Aussie ‘War On Cash’ Tsar: “Consumers Are Part Of The Problem”

 

Australia’s Black Economy Taskforce has come up with a list of 35 “consumer-focused” proposals to crack down on cash. The taskforce blames consumers for holding cash and for not getting receipts.

Michael Andrew, the head of the taskforce, proposes nanochips in $50 and $100 notes so the government knows where the cash is, and suggests that cash should expire after a designated period of time.

Andrew believes “consumers are part of the problem”. He wants to punish people who pay in cash and don’t get a receipt.

Global credit crunch WARNING issued on debt bubble as current trends mirror 2008 crash

A indicator tracking credit is following a worrying trend [Getty]

 

WARNING signals have been felt today after a key credit indicator mirrored the same pattern experienced ahead of the financial crisis of 2008, in a eerie sign that the global economy is heading for another downturn.

A key UBS credit impulse which monitors the changes in credit volume has tumbled by six per cent of GDP since last year.

It mirrors the same movement seen before the financial crisis 10 years ago, raising fears the global bubble could be about to burst and another credit crunch.

UBS Has Some Very Bad News For The Global Economy

 

At the end of February we first highlighted something extremely troubling for the global “recovery” narrative: according to UBS the global credit impulse – the second derivative of credit growth and arguably the biggest driver behind economic growth and world GDP – had abruptly stalled, as a result of a sudden and unexpected collapse in said impulse.

“It Was A Deer In Headlights Moment”: Japan Dumps Most US Treasuries Since May 2013

 

With the December monthly TIC data due out this week, bond traders will be closely watching if the selling of US Treasuries by foreign accounts, and especially central banks, which as we have repeatedly shown for the past several months has hit record levels…

However, this time the surprise may not be China, but its nemesis across the East China Sea, Japan.

War On Cash Intensifies: Citibank To Stop Accepting Cash At Some Branches

Less than a week after India’s surprise move to scrap its highest denomination cash notes, another front in the War on Cash has intensified down under in Australia.

Yesterday, banking giant UBS proposed that eliminating Australia’s $100 and $50 bills would be “good for the economy and good for the banks.”

(How convenient that a bank would propose something that’s good for banks!)

This isn’t the first time that the financial establishment has pushed for a cashless society in Australia (or anywhere else).

European Central Bank can’t fix Europe’s economy, warns UBS boss

EUROPE’s monetary policymakers can’t fix the bloc’s economy woes, the boss of a leading investment bank has warned.

The European Central Bank (ECB) has the near impossible task of nursing the region back to health and has tried a number of desperate initiatives in recent years to kick-start growth.

Yet most recent figures signal the bloc is still struggling to stay afloat.

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.

UBS: A Stock Market Crash Is Inevitable

The bull market is about to end, says UBS’ Julian Emanuel.

For months we’ve been warning of a stock market crash.

Money Morning Capital Wave Strategist Shah Gilani – a former CBOE trader, co-creator of the VIX (“fear index”), and hedge fund manager – has seen a bear market just over the horizon since March 2014.

Global Property Bubble Set To Burst – UBS and Deutsche Warn

 

The London property market is being increasingly recognised as a bubble and now even leading international banks are warning that the bubble may be set to burst.

Today, UBS has warned that London’s property market is “frothing” and last week Deutsche Bank were the property party pooper “calling time” on the London property “party.”

According to a new UBS report, England’s capital is home to the most significantly overvalued housing market of any major city in the world – and that means there’s a risk the bubble is close to bursting.

Away From Dollar: Russia, China to Create Entirely Different Gold Market

Sometime in the short-term of mid-term future, China and Russia will come out and say “We have all (or most) of the world’s gold. We will now make the rules.”

This also could be the “event” that a lot of experts are talking about regarding late September and early October crisis predictions. Former Reagan advisor, Martin Armstrong predicts October 1st, 2015 (2015.75) as a turning point in world history, for example.

Ironically, this article comes from a state-run source, which could be the Kremlin’s own way of dropping a hint.

