Italy: A Brewing Storm Within the EU

 

Over the last couple of years, the main challenge to EU cohesion has been Brexit, with the media sharply focused on the negotiations and all relevant developments. Since the release of the draft withdrawal agreement, largely perceived as a victory for the EU, those who support the European project and believe in a strong leadership from Brussels have projected confidence and optimism for the future. According to these voices, the divisions caused by the rise of nationalism and populism in the past years are healing, the relationship between member states is normalizing, while a future of stability and harmony awaits.

However, such a vision might prove naive, as it discounts a much greater risk to the EU than Brexit ever was: the political and economic powder keg that is Italy.

US cannot stop China’s innovation advancements

It would appear that the US is seriously worried about China’s technological advancements. Fearing the loss of the last comparative advantage over the Asian superpower has caused a genuine concern over national defense and competitiveness among America’s ruling elite.

The US using every possible means to curb Asia’s technological rise, including the banning of sales of essential chips to ZTE for seven years, invoking Section 301 of the Trade Act to investigate China’s “unfair trade practices” and barring investment in the information-technology sector. The Donald Trump administration’s target might be the Asian power’s “Made in China 2025”, a strategy meant to make China self-sufficient in an array of technologies.

The 301 investigation was meant to slow down China’s technological advancements by imposing stiff tariffs on a host of Chinese imports and barring the sales of US technology to Chinese firms. In addition, the anti-China faction of the US Congress and the Trump administration have barred Chinese investment in technology sectors.

Wall Street Banks Warn Downturn Is Coming

Societe Generale SA

 

• HSBC, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley say end of market boom is nigh
• Breakdown in trading patterns is signal to get out soon

HSBC Holdings Plc, Citigroup Inc. and Morgan Stanley see mounting evidence that global markets are in the last stage of their rallies before a downturn in the business cycle.

Analysts at the Wall Street behemoths cite signals including the breakdown of long-standing relationships between stocks, bonds and commodities as well as investors ignoring valuation fundamentals and data. It all means stock and credit markets are at risk of a painful drop.

Financial Weapons Of Mass Destruction: Top 25 US Banks Have 222 Trillion Dollars Derivatives Exposure

 

The recklessness of the “too big to fail” banks almost doomed them the last time around, but apparently they still haven’t learned from their past mistakes.  Today, the top 25 U.S. banks have 222 trillion dollars of exposure to derivatives.  In other words, the exposure that these banks have to derivatives contracts is approximately equivalent to the gross domestic product of the United States times twelve.  As long as stock prices continue to rise and the U.S. economy stays fairly stable, these extremely risky financial weapons of mass destruction will probably not take down our entire financial system.  But someday another major crisis will inevitably happen, and when that day arrives the devastation that these financial instruments will cause will be absolutely unprecedented.

During the great financial crisis of 2008, derivatives played a starring role, and U.S. taxpayers were forced to step in and bail out companies such as AIG that were on the verge of collapse because the risks that they took were just too great.

Now pushy European Union angers the US as it tries to control AMERICAN banks

Brussels is annoying Wall Street banks with new rules (Getty)

 

FURIOUS American banks are fighting back against burdensome Brussels plans, which would allow European regulators to exert more control over foreign lenders.

Wall Street financial giants warned they will not be able to tie up more cash in their operations within the European Union (EU), as proposed by the European Commission (EC).

The rules hand the EU more oversight of foreign firms and are set to cost the likes of Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan, as the banks would need to stump up fresh funds to keep within the bloc.

Deutsche Bank Profit Plunges 98% And The Worst Is Yet To Come

The latest confirmation that Germany’s troubled banking giant Deutsche Bank is unable to navigate the troubled waters of NIRP came on Wednesday when the bank announced that its second-quarter net income fell 98% from a year earlier, hurt by weaker performances in trading, investment banking and other core areas. The lender said net income tumbled to €20 million ($22 million) from €818 million a year earlier, modestly better than the €22mm loss expected, while net revenue dropped 20% to €7.4 billion.

After rebounding modestly on the beat, the bank’s shares fell tumbled 5% on Wednesday morning, their lower level in 2 weeks; today’s decline has dragged DB stock 45% lower in 2016, making it one of Europe’s worst performers YTD (the Stoxx 600 is down 27% in 2016).

