Derivatives

NY Fed Slams Deutsche Bank (And Its €55 Trillion In Derivatives): Accuses It Of ‘Significant Operational Risk’

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From the article:

“As for Deutsche Bank’s response perhaps the simplest and most effective one would be for the Frankfurt megabank to tell the NY Fed that perhaps its own 150x leverage is just a little more worthy of attention.”

Related info:

– The Size Of The Derivatives Bubble Hanging Over The Global Economy Hits A Record High

– The Elephant In The Room: Deutsche Bank’s $75 TRILLION In Derivatives Is 20 Times Greater Than German GDP

–  NY Fed Slams Deutsche Bank (And Its €55 Trillion In Derivatives): Accuses It Of “Significant Operational Risk” (ZeroHedge, July 22, 2014):

First it was French BNP that was punished with a $9 billion legal fee after France refused to cancel the Mistral warship shipment to Russia (which promptly led to French National Bank head Christian Noyer to warn that the days of the USD as a reserve currency are numbered), and now moments ago, none other than the 150x-levered NY Fed tapped Angela Merkel on the shoulder with a polite reminder to vote “Yes” on the next, “Level-3” round of Russia sanctions when it revealed, via the WSJ, that “Deutsche Bank’s giant U.S. operations suffer from a litany of serious problems, including shoddy financial reporting, inadequate auditing and oversight and weak technology systems.”

What could possibly go wrong? Well… this. Recall that as we have shown for two years in a row, Deutsche has a total derivative exposure that amounts to €55 trillion or just about $75 trillion. That’s a trillion with a T, and is about 100 times greater than the €522 billion in deposits the bank has. It is also 5x greater than the GDP of Europe and more or less the same as the GDP of… the world.

DB Derivs in context_0

More from WSJ:

In a letter to Deutsche Bank executives last December, a senior official with the New York Fed wrote that financial reports produced by some of the bank’s U.S. arms “are of low quality, inaccurate and unreliable. The size and breadth of errors strongly suggest that the firm’s entire U.S. regulatory reporting structure requires wide-ranging remedial action.”

The criticism from the New York Fed represents a sharp rebuke to one of the world’s biggest banks, and it comes at a time when federal regulators say they are increasingly focused on the health of overseas lenders with substantial U.S. operations.

The Dec. 11 letter, excerpts of which were reviewed by the Journal, said Deutsche Bank had made “no progress” at fixing previously identified problems. It said examiners found “material errors and poor data integrity” in its U.S. entities’ public filings, which are used by regulators, economists and investors to evaluate its operations.

The shortcomings amount to a “systemic breakdown” and “expose the firm to significant operational risk and misstated regulatory reports,” said the letter from Daniel Muccia, a New York Fed senior vice president responsible for supervising Deutsche Bank.

…

Deutsche Bank’s external auditor, KPMG LLP, also identified “deficiencies” in the way the bank’s U.S. entities were reporting financial data in 2013, according to a Deutsche Bank email reviewed by the Journal.

Oh wait, so those €55 trillion in derivatives are actually completely fabricated? Well if that doesn’t send the S&P 500 limit up nothing will.

DB’s response is the generic one already attempted by that other permacriminal bank, Barclays, which hired a few hundred compliance people after it was revealed that the British firm was manipulating and rigging pretty much every product and market it was involved in.

“We have been working diligently to further strengthen our systems and controls and are committed to being best in class,” a Deutsche Bank spokesman said Tuesday. As part of this, he said, the bank is spending €1 billion globally and appointing 1,300 people, including about 500 compliance, risk and technology employees in the U.S. Mr. Muccia declined to comment.

Sadly for now what this latest Pandora’s box means is that confidence in Europe’s insolvent banks just crashed with a bang once again, not that it would be reflected in the stock’s rigged price of course: rigged most likely by Deutsche Bank among other of course.

The New York Fed’s concerns also pose a challenge for Deutsche Bank’s longtime finance chief, Stefan Krause, who is ultimately responsible for the company’s financial figures and has been spearheading efforts to improve the quality of the bank’s reporting.

The concerns from regulators strike at the heart of an issue plaguing many of the world’s big banks: Some investors lack confidence in the integrity of their numbers. Such fears have been especially prevalent in Europe.

Then again, none of DB’s numbers actually matter: if the banks needs a bailout the Fed will promptly step in, and today’s advisory has one simple end point, which happens to be the same as the recent BNP $9 billion fine – don’t even dare to side with Putin over the US. Because you sure have big bank over there Germany… It would be a pity if the NY Fed i) revealed just how insolvent it truly was and ii) decided not to bail it out subsequently.

* * *

As for Deutsche Bank’s response perhaps the simplest and most effective one would be for the Frankfurt megabank to tell the NY Fed that perhaps its own 150x leverage is just a little more worthy of attention.

