Tag: news

Erdogan Files Criminal Charges Against Head Of Research At Turkish Bank For Writing Displeasing Report

Having purged virtually all of his domestic political enemies, it will probably not come as a surprise the head of research as well as the chief strategist at one of Turkey’s largest brokerages was stripped of his professional license and is facing criminal charges over a report analyzing the impact of the July 15 coup attempt, marking the first expansion of the president’s unprecedented crackdown on the nation’s private financial sector.

According to Bloomberg, the Capital Markets Board published a decision in which it said the strategist, Mert Ulker, failed to “fulfill his responsibilities” in the preparation and publication of a July 18 report produced by Ak Investment, the brokerage arm of Turkey’s second-largest bank. Ulker also faces charges under articles 299 and 301 of the penal code, which make insulting Turkey’s president, the nation or its institutions a crime. The CMB license is required to work in capital markets in Turkey. The statement didn’t say whether Ak Investment’s status was affected.

Mert’s LinkedIn profile is shown below.

  • Head of Research at Ak Investment
  • Boasts 18 years of experience in financial markets, including equity research and cross-asset strategy, quantitative analysis, investment advisory and online brokerage
  • 9 years of management experience as Head of Research and Executive Vice President, managing three different departments and a total of 40 employees
  • Investment advisory coverage comprised global stock, bond, FX, commodity and real estate markets, as well as asset allocation, with a specific focus on Turkish financial markets
  • Advisory to primary deals, including IPOs, private placements, M&As and venture capital
  • Strategic planning and risk management experience in the energy subsidiary of a conglomerate

 

Ulker is the first financial analyst to have his license revoked amid a purge of tens of thousands of bureaucrats, educators and security-forces personnel in the wake of the failed attempt by a faction of Turkey’s military to overthrow Erdogan’s government 12 days ago. Turkish regulators have been requesting that banks hand over their analysis of the putsch, with Mehmet Ali Akben, head of the banking regulator, saying on July 21 that it disapproved of the publication of “reports that would turn expectations and the atmosphere negative.“

What did Ulker say that so displeased Erdogan? Did he ref out an excel model? Or did he overwrite a spreadheet with “paste values“? Or, gasp, use a mouse with Excel?

As Bloomberg adds, in a 2,750-word report published on the Monday after coup, Ak Investment summarized the most recent developments and offered forecasts for the Turkish lira, the stock market and the impact on the economy: in other words it merely did what every other professional and armchair analyst in the world has done over the past two weeks. It also analyzed the likely trajectory of Turkish politics, saying the developments had “resulted in more power being concentrated in President Erdogan’s hands.“

Again, hardly a controversial statement.

However, one segment that certainly enraged Turkey’s new authoritarian despot is the one exposing the truth. One section of the report outlined various explanations of who was behind the coup, addressing speculation that it could have been a so-called false flag operation “stage-managed to give President Erdogan an opportunity to purge the military of opponents and extend his grip on Turkey.” Even so, it downplayed that explanation as not being the most “rational” possibility. Erdogan holds Fethullah Gulen, an Islamic preacher based in the U.S., responsible for the coup attempt and is seeking his extradition for trial in Turkey. Meanwhile, Gulen has accused Erdogan of staging the coup himself to, you guessed it, concentrated more power in Erdogan’s hands.

Needless to say, this is an absolute outrage… which is why not a single ‘democratic’ nation will speak up.

When Bloomberg tried to get a statement from the Turkish CMB, the agency declined to comment referring to the bulletin. 

“Mert Ulker’s contract with Ak Investment has been canceled as of July 25, Monday and since then he is no longer an employee,” said Mert Erdogmus, chief executive officer of Ak Investment, in a telephone interview on Wednesday.

And just like that Turkey officially joined the ranks of the world’s most repressed banana republics, or as Bloomberg puts it more tactfully, “government censorship is an inevitable reality for doing business in many emerging markets. Chinese authorities have installed the “Great Firewall” online and pay millions of people to monitor content that is critical of the government. And in Argentina, former President Cristina Fernandez ordered a crackdown on independent inflation estimates ahead of her 2011 re-election bid.”

