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Submitted by Michael Krieger of Liberty Blitzkrieg blog,

Watching Indian bureaucrats attempt to halt more than one billion human beings’ desire for gold has been one of the more entertaining and pathetic stories of all of 2013. It is one that I have covered on many occasions, the latest being my post from earlier this month:  Gold Smuggling Increases 7x in India and Surpasses Illegal Drug Trade.

Well it appears the trend continues, potentially at an accelerated rate, as we just learned that, incredibly, “almost every passenger on a flight from Dubai to Calicut was found carrying 1kg of gold.” As I have said many times in the past, if an Indian wants their gold, they will have their gold.

CHENNAI: Faced with curbs on gold imports and crash in international prices leaving it cheaper in other countries, gold houses and smugglers are turning to NRIs to bring in the yellow metal legally after paying duty. Any NRI, who has stayed abroad for more than six months, is allowed to bring in 1kg gold.

 

It was evident last week when almost every passenger on a flight from Dubai to Calicut was found carrying 1kg of gold, totalling up to 80kg (worth about Rs 24 crore). At Chennai airport, 13 passengers brought the legally permitted quantity of gold in the past one week.

 

“It’s not illegal. But the 80kg gold that landed in Calicut surprised us. We soon got information that two smugglers in Dubai and their links in Calicut were behind this operation, offering free tickets to several passengers,” said an official. The passengers were mostly Indian labourers in Dubai, used as carriers by people who were otherwise looking at illegal means, he said. “We have started tracing the origin and route of gold after intelligence pointed to the role of smugglers,” he said.

 

Reports from Kerala said passengers from Dubai have brought more than 1,000kg of gold in the last three weeks. People who pay a duty of Rs 2.7 lakh per kg in Dubai still stand to gain at least Rs 75,000 per kg, owing to the price difference in the two countries. Gold dealers in Kerala say most of this gold goes to jewellery makers in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.

 

These government measures to control the current account deficit did not reduce the demand for gold in the market. “RBI tried to discourage gold purchases because it doesn’t have the utility of other commodities like oil or copper. It mostly sits there in lockers. But when the gold imports through proper channels have come down, merchants have started depending on illegal channels to meet the demand from consumers,” he said.

As expected, a gigantic fail, but at least it served to enrich smugglers from across the region.

Full article here.

via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/KR3wOzO59oY/story01.htm Tyler Durden

With the second consecutive extension to the Obamacare enrollment deadline announced hours ago, one would image the website’s designers realized that in what would, hopefully (supposedly) be an epic scramble by tens of thousands, or just tens, of Americans to sign up in the last moment, that there could be a traffic surge and adjust appropriately. So the thinking goes, at least, in theory. In practice, however, for those trying to sign up for socialized healthcare in California, what they are being greeted with, instead, is the socialist equivalent of the BSOD, better known as “ERROR: Sorry, An Error Has Occurred in the System.”

And to think the fawning media said so many times that Healthcare.gov was fixed, that people actually believed the lie.

Below is a screenshot of what everyone who clicks on the “Apply Now” screen in the Covered California state portal.

 

Needless to say, with fixed websites like these, who needs the Syrian Electronic Army?

via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/PlbiEHaUP-w/story01.htm Tyler Durden

With the second consecutive extension to the Obamacare enrollment deadline announced hours ago, one would image the website’s designers realized that in what would, hopefully (supposedly) be an epic scramble by tens of thousands, or just tens, of Americans to sign up in the last moment, that there could be a traffic surge and adjust appropriately. So the thinking goes, at least, in theory. In practice, however, for those trying to sign up for socialized healthcare in California, what they are being greeted with, instead, is the socialist equivalent of the BSOD, better known as “ERROR: Sorry, An Error Has Occurred in the System.”

And to think the fawning media said so many times that Healthcare.gov was fixed, that people actually believed the lie.

Below is a screenshot of what everyone who clicks on the “Apply Now” screen in the Covered California state portal.

 

Needless to say, with fixed websites like these, who needs the Syrian Electronic Army?

via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/PlbiEHaUP-w/story01.htm Tyler Durden

With all eyes squarely focused on US equity markets daily impersonation of the Caracas Stock Index, BofAML is growing increasingly concerned about China. Since the start of December, Chinese equities have been under significant pressure with the Shanghai Composite on the edge of completing a 3-month Double Top. A break of 2079 would confirm this move, exposing considerable downside in the weeks ahead.

 

This could also prove to be the catalyst that ends the 17-month downtrend for USDCNY.

 

Since late October the pair has shown tentative signs of basing. A sustained break of 17m trendline resistance (6.0747) would confirm a medium term turn in trend, exposing the Aug/Sep highs at 6.1225 and potentially beyond.

 

BofAML concludes with one word… “Beware”

via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/0fuS7TTYLWk/story01.htm Tyler Durden

Despite the recent sharp narrowing in the U.S. federal budget deficit, the U.S. fiscal policy outlook carries financial stability risks, driven by three factors (aacording to the OFR – aka, The Treasury). First, a rapid pace of deficit reduction carries economic costs. Second, a clear resolution of the nation’s long-term fiscal challenges is still lacking. Finally, the political process for implementing sustainable fiscal adjustments has become more uncertain.

(click for large legible version)

Chart: Goldman Sachs

But this substantial fiscal adjustment carries two risks. First, it has created a fiscal drag on an economy that remains weak. Second, it creates an extra burden on other policy levers to support the economy. A policy mix that keeps short-term interest rates and unconventional monetary policy tools in place for an extended period potentially increases future risks to financial stability, whether through excessive risk-taking in credit markets or through volatility and interest rate shocks.

Delays in addressing long-term challenges could have longer-term, and potentially permanent, adverse financial stability consequences.

