Month: July 2014

It’s gone from bad (Mapping Africa’s “Totally Out Of Control” Ebola Epidemic)  to worse, (Head Doctor Fighting Africa’s “Out Of Control” Ebola Epidemic Contracts The Virus), to much worse (Liberian Man Tested For Ebola In World’s Fourth Most Populous City), to having run out of comparaitves – although we are leery of using a superlative just yet as we have a feeling Africa’s Ebola’s epidemic will deteriorate before it gets better. But the latest news is bad enough: as Reuters reported moments ago, Sierra Leone officials appealed for help on Friday to trace the first known resident in the capital with Ebola whose family forcibly removed her from a Freetown hospital after testing positive for the deadly disease.

How big is Sierra Leone’s capital Freetown: just around 1 million inhabitants, so yes, things are suddenly very much uncontained.

More:

Radio stations in Freetown broadcast the appeal on Friday to locate a woman who tested positive for the disease that has killed 660 people across Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone since an outbreak was first identified in February.

 

“Saudatu Koroma of 25 Old Railway Line, Brima Lane, Wellington,” the announcement said. “She is a positive case and her being out there is a risk to all. We need the public to help us locate her.”

 

Koroma, 32, a resident of the densely populated Wellington neighborhood, had been admitted to an isolation ward while blood samples were tested for the virus, Health ministry spokesman Sidi Yahya Tunis. The results came back on Thursday.

 

“The family of the patient stormed the hospital and forcefully removed her and took her away,” Tunis said. “We are searching for her.”

What is just as bad is that even without this latest shocking development, the death toll from the epidemic has already hit 660 according to the WHO, cited by AFP.

And now we await news out of the world’s fourth largest city, Nigeria’s capital Lagos, where a man collapsed at the airport and is now being tested whether he too had Ebola, and we are confused how the market is not trading at fresh all time highs following what is now a recreation of the plot of the movie Outbreak. Just consider how much GDP was created or not destroyed there.

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

If you shorted CYNK at the all time highs well over $20 several weeks ago, just before the stock was halted after the SEC finally woke up to its duty of protecting investors from pump and dump ponzi schemes (such as the broader market for example) congratulations: you are now up a lot to quite a lot, as the stock has just reopened for trading some 86% lower (on the usual volume of virtually no shares, even though the FT just told us that illiquidity is bullish), a price at which it still has a market cap of over $500 million!

The only question: how does this company, which technically doesn’t exist, still have any equity value left?

And yes, it would truly be a testament to just how broken the “market” is, if following today’s crash, the BTFD dip crew and algos sniffed it out and pumped it right back to its idiotic market cap of over $5 billion hit in the first week of July. Because after tumbling to $2.01, someone already managed to make a double on it as it was trading at over $4.00 at last check…

via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1AfW4ND Tyler Durden

The EU and western drive toward bail-ins continues unabated. So too does the increasing uncertainty for investors in European financial institutions and depositors in European and western banks.




The coming bail-in regime raises the spectre of the effective loss of their investments and savings due to the new legislation which will again bail out insolvent banks.

On July 8, the Austrian government had its parliamentary groups pass special legislation for a bail-in of Hypo Alpe Adria bank (HAA), in the range of nearly EUR 900 million.

The Austrian government’s legislation on bail-ins goes further than EU legislation, as it does not exempt from the bail-in the first EUR 100,000 on deposit.

The victims of the bail-in are hundreds of thousands of Austrians who bought life insurance policies.

Indeed, the insurance companies had invested in HAA bonds that will no longer be guaranteed under this legislation. Specifically, it hits the policies of civil servants (at Oesterreichische Beamten-Versicherung), of municipal workers and employees (Wiener Staedtische Versicherung) and others who bought insurance from Uniqua.

Previously, the Austrian province of Carinthia had guaranteed the bank, but incredibly the new legislation declares that guarantee to be invalid retroactively. This then invalidates the transfer of that guarantee to the Austrian state when the bank was nationalized in 2009.

The retrospective bail-in of a state guarantee in respect of subordinated debt is unprecedented in this context.

 

The Austrian government claims the legislation only applies to the case of the HAA, but critics have correctly warned that a dangerous case of precedence has now been set, leaving the door wide open for other expropriations and deposit confiscation.

The developments cast doubts on Marc Carney’s and Bank of England officials that bail-ins are only for large systemically important institutions.

Bail-ins are coming to financial institutions and banks in the EU, UK, U.S. and much of the western world – with painful consequences for unprepared savers.