 

70% Devaluation Of The US Dollar Coming – We Are Headed For A Crisis Of Biblical Proportions – IMF Christine Lagarde’s Warning! (Video)

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We’ve been here before:

Flashback:

– Roosevelt Gold Confiscation In 1933: ‘No American Could Visit A Safe Deposit Box For Some Time Without A Government Agent Accompanying Him’

– What Gold Nationalization Really Means

– On This Day In 1933:

By January 1934, Roosevelt increased the dollar price of gold from $20.67 to $35, thus devaluing the dollar by 70 percentwhile increasing the value of gold that the government now owned.

– Governments Worldwide Are Implementing Orwellian Gold Confiscation Today. You Just Haven’t Realized it Yet.

– What 40 Years Of Gold Confiscation By The US Government Looks Like

Only this time it will be much easier since the US dollar is backed by NOTHING.


Published on Jul 1, 2014

– Official 2014 IMF Forecast Based on ‘Magic Number Seven’-Steve Quayle (USAWatchdog, July 2, 2014):

Radio talk show veteran and 10 time published author, Steve Quayle, says dark powers are at work in the financial markets at the highest levels of global government.  Quayle contends, “First of all, the illuminati and the occult are one in the same with hidden meanings to the general population, but announcements to people on the inside.”  At the beginning of 2014, the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Christine Lagarde, gave a primer on numerology to an audience at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.  She did it as a set up to an official IMF forecast for “what we should expect for 2014.”   Why is this important now?  The IMF forecast was based on what Lagarde called the “magic 7,” and July is the seventh month of the year.  Lagarde is overtly using numerology to forecast big changes this year and this month.  For example, Lagarde pointed out that 2014 will “mark the 7th anniversary of the financial market jitters” that started in 2007.  If you individually add up the numbers of the year 2014 (2+0+1+4=7), you get the number 7.  Lagarde also said that 2014 “will mark the 70th anniversary, 70th anniversary, drop the zero, seven, of the Bretton Woods Conference that actually gave birth to the IMF” (7 + 0 = 7).  Lagarde also said, “And it will be the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, 25th” (2 + 5 = 7).  Lagarde also brings up the G-20 out of nowhere.  Is that a reference to a date?  (G is the 7the letter of the alphabet and this might be a reference to 7/20/2014.)   Quayle explains, “People have to understand the number 7 to realize why this is critical.  The number 7 is used 287 times; it’s used in the Old and New Testament.  What is critical about this is these people rule their lives by the stars and numerology.  Never in anything have I monitored in my 25 years being on talk radio that I have witnessed such a blatant presentation of the number 7.  When she says it’s ‘quite a number,’ yes, it’s God’s number, but these people worship their god and their god is Lucifer.”

Read more70% Devaluation Of The US Dollar Coming – We Are Headed For A Crisis Of Biblical Proportions – IMF Christine Lagarde’s Warning! (Video)

Chris Martenson: The People Will Get Wiped Out In Coming Crash (Video)

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Added: Jun 29, 2014

Description:

Chris Martenson, who holds a PhD in pathology and an MBA, contends 2008 was just a warm up to a much bigger calamity. Martenson says, “2008 was the shot across the bow, and that’s when our credit experiment broke, and we have been doing everything possible to paper over it since. . . . When you take real stuff out of the ground, you grow food, you take oil out of the ground, you process ore into steel, and you manufacture real things–that’s real wealth. The claims (such as stocks, bonds and currencies) have to be in proportion to the real wealth, and the claims have been growing and growing and growing for so long that they are way out of balance to the real stuff, and the real stuff isn’t growing like it used to. You can see that in the GDP numbers for the U.S. or the world at large. Growth is slowing, slowing, slowing, and the claims are getting larger and larger. This represents a huge and gigantic source of potential energy. There is a gap there and it’s going to get closed. Only one of two things are going to happen: (1) real stuff starts expanding like crazy, or (2) the claims get destroyed. That’s what we are talking about when we talk about a market crash. The claims get destroyed. People get wiped out. The people who don’t get ruined are people safely over in the real wealth already. If you own an unencumbered farm, if you own a productive asset, if you own gold or silver, or if you own your house outright, you are going to be vastly safer than . . . someone who is leveraged and hinged into this other system.”

Join Greg Hunter as he goes One-on-One with Chris Martenson co-founder of PeakProsperity.com.

12 Numbers About The Global Financial Ponzi Scheme That Should Be Burned Into Your Brain

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– 12 Numbers About The Global Financial Ponzi Scheme That Should Be Burned Into Your Brain (Economic Collapse, June 11, 2014):

The numbers that you are about to see are likely to shock you.  They prove that the global financial Ponzi scheme is far more extensive than most people would ever dare to imagine.  As you will see below, the total amount of debt in the world is now more than three times greater than global GDP.  In other words, you could take every single good and service produced on the entire planet this year, next year and the year after that and it still would not be enough to pay off all the debt.  But even that number pales in comparison to the exposure that big global banks have to derivatives contracts.  It is hard to put into words how reckless they have been.  At the low end of the estimates, the total exposure that global banks have to derivatives contracts is 710 trillion dollars.  That is an amount of money that is almost unimaginable.  And the reality of the matter is that there is really not all that much actual “money” in circulation today.  In fact, as you will read about below, there is only a little bit more than a trillion dollars of U.S. currency that you can actually hold in your hands in existence.  If we all went out and tried to close our bank accounts and investment portfolios all at once, that would create a major league crisis.  The truth is that our financial system is little more than a giant pyramid scheme that is based on debt and paper promises.  It is literally a miracle that it has survived for so long without collapsing already.

