Month: July 2014

Let’s take a look at the amount of
settlements/fines from various banks and financial institutions around the world
since the crisis. There are probably a lot of settlements/fines I have missed, frankly the amount below is already staggering, so this is a very rough estimate. Some perspective, most of these individual banks have now paid more in fines then the value of most countries GDP’s. Total tally from the listed Fines/Settlements below is $174,489,800,000. Reminder: Jail time served by any board members or CEO’s of the following TBTF list=0. #FreeCorzine. Meanwhile, Supreme Leader Obama is going on and on about making the system “fair,” while the same people who caused the last financial crisis are the same people still in charge. 

 

2006

*AIG 1.6 Billion Settlement with SEC, New York
State over securities fraud

2008 

*Bank of America $8.4 Billion Countrywide
Predatory Lending Settlement

2010 

*Goldman Sachs $550 Million Settlement to SEC
for Subprime Mortgage CDO

 

2011 

*KPMG $37 Million Settlement over Auditing at
Wachovia

*Wells Fargo $590 Million Settlement in Claims
over Wachovia

*Bank of America $8.5 Billion Settlement with
BNY Mellon over Mortgages

*Bank of America $1.6 Billion Assuared Guarantee
Settlement

*Bank of America $1.5 Billion Fannie Mae
Settlement 

*Citigroup $285 Million Settlement with SEC over
Fraud Charges

*UBS $2.5 Million Fine to FINRA over Lehman
Notes

 

2011 Total $12,514,000,000

 

2012 

*Deutsche Bank $202 Million to Settle Misleading
Department of Housing and Urban Development on Mortgages

*JPM $1.8 Billion Settlement Nationwide
Settlement over Improper Foreclosures

*JPM $269.9 Million Settlement with SEC over
Creation and Underwriting of MBS

*JPM $20 Million Settlement Mishandling of
Lehman Funds

*Ally/GMAC, BofA, Citi, JPM, Wells Fargo $25
Billion National Mortgage Settlement

*UBS 1.5 Billion Settlement over Rate
Rigging 

*Barclays $453 Million Settlement over Libor
Probe

*Bank of America $2.4 Billion Merrill Lynch
Securities Fraud Settlement

*Bear Stearns $275 Million Settlement with
Shareholders

2012 Total $31,919,000,000

 

2013 

*JPM $13 Billion Civil Settlement with Justice
Department for Mortgage Lending Practices

*JPM $110 Million Settlement on manipulation of
Japanese version of Libor 

*JPM $4.5 Billion to 21 Institutional Investors
to Settle losses tied to Mortgage-Backed Securities

*JPM $100 Million Settlement to CFTC for London
Whale Trades 

*JPM $920 Million Settlements with OCC, SEC,
FED, UK Fin. Conduct Authority over London Whale

