Infinite Unknown

- Bank Of Ireland Doubles Mortgage Rates, Homeowners Fear More To Come (ZeroHedge, May 2, 2013):

With the Bank of England cutting its wholesale interest (bank) rate to historic lows and now the ECB slashing 50bps off its key rate (as well as remonstrating on the reduction in fragmentation across European nations), it is perhaps perplexing (or simply too obvious) that a bank would raise its mortgage rates. As the Daily Mail reports, government-owned Bank of Ireland (BOI) doubled mortgage rates for 13,500 customers in the UK leaving homeowners with huge increases in their monthly payments. The bank, exploiting small print in the legacy mortgage contracts, will hike the interest cost for 1-in-14 homeowners from 2.25% to 4.99% (raising the spread over the bank rate on these loans from 1.75% to 4.49%). Anger is rife as customers complain “it’s all very frustrating,” adding that they thought this was a ‘tracker’ mortgage but BOI defends their massive rate hike on increased funding costs and the need to maintain higher levels of capital. The disconnect between wholesale gorging provided by the Central Bank and wholesale gouging of the real economy grows ever wider it seems.

Via The Daily Mail,

Thousands of homeowners are facing a huge increase in their mortgage repayments after the Bank of Ireland doubled rates overnight.

…

… will affect some 13,500 UK customers,

Continue reading »

Tags: Bank of England, Banking, ECB, Economy, EU, Europe, Global News, Ireland, Mortgages, Society, U.K.

YouTube Added: 03.05.2013

Tags: Banking, Barack Obama, Ben Bernanke, Bonds, Central Bank, Collapse, Debt, Dollar, ECB, Economy, EU, Europe, Fed, Federal Reserve, Gerald Celente, Global News, Government, Inflation, Ireland, Jean-Claude Trichet, Mario Draghi, Obama administration, Politics, Quantitative Easing, Retailers, Society, U.S., Unemployment

- Europe’s Fauxterity In Three Simple Charts (ZeroHedge, April 27, 2013)

Tags: Debt, Economy, EU, Europe, Global News, Government, Iceland, Ireland, Politics

- I Illustrate How The Irish Banking Cancer Spreads To The UK Taxpayer And Metastasizes Through US Markets! (ZeroHedge, April 12, 2013)

Tags: Banking, Bonds, ECB, Economy, EU, Europe, Global News, IMF, Ireland, Lehman Brothers, RBS, Reggie Middleton, U.K., U.S.

- Carmen Reinhart: “No Doubt. Our Pensions Are Screwed.” (ZeroHedge, April 11, 2013):

“The crisis isn’t over yet,” warns Carmen Reinhart, “not in the US and not in Europe.” Known for her deep understanding that ‘it’s never different this time’, the Harvard economist drops the truth grenade a number of times in this excellent Der Spiegel interview. Sweeping away the sound and fury of a self-serving Federal Reserve or BoJ, she chides, “no central bank will admit it is keeping rates low to help governments out of their debt crises. But in fact they are bending over backwards to help governments to finance their deficits,” and guess what, “this is nothing new in history.”

After World War II, all countries that had a big debt overhang relied on financial repression to avoid an explicit default. After the war, governments imposed interest rate ceilings for government bonds; but, nowadays, she explains, “monetary policy is doing the job. And with high unemployment and low inflation that doesn’t even look suspicious. Only when inflation picks up, which is ultimately going to happen, will it become obvious that central banks have become subservient to governments.”

Nations “seldom just grow themselves out of debt,” as so many believe is possible, “you need a combination of austerity, so that you don’t add further to the pile of debt, and higher inflation, which is effectively a subtle form of taxation,” with the consequence that people are going to lose their savings. Reinhart succinctly summarizes, “no doubt, our pensions are screwed.”

This will take 3 minutes to read – read it. Understand what she is saying. Continue reading »

Tags: China, ECB, EU, Europe, Fed, Federal Reserve, France, GDP, Global News, Government, Greece, Ireland, Japan, Pension, Politics, Retirement, Spain, U.S.