The chilling effect of Erdogan’s crackdown on financial analysis is set to spread like wildfire. According to Bloomberg, some brokerages with operations in Turkey are scaling back their commentary in the wake of the coup attempt. At least five brokerages, which cited regulator requests for their research as well as investigations into their e-mail traffic, declined to comment to Bloomberg this week.

Needless to say, Erdogan’s decision will backfire dramatically as no foreign investors will have any faith in Turkey’s economic data or analysis going forward.

The regulator’s ruling institutionalizes self-censorship that was already widespread in Turkey and will undermine the credibility of the nation’s brokerages, according to Nathan Griffiths, who helps oversee about $1.1 billion as a senior money manager at NN Investment Partners in The Hague.

 

“In practical terms, it means I have little interest in reading research from local brokers because they are effectively unable to offer balanced commentary,” Griffiths said. “It’s terrible for the integrity of the Turkish brokerage community.”

Others agreed. “Punishing analysts is likely to backfire”, according to Ghanem Nuseibeh, the founder of London-based risk consulting firm Cornerstone Global Associates. “Everything that comes out of Turkey will now be taken with a pinch of salt. If this environment persists, Turkey will reach a point where confidence in its financial sector and economy will crumble, as far as foreign investors are concerned.”

Not only will the environment persist, but it is set to get far worse.

Unless of course, Erdogan realizes that the real way to manipulate data is not by brute force and repression, as he did in this case, but the way the US does it: by incentivizing analysts with fatter paychecks but only if they write bullish reports. As for the preferred data manipulation mechanism of choice, Turkey should simply adopt what the US Department of Commerce has gotten so good at when the underlying data is ugly: use seasonal adjustments. Lots of seasonal adjustments.

via http://ift.tt/2aKs4T5 Tyler Durden

Donald Trump, Who Promised Repeatedly to Release His Tax Returns, Definitely Won’t Release His Tax Returns

More than a year ago, in February of 2015, Donald Trump—who was not yet running for president—said he would “certainly” release his personal tax returns. “I would release tax returns,” he told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt, reiterating later in the interview that, “I have no objection to certainly showing tax returns.” 

In January of this year, as Trump was leading in the GOP primary polls, he again said that the returns were forthcoming. “We’re working on that now. I have big returns, as you know, and I have everything all approved and very beautiful and we’ll be working that over in the next period of time,” he said on MSNBC.

In May, after he had effectively locked up the nomination, he said once again that he planned to release them—though perhaps not until after the election. “So, the answer is, I’ll release. Hopefully before the election I’ll release,” he said on Fox News. “And I’d like to release.” The hold-up, he explained, was that he was under audit by the Internal Revenue Service.

Trump formally accepted the Republican party’s nomination for president last week. And this morning, his campaign manager, Paul Manafort, confirmed what Trump’s year-plus-long dodge on the matter has always implied: Donald Trump won’t release his tax returns before the presidential election this November.

“Mr. Trump has said that his taxes are under audit and he will not be releasing them,” Manafort said this morning.

This isn’t a violation of any rule. But as with so much of Trump’s campaign, it’s a violation of norms and expectations. He will be the first major party nominee in more than 40 years to not make any returns public. There’s no modern precedent for his refusal to release this information; instead, Trump is setting a precedent, paving the way for candidates of the future to avoid transparency.

There’s lots of speculation about why, exactly, Trump won’t release the information. Would it show financial connections to Russia? Would it reveal that he paid no taxes, or that he made very little money? Would it suggest that Trump is not nearly as rich as he says he is?

These sorts of guessing games, while interesting, don’t get us far. But the refusal to release the returns is telling enough. It’s more evidence that his word isn’t worth a damn, and neither are his excuses.

Trump’s vows to release his tax returns, like so many of his promises, were totally worthless. And his stated reason—that he is under audit by the IRS—doesn’t hold up either.

There’s no rule whatsoever prohibiting Trump from releasing returns, even in the midst of an audit, presuming that he is, in fact, being audited. He could do so if he wanted.