*JPM $410 Million Settlement over California
Electricity Rigging

*JPM $5.1 Billion FHFA Settlement

*Deutsche Bank $1.9 Billion Settlement with FHFA

*Deutsche Bank €725 Million Settlement for
Euribor and Yen Libor Rigging

*Bank of America $11.2 Billion Fannie Mae
Settlement

*Bank of America $2.9 Billion Settlement with
FED and OCC

*Bank of America $1.7 Billion MBIA Settlement

*Bank of America $131.8 Million SEC Settlement
over Mortgage Deals

*Societe Generale €446 Million Settlement
Euribor Manipulation 

*RaboBank $475 Million Settlement over Libor
Manipulation

*UBS $885 Million Settlement over FHFA Lawsuit

*RBS €391 Million Interest Rate Rigging

*Goldman Sachs & Morgan Stanley $557 Million
Settlement over Foreclosures 

*Wells Fargo $541 Million Fannie Mae Loan
Settlement 

*MF Global $100 Million to CFTC

*Citigroup $3.5 Billion FHFA Settlement

2013 Total $44,491,800,000

2014  

*JPM $2.6 Billion Settlement related to
Madoff Fraud

*Morgan Stanley $1.25 Billion Mortgage
Settlement 

*Bank of America $6.3 Billion Settlement of
Mortgage Securities Suit

*Citi $7 Billion Settlement for Mortgage
Probe 

*US Bancorp $200 Million Settlement with DOJ
over bad Mortgage-Loan Apps

*Credit Suisse $885 Million Settlement over
FHFA 

*JPM $4 Billion Settlement over FHFA
Lawsuit

*Deutsche Bank $1.9 Billion Settlement over
FHFA Lawsuit

*Credit Suisse Guilty with $2.6 Billion fine
over Tax Evasion 

*Bank of America $16.6 Million Settlement over
Sanctions Violations

*Bank of America $9.5 Billion FHFA Settlement

*Morgan Stanley $275 Million SEC Settlement over
Risky Mortgages

*Citigroup $5 Million SEC Settlement over
Lavaflow

*BNP Paribas $8.9 Billion PLEADS GUILTY

*Pending Bank of America $13 Billion Settlement
over U.S. Mortgage Probe

 

 

2014 Total $75,015,000,000

 

 

 

Total Penalties $174,489,800,000.

 

 

 

 

via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1tLphvs StalingradandPoorski

Submitted by Martin Armstrong via Armstrong Economics,

The Swiss National Bank and the People’s Bank of China reached a currency swap agreement this week. While this is not a huge trend changer in the near-term, it demonstrates that our forecast for China to become the largest economy and to be the next financial capital of the world when Europe and the USA blow themselves apart with defaulting socialism is on track. This agreement will allow the two central banks to buy and sell their currencies up to a limit of 150 billion renminbi, or 21 billion Swiss francs ($23.4 billion).

 

 

The deal will also allow the Swiss central bank to invest some of its huge accumulation of foreign exchange reserves in the Chinese bond market. 

The Zurich-based SNB said the agreement will further strengthen collaboration between it and its Chinese counterpart and is a “key requisite for the development of a renminbi market in Switzerland.” It could also facilitate trade and investment between the two countries, the PBOC said. This demonstrates that China is moving in the correct direction.

via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1tLpajA Tyler Durden

Submitted by Martin Armstrong via Armstrong Economics,

The Swiss National Bank and the People’s Bank of China reached a currency swap agreement this week. While this is not a huge trend changer in the near-term, it demonstrates that our forecast for China to become the largest economy and to be the next financial capital of the world when Europe and the USA blow themselves apart with defaulting socialism is on track. This agreement will allow the two central banks to buy and sell their currencies up to a limit of 150 billion renminbi, or 21 billion Swiss francs ($23.4 billion).

 

 

The deal will also allow the Swiss central bank to invest some of its huge accumulation of foreign exchange reserves in the Chinese bond market. 

The Zurich-based SNB said the agreement will further strengthen collaboration between it and its Chinese counterpart and is a “key requisite for the development of a renminbi market in Switzerland.” It could also facilitate trade and investment between the two countries, the PBOC said. This demonstrates that China is moving in the correct direction.

via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1tLpajA Tyler Durden

Recall what we said earlier today: the proxy Ukraine war just like that in Syria preceding it, “is all about energy.”

Recall also the following chart showing Ukraine’s shale gas deposits, keeping in mind that the Dnieper-Donets basin which lies in the hotly contested eastern part of the nation and where as everyone knows by now a bloody civil war is raging, is the major oil and gas producing region of Ukraine accounting for approximately 90 per cent of Ukrainian production and according to EIA may have 42 tcf of shale gas resources technically recoverable from 197 tcf of risked shale gas in place.

 

Finally, recall our story from May that Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, just joined the board of the largest Ukraine gas producer Burisma Holdings. From the press release:

R. Hunter Biden will be in charge of the Holdings’ legal unit and will provide support for the Company among international organizations. On his new appointment, he commented: “Burisma’s track record of innovations and industry leadership in the field of natural gas means that it can be a strong driver of a strong economy in Ukraine. As a new member of the Board, I believe that my assistance in consulting the Company on matters of transparency, corporate governance and responsibility, international expansion and other priorities will contribute to the economy and benefit the people of Ukraine.”