Must read guide and research to deposit confiscation and banks that are vulnerable to deposit confiscation can be read here:
Protecting Your Savings In The Coming Bail-In Era
From Bail-Outs to Bail-Ins: Risks and Ramifications

via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1AfW1S9 GoldCore

In an effort to make the MH17 crash site safer, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte has announced that he will be sending 40 unarmed military police. As AP reports, the military police will help the investigators (along with forensic experts) “to look for remaining remains and personal belongings” and “to try to piece together exactly what happened.” While pro-Russian separatists have ensured the site is a safe place for the Dutch investigators (who have been given the lead role since Holland was so hard hit), Rutte acknowledged that it “remains a risky place to work,” and “will constantly reassess the situation.”

As AP reports, The Netherlands is sending 40 unarmed military police to eastern Ukraine as part of a ramped-up effort to find the last victims of the downed Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 still at the wreckage site, Prime Minister Mark Rutte announced late Thursday.

The Netherlands has been given the lead in the investigation into what exactly happened to Flight 17 and is taking charge of efforts to identify the dead. This nation of 17 million was the hardest hit, with 194 of its citizens on board the plane.

 

Rutte said he would also be sending more forensic experts to the scene in the coming days to speed up the investigation that was hampered in its early stages because it was considered too dangerous to work there.

 

He acknowledged that the region of eastern Ukraine controlled by pro-Russian separatists remains a risky place to work.

 

He also is sending forensic investigators to the site to try to piece together exactly what happened when the plane was shot down a week ago, killing all 298 people on board.

Rutte said the military police will help the investigators.

“They are really looking like the forensic experts,” he said. “They will be extra hands and eyes to look for remaining remains and personal belongings.”

 

…

 

“For tomorrow, we expect our people to be able to conduct the work necessary,” he said. “But we will constantly reassess the situation.”

 

He added, “we are looking into ways to make the crash site safer.”

Rutte said he would not rest until he has brought the perpetrators to justice.

“I’m extremely motivated to find out what happened, who did this,” he said, “And as soon as we know, I will do everything in my power — even if it is the last thing I do in this job — to make sure we bring them to justice.”

His comments Thursday came hours after two military planes carrying 74 coffins landed at a military base in the Netherlands. A day earlier, the two military transport planes — one Dutch and one Australian — brought back the first 40 coffins and more flights were planned for Friday.

Thousands of people have turned out to watch the convoys of hearses drive from the Eindhoven Air Base to a military barracks in the central city of Hilversum, where the remains will be identified by an international team of experts.

via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1AfW1BC Tyler Durden

In an effort to make the MH17 crash site safer, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte has announced that he will be sending 40 unarmed military police. As AP reports, the military police will help the investigators (along with forensic experts) “to look for remaining remains and personal belongings” and “to try to piece together exactly what happened.” While pro-Russian separatists have ensured the site is a safe place for the Dutch investigators (who have been given the lead role since Holland was so hard hit), Rutte acknowledged that it “remains a risky place to work,” and “will constantly reassess the situation.”

As AP reports, The Netherlands is sending 40 unarmed military police to eastern Ukraine as part of a ramped-up effort to find the last victims of the downed Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 still at the wreckage site, Prime Minister Mark Rutte announced late Thursday.

The Netherlands has been given the lead in the investigation into what exactly happened to Flight 17 and is taking charge of efforts to identify the dead. This nation of 17 million was the hardest hit, with 194 of its citizens on board the plane.

 

Rutte said he would also be sending more forensic experts to the scene in the coming days to speed up the investigation that was hampered in its early stages because it was considered too dangerous to work there.

 

He acknowledged that the region of eastern Ukraine controlled by pro-Russian separatists remains a risky place to work.

 

He also is sending forensic investigators to the site to try to piece together exactly what happened when the plane was shot down a week ago, killing all 298 people on board.

Rutte said the military police will help the investigators.

“They are really looking like the forensic experts,” he said. “They will be extra hands and eyes to look for remaining remains and personal belongings.”

 

…

 

“For tomorrow, we expect our people to be able to conduct the work necessary,” he said. “But we will constantly reassess the situation.”

 

He added, “we are looking into ways to make the crash site safer.”

Rutte said he would not rest until he has brought the perpetrators to justice.

“I’m extremely motivated to find out what happened, who did this,” he said, “And as soon as we know, I will do everything in my power — even if it is the last thing I do in this job — to make sure we bring them to justice.”