- Ireland, You May Very Well Be Bust & I Make No Apologies For What I’m About To Show You (ZeroHedge, April 7, 2013)

Tags: Bailout, Banking, Collapse, Economy, EU, Europe, Global News, Government, Ireland, Politics, Reggie Middleton

- Betray Your Bank Before Your Bank Betrays You (Bloomberg, March 28, 2013):

What’s a Slovenian with several hundred thousand euros in the bank supposed to do? Spread it out among at least a few different banks, that’s what. Or move the money out of the country, while it’s still possible.

Imagine what must be on the minds of any savvy depositors still left at Nova Kreditna Banka Maribor d.d., now 79 percent- owned by Slovenia’s government. It was one of only four lenders in October that failed the European Banking Authority’s latest capital-adequacy test, a ritual best known for how lax its standards are. One that flunked was Bank of Cyprus Pcl, where uninsured depositors face 40 percent losses as part of the country’s bailout terms. Another was Cyprus Popular Bank Pcl, also known as Laiki Bank, where uninsured deposits will fare far worse and the bank is being shut.

Cypriot banks’ customers were complacent after uninsured deposits went unscathed in Ireland, Greece, Spain and Portugal, the first euro-area countries to seek international rescues. Slovenians won’t have that excuse should their country be next.

Continue reading »

Tags: Banking, Collapse, Cyprus, ECB, Economy, EU, Europe, Government, Greece, Ireland, Politics, Portugal, Society, Spain

- For Everyone Shocked By What Just Happened… And Why This Is Just The Beginning (Zerohedge, March 16, 2013)

Tags: Banking, Bonds, Cyprus, Debt, Dictatorship, Economy, EU, Europe, Fascism, France, Germany, Global News, Government, Greece, Ireland, New World Order, Politics, Portugal

- After Cyprus, Who Is Next? (Zerohedge, March 16, 2013)

Tags: Banking, Bonds, Cyprus, Debt, Dictatorship, Economy, EU, Europe, Fascism, France, Germany, Global News, Government, Greece, Ireland, New World Order, Politics, Portugal, Socialism

- “China Accounts For Nearly Half Of World’s New Money Supply” (ZeroHedge, Feb 8, 2013):

When it comes to the creation of money in China, and specifically the asset side of the ledger, or loans, there is much more confusion than consensus, primarily because nobody knows who it is that is creating the money: private or public entities, SOEs, the PBOC, regional banks, shadow banks, or your next door neighbor.Another thing that is largely misreported: what the actual assets pledged as collateral to new loans are. Because while it is well-known that corporate debt in China is now greater as a percentage of GDP than in any other country, the comprehensive picture is still confusing (albeit GMO did a fantastic summary recently of what is known) as reporting standards are still non-existent, and the government flat out lies about its balance sheet.

Yet one very simple shortcut to get a sense of what is truly happening in monetary China is to peek at the liability side of the consolidated balance sheet, and one line in particular, namely deposits. Because unlike in the US, where the vibrant equity Ponzi scheme has rarely been stronger, in China it is still all about the cash and as a result the bulk of the newly created money once again return back to the banking sector in the form of a deposit. Ironically, that is what banking should be about (instead of the entire industry being a glorified hedge fund) although in China even this practice has gone on way too far, and like in Europe, has long passed the point where there is real collateral value backing up the new money created (which explains the emergence of various letters of credit collateralized by copper still not dug out of the ground which reappear every time Chinese inflation spikes above 5%).

So how do deposits look when comparing the US and China? Well, after having less than half the total US deposits back in 2005, China has pumped enough cash into the economy using various public and private conduits to make even Ben Bernanke blush: between January 2005 and January 2013, Chinese bank deposits have soared by a whopping $11 trillion, rising from $4 trillion to $15 trillion! We have no idea what the real Chinese GDP number is but this expansion alone is anywhere between 200 and 300% of the real GDP as it stands now. Continue reading »

Tags: Austria, Banking, Ben Bernanke, Central Bank, China, ECB, Economy, EU, Europe, Fed, Federal Reserve, France, GDP, Germany, Global News, Greece, Ireland, money supply, Politics, Portugal, Spain, World Bank, Yuan