Read more12 Numbers About The Global Financial Ponzi Scheme That Should Be Burned Into Your Brain

The Size Of The Derivatives Bubble Hanging Over The Global Economy Hits A Record High

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Related info:

– The Elephant In The Room: Deutsche Bank’s $75 TRILLION In Derivatives Is 20 Times Greater Than German GDP

– The Size Of The Derivatives Bubble Hanging Over The Global Economy Hits A Record High (Economic Collapse, May 26, 2014):

The global derivatives bubble is now 20 percent bigger than it was just before the last great financial crisis struck in 2008.  It is a financial bubble far larger than anything the world has ever seen, and when it finally bursts it is going to be a complete and utter nightmare for the financial system of the planet.  According to the Bank for International Settlements, the total notional value of derivatives contracts around the world has ballooned to an astounding 710 trillion dollars ($710,000,000,000,000).  Other estimates put the grand total well over a quadrillion dollars.  If that sounds like a lot of money, that is because it is.  For example, U.S. GDP is projected to be in the neighborhood of around 17 trillion dollars for 2014.  So 710 trillion dollars is an amount of money that is almost incomprehensible.  Instead of actually doing something about the insanely reckless behavior of the big banks, our leaders have allowed the derivatives bubble and these banks to get larger than ever.  In fact, as I have written about previously, the big Wall Street banks are collectively 37 percent larger than they were just prior to the last recession.  “Too big to fail” is a far more massive problem than it was the last time around, and at some point this derivatives bubble is going to burst and start taking those banks down.  When that day arrives, we are going to be facing a crisis that is going to make 2008 look like a Sunday picnic.

If you do not know what a derivative is, Mayra Rodríguez Valladares, a managing principal at MRV Associates, provided a pretty good definition in her recent article for the New York Times:

Read moreThe Size Of The Derivatives Bubble Hanging Over The Global Economy Hits A Record High

The Elephant In The Room: Deutsche Bank’s $75 TRILLION In Derivatives Is 20 Times Greater Than German GDP

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– The Elephant In The Room: Deutsche Bank’s $75 Trillion In Derivatives Is 20 Times Greater Than German GDP (ZeroHedge, April 28, 2014):

It is perhaps supremely ironic that the last time we did an in depth analysis of Deutsche Bank’s financial situation was precisely a year ago, when the largest bank in Europe (and according to some, the world), stunned its investors with a 10% equity dilution. Why the capital raise if everything was as peachy as the ECB promised it had been? It turned out, nothing was peachy, and in fact DB would proceed to undergo a massive balance sheet deleveraging campaign over the next year, in which it would quietly dispose of all the ugly stuff on its balance sheet during the relentless Fed and BOJ-inspired “dash for trash” rally in a way not to spook investors about everything else that may be beneath the Deutsche covers.

Read moreThe Elephant In The Room: Deutsche Bank’s $75 TRILLION In Derivatives Is 20 Times Greater Than German GDP

We Are In FAR Worse Shape Than We Were Just Prior To The Last Great Financial Crisis

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Crushed-Car-By-UCFFool

– We Are In FAR Worse Shape Than We Were Just Prior To The Last Great Financial Crisis (Economic Collapse, March 10, 2014):

None of the problems that caused the last financial crisis have been fixed.  In fact, they have all gotten worse.  The total amount of debt in the world has grown by more than 40 percent since 2007, the too big to fail banks have gotten 37 percent larger, and the colossal derivatives bubble has spiraled so far out of control that the only thing left to do is to watch the spectacular crash landing that is inevitably coming.  Unfortunately, most people do not know the information that I am about to share with you in this article.  Most people just assume that the politicians and the central banks have fixed the issues that caused the last great financial crisis.  But the truth is that we are in far worse shape than we were back then.  When this financial bubble finally bursts, the devastation that we will witness is likely to be absolutely catastrophic.

Read moreWe Are In FAR Worse Shape Than We Were Just Prior To The Last Great Financial Crisis

JPMorgan Owns Over 60% Notional Of All Gold Derivatives

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– Market Cornered: JPMorgan Owns Over 60% Notional Of All Gold Derivatives (ZeroHedge, Feb 1, 2014):

Perhaps the only question we have after seeing the attached table, which shows that as of Q3, 2013 JPMorgan owned $65.4 billion, or just over 60% of the total notional ($108.2 billion) of all gold derivatives in the US, is whether the CFTC will pull the “our budget was too small” excuse to justify why it allowed Jamie Dimon to ignore any and all position limits and corner the gold market?

