Bank of England

The Bank of England's "Real Time Gross Settlement Payment System" (RTGS) - the UK's equivalent of the US FedWire - has gone offline this morning due to a technical glitch, according to The Telegraph. RTGS, which processes large payments in real-time (including home purchases) between British banks - and processed GBP70 trillion in payments across 5000 entities last year - has been down since 6am London time (the fault was disclosed over 5 hours later at 1130 London Time). For now the largest payments are being processed manually and smaller payments are on hold.

We believe that the “Save Our Swiss Gold” campaign has the potential to be a game changer in the gold market - both in terms of the ramifications for the current global monetary system and in terms of higher gold prices. 

There has been a lack of coverage of this important story and there is therefore a lack of awareness about the possible implications for the gold market. Thus, in the weeks prior to the referendum on November 30th, we are going to analyse the referendum, the important context to the referendum and the ramifications of a yes or a no vote.

• Obama open to appointing Ebola 'czar', opposes travel ban (Reuters)
• Schools Close as Nurse’s Ebola Infection Ignites Concern (BBG)
• How the World's Top Health Body Allowed Ebola to Spiral Out of Control (BBG)
• European Stocks Rise Amid Growing Pressure for Stimulus (BBG)
• Putin Threatens EU Gas Squeeze Raising Stakes for Ukraine (BBG)
• ECB to Start Asset Purchases Within Days, Says Central Banker Coeuré (WSJ)
• Investors search for signs of end to stock market correction (Reuters)

• M&A Bubble is bursting: AbbVie Says It Reconsiders Merger Pact With Shire (WSJ)
• Winner of bad headline timing award: Spinoffs Could Set Stage for Next Merger Wave (BBG) - and now wait for the spinoffs getting pulled
• Record mortgage settlement pushes Bank of America into third-quarter loss (Reuters)
• Korea joins the Japan currency war: Bank of Korea Cuts Base Rate (WSJ)
• Double Irish’s Slow Death Leaves Google Executives Calm (BBG)
• Global Oil Glut Sends Prices Plunging (WSJ)
• Slow Rise in Prices Shows China’s Economy Is Still Struggling (WSJ)

The old adage that if something is repeated often enough it is soon assumed to be true couldn’t be more apt with respect to the Fed’s 2% inflation target.  That Keynesian central bankers peddle this nostrum with a straight face is amazing in itself, but it is at least understandable because it gives them a reason to keep the printing presses humming. That journalists repeat it with no questions asked is even more remarkable. It proves that the impending replacement of financial journalists with robo-writers may not be so bad after all. It won’t make any real difference.

Despite Bank of England's Mark Carney confident overtones that policy-makers must focus on economic developments rather than worry about potential market volatility as they consider exiting stimulus, it appears the esteemed central bank is communicating 'forward guidance' on its money-printing expectations over the next decade... BANK OF ENGLAND SIGNS 10-YEAR BANKNOTE PRINTING CONTRACT WITH DE LA RUE... starting in April 2015 (when US rate hikes might start?)

Regulators from the U.S. and the UK are in a “war room” today conducting financial war games to see if they can cope with fall-out when the next big bank collapses. "We are going to make sure that we can handle an institution that previously would have been regarded as too big to fail. We're confident that we now have choices that did not exist in the past," Osborne said at the International Monetary Fund's annual meeting.

Hearing of IMF interventions generally conjures up images of developing nations (and the occasional Eurozone peripheral economy of late) facing some kind of financial difficulty. But it was actually Great Britain, the cradle of the industrialized world, which in 1976 became one of the first countries ever to be "bailed out" by the IMF in the modern sense of the term.

The Swiss National Bank has lashed out at the so-called "gold initiative" efforts to "Save Our Swiss Gold" unsurprisingly proclaiming it as a bad idea. As Ron Paul previously noted, "The gold referendum, if it is successful, will be a slap in the face to those elites," and so the full-court press ahead of the Nov 30th vote has begun (a la Scotland fearmongery) as SNB Vice Chairman Jean-Pierre Danthine explains how a 'yes' vote for the initiative "would severely constrain the SNB’s room for manoeuvre in a future crisis," as it "poses danger to the conduct of a successful monetary policy." His reasoning (below) is stunning...

Copious amounts of monetary whiskey have been downed in the global economy and yet the recovery remains weak at best. The mother of all monetary hangovers awaits us all and will likely manifest in stagflation and sharply higher inflation.

• IRELAND SELLS 10-YEAR BONDS AT RECORD-LOW YIELD OF 1.63%
• GERMAN 10-YEAR BUNDS RISE; YIELD FALLS 2 BASIS POINTS TO 0.88%
• DUTCH 10-YEAR GOVERNMENT BOND YIELD DROPS TO RECORD-LOW 1.021%
• PORTUGUESE 10-YEAR BOND YIELD DROPS TO RECORD-LOW 2.942%
• FRENCH 10-YEAR GOVERNMENT BOND YIELDS DROP TO RECORD-LOW 1.214%
• U.S. 10-YEAR NOTE YIELD DROPS TO 2.296%, LOWEST SINCE JUNE 2013
• SPANISH 10-YEAR BOND YIELD DROPS TO RECORD-LOW 2.038%
• FINNISH 10-YEAR YIELD DROPS TO 1% FOR FIRST TIME ON RECORD

• Turkey says Syria town about to fall as Islamic State advances (Reuters)
• Only now? Growth worries grip stocks, oil (Reuters)
• Hong Kong Protest Leaders ‘Furious’ at Agenda for Talks (BBG)
• Earthquake Damages Thousands of Homes in Southern China (BBG)
• Keystone Be Darned: Canada Finds Oil Route Around Obama (BBG)
• Where Is North Korea's 31-Year-Old Leader? (BusinessWeek)
• Australia to Revise Employment Data (WSJ)
• Americans Living Longer as Fewer Die From Heart Disease, Cancer (BBG)
• A 401(k) Conundrum: Can You Make Cash Pile Last for Life?  (BBG)
• China Services Sector Slows in September (WSJ)

• Liberian Rubber Farm Becomes Sanctuary Against Ebola (WSJ)
• The World’s Most Powerful Central Banker: Janet Who? (BBG)
• Islamic State moves into south west of Syrian Kurdish town (Reuters)
• Waldorf to Be Biggest Chinese Property Purchase in U.S. (BBG)
• Spain Seeks People in Contact With Ebola-Infected Nurse (BBG)
• Hong Kong protests at crossroads as traffic, frustration pile up (Reuters)
• Immigration: Grim Caseload at the Border (WSJ)
• China Cuts Thousands of ‘Phantom’ Workers From State Payroll (BBG)
• U.S., U.K. Regulators Push to Settle Deutsche Bank Libor Case This Year (WSJ)
• Wall Street Moles Go to NY’s Top Cop, Spurning SEC Cash (BBG)
• Pimco's outflow headaches only just beginning (Reuters)
• Japan Lawmakers Flag Need for Exit Strategy as Yen Falls (BBG)

The single most important issue for understanding why the finacnial system is not healthy and why we’re set to have an even bigger crash than in 2008 has to do with one word…

While the 0.001% of the world dine together and plan their next moves, here are the main events in the week ahead.