Draghi Admits EU May Breakup For First Time

For the first time, the head of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi, has conceded the possibility that the EU may fall apart. Draghi came out and said that any member leaving the Eurozone would need to settle its claims or debts with the bloc’s payments system before severing ties. This statement reveals the heated discussion at Davos and the rift that is beginning to spread. This statement, released on Friday, was made in a letter to two Italian lawmakers in the European Parliament.

Dollar Reality – End of Petro Dollars

All economies are in freefall, however the U.S. is the safe haven (for the moment) because of a rising currency and still having the world’s ‘strongest’ economy, which is now in all reality propped up by hot air. The U.S. Dollar’s rise, as the article states, will wreck the rest of the world economy before its own demise comes around the corner. Pay attention to the signs. We’re riding the roller coaster to the top before the steep drop.

It’s also true that the Petrodollar is dead. It’s no longer a factor in what keeps the U.S. Dollar alive. It’s already on the chopping block now that this anchor has been removed and is only a matter of time before the axe comes down. That was the last foundation keeping the USD secure.

Because of the wealth of the information found in this article, most of the source will remain archived here.

 

 

QUESTION: Dear Mr. Armstrong,

(a) You say that the world is losing confidence in governments and I do not question that for a minute.

(b) BUT you also say that the dollar will strengthen for various probable sounding reasons, which it is presently doing. (whereas many think it will collapse).

For the collapse theory: it appears the petro dollar is being dumped which bodes ill for the dollar remaining the prime reserve currency. ——– does not think it will and that SDR’s will replace it. Surely as this eminent position of the petro dollar declines, there will be further debasement? (loss of purchasing power) – the opposite of a stronger dollar.

China Is Buying the Chicago Stock Exchange. A Dangerous Signal for the Global Economy

Capital flight or capitol fight: Why is so much money fleeing China, and what is the biggest ramification?

An obscure Chinese company is buying the Chicago Stock Exchange. The February 5 announcement stirred a tumult on Capitol Hill. Members of both parties of Congress denounced the takeover, calling for the Treasury Department to investigate the proposed sale.

Yet the founder of the Chongqing Casin Enterprise Group (Casin Group), which is buying the Chicago Exchange, assured regulators that his intentions were purely financial in nature. He planned on keeping the United States management team in place and said he would use information learned from the Chicago Exchange “to help develop financial markets in China over the longer term and to bring exciting Chinese growth companies to U.S. investors.”

So what’s the problem?

The Fed is Now Cornered

As you know, I’ve been calling for a bond market crisis for months now. That crisis has officially begun in Greece, a situation that we addressed at length other articles.This crisis will be spreading in the coming months. Currently it’s focused in countries that cannot print their own currencies (the PIIGS in Europe, particularly Greece).

However, China and Japan are also showing signs of trouble and ultimately the bond crisis will be coming to the US’s shores.

China Dumps Record $143 Billion In US Treasurys In Three Months Via Belgium

 

When the latest Treasury International Capital data was released yesterday, many were quick to conclude that not only had China’s selling of US Treasury ceased, but that with the addition of $7 billion in US government paper, China’s latest total holdings of $1270.3 billion were the highest since May of 2014. And if one was merely looking at the “China” line item in the major foreign holders table, that would be correct.

However, as we have shown before, when looking at China’s Treasury holdings, one also has to add the “Belgian” Treasuries, which is where China had been anonymously engaging in a record buying spree via the local Euroclear, starting in late 2013, which however concluded with a bang in early 2015.

ECB “Blesses” Greek Bank Runs, Says Unsure If Banks Will Reopen Monday

The previous post quotes what Benoit said. These ‘experts’ don’t even know what they’re talking about or which lies they have to cover up from the previous day. They suffer instant amnesia syndrome. Or, perhaps they’re intentionally blurring the facts so that people don’t see the system is about to teeter into collapse or give false hope that everything is stable. This keeps riots and panic off the streets… until the mask comes off.

 

Update: what else – an official denial: EU OFFICIAL: ECB DIDN’T SAY GREEK BANKS MAY NOT OPEN MONDAY

So, Benoit did not say what he said?

* * *

Just minutes after Greek FinMin Varoufakis warned people were trying to “incite capital flight” from Greece and Dijsselbloem stated that “capital outflows from Greece are worrying,” Reuters is reporting that The ECB dropped the bank run hammer:

Germans in Shock as New Greek Leader Starts With a Bang

While Berlin and Washington swiped Ukraine away from Russia, Russia installed one of their own in Athens.

Matter of fact, the German government was likely not ‘stunned’ by Tsipras’ victory, but more or less is playing politics by downplaying the predicted aftermath. The Merkel leadership isn’t filled with rookie politicians. Germany dropped many hints that the EU could go on without Greece on more than one occasion, which aimed to deaden the anticipated blow that happened in last Sunday’s elections.