JPM Gold Derivatives

And purely as a reference point, the chart below compares the total value of gold held in JPM’s vault (registered and eligible) as of Friday’s closing price with its reported gold derivative notional holdings.

JPM Gold Physical vs Derivatives

Finally, for the purists out there, we realize that gross is not net… until there is a breach in the derivative counterparty collateral chain, and gross becomes net.

Source: OCC, Comex

Russian Bank Halts All Cash Withdrawals

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MY-BANK-Russia-1

– Russian Bank Halts All Cash Withdrawals (ZeroHedge, Jan 28, 2014):

It would appear the fears of a global bank run are spreading. From HSBC’s limiting large cash withdrawals (for your own good) to Lloyds ATMs going down, Bloomberg reports that ‘My Bank’ – one of Russia’s top 200 lenders by assets – has introduced a complete ban on cash withdrawals until next week. While the Ruble has been losing ground rapidly recently, we suspect few have been expecting bank runs in Russia. Russia sovereign CDS had recently weakned to 4-month wides at 192bps.

Via Bloomberg,

Read moreRussian Bank Halts All Cash Withdrawals

NO, … There Is No Stoppage Of Cash Transfers In China

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China Halts Bank Cash Transfers - Forbes
The Forbes article has been removed. (Google screenshot)

– No, There Is No Stoppage Of Cash Transfers In China (ZeroHedge, Jan 26, 2014):

Earlier today, Forbes managed to spook readers with a bombastic report that China’s commercial banks had been instructed by the PBOC to halt cash transfers – something which would have dire implications on China’s banking system ahead of its new year holiday, and send the banking system into a tailspin just as China is desperate to avoid all turbulence ahead of a potential shadow banking default.

Leaving aside the fact that one should typically rely on official PBOC advisories, posted quite clearly on its website (where one finds no mention of this notice), one could simply keep track of interbank liquidity indicators such as repo and SHIBOR, both of which dropped, indicating that liquidity actually improved.

Anyway, here is what really happened, as reported by China Compass. “Forbes columnist Gordon Chang claimed in a much-quoted item today that the Peoples Bank of China had instructed commercial banks to halt cash transfers. Chang’s column, entitled “China Halts Bank Transfers,” specifically refers to Citibank’s Chinese branches. The report is entirely misleading.” Our advice – focus on the real “weakest links” in China’s banking system, of which there are many and are backed by facts, not the least of which is the potential upcoming shadow banking default. Ignore groundless rumors and speculation.

Read moreNO, … There Is No Stoppage Of Cash Transfers In China

Bank Of America Caught Frontrunning Clients

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– Bank Of America Caught Frontrunning Clients (ZeroHedge, Jan 25, 2014):

Every time a TBTF bank releases its 10-Q, we head straight for the section, usually well over 100 pages in, that discloses the bank’s total profitable trading days.

This is what the most recent Bank of America 10-Q said on this topic:

The histogram below is a graphic depiction of trading volatility and illustrates the daily level of trading-related revenue for the three months ended September 30, 2013 compared to the three months ended June 30, 2013 and March 31, 2013. During the three months ended September 30, 2013, positive trading-related revenue was recorded for 97 percent, or 62 trading days, of which 69 percent (44 days) were daily trading gains of over $25 million and the largest loss was $21 million. These results can be compared to the three months ended June 30, 2013, where positive trading-related revenue was recorded for 89 percent, or 57 trading days, of which 67 percent (43 days) were daily trading gains of over $25 million and the largest loss was $54 million. During the three months ended March 31, 2013, positive trading-related revenue was recorded for 100 percent, or 60 trading days, of which 97 percent (58 days) were daily trading gains over $25 million.

Read moreBank Of America Caught Frontrunning Clients

Dr. Paul Craig Roberts And Dave Kranzler: The Hows And Whys Of Gold Price Manipulation

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Dr. Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury during President Reagan’s first term. He was Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal. He has held numerous academic appointments, including the William E. Simon Chair, Center for Strategic and International Studies, Georgetown University, and Senior Research Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University.

– The Hows and Whys of Gold Price Manipulation (Paul Craig Roberts, Jan 17, 2014):

Paul Craig Roberts and Dave Kranzler.

The deregulation of the financial system during the Clinton and George W. Bush regimes had the predictable result: financial concentration and reckless behavior. A handful of banks grew so large that financial authorities declared them “too big to fail.” Removed from market discipline, the banks became wards of the government requiring massive creation of new money by the Federal Reserve in order to support through the policy of Quantitative Easing the prices of financial instruments on the banks’ balance sheets and in order to finance at low interest rates trillion dollar federal budget deficits associated with the long recession caused by the financial crisis.

