Citigroup

• The Bild is now a source for EURUSD stop hunts: Germany eyes 'bundled' loan payment to Greece-paper (Reuters, Bloomberg)
• Congress comes back Tuesday to confront “fiscal cliff.”  (Reuters)
• Gen. John Allen ensnared in Petraeus scandal (Politico)
• FBI Agent in Petraeus Case Under Scrutiny (WSJ)
• Comcast's NBCUniversal unit lays off 500 employees (Reuters)
• University Fees Stoke U.K. Inflation (WSJ)
• Consumers Closing Wallets in Japan Add to Noda’s Woes (Bloomberg)
• John McAfee Wanted for Murder... and explaining bathsalt anal suppositories (Gizmodo)
• Europe Gives Greece 2 More Years to Reach Deficit Targets (Bloomberg)
• Where Spain Is Worse Than Greece (WSJ)
• Microsoft's Windows unit head, once a possible CEO, exits (Reuters)
• Glitch stops NYSE trading in 216 companies (FT)
• Large European Banks Stash Cash (WSJ)
• The death of San Bernardino: How a vicious circle of self-interest sank California city (Reuters)
• Apple stores most productive US shops (FT)
• Treasuries See U.S. Falling Over Cliff as Yields Converge (Bloomberg)
• Bra-Bodysuits Make H&M One Hit Wonder as Zara Prospers (Bloomberg)

• Jefferies to be bought by Ian Cumming's Leucadia in an all-stock deal for $3.59 billion or about $17/share (WSJ)
• FBI Scrutinized on Petraeus (WSJ)
• Identity of second woman emerges in Petraeus' downfall (Reuters)
• SEC staffers used government computers for personal use (Reuters)
• Japan edges towards fifth recession in 15 years  (FT)
• Europe Finance Chiefs Seek Greek Pact as Economy Gloom Grows (BBG)
• Americans Say Europe Lesson Means Act Now as Austerity Will Fail (BBG) - of course it would be great if Europe had ever implemented austerity...
• Greece battles to avert €5bn default  (FT)
• You don't bail out the US government for nothing: No Individual Charges In Probe of J.P. Morgan (WSJ)
• Israel Warns of Painful Response to Fire From Gaza, Syria (BBG)
• Greece's far-right party goes on the offensive (Reuters)
• Don’t fear fiscal cliff, says Democrat  (FT)
• Apple Settles HTC Patent Suits Shifting From Jobs’ War (BBG)
• Man Set on Fire in Argentina Over Debt (EFE)
• Iraq cancels $4.2-billion weapons deal with Russia over corruption concerns (Globe and Mail)
• An Honest Guy on Wall Street (Bloomberg)

In what may be the most disturbing news of the day, moments ago the BOE announced it is halting its own version of QE3, and capping the asset purchase program at £375 billion after "some policy makers questioned its effectiveness in supporting a recovery that remains lackluster." Could it be that even that peculiar Homo Sapiens subspecies known as "economist" is starting to realize that when applying the same "remedy" time after time to absolutely no avail, and where even the market no longer responds to unlimited injections of liquidity, then perhaps it is time to end said "remedy" altogether? And how long until the voodoo shamans in the dark lit room at Marriner Eccles follow through? Sadly, if Japan, and its 9 (so far) rounds of easing, is any indication, we have a lot more pain to go before what has been glaringly obvious to every hotdog vendor and shoeshine boy is also understood by Economics Nobel prize winners.

Here’s a breakdown of gold and silver performance by political party for the last 5 US Presidential terms.

Mitt Romney has a credibility problem. He changes his beliefs like laundry (abortion, medical insurance, whether Bin Laden was worth killing, attacking Iran), refuses to disclose his tax returns, and won't explain how he could possibly pay for the tax cuts he proposes. But there is another scandal in Romney's campaign -- namely Glenn Hubbard, Romney's chief economic advisor, who was chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors under George W. Bush, and is now Dean of Columbia Business School. I interviewed Hubbard for my documentary film Inside Job, and analyzed his record again for my book Predator Nation. The film interview became famous because Hubbard blew his cool after I interrogated him about his conflicts of interest: "This isn't a deposition, sir. I was polite enough to give you time, foolishly I now see, but you have three more minutes. Give it your best shot." But the really important thing about Hubbard isn't his personality; it's that as an economist and an advisor, he is a total, unmitigated disaster.

The Fed has never met a large bank merger that it did not like and has never been willing to deny such an application by a bank holding company, especialy a BHC that houses a primary dealer. 

For millions of common people in New York and New Jersey, Sandy has been a historic disaster, with leaving ruined, homeless or forced to live in the dark and cold indefinitely. Sandy was a historic event for the Wall Streeters (a term used loosely as many of them reside in midtown or in Connecticut) among us too. And now, courtesy of Bloomberg's Max Abelson, we see how some of them managed to (just barely) scrape through...

