America’s Retailers Are Closing Stores Faster Than Ever

 

• Rue21 may be latest casualty as it prepares bankruptcy filing
• Amazon is gobbling up most of the industry’s online growth

The battered American retail industry took a few more lumps this week, with stores at both ends of the price spectrum preparing to close their doors.

At the bottom, the seemingly ubiquitous Payless Inc. shoe chain filed for bankruptcy and announced plans to shutter hundreds of locations. Ralph Lauren Corp., meanwhile, said it will close its flagship Fifth Avenue Polo store — a symbol of old-fashioned luxury that no longer resonates with today’s shoppers.

EUROZONE CRUMBLES: Germany orders Greece to LEAVE euro if it wants debts cut

Germany seems to be enacting plan B for its European conquest: Consolidate and strengthen.

 

olfgang Schaeuble said Greece must leave the euro if it wants debts cut (Getty)

 

HARDLINE German minister Wolfgang Schaeuble has warned the only way Greece’s loans can be written off is through the country leaving the eurozone, as the debt crisis once again blows up.

Angela Merkel’s finance chief ruled out cutting the amount of money owed by the struggling Mediterranean state in an interview on German television.

He insisted creditors must keep the pressure on Greece to meet the strict terms of its bailout programme or kick it out of the single currency.

Markets reacted with alarm after the minister raised the prospect of a Grexit.

Pentagon: China Threatened to Bankrupt Defense Contractor

Not only is espionage in the form of technology theft a serious issue, but the Chinese have also been manufacturing microchips Americans use [i.e. Huewei smartphones — founded by a PLA engineer on behest of the CCP (See also HERE)]… and it’s not limited to the average American consumer, but the U.S. military as well.

 

U.S. President Barack Obama walks past Chinese President Xi Jinping / AP

 

Incident involving jet fighter logistics highlights aggressive Chinese cyber espionage

A U.S. defense contractor was threatened with bankruptcy by Chinese hackers seeking jet fighter logistics secrets, according to the Pentagon’s Joint Staff.

A report earlier this month by the Joint Staff’s J-2 intelligence directorate revealed that the American contractor, a company involved in classified defense work, was threatened by Chinese hackers, according to Pentagon officials familiar with the report.

The Chinese demanded access to the company’s intellectual property, and said unless the company secrets were provided, China would steal the data, reverse engineer it, and then sell it internationally in a bid to force the company into bankruptcy.

Is Deutsche Bank Kaputt?

It looks like Deutsche Bank is heading toward failure. Why might we be concerned?

The problem is that Deutsche is too big to fail — more precisely, that the new Basel III bank resolution procedures now in place are unlikely to be adequate if it defaults.

Let’s review recent developments. In June 2013 FDIC Vice Chairman Thomas M. Hoenig lambasted Deutsche in a Reuters interview. “Its horrible, I mean they’re horribly undercapitalized,” he said. They have no margin of error.” A little over a year later, it was revealed that the New York Fed had issued a stiff letter to Deutsche’s U.S. arm warning that the bank was suffering from a litany of problems that amounted to a “systemic breakdown” in its risk controls and reporting. Deutsche’s operational problems led it to fail the next CCAR — the Comprehensive Capital Analysis and Review aka the Fed’s stress tests – in March 2015.

US banks not prepared for another financial crisis, say federal regulators

We also shouldn’t forget that the FDIC is helpless and broke itself, which compounds the problem and shows a double standard on their part. They FDIC will ironically be the one raiding the banks during the next crisis but like to heap burden on them because passing blame is the game today.

 

Five out of eight of the biggest US banks do not have credible plans for winding down operations during a crisis without the help of public money, federal regulators said on Wednesday. Photograph: Mike Blake/Reuters

 

Some of the US’s biggest banks still lack a proper plan for bankruptcy, in the event of another major financial crisis, US regulators said on Wednesday.

In the wake of the great recession banks were required to come up with “living wills” to prove they had a credible plan for bankruptcy that would not require another bailout from the taxpayers.

The largest U.S. coal company just filed for bankruptcy

Obama’s war on coal is succeeding as he’s making good on his threat to kill the industry:

 

Peabody Energy, the world’s largest private-sector coal producer, filed for bankruptcy on Wednesday in a U.S. court, citing “unprecedented” industry pressures and a sharp decline in the price of coal.

The company said it will continue to operate while in bankruptcy, while working to reduce debt and improve cash flow.

Beware 2018, when the next perfect banking storm may hit

Those looking for when the next financial crisis might be should set a reminder for January 1, 2018.

That’s when a host of new rules are scheduled to come into force that are likely to further constrain lending ability and prompt banks to only advance money to the best borrowers, which could accelerate bankruptcies worldwide. As with any financial regulation, however, the effects will start to be felt sooner than the implementation date.

Plunging prices could force a third of U.S. oil firms into bankruptcy

Saudi Arabia’s economic war on America’s oil industry will soon start to show its effect. Declining prices mean less profit. Less profit means operating costs, mainly wages, are unsustainable. Unustainable operating costs mean layoffs and bankruptcies. This leads to collapse of the oil industry.

 

Drillers from Houston to Riyadh won’t quit pumping despite the oil glut.

