Germany’s first Islamic bank opens in Frankfurt

A follow-up story from a previous post discussing the license being granted:

 

 

Germany, home to 4 million Muslims, just got its first lender that adheres to Sharia law. Charging interest is prohibited, but some analysts see little difference to the way normal banks operate.

If, according to the Koran, trade is permitted but charging interest is the work of Satan, that would make most Western bankers more than a little devilish.

But tacking a fee onto the funds it lends out is not how Germany’s first Islamic bank, the Kuveyt Turk (KT) Bank, which opened in Frankfurt on Monday, will be making its money.

They’re Coming to Take Away Your Cash

The stories are all over the Internet. Governments are forcing us into a cashless society. Supposedly the pretext is terrorism, and the real reason is to take more control. No doubt more power appeals to politicians, and banning cash seems like the next step after mandatory reporting of cash transactions. However, I think there is a more serious driver than simple power lust.

A more compelling case is that cash banning is the logical follow up to bail-ins. Most people think a bail-in is when banks steal your deposit. So it seems to make sense that governments want to force people to keep their cash in the bank. Then they are easy meat for the next bail-in.

Experts Are Warning That The 76 Trillion Dollar Global Bond Bubble Is About To Explode

Warren Buffett believes “that bonds are very overvalued“, and a recent survey of fund managers found that 80 percent of them are convinced that bonds have become “badly overvalued“.  The most famous bond expert on the planet, Bill Gross, recently confessed that he has a sense that the 35 year bull market in bonds is “ending” and he admitted that he is feeling “great unrest”.  Nobel Prize–winning economist Robert Shiller has added a new chapter to his bestselling book in which he argues that bond prices are “irrationally high”.  The global bond bubble has ballooned to more than 76 trillion dollars, and interest rates have never been lower in modern history.  In fact, 25 percent of all government bonds in Europe actually have a negative rate of return at this point.  There is literally nowhere for the bond market to go except for the other direction, and when this bull market turns into a bear it will create chaos and financial devastation all over the planet.

Greece Changes Strategy: No Longer Demands Debt Write Off, Ask For Debt Exchange Instead

Guess who blinked first.

The ECB’s February 28th warning shot across the bow from the Troika, which is fully stacked with Germany’s Fourth Reich, sent a clear message to fall back in line. Apparently the current Communist Greek government wants to hold on to its power and not let the situation descend into utter chaos. What they’re probably waiting on is to see what options they have with their friends in Russia in hopes of throwing them a line.

Up until now, Berlin and Washington looked pretty solid as it overturned and took Ukraine away from Moscow’s sphere of influence. Now Russia struck back and has a piece of the EU.

 

Over a week after the new Greek government came to power, it has presented its first actual proposal of how it hopes to negotiate with Europe that does not involve the infamous “debt write off”, which as both Germany and the ECB have made clear, is a non-starter as it impairs the ECB’s balance sheet and leads to a loss of “faith” in the money printer, the legacy monetary system and so on. So instead of yet another debt restructuring, the FT reports that Yanis Varoufakis “would no longer call for a headline write-off of Greece’s €315bn foreign debt. Rather it would request a “menu of debt swaps” to ease the burden, including two types of new bonds.” Actually he still does, only he is not calling it as such.

The experts who expect bonds funds to crash in 2015

Concerns have been rumbling for some time that bonds – whether issued by companies or governments – are due for a sharp crash.

At the start of 2014 many wrote off bonds and said that private investors should sell their bond funds and move into shares or other assets.

But those who ignored this advice and kept their bonds investments have done well over the past year.

In fact, as a whole, bonds have beaten equities so far in 2014.

So what does 2015 hold? Again, opinion is divided.

Central Planners Are In A State of Panic

The central planners are in a state of fear and panic.  They are trying everything and anything to create market validation for their policies, watching with trepidation as their favored economic metrics fail to respond to all of their frenzied efforts.

They are so far over the tips of their skis right now that there’s nothing they won’t do. They’ve summarily thrown granny under the bus because they have this idea that negative real interest rates are the cure.  The cure for what?  The massive amounts of debts and imbalances their prior policies caused.  So savers are punished in the pursuit of policy.  You know, ‘for the greater good’ and all that.

They’ve spurred the greatest wealth gap ever in US history, greater even than at the extremes of the Great Depression, apparently without the slightest concerns for Plutarch’s ancient admonition that “An imbalance between rich and poor is the oldest and most fatal ailment of all republics.”

They’ve even gone so far in Europe as to now force negative nominal interest rates on savers, dispensing with their usual slight-of-hand of letting inflation steal from each unit of currency in their system.  When you’re panicking, there’s no time for subtlety.

They look the other way as “someone” dumps huge amounts of gold contracts into the wee hours of the night, seeking one thing and one thing only: lower prices.  But that’s okay because the central banks destroyed price discovery a long, long time ago. First by invalidating the price of money itself (by driving interest rates to zero), and then in everything else — most importantly risk.

Is your money safe at the bank? An economist says ‘no’ and withdraws his

And he’s right about the FDIC having less funds available than what it needs to cover its obligations.

Last week I had over $1,000,000 in a checking account at Bank of America. Next week, I will have $10,000.

Why am I getting in line to take my money out of Bank of America? Because of Ben Bernanke and Janet Yellen, who officially begins her term as chairwoman on Feb. 1.

Before I explain, let me disclose that I have been a stopped clock of criticism of the Federal Reserve for half a decade. That’s because I believe that when the Fed intervenes in markets, it has two effects — both negative. First, it decreases overall wealth by distorting markets and causing bad investment decisions. Second, the members of the Fed become reverse Robin Hoods as they take from the poor (and unsophisticated) investors and give to the rich (and politically connected). These effects have been noticed; a Gallup poll taken in the last few days reports that only the richest Americans support the Fed. (See the table.)

“Major Shortage Of Physical Gold” Has Fed Greatly Concerned

As the world awaits the Fed’s decision, today a 42-year market veteran told King World News there will be no tapering and that the gold will soar “after the Fed has surprised the market tomorrow.”  Greyerz also warned KWN that to further complicate matters for the Fed, there is a “major shortage of physical gold” ahead of their decision.  Below is what Egon von Greyerz, who is founder of Matterhorn Asset Management out of Switzerland, had to say.

Greyerz:  “Eric, it is important to consider what the truly important factors are that will determine what will happen to the world, its people, and to the global economy.  If we look around, what do we find?  We find a world that is financially, politically, and morally bankrupt.