Deutsche Bank’s Lehman Behavior Signals a Looming Stock Market Crash

Yesterday, Deutsche Bank AG‘s (NYSE: DB) co-CEO John Cryan released a surprise memo saying its balance sheet “remains absolutely rock-solid.” His assertion comes amid fears that the investment bank is unstable (an understatement) – which could be emblematic of a broader European bank fueled stock market crash.

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Releasing a forced statement to the worrying public is something Lehman Brothers did just before it collapsed in 2008. The now-defunct corporate banking giant assured investors that it had enough liquidity to weather the financial crisis in 2008.

Bank Deposits No Longer Guaranteed By Austrian Government

If you’re not already familiar with one of the more recent invented economic terms of the last few years, “bail-in”, it essentially means your respective government has given the banks the green light to legally take your deposits to cover their obligations should there be another crisis. Instead of the corrupt government bailing ‘out’ the banks, you, the depositor, are bailing them ‘in’. This is also an indication of an anticipated crisis.

In 2013, the United States reportedly missed one by a hair’s length.

 

– Austria will remove state guarantee of bank deposits
– Austrian deposit plan given go ahead by the EU
– Banks to pay into a deposit insurance fund over 10 years
– Fund will then be valued at a grossly inadequate €1.5 billion
– New bail-in legislation agreed by EU two years ago
– Depositors need to realise increasing risks and act accordingly
– “Bail-ins are now the rule” and ‘Bail-in regime’ coming

Bank deposits in Austria will no longer enjoy state protection and a state guarantee in the event of bank runs and a bank collapse when legislation is enacted in July. The plan to ensure that the state is no longer responsible for insuring deposits has been readied by the Austrian government in conjunction with the EU two years ago according to Die Presse.

Russian Central Bank voids Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s, Fitch ratings

What happens when a nation in retaliation refuses to recognize a universally accepted standard ratings agency? Stay tuned. Pandora’s box has been opened on yet another front. Full-blown economic warfare is in full motion.

 

The Central Bank of Russia will no longer use credit ratings from Standard & Poor’s, Fitch, or Moody’s that were assigned after March 1, 2014.

All credit ratings given to Russian companies and banks will now be at the discretion of the Board of Directors of the Bank, according to a press statement Monday. The regulator will assess whether or not the ratings made after March are accurate.

“According to the Bank of Russia Board of Directors’ decision, the rating date for credit institutions and their issued financial instruments, including securities, to implement Bank of Russia regulations, shall be 1 March 2014; as for other entities, listed in the ordinance, and their issued securities, this rating date shall be 1 December 2014,” the press release said.

Russia Is About To Absorb Part of Another Country

Surely, if this escalates into another war, the propaganda masters behind the last Russian-Georgian war will effectively paint tiny Georgia as the aggressor. The previous, long-planned and pre-determined 2008 Russian invasion of Georgia, that is. The next invasion would likely permanently take away the energy corridor from the Caspian Sea to Europe planned under the Bush/Cheney administration to bring independence. This is also why you see Europe frantically scrambling to find alternatives to Russian resources.

If you haven’t figured it out yet, it was never about an aggressive rogue military in a nation barely larger than Israel. But that’s what the masses believe and it goes to show how effective the propaganda is. You can read more about Georgia under its respective category HERE.

While Moscow continues to be hammered by low oil prices and western-led sanctions, it is doubling down on hard-edged political and financial retribution: Russia is preparing to absorb a province of neighboring Georgia, and delivering an ultimatum to Europe that it could lose much of the Russian gas on which it relies.

Ten months after annexing Crimea and igniting his current standoff with the west, Russian president Vladimir Putin will as early as this week take control of South Ossetia, a breakaway region of Georgia, with which he has a long, sour relationship. He is to sign a little-publicized accord that will hand over foreign policy, border control, and security to Moscow.

Russia and China plan own rating agency to rival western players

Russia and China have agreed to set up a joint rating agency as Moscow’s stand-off with the west over Ukraine has made it more eager to establish institutions that would reduce its dependence on the U.S. and Europe.

“In the beginning, the agency will assess Russian-Chinese investment projects with a view to attracting of [investors from] a number of Asian countries,” Anton Siluanov, Russia’s finance minister, said in Beijing, according to his ministry. “Gradually, based on the progress and authority of such an agency, we believe it will rise to a level where its opinions will attract other countries.”

Currency crisis at Chinese banks ‘could trigger global meltdown’

The growing problems in the Chinese banking system could spill over into a wider financial crisis, one of the most respected analysts of China’s lenders has warned.

Charlene Chu, a former senior analyst at Fitch in Beijing and now the head of Asian research at Autonomous Research, said the rapid expansion of foreign-currency borrowing meant a crisis in China’s financial system was becoming a bigger risk for international banks.

Fitch says China credit bubble unprecedented in modern world history

China’s shadow banking system is out of control and under mounting stress as borrowers struggle to roll over short-term debts, Fitch Ratings has warned.

The agency said the scale of credit was so extreme that the country would find it very hard to grow its way out of the excesses as in past episodes, implying tougher times ahead.

“The credit-driven growth model is clearly falling apart. This could feed into a massive over-capacity problem, and potentially into a Japanese-style deflation,” said Charlene Chu, the agency’s senior director in Beijing.

“There is no transparency in the shadow banking system, and systemic risk is rising. We have no idea who the borrowers are, who the lenders are, and what the quality of assets is, and this undermines signalling,” she told The Daily Telegraph.