It would also be interesting know what “orders from abroad” Tsipras was referring to. That could be this ‘former’ Communist’s subtle hint at orders from Moscow.

 

Berlin:  In his first act as Prime Minister on Monday, Alexis Tsipras visited the war memorial in Kaisariani where 200 Greek resistance fighters were slaughtered by the Nazis in 1944.

The move did not go unnoticed in Berlin. Nor did Tsipras’s decision hours later to receive the Russian ambassador before meeting any other foreign official.

….

“No doubt about it, we were surprised by the size of the Syriza victory and the speed with which Tsipras clinched a coalition,” said one senior German official, who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

As Euro Slides, Strategists Cut Forecasts

Some Investors See Single Currency Falling to Parity With U.S. Dollar

…

A day after the European Central Bank unveiled its bond-buying program, the single currency still was in free fall, blowing past analysts’ expectations for how low the euro can go.

Some investors now say the euro could fall to the point where it is on equal footing with the U.S. dollar for the first time since it climbed above the buck in late 2002.

“If you would have asked me a few months ago, I would’ve said that parity could be in the cards in the years ahead. Now, we can’t rule it out anymore even by the end of this year,” said Thomas Kressin, head of European foreign exchange at Pacific Investment Management Co., or Pimco, which has $1.68 trillion under management.

Russia faces ‘perfect storm’ as reserves vanish and derivatives flash default warnings

BNP Paribas says Russia no longer has enough reserves to cover external debt and enters this crisis ‘twice as levered’ as it was before the Lehman crash

…

Central bank data show that a blitz of currency intervention depleted reserves by $26bn in the two weeks to December 26, the fastest pace of erosion since the crisis in Ukraine erupted early last year.

Credit defaults swaps (CDS) measuring bankruptcy risk for Russia spiked violently on Tuesday, surging by 100 basis points to 630, before falling back slightly.

Markit says this implies a 32pc expectation of a sovereign default over the next five years, the highest since Western sanctions and crumbling oil prices combined to cripple the Russian economy.

Swiss vote provokes ‘6,000-year gold bubble’ attack

‘Save Our Swiss Gold’ referendum is a primordial scream against a world of quantitative easing but would paralyze the Swiss National bank

Five million Swiss voters will decide on Sunday whether to force the Swiss National Bank to repatriate all its gold from vaults in Britain and Canada, boost its holdings of bullion to 20pc of foreign reserves and then keep the metal forever.

Vladimir Putin’s economic hopes drowning in a puddle of cheap oil

It would perhaps be wise not to sing and dance over this story too early. Vladimir Putin likely has more tricks up his sleeve, such as continuing to undermine the US Dollar by trading oil in currencies other than the US Dollar, or continue hacking into the U.S. banking system — lest we also forget along with China threatening the nuclear option on it. If the Dollar becomes worthless, it wouldn’t matter how low the price of oil will go as America would be pushed into being a third-world nation like those in the Middle East where gasoline is still only 15 cents per gallon.

 

Oil has been the key to Putin’s grip on power since he took over from Boris Yeltsin in 2000, fueling a booming economy that grew 7 per cent on average from 2000 to 2008.Now, with economic growth slipping close to zero, Russia is reeling from sanctions by the U.S. and the European Union over its land grab in Ukraine, and from a ruble at a record low. Putin, whose popularity has been more than 80 per cent in polls since the annexation of the Crimean Peninsula in March, may have less money to raise state pensions and wages, while companies hit by the sanctions also seek state aid to maintain spending.

“His ratings remain high but for a person conducting such a risky policy, Putin has to understand the limits of patience for the people, business and political elite,” said Olga Kryshtanovskaya, a sociologist studying the country’s elite at the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow. “Putin is thinking hard how not to lose face while maintaining his support.”

Euro Officials Begin to Weigh Greek Exit as Euro Weakens (Update 1)

“We’re really getting to a denouement,” Michael O’Sullivan, head of portfolio strategy at Credit Suisse Private Banking, said today in a Bloomberg Television interview. “We’re getting to the part where a decision has to be made” on whether Greece leaves the 17-nation currency union, he said.

…

A Greek departure from the euro could trigger a default- inducing surge in bond yields, capital flight that might spread to other indebted states and a resultant series of bank runs. Although Greece accounts for 2 percent of the euro-area’s economic output, its exit would fragment a system of monetary union designed to be irreversible and might cause investors to raise the threat of withdrawal by other states.

Full article: Euro Officials Begin to Weigh Greek Exit as Euro Weakens (Update 1) (Bloomberg)