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The bitter battle between a spied-upon Senate panel and the sanctioned spiers (CIA) over interrogation techniques and deleted files just escalated…

• *SENATE PANEL VOTES 11-3 FOR DECLASSIFYING INTERROGATION REPORT
• *FEINSTEIN SAYS CIA REPORT CHRONICLES ‘STAIN’ ON HISTORY
• *FEINSTEIN SAYS CIA MADE ‘SERIOUS MISTAKES’ THAT HAUNT U.S.
• *SENATE INTELLIGENCE VOTE ASKS OBAMA TO ISSUE REDACTED REPORT

Of course, some might see this as a distraction pre-elections (a baffle ’em with Bush-shit moment) but that would be a conspiracy ‘theory’…

As AP reports,

The Senate intelligence committee has voted to release parts of a classified report that harshly criticizes CIA terror interrogations after 9/11.

 

The vote to declassify the 6,300-page review’s summary was 11-3. The “torture report” argues CIA methods were often cruel and ineffective. The agency disputes the findings.

 

The two sides are embroiled in a bitter dispute.

 

Senators accuse the agency of spying on their investigation and deleting files. The CIA says Senate staffers illegally accessed information. The Justice Department is reviewing competing criminal referrals.

 

President Barack Obama supports releasing the report.

 

Spokesman Jay Carney says the president will instruct intelligence agencies to conduct declassification work quickly.

Remember – Spying And Torture are best friends…

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

It appears five years of our constant denigration and a book by a world-famous and highly credible author has finally pushed “the people” to lobby for change on Wall Street…

Click image for link to petition

As The FT reports,

“At
some point in time the chickens are going to come home to roost on the
HFT game,” said one Goldman insider. “It’s a smart move for anyone to
become more diversified in their approach to the market.”

Of course, while in principle Zero Hedge supports the idea of crushing HFT – as we have been covering this market parasite for five years – at this point why bother?

It is not rocket surgery to realize that the only solution left to undo the broken, rigged, manipulated system western “capitalism” has become, is to let the HFTs cannibalize each other to death, and let the Fed send the Russell 2000 to 200,000 and then either let it all crash right back to zero or unleash hyperinflation.

There is no other solution.

via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1jG6Nci Tyler Durden

“Hitler took over the Sudetenland with such methods,” warned German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble over the weekend, drawing parallels between Putin’s push into Ukraine and the start of the Nazi occupation of Europe. This did not go down well in Moscow and German Ambassador Ruediger Freiherr von Fritsch was summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry as the Russians lodged an official protest. Merkel was quick to distance herself from the remarks (which Russia calls a “trick”) demanding that “a high-ranking official should take more responsibility for his words.”

Schaeuble’s comments…

“Nobody will be there to maintain order [in Ukraine],” Schaeuble said. Should such chaos ensue, Russian authorities may reason that “now we have some fascists threatening the population; now we have to protect them. We all know this from history. Hitler took over the Sudetenland with such methods.”

As Bloomberg reports,

Russian Foreign Ministry condemns German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble for drawing “pseudo-historical” parallels between annexation of Crimea and Hitler’s pre-war seizure of Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia.

 

The Hitler analogy is a “gross distortion of historical events and facts,” ministry says.

Russia’s foreign ministry statement:

A few days ago the German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, speaking to students a Berlin school, spent unacceptable historical parallels between the reunification of the Crimea with Russia and Hitler’s seizure policy in 1938, the Sudetenland was then Czechoslovakia and the subsequent transfer of control of the whole Czechoslovak territory.

 

We believe this kind of pseudo-German Minister provocative digressions. Admitted they are rough analogy juggling historical events and facts. Occupying high government official ministerial post in Germany must give an account of his words. It is noteworthy that this trick from Schaeuble distanced themselves Chancellor Angela Merkel and Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

 

Today, the Russian Foreign Ministry, Ambassador of Germany in Moscow appropriate representation was made.

And now Schaeuble is out defending himself…

• *SCHAEUBLE SAYS HE’S NOT `STUPID’ TO COMPARE HITLER WITH OTHERS
• *SCHAEUBLE SAYS GERMANY WANTS `GOOD PARTNERSHIP’ WITH RUSSIA
• *SCHAEUBLE SAYS HE WASN’T COMPARING HITLER AND PUTIN MAR 31

Hhhm, you decide if he was or was not…

via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1h8ROIx Tyler Durden

From Goldman’s just released annual shareholder letter:

The quality and breadth of our client franchise are a direct by-product of our ability to attract and retain high-caliber professionals. As an investment bank, our main asset is our people and the advice and solutions that they provide to our clients. Great people build great relationships. And, we are fortunate to have a diverse group of young people from around the world who continue to view Goldman Sachs as a great place to begin and sustain their careers. For our latest analyst class, more than 43,000 candidates applied for 1,900 positions. We accepted about four percent of those applicants and of those receiving offers, more than 80 percent accepted.

Or a lower acceptance ratio than Harvard with 23 applicants for every open position. Something tells us the average wage offered at Goldman is higher than that for line cooks, or for anesthesiologists for that matter. Yup:

 

… And with so few trade offs too.