Indeed, there’s a precedent for a presidential candidate releasing his returns even as an audit is ongoing. In 1973, as he was running for reelection, Richard Nixon was embroiled in a tax scandal over a charitable donation on his personal tax returns. As a result of the scandal, according to tax historian Joseph Thorndike, Nixon’s taxes were scrutinized by the Joint Committee on Taxation, which found that he owed nearly half a million dollars more than he had paid. The IRS eventually agreed. Despite all this, Nixon still managed to make his tax returns public.

That’s how shady Trump is: He makes Nixon look like a model of transparency and accountability. 

from Hit & Run http://ift.tt/2auD758
via IFTTT

What To Expect When You’re Expecting The FOMC

"Curioser and curioser!" Cried Alice (she was so much surprised, that for the moment she quite forgot how to speak good English.)

As we await today’s FOMC decision, Bloomberg's Richard Breslow has been struck curious by how many people are speculating that the accompanying statement might lurch back hawkish. For a Fed that has had such notable lack of success seeing clarity in its crystal ball, that would be remarkably aggressive.

July is out, so we’re talking about a September meeting that’s eight weeks away with lots of data and known and unknown events in between. The most they can credibly say, is they’re open-minded and data dependent.

[ZH: But even then, how do they remain credible in light of this…]

The Fed worked too hard lobbying the market to expect a June hike which would precede more to come. They put a lot of credibility on the line. Only to be utterly blindsided by events. Will they be willing to go out on that same limb again? Game theory doesn’t suggest they’re about to get lucky.

The last time we heard from Chair Yellen was her Humphrey- Hawkins testimony, a full month ago. And she was dovish. Remember? Isn’t it reasonable to assume that Jackson Hole on Aug. 26 would be a more sensible (and safer) time for a serious update on intent? Especially if it’s meant to direct a significant market repricing.

A lot has, understandably, been made of the waves of downside buying in eurodollar options targeting December as well as 2017. Similar strategies, also in size, were executed ahead of last June’s meeting. Taking a shot or trying to find mis-priced bets is very different than knowing something.

The weak two and five-year U.S. Treasury auctions so far this week may reflect the market repricing the probability of fiscal policy finally being introduced into the global mix. A reasonable cause for traders to be cautious given the rhetoric. But a large leap of faith for the Fed to base commitments.

Interesting to be having this debate on a day that Chinese equities fell over 3% to start the afternoon…

 

And also on a day when durable goods plunged. (so China turmoil and weak data… that was lucky timing)

via http://ift.tt/2ax7R6B Tyler Durden

Trump: “I Hope Russia Has All 33,000 Emails That Hillary Deleted”

In yet another statement that is certain to spark outrage among Democrats, moments ago Donald Trump said he hopes that Russian hackers accused of breaching the DNC have obtained the tens of thousands of emails that Hillary Clinton deleted from her private email server. 

“If they hacked, they probably have her 33,000 emails. I hope they do,” Trump told reporters on Wednesday at a press conference at his Miami-area hotel.

“They probably have her 33,000 emails that she lost and deleted. You’d see some beauties, so we’ll see.”

He went on to address Russia directly: “Russia, if you are listening,” he said, “I hope you are able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by the press.”

He also said that the Russia-DNC hacking allegations are a “total deflection” from the scandal plaguing the Democratic party.

He then repeated what he has said previously, namely that “I have nothing to do with Russia.”

Trump made it clear that there would most likely never be any damning revelations into his own email usage as he “almost never sends emails” as he is just not a believer in the medium.

Finally, when responding to a question whether he’d threat Putin as an adversary or an ally, he said he would rather be friendly with Russia so “we could knock out ISIS with other people. Wouldn’t it be nice if we got along with Russia”

via http://ift.tt/2aKmq3d Tyler Durden

The U.S. Presidential Election is a Mess – Thank Goodness!

 

 

 


The U.S. Presidential Election is a Mess – Thank Goodness! 


Written by Nathan McDonald (CLICK FOR ORIGINAL) 

 


 

Let’s put in bluntly: the United States Presidential election campaign is a complete and utter mess. We are looking a country that is deeply divided on key and fundamental differences. We are looking at two potential leaders that stand in stark difference to one another and are attracting very different supporters because of this. Thank God!