So with world central banks printing paper money day and night it is no surprise that Gold is now emerging as the ultimate currency: one that cannot be printed. Indeed, Gold has broken out against ALL major world currencies in the last ten years. The below chart prices Gold in Dollars (Gold), Euros (Blue), Japanese Yen (Red) and Swiss Francs (Purple):

It's not a good day for Citigroup tech analyst Mark Mahaney. Moments ago the WSJ reported that the former "star Internet analyst" was fired from Citi for disclosing non-public information about Facebook ahead of the IPO (surely he was the only Wall Street sellside who did this). To wit: "Mr. Mahaney, a top-ranked Internet analyst, was terminated Friday morning, according to a person familiar with the matter. The state also said the senior Citi analyst covering technology had given unpublished information about YouTube revenue estimates to a reporter for a French business magazine. "In an email to a Citi employee who questioned him on the communication, he responded 'this could get me in trouble. Shoot,'" the state said." Oh well: surely one of the hedge funds that did not invest in the FB IPO as a result of Mark's leaks will find him some mid-level analyst position as gratitude. Where it gets seriously ironic is when one looks back at Mark's career and stumbles upon this other WSJ pearl: "Mr. Mahaney, age 46, spent the original dot-com bubble of the late '90s at Morgan Stanley as MS -0.82% a junior analyst working with Mary Meeker, then a star Internet analyst. He then did a stint at hedge fund Galleon Group, whose founder was imprisoned after an insider-trading conviction. One person familiar with the matter says Mr. Mahaney was fired from Galleon for "not getting enough edge" on stocks." In other words, first Maheney was fired for not abusing inside information, then he is fired for... abusing inside information. If it is not too much to ask, could Mark's bosses please make up their minds already?

• Greece Faces Need for Additional Assistance: €30 billion (WSJ)
• Greeks fail to agree on bailout terms (FT)
• The report that got the NYT banned on the Chinese interweb: Billions in Hidden Riches for Family of Chinese Leader (NYT)
• Bo Xilai: China parliament expels disgraced politician (BBC)
• Japan Adds Stimulus Amid Threat of Bond-Sale Disruption... $9.4 billion (Bloomberg)
• Hubbard Said to Prefer Treasury Chief to Fed If Romney Wins (Bloomberg)
• 9 More Banks Subpoenaed Over Libor (WSJ)
• Romney raises $112m in 17 days (FT)
• Amid Cutbacks, Greek Doctors Offer Message to Poor: You Are Not Alone (NYT)... no, we are all broke
• Muni Downgrades Top 2011 Total on Weak Economy: Moody’s (Bloomberg)
• Ireland urges ECB to commit to bond-buying (FT)
• Cameron and Clegg unite in EU demands (FT)

So now that Vikram Pandit has exited stage right from the CEO position at Citigroup, a number of people have asked me about the Zombie Dance Queen.  

Hugh Hendry: "I have resigned from the professional undertaking of coin flipping. I am not here to tell you where gold’s going to be. I have no idea. That’s my existentialism. I am a student of uncertainty, I have no idea where the stock market is going to be. So when I am creating trades in my portfolio for my clients, I am agnostic. I just want to enhance the probability that I make money come what may."

Before the campaign contributors lavished billions of dollars on their favorite candidate; and long after they toast their winner or drink to forget their loser, Wall Street was already primed to continue its reign over the economy. For, after three debates (well, four), when it comes to banking, finance, and the ongoing subsidization of Wall Street, both presidential candidates and their parties’ attitudes toward the banking sector is similar  – i.e. it must be preserved – as is – at all costs, rhetoric to the contrary, aside. Obama hasn’t brought ‘sweeping reform’ upon the Establishment Banks, nor does Romney need to exude deregulatory babble, because nothing structurally substantive has been done to harness the biggest banks of the financial sector, enabled, as they are, by entities from the SEC to the Fed to the Treasury Department to the White House.

• Japan grapples with own fiscal cliff (Bloomberg)
• Japan Protests After Four Chinese Vessels Enter Disputed Waters (Bloomberg)
• Asian Stocks Rise as Exporters Gain on China, U.S. Data (Bloomberg)
• An obsolete Hilsenrath speaks: Fed Keeps Rates Low, Says Growth Is Moderate (WSJ)
• ECB Said to Push Spain’s Bankia to Swap Junior Debt for Shares (Bloomberg)
• Spain’s Bad Bank Seen as Too Big to Work (Bloomberg)
• China postpones Japan anniversary events (China Daily)
• Carney Says Rate Increase ‘Less Imminent’ on Economy Risk (Bloomberg)
• Credit Suisse to Cut More Costs as Quarterly Profit Falls (Bloomberg)
• Obama offers a glimpse of his second-term priorities (Reuters)
• Draghi defends bond-buying programme (FT)

The term 'Plutonomy' was originally coined by Citigroup analyst Ajay Kapur, who argued that in many countries, an ever larger part of economic activity was due to the the richest segments of society, as wealth disparities have increased a great deal in recent decades. Countries with especially large Gini coefficients (i.e., an especially large gap between rich and poor) were deemed to represent such 'Plutonomies' by Kapur. We would briefly comment  here that one of the main reasons why the gap between rich and poor has widened so much is the vast amount of monetary inflation that has taken place in recent decades. It is not inequality as such that is the problem. The problem is that while the rich have gained from monetary inflation, the middle class and the poor have at the same time lost out.