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

What did Janet Yellen do? Judging by the talking-heads or your favorite business media channel (or your friendly local asset-gatherer), she promised the Fed would hold everything up for longer and recovery (thanks to escape velocity growth at any moment) will be here any quarter… So what did she do that spanked all the high-growth hopes…

 

12 days in a row of dumping Biotechs…

 

But it’s the entire high-growth bubble hype that is popping…

 

Charts: Bloomberg

via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/Pr9SSg Tyler Durden

Has the United States ever experienced a time when a foreign nation has attempted to buy up so much of our land all at once? As Michael Snyder details below, it appears the Chinese are on a real estate buying spree all over America as they are now the dominat 'buyers' of investment green cards. This is occurring as private equity buyers and hedge funds exit the buy-to-rent business en masse and are, as Mike Krieger explains, are desperate to pitch American property to anyone willing to keep Housing Bubble 2.0 inflated… it seems Zillow is more than happy to enable that, "Zillow agreed to make its U.S. property listings available to Chinese consumers through a partnership with a Beijing-based website."

 

As The American Dream's Michael Snyder explains, the Chinese are on a real estate buying spree all over America.  In fact, in some cases large chunks of land are actually being given to them.  Yes, you read that correctly.  China is on the way to becoming the dominant land owner in the entire country, and that is starting to alarm a lot of people.  Do we really want a foreign superpower to physically own so much of our territory?

There are some that are playing down this threat by making a distinction between the Chinese government and Chinese corporations, but things work differently over in China than they do here.  In China, the government is involved in everything.  In fact, 43 percent of all corporate profits in China are produced by companies that the Chinese government controls.  And all of the rest of the companies are very careful to follow the lead and direction of the Chinese government.

That is why what is going on in places such as Thomasville, Alabama is so alarming.  Small communities such as Thomasville are so starved for jobs that they are willing to give land away for free to Chinese companies in order to entice them to build factories…

Gov. Robert Bentley said Friday that he will announce an economic development project in Thomasville, Ala., Monday morning.

 

That project is likely a copper tube plant to be built by Golden Dragon Precise Copper Tube Group. A legal notice published Thursday indicates that the city of Thomasville and others intend to give land and other incentives to GD Copper USA, which state corporation records identify as a Florida-based subsidiary of Golden Dragon.

And in this particular case, we are not just talking about a small plot of land.  We are talking about a 40 acre chunk of land worth 1.5 million dollars…

The legal notice indicated the city plans to give Golden Dragon a 40-acre site. Thomasville Mayor Sheldon Day has said that land is in a city industrial park south of Thomasville High School. It includes a $1.5 million, 50,000-square-foot building that the city constructed in 2009 to attract businesses.

But in most cases, the Chinese actually have to spend money to acquire our real estate.  And they are starting to make some really high profile acquisitions in some of our most expensive cities…

China Vanke and Tishman Speyer signed a deal for a $620 million luxury condo project in San Francisco this winter. In April, another deal for a cool $1.5 billion was inked in Oakland between Zarsion and Signature Development Group.

 

In June, several big deals in New York City went down. Zhang Xin, CEO of Soho China , joined forces with the wealthy Safra family (of Banco Safra fame) of Brazil to buy a stake in the General Motors Building in Midtown, The New York Times reported on June 25. Dalian Wanda Group, another Chinese developer, is planning to build a greenfield luxury hotel in Manhattan.

In other cases, the Chinese are gaining control over vast tracts of U.S. territory by buying up our large corporations.

For example, when the Chinese purchased Smithfield Foods, they suddenly owned 460 large farms and became the top employer in dozens of communities all over the United States…

Smithfield Foods is the largest pork producer and processor in the world.  It has facilities in 26 U.S. states and it employs tens of thousands of Americans.  It directly owns 460 farms and has contracts with approximately 2,100 others.  But now a Chinese company has bought it for $4.7 billion, and that means that the Chinese will now be the most important employer in dozens of rural communities all over America.

And the Chinese seem to have a particular interest in economically-depressed areas of the country.  Perhaps they feel that now is the time to gobble up companies and properties in such areas for bargain-basement prices.  For instance, the following is from a CNBC article that detailed how the Chinese are aggressively “putting down roots in Detroit”…

Dozens of companies from China are putting down roots in Detroit, part of the country’s steady push into the American auto industry.

 

Chinese-owned companies are investing in American businesses and new vehicle technology, selling everything from seat belts to shock absorbers in retail stores, and hiring experienced engineers and designers in an effort to soak up the talent and expertise of domestic automakers and their suppliers.

Speaking of Michigan, one company known as “Sino-Michigan Properties LLC” actually had plans to buy up 200 acres of land near the town of Milan, Michigan.  The goal was to build an entire “China City” with artificial lakes, a Chinese cultural center and hundreds of housing units for Chinese citizens.