 

Finally, we are seeing a campaign that is different. Finally, we are seeing an election cycle that your vote will make a difference. In the past, any Presidential candidate you voted for was typically controlled by the same financial elite pulling their strings. They have been the puppet masters behind the scenes for decades.

 

Arguably, we have not seen a real President of the United States since the era of Reagan, and even he was made to step in line after his botched assassination attempt.

 

Unfortunately, it is not all peaches and cream. Hillary Clinton is the still the establishment’s candidate. This cannot be argued. All one must do is look at the utter and complete corruption that surrounds her and the massive flows of money from financial institutions pouring into her coffers.

 

Donald Trump, on the other hand, is finding that support among the elite and the old Republican establishment is barely forthcoming, if at all. Not only this, he has been demonized by the mainstream media like no other Presidential candidate in the past. These two points are reason enough to vote for him, and to tell you that he is not controlled by the establishment. These two points give me incredible faith for the future of the United States and its people.

 

The mass majority agrees that the West is in a horrible position. The economic crisis of 2008 has stagnated and we are due for another monster correction in our future. Terrorism has encroached on our once-peaceful lives, and is now a daily event and people are getting sick and tired of the over the top politically correct culture that has taken root.

 

The proof is all around you. People are breaking out of the false realities built for them – they are growing backbones and are asking for – no, DEMANDING – change. Not the false Obama change that was rammed down the people’s throats, but real, foundation-shaking change.

 

This is exactly why the establishment was so scared of the Bernie Sanders revolution and is now frightened to death of the Donald Trump movement. These candidates, along with the recent successful vote of Brexit, show that the pendulum of power in the West is swinging back towards the people and it is about time.

 

Hillary Clinton at this time of writing is now short by 7 points in a recent general election poll. Even with all the nonsense and corruption that exist in the system, Donald Trump’s momentum cannot be stopped. This trend is going to continue, and you better get used to saying “President Donald Trump”, whether you like it or not, for it will be a reality before you know it.

 

To that I say, about time.

 

 

Please email with any questions about this article or precious metals HERE

 

 

 

The U.S. Presidential Election is a Mess – Thank Goodness! 


Written by Nathan McDonald (CLICK FOR ORIGINAL) 

via http://ift.tt/29ZLgir Sprott Money

US government pays $475,000 for illegally searching woman’s vagina

Have you lost that loving feeling? If so, the United States federal government might just be able to help.

Before you swipe right on Tinder or update that eHarmony account, consider instead taking a quick trip out of the country.

Because on your way back home into the Land of the Free, US Customs and Border Protection will have agents standing by ready with heaps of government stimulus.

It happened to a Jane Doe (the name has been withheld to protect what little remains of her dignity), a 54-year old US citizen who had recently been on a trip to Mexico.

As she was returning home via the Cordova Bridge border crossing in El Paso, she was randomly selected for extra special screening and escorted to a private area.

I’ve been there. It’s not fun. They don’t tell you anything, and they don’t say why.

They act very aggressively and start barking orders at you as if you’re already a prison inmate.

Quite frequently you can sit there wasting away for hours. Fortunately for me, nothing particularly sinister ever happened. For Ms. Doe, it was quite the opposite.

According to the published case files, she was frisked, and then ordered to squat so that a drug-sniffing dog could check out her nether regions.

Apparently the dog liked what he smelled, because Ms. Doe was then taken to yet another room, ordered to pull down her pants, and crouch.

At that point an agent from Customs and Border Protection “inspected her anus with a flashlight.”

She was then ordered to lean backwards in a crouched position, after which another agent inserted a speculum into her vagina to search for drugs.

Another agent then “parted Ms. Doe’s vulva with her hand, pressed her fingers into Ms. Doe’s vagina, and visually examined her genitalia with a flashlight.”

They then took her to a hospital for a further 6 hours of involuntary testing, which included forcing her to have a bowel movement as they all watched, plus X-rays, CT scans, and more.

I know what you’re thinking– they probably found a treasure trove of cocaine and methamphetamine shoved deep inside Ms. Doe’s womanhood.

Except they didn’t.

Ms. Doe was “brutally probed against her will” for hours and hours without judicial oversight, due process, or even reasonable suspicion. And they found nothing.