Read moreDr. Paul Craig Roberts And Dave Kranzler: The Hows And Whys Of Gold Price Manipulation

If You Are Waiting For An ‘Economic Collapse’, Just Look At What Is Happening To Europe

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European-Union

– If You Are Waiting For An “Economic Collapse”, Just Look At What Is Happening To Europe (Economic Collapse, Jan 8, 2014):

If you are anxiously awaiting the arrival of the “economic collapse”, just open up your eyes and look at what is happening in Europe.  The entire continent is a giant economic mess right now.  Unemployment and poverty levels are setting record highs, car sales are setting record lows, and there is an ocean of bad loans and red ink everywhere you look.  Over the past several years, most of the attention has been on the economic struggles of Greece, Spain and Portugal and without a doubt things continue to get even worse in those nations.  But in 2014 and 2015, Italy and France will start to take center stage.  France has the 5th largest economy on the planet, and Italy has the 9th largest economy on the planet, and at this point both of those economies are rapidly falling to pieces.  Expect both France and Italy to make major headlines throughout the rest of 2014.  I have always maintained that the next major wave of the economic collapse would begin in Europe, and that is exactly what is happening.

The following are just a few of the statistics that show that an “economic collapse” is happening in Europe right now:

Read moreIf You Are Waiting For An ‘Economic Collapse’, Just Look At What Is Happening To Europe

Why Preppers Should Be THRILLED That The Stock Market Has Hit An All-Time High

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– Why Preppers Should Be THRILLED That The Stock Market Has Hit An All-Time High (The American Dream, Nov 6, 2013):

I am a prepper and I LOVE the fact that the stock market is at an all-time high.  In fact, I hope that it keeps going up for as long as possible.  Why?  Because it gives me more time to prepare for the inevitable collapse that is coming.  As I will discuss extensively below, anyone with half a brain should be able to see that a great financial disaster is coming to this nation.  If you still doubt this after reading this article, please go check out The Economic Collapse Blog where I have posted nearly 1000 articles that break this down in excruciating detail.  Unfortunately, a lot of preppers out there are being really, really stupid right now.  Over the past six months, I have noticed a tremendous amount of apathy among the prepper community.  A lot of preppers were doing really well for a while, but now a lot of them have apparently decided that we are no longer in imminent danger of an economic collapse and that instead of preparing it is time to party.  This is a critical mistake.  We should be thankful that this stock market bubble has given us a few more months to prepare.  Sadly, so many people out there are wasting this precious opportunity.

It is almost as if most people have forgotten what happened during the last financial crisis.  2008 may as well be ancient history for most Americans.

None of the underlying problems that plagued the U.S. economy back then have been fixed.

Read moreWhy Preppers Should Be THRILLED That The Stock Market Has Hit An All-Time High

25 Fast Facts About The Federal Reserve – Please Share With Everyone You Know

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– 25 Fast Facts About The Federal Reserve – Please Share With Everyone You Know (Economic Collapse, Sep 15, 2013):

As we approach the 100 year anniversary of the creation of the Federal Reserve, it is absolutely imperative that we get the American people to understand that the Fed is at the very heart of our economic problems.  It is a system of money that was created by the bankers and that operates for the benefit of the bankers.  The American people like to think that we have a “democratic system”, but there is nothing “democratic” about the Federal Reserve.  Unelected, unaccountable central planners from a private central bank run our financial system and manage our economy.  There is a reason why financial markets respond with a yawn when Barack Obama says something about the economy, but they swing wildly whenever Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke opens his mouth.  The Federal Reserve has far more power over the U.S. economy than anyone else does by a huge margin.  The Fed is the biggest Ponzi scheme in the history of the world, and if the American people truly understood how it really works, they would be screaming for it to be abolished immediately.

The following are 25 fast facts about the Federal Reserve that everyone should know…

Read more25 Fast Facts About The Federal Reserve – Please Share With Everyone You Know

JPMorgan May Be Parting Ways With Blythe Masters

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Flashback:

– Will JPMorgan’s ‘Enron’ Be The End Of Blythe Masters?

– JPMorgan Employee Who Invented Credit Default Swaps is One of the Key Architects of Carbon Derivatives, Which Would Be at the Very CENTER of Cap and Trade

– JPM May Be Parting Ways With Blythe Masters (ZeroHedge, Sep 10, 2013):

It is somewhat ironic that none other than CNBC is reporting the news (which was suggested here months ago in “Will JPMorgan’s “Enron” Be The End Of Blythe Masters?”) that as part of its divestment of its physical commodities unit announced previously, JPMorgan may also seek to cover up any trace of market manipulation in the division recently embroiled in the aluminum cartel scandal (which we reported on in June 2011 and which story recently rose to prominence as a result of follow up reporting by the NYT) by getting rid of none other than Blythe Masters.