 

R. Hunter Biden is also a well-known public figure. He is chairman of the Board of the World Food Programme U.S.A., together with the world’s largest humanitarian organization, the United Nations World Food Programme. In this capacity he offers assistance to the poor in developing countries, fighting hunger and poverty, and helping to provide food and education to 300 million malnourished children around the world.

 

Company Background:

 

Burisma Holdings is a privately owned oil and gas company with assets in Ukraine and operating in the energy market since 2002. To date, the company holds a portfolio with permits to develop fields in the Dnieper-Donets, the Carpathian and the Azov-Kuban basins. In 2013, the daily gas production grew steadily and at year-end amounted to 11.6 thousand BOE (barrels of oil equivalent – incl. gas, condensate and crude oil), or 1.8 million m3 of natural gas. The company sells these volumes in the domestic market through traders, as well as directly to final consumers.

Now put it all together and you will like figure out what will happen next.

* * *

Still confused? It’s very simple, really.

In a nutshell Ukraine has decided to let no crisis, or rather civil war, go to waste, and while the fighting rages all around, Ukrainian troopers are helping to install shale gas production equipment near the east Ukrainian town of Slavyansk, which was bombed and shelled for the three preceding months, according to local residents cited by Itar Tass.

“Civilians protected by Ukrainian army are getting ready to install drilling rigs. More equipment is being brought in,” they said, adding that the military are encircling the future extraction area.

 

The people of Slavyansk, which is located in the heart of the Yzovka shale gas field, staged numerous protest actions in the past against its development. They even wanted to call in a referendum on that subject. Environmentalists are particularly concerned with the consequences of hydrofracing, a method used for shale gas extraction, because it implies the use of extremely toxic chemical agents which can poison not only subsoil waters but also the atmosphere. Experts claim that not a single country in the world has invented a method of utilization of harmful toxic agents in the process of development of shale gas deposits.

Countries like the Czech Republic, the Netherlands and France have given up plans to develop shale gas deposits in their territories.

Not only them but also all-important Germany, which two weeks ago announced it would halt shale-gas drilling for the next seven years over groundwater pollution concerns.

Which clearly makes Ukraine, potentially the last place with massive shale gas deposits and no drilling ban, quite valuable to those who want to develop a major source of shale gas, one which reduces Europe’s reliance on Russian gas even more, yet one whose future depends on one simple question: who controls East Ukraine?

Because what better way to accelerate “next steps” than to start drilling for gas in the middle of the Donetsk republic as a civil war is waging in all directions, and where public mood has shifted decidedly against the local “separatists” in the aftermath of the MH-17 tragedy.

The punchline: who will develop the gas field in conjunction with Shell (jointly owned by the Netherlands and the UK: the two countries that loathe Putin the most in the aftermath of the MH-17 disaster) which in May 2012 announced a tender for the right to develop the Yuzovka shale gas deposit?

Burisma, Ukraine’s oil and gas production holdings, also has the right to develop the shale gas fields in the Dnieper-Donetsk basin of Eastern Ukraine. The same Burisma where R. Hunter Biden, Joseph’s son, was appointed a direct two months ago.

Q.E.D.

via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/UsG364 Tyler Durden

Recall what we said earlier today: the proxy Ukraine war just like that in Syria preceding it, “is all about energy.”

Recall also the following chart showing Ukraine’s shale gas deposits, keeping in mind that the Dnieper-Donets basin which lies in the hotly contested eastern part of the nation and where as everyone knows by now a bloody civil war is raging, is the major oil and gas producing region of Ukraine accounting for approximately 90 per cent of Ukrainian production and according to EIA may have 42 tcf of shale gas resources technically recoverable from 197 tcf of risked shale gas in place.

 

Finally, recall our story from May that Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, just joined the board of the largest Ukraine gas producer Burisma Holdings. From the press release:

R. Hunter Biden will be in charge of the Holdings’ legal unit and will provide support for the Company among international organizations. On his new appointment, he commented: “Burisma’s track record of innovations and industry leadership in the field of natural gas means that it can be a strong driver of a strong economy in Ukraine. As a new member of the Board, I believe that my assistance in consulting the Company on matters of transparency, corporate governance and responsibility, international expansion and other priorities will contribute to the economy and benefit the people of Ukraine.”