Here’s the really disgusting part: at the end of this ordeal, they released her without charge… with one catch.

They told her that if she signed a consent form, retroactively giving her permission to be abused and violated, that the government would pay for all the tests and various medical expenses.

But if she didn’t sign the consent form, she’d have to pay for them all herself.

Ms. Doe refused to sign, and the United States government sent her a bill for more than $5,000, essentially demanding that she pay for her own sexual assault.

Emotionally shattered she went home feeling like a rape victim. She sued.

And, as the pitiful justice system in the Land of the Free is far from swift, it took over three years for the case to gain any traction.

Finally, as of a few days ago, the case has been settled. And the US government agreed to pay Ms. Doe $475,000.

But as you can imagine, there were strings attached, specifically that the settlement should “not be taken as an admission of liability or fault.”

I guess it’s Ms. Doe’s fault. She must have been asking for it. It’s like a classic rape story from the 1950s. Absolutely appalling.

But just think about what this means–

Gun-toting government thugs are running around committing sexual assault on US citizens so they can continue waging a costly and utterly ridiculous war on plants.

Apparently doing so is quite typical. So typical, in fact, that they have a consent form ready to be signed by their gang rape victims in the hopes of keeping it quiet.

And even if it doesn’t stay quiet and one of the victims goes public, the government refuses to admit its own culpability and pays them off with taxpayer funds.

Just think about that: YOUR tax money is going to pay off the US government’s sexual assault victims.

This is so disgusting, so vile… I would ask you just one simple question: have you reached your breaking point yet?

from Sovereign Man http://ift.tt/2axwI7u
via IFTTT

A Psychiatric Diagnosis Of The U.S. ‘Market’

Submitted by Charles Hugh-Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,

Schizophrenic Disconnect From Reality, Bipolar Mania, Psychotic Delusions of Wealth

If you think a delusional market is healthy, it's time for a psychiatric exam.

What diagnosis would an experienced psychiatrist offer when presented with the bizarre behavior of the U.S. stock market? We assume that the wild mood swings of greed and fear are "normal" for markets devoted to short-term profit and speculation, but the stock market's disconnect from reality is far beyond mere mood swings.

The stock market thinks it's solidly on pavement, but in reality it's like a car flying off a cliff: the Wiley E. Coyote moment is just ahead. There's nothing but air beneath the stock market.

Consider the reality of PE expansion from a price-earnings (PE) of 10 at the bottom in 2009 to 18+ today, while profits are stagnant. And what is driving this expansion other than a delusional belief that profits will magically reverse and log massive gains in the second half of 2016?

If we strip out "one-time expenses" and other accounting flim-flam, profits are plummeting. How else can we characterize this disconnect between stagnant sales (look at Apple, CAT, etc.) and "profits" that are one step away from outright fraud as anything other than delusional?

As global trade, U.S. rail traffic and other non-gameable measures of economic activity stagnate or decline, how can anyone connected to reality expect sales and profits to rise sharply?

The stock market is hitting new highs for what reason? The typical answer is: more central bank stimulus is on the way, the Fed/ BoJ /Bank of China/ European Central Bank have our back, etc. etc. etc.

But the reality is obvious to all: the returns on central bank stimulus have declined to near-zero. Trillions in additional stimulus are needed to just keep the delusional markets from experiencing gravity (see car photo above).

And how about the manic mood swings from panic in February (i.e. a whiff of reality) and the euphoria of new highs in summer? If this isn't the acme of bipolar delusion, then what is?

Perhaps the greatest delusion is the confidence that this ephemeral bubble "wealth" is actual wealth that can be counted on to fund pensions and insurance claims in the future. Pity the deranged souls who actually believe that stock gains based on fraudulent claims of "profit" and delusional expectations of rising profits as the dollar strengthens and the global economy implodes are "wealth" that can be considered permanent.

The only possible diagnosis of this stock market behavior:

1. Patient (the U.S. stock market) is suffering a schizophrenic disconnect from reality.

 

2. Patient (the U.S. stock market) is suffering from bipolar mania that leads to delusional beliefs in delusional profits and delusional central bank omnipotence.