To wit: “JPMorgan’s initial round of conversations over the sale of its physical commodities unit has involved at least 50 potential suitors, according to someone familiar with the matter, as the bank attempts to ink a deal by the end of the year. In addition to energy supply contracts and metal-storage facilities, people close to the deal say the transaction could include a significant human asset: JPMorgan’s longtime commodities head, Blythe Masters.  In addition to the physical assets it is selling—including the Liverpool, England-based metal-storage business Henry Bath & Son, U.S. power plants, and crude-oil and power supply agreements—any deal to sell JPMorgan’s commodities business could involve Masters, the division’s current leader, as well. Masters, 44, has found her future at JPMorgan in question as regulators crack down on both its power-supply business over alleged manipulations and the whole notion of banks owning commodities assets more generally.”

Ironic, because it was an extended CNBC interview-cum-PR campaign with Blythe Masters in April of 2012, just before the London Whale scandal broke, and one of her very rare media appearances, in which she made the following quite amusing, and factually wrong, in retrospect, statements:

Read moreJPMorgan May Be Parting Ways With Blythe Masters

Billionaire Issues Chilling Warning About Interest Rate Derivatives

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– Billionaire Issues Chilling Warning About Interest Rate Derivatives (Economic Collapse, Aug 5, 2013):

Will rapidly rising interest rates rip through the U.S. financial system like a giant lawnmower blade?  Yes, the U.S. economy survived much higher interest rates in the past, but at that time there were not hundreds of trillions of dollars worth of interest rate derivatives hanging over our financial system like a Sword of Damocles.  This is something that I have been talking about for quite some time, and now a Mexican billionaire has come forward with a similar warning.  Hugo Salinas Price was the founder of the Elektra retail chain down in Mexico, and he is extremely concerned that rising interest rates could burst the derivatives bubble and cause “massive bankruptcies around the globe”.  Of course there are a whole lot of people out there that would be quite glad to see the “too big to fail” banks go bankrupt, but the truth is that if they go down our entire economy will go down with them.  Our situation is similar to a patient with a very advanced stage of cancer.  You can try to kill the cancer with drugs, but you will almost certainly kill the patient at the same time.  Well, that is essentially what our relationship with the big banks is like.  Our entire economic system is based on credit, and just like we saw back in 2008, if the big banks start failing credit freezes up and suddenly nobody can get any money for anything.  When the next great credit crunch comes, every important number in our economy will rapidly start getting much worse.

Read moreBillionaire Issues Chilling Warning About Interest Rate Derivatives

The Most Important Number In The Entire U.S. Economy

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– The Most Important Number In The Entire U.S. Economy (Economic Collapse, Aug 1, 2013):

There is one vitally important number that everyone needs to be watching right now, and it doesn’t have anything to do with unemployment, inflation or housing.  If this number gets too high, it will collapse the entire U.S. financial system.  The number that I am talking about is the yield on 10 year U.S. Treasuries.

When that number goes up, long-term interest rates all across the financial system start increasing. When long-term interest rates rise, it becomes more expensive for the federal government to borrow money, it becomes more expensive for state and local governments to borrow money, existing bonds lose value and bond investors lose a lot of money, mortgage rates go up and monthly payments on new mortgages rise, and interest rates throughout the entire economy go up and this causes economic activity to slow down.

On top of everything else, there are more than 440 trillion dollars worth of interest rate derivatives sitting out there, and rapidly rising interest rates could cause that gigantic time bomb to go off and implode our entire financial system. We are living in the midst of the greatest debt bubble in the history of the world, and the only way that the game can continue is for interest rates to stay super low.  Unfortunately, the yield on 10 year U.S. Treasuries has started to rise, and many experts are projecting that it is going to continue to rise.

Read moreThe Most Important Number In The Entire U.S. Economy

A Nightmare Scenario

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– A Nightmare Scenario (Economic Collapse, July 17, 2013):

Most people have no idea that the U.S. financial system is on the brink of utter disaster.  If interest rates continue to rise rapidly, the U.S. economy is going to be facing an economic crisis far greater than the one that erupted back in 2008.  At this point, the economic paradigm that the Federal Reserve has constructed only works if interest rates remain super low.  If they rise, everything falls apart.  Much higher interest rates would mean crippling interest payments on the national debt, much higher borrowing costs for state and local governments, trillions of dollars of losses for bond investors, another devastating real estate crash and the possibility of a multi-trillion dollar derivatives meltdown.  Everything depends on interest rates staying low.  Unfortunately for the Fed, it only has a certain amount of control over long-term interest rates, and that control appears to be slipping.  The yield on 10 year U.S. Treasuries has soared in recent weeks.  So have mortgage rates.  Fortunately, rates have leveled off for the moment, but if they resume their upward march we could be dealing with a nightmare scenario very, very quickly.