But that is nothing compared to the “China City” that was being planned for New York state.  The following is a short excerpt from one of my previous articles…

The Chinese have made trillions of dollars flooding our shores with super cheap products, and now they are using some of that money to buy land and property all over America.  For example, there is now a proposal to construct a multibillion dollar “China City” that would span approximately 600 acres in a remote area of New York state.  This “China City” (that is actually what it would be called) would be located on Yankee Lake in Sullivan County, New York.  The plans anticipate large numbers of Chinese businesses, plenty of homes for Chinese immigrants, a Chinese high school, a college, a casino and even a theme park.  And the first 600 acres is only for “phase one” of the plan.  Ultimately, the goal is for “China City” to cover more than 2,000 acres.  Those promoting this plan say that it will be a great way for New Yorkers to learn to appreciate Chinese culture.

But of much greater concern is the huge wave of real estate purchases that are quietly happening all around us every single day.

The following is from a recent CNBC article entitled “Chinese buying up California housing“…

At a brand new housing development in Irvine, Calif., some of America’s largest home builders are back at work after a crippling housing crash. Lennar, Pulte, K Hovnanian, Ryland to name a few. It’s a rebirth for U.S. construction, but the customers are largely Chinese.

 

“They see the market here still has room for appreciation,” said Irvine-area real estate agent Kinney Yong, of RE/MAX Premier Realty. “What’s driving them over here is that they have this cash, and they want to park it somewhere or invest somewhere.”

So what happens when we get to the point when the Chinese government and/or Chinese citizens own 10 percent of all the real estate in the entire country?

Will it be a problem then?

What about if we get to 20 percent or 30 percent?

At what point will we be forced to admit that we have a major problem on our hands?

Many of our leaders seem resigned to the fact that the future will be dominated by communist China.

For example, the President of the St. Louis Federal Reserve recently stated that “attitudes in the U.S. are going to have to change” because America “will not permanently be the global leader”…

That’s according to Federal Reserve Board of St. Louis President James Bullard, who spoke to the Wall Street Journal on the sidelines of a conference during a recent visit to Hong Kong.

 

“Attitudes in the U.S. are going to have to change, because the U.S. will not permanently be the global leader,” Mr. Bullard said.

In fact, Bullard insists that it is inevitable that the U.S. will end up playing second fiddle to communist China…

In that case, “the U.S. would be playing a role to China similar to the role the U.K. plays to the U.S. today,” Mr. Bullard said. “People think it’s 50-75 years away but it’s probably only 25 or 20 years away, something like that.”

And this is one of the guys that is running the U.S. economy?

There is more than one way to dominate your enemy, and the Chinese understand this.

Sadly, most Americans have absolutely no idea what is happening.

 

 

And now, as Liberty Blitzkrieg's Mike Krieger adds, it appears Zillow is more than happy to hold the floodgates of Chinese buyers open in roder to keep the housing bubble 2.0 inflated…

…just last year I covered how corrupt Chinese are laundering their money through U.S. real estate in my post: Corrupt Chinese Politicians are Buying Billions in U.S. Real Estate.

This is a very important trend that we must keep our eyes on in the years ahead. Particularly since private equity buyers and hedge funds can no longer make a return on buy-to-rent, the real estate industry will become increasingly desperate to pitch American property to anyone willing to keep Housing Bubble 2.0 inflated.

From Bloomberg:

Zillow Inc. agreed to make its U.S. property listings available to Chinese consumers through a partnership with a Beijing-based website.

 

E-House Holdings Ltd.’s Leju real estate site will carry Zillow listings that include homes for sale by agent and owner, units in projects under construction and foreclosures and short-sale properties, Seattle-based Zillow said today in a statement.

 

Chinese buyers spent more than $11 billion on U.S. real estate last year, with an average $425,000 purchase, Zillow said. The Leju-Zillow site, to be operated by the U.S. company, will be ready around midyear, according to the statement.

 

“Brokers and agents with listings on Zillow are now able to reach Chinese home shoppers who are ready to invest in the U.S. market, with no additional cost or effort,” Errol Samuelson, Zillow’s chief industry development officer, said in the statement.

Have fun being a peasant under your Wall Street and Chinese feudal lords.

Full article here.

 

via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/Pr9PG4 Tyler Durden

Tthe real backlash against HFT begins:

• INTERACTIVE BROKERS TO OFFER CUSTOMERS ACCESS TO IEX: CNBC
• INTERACTIVE CUSTOMERS CAN SPECIFY TRADE BE DONE VIA IEX: CNBC

And from CNBC which broke the news:

Interactive Brokers is launching a new service that will for the first time allow retail investors to specify that their orders only go on the new IEX trading platform.

 

IEX, whose founder Brad Katsuyama is the core character in author Michael Lewis’s new book “Flash Boys,” has said that its structure is designed to keep high-frequency traders from getting ahead of others’ orders.

 

IEX, which some have called an exchange, does not post public prices and as such is more like a “dark pool” for private trading.

 

Interactive Brokers is an online discount broker perhaps best known for its founder and CEO, Thomas Peterffy, the Hungarian-born billionaire who stars in the brokerage’s commercials.

And this is how the Goldman-backed IEX exchange proceeds to slowly take over lit markets, and take all important frontrunnable order flow – the lifeblood of HFTs of course- away from the vacuum tubes.

via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1hkLBn4 Tyler Durden