 

3. Patient is suffering from psychotic delusions of wealth, akin to the delusion that the patient is ruler of the world, galaxy, universe, central banks are all-powerful, etc.

If you think a delusional market is healthy, it's time for a psychiatric exam.

via http://ift.tt/2adOE4y Tyler Durden

Americans Afraid of Genome-Editing to Cure Sick Kids: What’s Wrong with You People?

GeneticEngineeringMonikaWisniewskaDreamstimeA new Pew Research Center poll reports that majorities of Americans are opposed to allowing others to use various technologies that could enhance human health and capabilities. The poll finds that 50 percent would oppose using gene editing to give babies much reduced disease risk; 66 percent are against allowing people to use a brain chip that would offer much improved cognitive abilities; and 63 percent would forbid the use of synthetic blood to provide much improved physical abilities. My first reaction on hearing these results is: What is wrong with you people?

As annoying as they are, I don’t take these Luddite sentiments too seriously. There was much the same public reaction to the dreaded test-tube babies in the 1960s and 1970s. As I report in my 2010 article, “From Yuck to Yippee!,” a 1969 Harris poll found that a majority of Americans believed that producing test-tube babies was “against God’s will.” Congress even considered outlawing IVF. Yet, just one month after the birth of the first IVF baby, Louise Joy Brown, the Gallup poll reported that 60 percent of Americans approved of in vitro fertilization and more than half would consider using it if they were infertile. By 2013, another Pew poll found that nearly 80 percent of Americans have no problem with using IVF. The same thing will happen with these technologies when they are shown to be safe and effective.

During my radio interview, AirTalk host Larry Mantle focused on the “ethical” concerns that seem to motivate public opposition. Naturally, one of the main fears is that rich people would further exacerbate socioeconomic inequality by using these technologies to benefit themselves and their families. I counter that the costs of these technologies will fall and they will become widely available. Two of them – brain chips and booster blood – could notionally be provided to anyone who wants to use them – and they can be removed if an individual decides later for some reason they would prefer to “go natural.”

With regard to gene-editing babies to reduce their risk of disease – what person wants to be less healthy? Just as we assume consent for fetal surgery to correct malformations, we can also assume consent to gene-editing to fix genetic traits associated with the higher risk of disease.

The Pew folks also conducted several focus groups to try to get handle on what might be motivating opposition to these technologies. The focus groups included a lot of religious believers and a couple of my favorite responses were: 

“That’s always a sticking point with technology and advancements in medicine. … There are those who don’t believe you should be touching what God has created. If God wanted you to be sharp in the mind … then you would have been born that way. That’s the thought of some religious people. But, I’m probably in that category where the Lord gave people the ability to come up with a way to help you [and it’s OK to take advantage of that].” – a 52-year black evangelical Protestant man in Atlanta.

“Just because you have faith in God, does it make you not go have your gallbladder [or] your tonsils taken out? I mean, people do things every day to lengthen their life and to be healthier.” – 50-year-old Hispanic evangelical Protestant woman in Phoenix.

Back in 2010, I concluded:

We are still in the yuck phase when it comes to the public’s thinking about impending advances in reproductive technologies that will enable parents to endow their children with genes and epigenetic combinations that will improve their health, lengthen their lives, boost their intelligence, and strengthen their bodies. But sometime in this century, when these technological interventions become safe and effective, yuck will turn as quickly to yippee as the response to those test tube babies did 32 years ago.

That’s still true.

For more discussion of this Pew poll, click on the link to the Airtalk radio program.

from Hit & Run http://ift.tt/2ax2ZhV
via IFTTT

Explosion Reported Near Migration Center in Zirndorf, Germany – Live Feed

According to German media BR Franken, moments ago an explosion took place near the migration center in the town of Zirndorf near the Bavarian city of Nurenberg. BR24 reports that a suitcase filled with aerosol cans has exploded near a reception center for refugees.

Focus.de adds that emergency personnel are on site, citing local police.

It adds that an unknown suspect brought the suitcase exploded. Witnesses had reported several people fled from the scene. There is no information if anyone was injured.

 

* * *
Live Feed from SkyNews

 

via http://ift.tt/2a4FYOl Tyler Durden