In particular, the yield on 10 year U.S. Treasuries is a very important number to watch.  So much else in our financial system depends on that number as CNN recently explained…

Read moreA Nightmare Scenario

The 441 TRILLION Dollar Interest Rate Derivatives Time Bomb

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– The 441 TRILLION Dollar Interest Rate Derivatives Time Bomb (Economic Collapse, June 24, 2013):

Do you want to know the primary reason why rapidly rising interest rates could take down the entire global financial system?  Most people might think that it would be because the U.S. government would have to pay much more interest on the national debt.  And yes, if the average rate of interest on U.S. government debt rose to just 6 percent (and it has actually been much higher in the past), the federal government would be paying out about a trillion dollars a year just in interest on the national debt.  But that isn’t it.  Nor does the primary reason have to do with the fact that rapidly rising interest rates would impose massive losses on bond investors.  At this point, it is being projected that if U.S. bond yields rise by an average of 3 percentage points, it will cause investors to lose a trillion dollars.  Yes, that is a 1 with 12 zeroes after it ($1,000,000,000,000).  But that is not the number one danger posed by rapidly rising interest rates either.  Rather, the number one reason why rapidly rising interest rates could cause the entire global financial system to crash is because there are more than 441 TRILLION dollars worth of interest rate derivatives sitting out there.  This number comes directly from the Bank for International Settlements – the central bank of central banks.  In other words, more than $441,000,000,000,000 has been bet on the movement of interest rates.  Normally these bets do not cause a major problem because rates tend to move very slowly and the system stays balanced.  But now rates are starting to skyrocket, and the sophisticated financial models used by derivatives traders do not account for this kind of movement.So what does all of this mean?

Read moreThe 441 TRILLION Dollar Interest Rate Derivatives Time Bomb

Study: Derivatives Are Weapons Of Slow Economic Destruction

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And yes, derivatives are designed to do exactly that …

“(Slow) Economic Destruction”

… and the greatest financial/economic collapse in world history is well on its way.

Related info:

– Former Fed President Thomas Hoenig: Deutsche Bank ‘Is Horribly Undercapitalized … It’s Ridiculous’

– America’s Giant Bubble Economy Is Going To Become An Economic Black Hole:

–$212,525,587,000,000 – According to the U.S. government, this is the notional value of the derivatives that are being held by the top 25 banks in the United States.  But those banks only have total assets of about 8.9 trillion dollars combined.  In other words, the exposure of our largest banks to derivatives outweighs their total assets by a ratio of about 24 to 1.

–$600,000,000,000,000 to $1,500,000,000,000,000 – The estimates of the total notional value of all global derivatives generally fall within this range.  At the high end of the range, the ratio of derivatives to global GDP is more than 21 to 1.

– Coming Derivatives Panic Will Destroy Global Financial Markets

– At $72.8 TRILLION Presenting The Bank With The Biggest Derivative Exposure In The World (Hint: Not JPMorgan)

Flashback:

– JPMorgan Employee Who Invented Credit Default Swaps is One of the Key Architects of Carbon Derivatives, Which Would Be at the Very CENTER of Cap and Trade

– Derivatives Are Weapons Of Slow Economic Destruction: Study (Huffington Post, June 14, 2013):

We have learned, painfully, of the damage derivatives can do to an economy in a financial crisis. But derivatives are hurting the economy even on its best days, according to a new study.

In the crisis, derivatives exposures brought down giant financial institutions and markets, leading to the worst recession since the Great Depression. But derivatives are also weapons of slower, more insidious destruction: They drain cash away from productive segments of the economy into the financial sector, according to a new study by the progressive think tank Demos.

Read moreStudy: Derivatives Are Weapons Of Slow Economic Destruction

Former Fed President Thomas Hoenig: Deutsche Bank ‘Is Horribly Undercapitalized … It’s Ridiculous’

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And who said, when Bilderberg Josef Ackerman left Deutsche, that things will get very interesting soon enough?

Oh, that was me.

– Deutsche Bank “Is Horribly Undercapitalized… It’s Ridiculous” Says Former Fed President Hoenig (ZeroHedge, June 15, 2013):

Back in May 2012, when we were making fun at the latest iteration of the now fatally discredited European stress tests, we took the first of many jabs at the what may currently be the world’s most systematically important, and undercapitalized, bank in the world:

Finally, if anyone is still confused where the pain is headed next, here is a list from Morgan Stanley of all Euro banks with a Core Tier 1 ratio that is so low, that the banks will soon regret not raising more capital in the period of calm that the ECB’s LTRO bought them.

Also, one bank is missing from the list above: Deutsche Bank. CT1/TA: 1.68%. Oops.

That’s right – Deutsche Bank was so bad that it wasn’t even allowed to appear on a screen of Europe’s most undercapitalized banks – and we helpfully pointed out its true capital ratio of just under 2%, and an implied leverage of 60x!

Fast forward 13 months to a Reuters interview with former Kansas City Fed president and FOMC dissenter and sole voice of reason at the Federal Reserve, and current FDIC Vice Chairman Tom Hoenig, who confirmed that once again Zero Hedge was just a year ahead of the curve.