His comments Thursday came hours after two military planes carrying 74 coffins landed at a military base in the Netherlands. A day earlier, the two military transport planes — one Dutch and one Australian — brought back the first 40 coffins and more flights were planned for Friday.

Thousands of people have turned out to watch the convoys of hearses drive from the Eindhoven Air Base to a military barracks in the central city of Hilversum, where the remains will be identified by an international team of experts.

via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1AfW1BC Tyler Durden

It is unclear which aphorism best describes the latest note from Guggenheim’s Scott Minerd:

• What goes up must come down

or

• The bigger they are, the harder they fall.

He is referring to what happens to every “bull market”, even the most patently rigged and manipulated ones such as the current one on the back of the Fed’s central planning and global central banks’ financial engineering, following what is now nearly 1000 days without a 10% correction.

From Guggenheim:

The Bigger they Come the Harder they Fall

 

The S&P500 has now gone nearly 800 days since a correction of more than 10 percent – the “meaningful” level for many analysts. The more extended the market becomes, the larger the eventual decline may be. Over the last 50 years, the longer the time between market corrections, the steeper the drop once the correction does occur.

His take:

In his famous speech, [former Fed Chairman William McChesney] Martin preceded his punch bowl comment by saying, on behalf of the Fed, “…precautionary action to prevent inflationary excesses is bound to have some onerous effects…” The flipside — a lack of precautionary action by the Fed — will have its own set of consequences in time. It is very difficult to say when exactly these will happen, but near-term indicators suggest the hangover won’t hit while you’re relaxing at the beach this summer.

Unless it does of course.

But for now, just pretend the nearly 200% move higher from the 666 lows is real and keep kicking the can, because as even the Fed has admitted, once the selling finally begins, not even the Fed will be able to stop it.

via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1rDbsQ6 Tyler Durden

It is unclear which aphorism best describes the latest note from Guggenheim’s Scott Minerd:

• What goes up must come down

or

• The bigger they are, the harder they fall.

He is referring to what happens to every “bull market”, even the most patently rigged and manipulated ones such as the current one on the back of the Fed’s central planning and global central banks’ financial engineering, following what is now nearly 1000 days without a 10% correction.

From Guggenheim:

The Bigger they Come the Harder they Fall

 

The S&P500 has now gone nearly 800 days since a correction of more than 10 percent – the “meaningful” level for many analysts. The more extended the market becomes, the larger the eventual decline may be. Over the last 50 years, the longer the time between market corrections, the steeper the drop once the correction does occur.

His take:

In his famous speech, [former Fed Chairman William McChesney] Martin preceded his punch bowl comment by saying, on behalf of the Fed, “…precautionary action to prevent inflationary excesses is bound to have some onerous effects…” The flipside — a lack of precautionary action by the Fed — will have its own set of consequences in time. It is very difficult to say when exactly these will happen, but near-term indicators suggest the hangover won’t hit while you’re relaxing at the beach this summer.

Unless it does of course.

But for now, just pretend the nearly 200% move higher from the 666 lows is real and keep kicking the can, because as even the Fed has admitted, once the selling finally begins, not even the Fed will be able to stop it.

via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1rDbsQ6 Tyler Durden

After tumbling in May by 1.0% which was the biggest drop since the dreaded “polar vortex”, Durable goods in June posted a modest pick up in June rising 0.7%, driven by yet another surge in aircraft and parts which rose by 8.2% for Nondefense aircraft and 15.3% for defense (thank you Russia). And while this beat expectations of a 0.5% increase, it was the first Y/Y drop in Durable goods since February (and since 2013 if one uses unrevised data).

Excluding volatile transportation, Durable Goods rose by 0.8%, also beating the expected 0.5% print, and higher than last month’s 0.1%. Still, the Y/Y change in the category is hardly indicative of sustainable growth in manufacturing production, and certainly smashes any of the ISM and Markit PMI manufacturing surveys indicating an epic renaissance in US production.

 

There was some modest good news in the core capex orders, aka the Capital Goods Shipments non-defense ex air, which rose 1.4%, beating expectations of 0.5%, however, this was at the expense of a major downward revision to the May number which initially had risen 0.7% and now is said to have declined 1.2%, i.e. a more than complete wash.

 

Finally, the piece de resistance confirming the Q2 GDP recovery is once again indefinitely delayed, were core capex shipments, which tumbled -1.0% on expectations of a 0.4% boost, and May revised lower from 0.4% to 0.1%. Stick a fork in actual CapEx.

And now, bring on the downward GDP Q2 revisions…

via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1rDbgR2 Tyler Durden