 

Three major investment banks — Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Citigroup Inc.   — now expect the price of oil to crash through the $30 threshold and into $20 territory in short order as a result of China’s slowdown, the U.S. dollar’s appreciation and the fact that drillers from Houston to Riyadh won’t quit pumping despite the oil glut.

Economists say Puerto Rico needs right to bankruptcy option

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Puerto Rico’s financial future hung in limbo Tuesday as economists and officials warned that the U.S. territory could head down Greece’s path if it is not allowed to declare bankruptcy as it struggles with $72 billion in public debt.

The island prepared to close a troubled fiscal year amid intense investor scrutiny just hours before the first of several multimillion-dollar debt payments is due. It remained unclear whether the government would meet the roughly $400 million obligation due Wednesday, obtain yet another extension from creditors, or default.

Gov. Alejandro Garcia Padilla has said that the overall debt is unpayable and that he will seek a moratorium on payments, although it is still unknown whether bondholders will agree to that or opt to resolve the issue in court.

Germany Could Lose €80 Billion if Greece Goes Bankrupt

Are you starting to see who has the most to lose in the Eurozone crisis? If so, you see why Greece might not go. If Greek can’t pay, the German banks cannot survive. Germany is also exposed to $72 trillion in derivatives whereas the nation’s GDP is roughly $2.7 trillion, to put it in perspective. The stakes are high and Greece might have the upper hand after all.

 

Head of Bundestag Committee on European Union Affairs predicts that Germany could lose billions of euros if Greece goes bankrupt.

Athens may not be able to return €80 billion of economic aid that it received from Germany in case of bankruptcy, Deutsche Welle wrote.

What happens if Greece defaults?

The bank runs are already seen as a foregone conclusion by the Greek government — and are already happening, which is why you see a war on cash. This is also occurring not only in Greece, but other nations. If cash is irrelevant banks cannot go broke because there is no physical liability owed by these same banks.

Please see the following posts for examples in the war on cash:

The War on Cash Is Going Completely Nuts in Europe

The Secret Meeting in London to End Cash

“Cash Is Coined Freedom”: War on Cash Becomes Official in Germany, Reaches G-7, Draws Withering Fire

Abolishing Cash – New Age of Economic Totalitarianism

The New Age of Economic Totalitarianism & the London Meeting to End Currency

 

Greece is completely out of money and time is running out to save it from bankruptcy.

The cash-strapped country urgently needs an €7.2billion (£5.6billion) bailout loan to stay afloat, but so far it has been unable to reach an agreement with EU creditors over the terms attached to the cash.

Until Greek and European leaders reach a lasting solution to the crisis, Greece’s future inside the eurozone looks highly uncertain and a so-called ‘Grexit’ a strong possibility.

In the short-term Greece faces a number of debt repayments in June to the International Monetary Fund.

California Passes Stealth Law Banning Businesses That Aren’t Profitable and Fair Enough

Essentially, voters allowed themselves to be duped into voting themselves out of business. Look for the cannibalization of the economy through layoffs and closures of businesses to begin a little before 2018, when the law goes into effect.

 

Business owner who supported new minimum wage realizes math isn’t strong suit—layoffs now likely.

What would you do if some small-minded government bureaucrat told you that your coffee shop or widget factory didn’t make enough money to justify letting you stay in business, and you were hereby ordered to shut down?

You would probably show him the exit.

Eurozone debt crisis: Greece admits it cannot make loan repayments

GREECE raised new fears of eurozone collapse yesterday after saying it could not afford an international loan repayment due next week.

nterior Minister Nikos Voutsis, whose Syriza party was elected earlier this year on a left-wing, anti-austerity ticket,  told Greek TV his country did not have the £1.1 billion expected by the International Monetary Fund on June 5.

…

The Greek government is being told by the IMF and EU to make more reforms in exchange for a further £5 billion in bailout cash to stave off bankruptcy.

Greece warns it does not have the money to make IMF repayment

Because of the interconnectedness of the world economy, if Greece does truly fall apart and cause the currency bloc to crumble, it will spread to South America. South America’s weakest countries, such as Argentina or Venezuela or both, would be the most likely to take the hit and then collapse. From there, it will spread north up to Mexico which would then take a hit and go through the same process. When the falling dominoes reach Mexico, the United States has two weeks before it will suffer the same fate. Respectively, ordinary Americans will have a buffer of two weeks time to withdraw all the cash they can from the bank.

Keep your eyes wide open and remain on guard. The world is too interconnected and is one catastrophe away from implosion.

 

Greece cannot make debt repayments to the International Monetary Fund next month unless it achieves a deal with creditors, Interior Minister Nikos Voutsis said on Sunday, the most explicit remarks yet from Athens about the likelihood of default if talks fail.

Meanwhile, Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis said it would be “catastrophic” if Greece left the euro, predicting it would be “the beginning of the end of the common currency project”.

Shut out of bond markets and with bailout aid locked, cash-strapped Athens has been scraping state coffers to meet debt obligations and to pay wages and pensions.

Greece orders raid on government coffers as cash dwindles

Government issues a decree forcing all state bodies to transfer funds to the central bank

The Greek government has ordered a mandatory transfer of cash reserves from state-owned enterprises to its central bank, in a desperate bid to gather enough cash to remain solvent.

Citing “extremely urgent and unforeseen needs”, the government issued the decree which will also apply to local government authorities.