A top U.S. banking regulator called Deutsche Bank’s capital levels “horrible” and said it is the worst on a list of global banks based on one measurement of leverage ratios. “It’s horrible, I mean they’re horribly undercapitalized,” said Federal Deposit Insurance Corp Vice Chairman Thomas Hoenig in an interview. “They have no margin of error.”  Deutsche’s leverage ratio stood at 1.63 percent, according to Hoenig’s numbers, which are based on European IFRS accounting rules as of the end of 2012.

In other words, the slighest systemic shock in Europe and Deustche Bank gets it. And as Deutsche Bank goes, so does Germany, so does Europe, so does the world.

Immediately confirming Hoenig’s (and Zero Hedge’s) observations, was Deutsche’s prompt repeat that “all is well” and that “these numbers” are not like “those numbers.”

“To say that we are undercapitalized is inaccurate because if you look at the Basel framework, we’re now one of the best capitalized banks in the world after our capital raise,” Deutsche Bank’s Chief Financial Officer Stefan Krause told Reuters in an interview, when asked about Hoenig’s comments. “To suggest that leverage puts us in a position to be a risk to the system is incorrect,” Krause said, calling the gauge a “misleading measure” when used on its own.

Of course, DB’s lies are perfectly expected – after all it is a question of fiath. So let’s go back to Hoenig who continues to be one of the few voices of reason among the “very serious people”:

Read moreFormer Fed President Thomas Hoenig: Deutsche Bank ‘Is Horribly Undercapitalized … It’s Ridiculous’

America’s Giant Bubble Economy Is Going To Become An Economic Black Hole

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– America’s Bubble Economy Is Going To Become An Economic Black Hole (Economic Collapse, May 22, 2013):

What is going to happen when the greatest economic bubble in the history of the world pops?  The mainstream media never talks about that.  They are much too busy covering the latest dogfights in Washington and what Justin Bieber has been up to.  And most Americans seem to think that if the Dow keeps setting new all-time highs that everything must be okay.  Sadly, that is not the case at all.  Right now, the U.S. economy is exhibiting all of the classic symptoms of a bubble economy.  You can see this when you step back and take a longer-term view of things.  Over the past decade, we have added more than 10 trillion dollars to the national debt.  But most Americans have shown very little concern as the balance on our national credit card has soared from 6 trillion dollars to nearly 17 trillion dollars.  Meanwhile, Wall Street has been transformed into the biggest casino on the planet, and much of the new money that the Federal Reserve has been recklessly printing up has gone into stocks.  But the Dow does not keep setting new records because the underlying economic fundamentals are good.  Rather, the reckless euphoria that we are seeing in the financial markets right now reminds me very much of 1929.  Margin debt is absolutely soaring, and every time that happens a crash rapidly follows.  But this time when a crash happens it could very well be unlike anything that we have ever seen before.  The top 25 U.S. banks have more than 212 trillion dollars of exposure to derivatives combined, and when that house of cards comes crashing down there is no way that anyone will be able to prop it back up.  After all, U.S. GDP for an entire year is only a bit more than 15 trillion dollars.

But most Americans are only focused on the short-term because the mainstream media is only focused on the short-term.  Things are good this week and things were good last week, so there is nothing to worry about, right?

Read moreAmerica’s Giant Bubble Economy Is Going To Become An Economic Black Hole

The Banksters Are Recklessly Gambling With Our Money, Causing The Global Financial System To Collapse

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– The Big Banks Are Recklessly Gambling With Our Money, And It Will Cause The Global Financial System To Collapse (Economic Collapse, April 2, 2013):

Have you ever wondered how the big banks make such enormous mountains of money?  Well, the truth is that much of it is made by gambling recklessly.  If they win on their bets, they become fabulously wealthy.  If they lose on their bets, they know that the government will come in and arrange for the banks to be bailed out because they are “too big to fail”.  Either they will be bailed out by the government using our tax dollars, or as we just witnessed in Cyprus, they will be allowed to “recapitalize” themselves by stealing money directly from our bank accounts.  So if they win, they win big.  If they lose, someone else will come in and clean up the mess.  This creates a tremendous incentive for the bankers to “go for it”, because there is simply not enough pain in this equation for those that are taking the risks.  If the big Wall Street banks had been allowed to collapse back in 2008, that would have caused a massive change of behavior on Wall Street.  But instead, the big banks are still recklessly gambling with our money as if the last financial crisis never even happened.  In the end, the reckless behavior of these big banks is going to cause the entire global financial system to collapse.

Have you noticed how most news reports about Cyprus don’t even get into the reasons why the big banks in Cyprus collapsed?

Well, the truth is that they collapsed because they were making incredibly reckless bets with the money that had been entrusted to them.  In a recent article, Ron Paul explained how the situation played out once the bets started to go bad…

Read moreThe Banksters Are Recklessly Gambling With Our Money, Causing The Global Financial System To Collapse