the central banks – if not for their ability to create growth, then at least in their ability to push up asset prices. And yet the limits of that faith are increasingly on display. Not only are there signs of trouble at individual corporates on the ground. There is also a growing realization that the central bankers themselves – be it the ECB today, or the past and present Chairs of the Fed – subscribe to different theologies.

Despite the near-record scream higher in Chinese stocks over the last few months, under the surface China is rattled and nowhere is that more evident than in the collapse of its commodity-backed ponzi-financing deals. Since we first uncovered the fraud at the port of Qingdao, another has appeared that is just as fraud-ridden - Penglai; and Citi and Mercuria Energy are arguing over who pays. According to Mercuria's lawyer Graham Dunning, Citi was "in a state of panic," when they uncovered the fraud. As Bloomberg reports, Dunning exclaimed "it appears that substantial quantities may be missing from the warehouses or may be the subject of multiple pledges," and the bank says it is owed at least $270 million. Other 'banks' have been less forthcoming about their potential losses, but the government probe has so far uncovered almost $10 billion in fraudulent trade, including irregularities at Qingdao, according to the country’s currency regulator.

• Marchers again swarm New York to protest death at hands of police (Reuters)
• N.Y. Police Chokehold Evidence to Stay Secret as Protests Spread (BBG)
• Obama to announce choice of Ash Carter for defense chief Friday: White House (Reuters)
• Boehner vows to avoid government shutdown with help from Democrats (Reuters)
• Brent Heads for 5-Year Low as Saudi Discounts Spur Competition (BBG)
• Will Cheap Oil Lead to Big Mergers? (WSJ)
• Bank of Russia Ramps Up Ruble Support (WSJ)
• China Bad-Loan Level Seen Understated After Economy Slows (BBG)
• Uber Snags $41 Billion Valuation (WSJ)

Perhaps those sub-$50 Bakken prices tell us pretty much where global prices are ahead. And then we’ll take it from there. With 1.8 million barrels “that nobody needs” added to the shale industries growth intentions, where can prices go but down, unless someone starts a big war somewhere? Yesterday’s news that US new oil and gas well permits were off 40% last month may signal where the future of shale is really located. But oil is a field that knows a lot of inertia, long term contracts, future contracts, so changes come with a time lag. It’s also a field increasingly inhabited by desperate producers and government leaders, who wake up screaming in the middle of the night from dreaming about their heads impaled on stakes along desert roads.

• Thanks Fed: Meet the high schooler who made $300K trading penny stocks under his desk (Verge)
• Protesters block NY streets after officer cleared in chokehold death (Reuters)
• U.S. Plans Probe of New York Police Chokehold Death (BBG)
• Sharpton Leads Civil-Rights Meeting on Chokehold Decision (BBG)
• Staten Island on Edge Over Grand Jury Decision In Death of Eric Garner (WSJ)
• Draghi Tests Speed Limit as ECB Awaits Stimulus Evidence (BBG)
• European Stocks Approach Seven-Year High Before Draghi Statement (BBG)
• Britain targets multinationals that try to dodge taxes (Reuters)
• Oil Trains Hide in Plain Sight (WSJ)

• Fall of the Bond King: How Gross Lost Empire as Pimco Cracked (BBG)
• Hong Kong 'Occupy' leaders surrender as pro-democracy protests appear to wither (Reuters)
• Ashton Carter, Ex-Pentagon No. 2, Emerges as Obama Favorite for Defense Secretary (WSJ)
• Oil, the Ruble and Putin Are All Headed for 63. A Russian Joke -- for the Moment (BBG)
• New U.S. oil and gas well November permits tumble nearly 40 percent (Reuters)
• Swedish government on brink of collapse (AJ)
• China says Britain has no moral responsibility for Hong Kong (Reuters)
• Indian Labs Deleted Test Results for U.S. Drugs, Documents Show (BBG)

When the 5th largest dark pool trading venue (by volume) in America is shuttered, as Citi notes because its "capital, resources and efforts would be better redeployed elsewhere," you know there is a problem in US stock trading volumes and liquidity. Everyday we get 'glimpses' of this collapse - most recently yesterday's AAPL flash-crash - as human traders (who provide the 'fish' for the machines) disappear and HFT liquidity-providers pull liquidity in a flash. Crucially, as we hinted previously, we wonder if the large firms are exiting the dark pool business before some engineered market collapse is pinned on these opaque 'markets' who have come under increased regulatory scrutiny.

Our nations (Western nations) are rapidly going bankrupt. This is not a suggestion or an assertion. It is a simple fact of arithmetic, for anyone capable of operating a calculator, and who can understand the concept of “compound interest”. Indeed, the bankruptcy of these already-insolvent regimes has only been delayed via permanently (fraudulently) keeping interest rates frozen at near-zero – to minimize their already gigantic interest payments.