 

While everyone is still bleating over the success’ of the budget deal (despite its betrayal), the next few months have plenty of potential mines for fiscal fragility.

via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/bfQJyV6lijE/story01.htm Tyler Durden

For the first time in 3 weeks, the PBOC un-tapered and added CNY 29 billion liquidity (via reverse repo). Despite the Chinese governments denial of any liquidity crisis, the decision to “fold” reflects a clear indication that, as Monex strategist Eimear Daly notes, “China’s attempting to incrementally liberalize markets and to allow instabilities to unwind with minimal damage; and spikes in interbank lending rates show authorities are struggling to manage this task.”

The liquidity was provided at 4.1% (not a particularly low rate but overnight repo is well off the highs of the last week) but 7-day repo rates (though down 3.5%) remain high at 5.5% (150bps above the ‘normal’ levels of July to October).

The night is young though as we suspect, just as yesterday, the big banks will soak up the first juice and leave the small banks (who need the most) floundering…

 

 

Chart: Bloomberg

via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/Vi5MdF9kbBQ/story01.htm Tyler Durden

For the first time in 3 weeks, the PBOC un-tapered and added CNY 29 billion liquidity (via reverse repo). Despite the Chinese governments denial of any liquidity crisis, the decision to “fold” reflects a clear indication that, as Monex strategist Eimear Daly notes, “China’s attempting to incrementally liberalize markets and to allow instabilities to unwind with minimal damage; and spikes in interbank lending rates show authorities are struggling to manage this task.”

The liquidity was provided at 4.1% (not a particularly low rate but overnight repo is well off the highs of the last week) but 7-day repo rates (though down 3.5%) remain high at 5.5% (150bps above the ‘normal’ levels of July to October).

The night is young though as we suspect, just as yesterday, the big banks will soak up the first juice and leave the small banks (who need the most) floundering…

 

 

Chart: Bloomberg

via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/Vi5MdF9kbBQ/story01.htm Tyler Durden

It seems US sailors aren’t the only ones who three short years after the Fukushima disaster are being stricken by cancers and other radiation-induced diseases. For once, the media blackout surrounding the Japanese nuclear power plant tragedy appears to have crumbled, and at least a portion of the truth has been revealed. Hong Kong’s SCMP reports that fifty-nine young people in Fukushima prefecture have been diagnosed with or are suspected of having thyroid cancer. Notably, all of newly diagnosed were younger than 18 at the time of the nuclear meltdown in the area in March 2011. They were identified in tests by the prefectural government, which covered 239,000 people by the end of September.

And while it is not rocket surgery to put two and two together, now that the data is in the public domain, here come the experts to explain it away.

On one hand, there are those who seemingly have not been bribed by the Abe government to “bend” reality just a bit in the name of confidence. People such as Toshihide Tsuda, a professor of epidemiology at Okayama University who has called upon the government to prepare for a possible increase in cases in the future. “The rate at which children in Fukushima prefecture have developed thyroid cancer can be called frequent, because it is several times to several tens of times higher,” Japan’s Asahi Shimbun quoted him as saying.

He compared the figures in Fukushima with cancer registration statistics throughout Japan from 1975 to 2008 that showed an annual average of five to 11 people in their late teens to early 20s developing cancer for every 1 million people.

And then come those who probably would still be touting the great job Tepco is doing in containing the worst nuclear catastrophe in history, even though Tepco itself has now admitted the exploded nuclear power plant is out of control.  

Tetsuya Ohira, a professor of epidemiology at Fukushima Medical University, disagreed. It was not scientific to compare the Fukushima tests with cancer registry statistics, he argued. Scientific? Or not politically feasible for a prime minister who is desperate to restart domestic nuclear power plants, since Abenomics is getting monkeyhammered thanks to soaring energy and food import costs (and, among other factors, leading to a crash in Abe’s popularity rating), and any reality leaking, pardong the pun, from Fukushima will end both that ambition, and his political career prematurely.

Shockingly, a month ago, prefectural officials deemed it unlikely that the increase in suspected and confirmed cases of cancer was linked to radiation exposure. Their “logic” is that in the Chernobyl disaster of 1986, it was not until four or five years after the accident that thyroid cancer cases surged. Apparently the thought that the local cancer victims may have been subject to radiation orders of magnitude higher than Chernobyl thanks to a lying government which consistently repeated that “all is well” has not crossed anyone’s mind.

“It is known that radioactive iodine is linked to thyroid cancer. Through the intake of food, people may absorb and accumulate it inside glands,” said Dr Choi Kin, a former president of the Hong Kong Medical Association.

 

Children might absorb more of it than adults because they were still growing, he said, but it remained to be proven that the radioactive iodine came from the nuclear disaster instead of the normal environment.

Bottom line “experts” are divided about whether the Fukushima cancers are caused by nuclear radiation… which, perhaps, is why they are experts. As everyone else knows, a surge in thyroid cancer in a population in close proximity to an exploded power plant, can only be due to one thing: non-participation in the ponzi stock market. So start buying stocks, or else the p53 mutations are coming for you too!

via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/morjMvnFFGQ/story01.htm Tyler Durden

With most stock indices breaking record highs (and even the NASDAQ back to 13+ year highs), we thought a time of reflection and giving (as opposed to receiving Fed liquidity) required a look at the bigger picture. The following 13 charts of the last 13 years cover everything from collapsing SAT scores to record high prices of alcohol and from surging gun background checks to record high food stamp recipients, this is not your great grandma’s depression-“recovery”…

(click image for massive legible version)

 

PDF available here (h/t @Not_Jim_Cramer )

via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/55XHYs1uIu4/story01.htm Tyler Durden