 

R. Hunter Biden is also a well-known public figure. He is chairman of the Board of the World Food Programme U.S.A., together with the world’s largest humanitarian organization, the United Nations World Food Programme. In this capacity he offers assistance to the poor in developing countries, fighting hunger and poverty, and helping to provide food and education to 300 million malnourished children around the world.

 

Company Background:

 

Burisma Holdings is a privately owned oil and gas company with assets in Ukraine and operating in the energy market since 2002. To date, the company holds a portfolio with permits to develop fields in the Dnieper-Donets, the Carpathian and the Azov-Kuban basins. In 2013, the daily gas production grew steadily and at year-end amounted to 11.6 thousand BOE (barrels of oil equivalent – incl. gas, condensate and crude oil), or 1.8 million m3 of natural gas. The company sells these volumes in the domestic market through traders, as well as directly to final consumers.

Now put it all together and you will like figure out what will happen next.

* * *

Still confused? It’s very simple, really.

In a nutshell Ukraine has decided to let no crisis, or rather civil war, go to waste, and while the fighting rages all around, Ukrainian troopers are helping to install shale gas production equipment near the east Ukrainian town of Slavyansk, which was bombed and shelled for the three preceding months, according to local residents cited by Itar Tass.

“Civilians protected by Ukrainian army are getting ready to install drilling rigs. More equipment is being brought in,” they said, adding that the military are encircling the future extraction area.

 

The people of Slavyansk, which is located in the heart of the Yzovka shale gas field, staged numerous protest actions in the past against its development. They even wanted to call in a referendum on that subject. Environmentalists are particularly concerned with the consequences of hydrofracing, a method used for shale gas extraction, because it implies the use of extremely toxic chemical agents which can poison not only subsoil waters but also the atmosphere. Experts claim that not a single country in the world has invented a method of utilization of harmful toxic agents in the process of development of shale gas deposits.

Countries like the Czech Republic, the Netherlands and France have given up plans to develop shale gas deposits in their territories.

Not only them but also all-important Germany, which two weeks ago announced it would halt shale-gas drilling for the next seven years over groundwater pollution concerns.

Which clearly makes Ukraine, potentially the last place with massive shale gas deposits and no drilling ban, quite valuable to those who want to develop a major source of shale gas, one which reduces Europe’s reliance on Russian gas even more, yet one whose future depends on one simple question: who controls East Ukraine?

Because what better way to accelerate “next steps” than to start drilling for gas in the middle of the Donetsk republic as a civil war is waging in all directions, and where public mood has shifted decidedly against the local “separatists” in the aftermath of the MH-17 tragedy.

The punchline: who will develop the gas field in conjunction with Shell (jointly owned by the Netherlands and the UK: the two countries that loathe Putin the most in the aftermath of the MH-17 disaster) which in May 2012 announced a tender for the right to develop the Yuzovka shale gas deposit?

Burisma, Ukraine’s oil and gas production holdings, also has the right to develop the shale gas fields in the Dnieper-Donetsk basin of Eastern Ukraine. The same Burisma where R. Hunter Biden, Joseph’s son, was appointed a direct two months ago.

Q.E.D.

via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/UsG364 Tyler Durden

For almost three years there has been one recurring simple strategy to outperforming the market – find the worst company you can, and buy its stock with both hands and feet… As we have discussed numerous times, the massive outperformance of “weak balance sheet” companies over “strong balance sheet” companies – the absolute sign of a massive mal-investment boom – has been a straight line to profits with hardly a hiccup since the Fed unleashed QE2. However, the last week or so, as geopolitical risks rise and it appears ever more likely that the Fed’s free money pipe will dry up, the dash-for-trash has reversed.

 

 

The last 5 days saw “strong” companies outperform “weak” companies by the most in 3 years – something appears to be changing.

via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1plCcQz Tyler Durden