The Clinton Foundation owns the FBI

The Clintons have used the foundation to enrich themselves

…

Now, as Kurt Nimmo writes, FBI Director James Comey’s past and present employment as Director of HSBC Holdings and subsequent promotion to independent non-executive Director and a member of the Financial System Vulnerabilities Committee, an appointment set to expire this year. Has blatant ties to the Clinton Foundation. In a letter sent On Monday, Republicans demanded answers from FBI boss James Comey. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte of Virginia, and committee member Rep. Trey Gowdy of South Carolina, want to know if the emails that were deleted and recovered by the FBI had anything to do with the Clinton Foundation.

Leaked Morgan Stanley slide shows bankers want to move quickly toward a “cashless economy” to enact NIRP

¹⁶ It also forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads, ¹⁷ so that they could not buy or sell unless they had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of its name.

Revelation 13:16, 17

 

This leak through Zerohedge came on the heels of recent Op-ed’s by both Bloomberg and Financial Times, which urged for the banning of cash, a movement documented fully here by TRUNEWS.

Russia Breaking Wall St Oil Price Monopoly

Russia has just taken significant steps that will break the present Wall Street oil price monopoly, at least for a huge part of the world oil market. The move is part of a longer-term strategy of decoupling Russia’s economy and especially its very significant export of oil, from the US dollar, today the Achilles Heel of the Russian economy.

Later in November the Russian Energy Ministry has announced that it will begin test-trading of a new Russian oil benchmark. While this might sound like small beer to many, it’s huge. If successful, and there is no reason why it won’t be, the Russian crude oil benchmark futures contract traded on Russian exchanges, will price oil in rubles and no longer in US dollars. It is part of a de-dollarization move that Russia, China and a growing number of other countries have quietly begun.

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.

Cyber Attacks on U.S. Companies Since November 2014

Researchers are concerned over the strength and comprehensiveness of cybersecurity in the U.S., as companies across the country are being targeted in cyber attacks at an increasing rate of both occurrence and cost. Concerns continue to grow as both the number of attacks on companies’ networks and the cost to companies are increasing. The quantity and quality of information being hacked, stolen, destroyed, or leaked is becoming more of a problem for consumers and businesses alike.

Dangerous Currency War Dragging World Toward World War III

 

Echoes of 1934 are thundering with increasing intensity.

In 1934, United States President Franklin Delano Roosevelt outlawed the private ownership of gold. People who refused to turn their gold over to the government went to jail. With the same presidential order Roosevelt shocked the world by devaluing the dollar. The cost for an ounce of gold, previously set at $20.67, henceforth cost $35.

President Roosevelt told the country that it was a radical effort to stimulate America’s economy. A cheaper dollar would make America’s exports less expensive and help American companies sell more products to the rest of the world, he said. More money would flow into America, and more jobs would be created.

It did those things. And it also marched the world another giant step closer to war.

China’s Economic Woes Should Set Alarm Bells Ringing

The Chinese government insists that the economy is sailing smoothly and will achieve its seven-percent growth target, but exports and domestic consumption are slowing.

China Rattles Markets With Yuan Devaluation

In other words: China has officially entered the currency wars.

 

China devalued the yuan by the most in two decades, a move that rippled through global markets as policy makers stepped up efforts to support exporters and boost the role of market pricing in Asia’s largest economy.

The central bank cut its daily reference rate by 1.9 percent, triggering the yuan’s biggest one-day drop since China unified official and market exchange rates in January 1994. The People’s Bank of China called the change a one-time adjustment and said it will strengthen the market’s ability to determine the daily fixing.

Chinese authorities had been propping up the yuan to deter capital outflows, protect foreign-currency borrowers and make a case for official reserve status at the International Monetary Fund. Tuesday’s announcement suggests policy makers are now placing a greater emphasis on efforts to combat the deepest economic slowdown since 1990 and reduce the government’s grip on the financial system.

Beware: The “Made In China” Global Recession Is Coming, Morgan Stanley Warns

The next global recession may come with a label that reads “made in China” Morgan Stanley’s Head of EM Ruchir Sharma, says.

As regular readers are no doubt aware, decelerating economic growth in China has been a major drag on worldwide demand and is one of the main reasons why global trade is in the doldrums.