 

While key Western banks are artificially restraining gold prices to breathe life into the diluted and devalued dollar system, Russia, China and other emerging economies are involved in “the genial move” to establish an entirely different gold market, F. William Engdahl underscores.

Key central banks, particularly the Federal Reserve and Bank of England, and Western market players have long been accused of clandestine gold price manipulating aimed at preserving the dollar’s role “as world reserve currency primus,” American-German economic researcher and historian F. William Engdahl writes.

“The COMEX gold futures market in New York and the Over-the-Counter (OTC) trades cleared through the London Bullion Market Association do set prices which are followed most widely in the world. They are also markets dominated by a handful of huge players, the six London Bullion Market Association gold clearing banks — the corrupt JP MorganChase bank; the scandal-ridden UBS bank of Zurich; The Bank of Nova Scotia — ScotiaMocatta, the world’s oldest bullion bank which began as banker to the British East India Company, the group that ran the China Opium Wars; the scandal-ridden Deutsche Bank; the scandal-ridden Barclays Bank of London; HSBC of London, the house bank of the Mexican drug cartels; and the scandal and fraud-ridden Societe Generale of Paris,” Engdahl narrated.

Furthermore, Western banks are issuing numerous paper “gold-futures” and other speculative contracts which are in fact disconnected from real physical gold.

Deathblow to the Dollar

The future is sealed, and it’s not a matter of ‘if’ but ‘when’. If you’ve been paying attention to the news of lately, you will have noticed a lot of predictions for September, 2015. Could the experts be on to something? As far as a specified date is concerned, we’ll soon see.

 

 

The world is entering a new economic era—one that won’t be defined by America.

This past March marked a radical turning point for the global economy, particularly the United States’ economic dominance.

China proposed the launch of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (aiib)—a new, Chinese-run international bank specifically designed to challenge U.S. global economic leadership. America tried to convince other nations not to agree to join. But it failed—even with its closest allies.

For the U.S., it was an unmitigated disaster.

It should be a “wake-up call,” to a “new economic era,” wrote former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers.

EU has squandered last chance to make euro workable, warns Ex-Bundesbank chief

Further integration is always the answer Germany gives as it continues to takeover Europe piece by piece. It portrays continual integration as key to survival, but then chips away at the national sovereignty of other nations in exchange for being part of this ‘elite club’. If they choose not to continue membership, then it will lead to full-blown civil unrest as receiving no aide will cause economies to go into full depression. This doesn’t bode good for member states such as Greece where the political leadership wants to hold on to its power, yet ironically gives it up at the expense of citizens.

It’s quite clear by now that the ‘European Project’ was never going to work, but that was the intention from conception. In the end, guess who’s back? Germany. All roads lead back to Berlin and the Fourth Reich is here with a smarter approach.

 

The former head of the German Bundesbank has warned that the European Central Bank (ECB) will not succeed in raising inflation for years to come and is almost powerless to revive the fortunes of the eurozone on its own.

Axel Weber, now chairman of UBS and widely-regarded as Europe’s most influential private banker, said Europe’s leaders had squandered the chance to rebuild the eurozone’s foundations when the going was good and markets were calm.

In an ominous sign, he appeared to lose confidence in the euro altogether, cautioning that monetary union will be tested repeatedly and may not survive unless EMU leaders agree to bite the bullet on full fiscal and political union.

A Message From Davos: Quantitative Easing Alone Won’t Solve Europe’s Ills

Davos, Switzerland:  Financial markets have been obsessing for months about the timing, size and structure of a European Central Bank bond-buying programme that seems likely to be unveiled today.

But business leaders, policymakers and celebrity academics gathered at the World Economic Forum in Davos had a message for all the “quantitative easing” (QE) enthusiasts: don’t count on the ECB to resolve Europe’s economic woes.

The new American tax dictate FATCA comes into force

Americans avoiding US taxes and stashing cash abroad are in trouble from July 1, when a new law forces institutions hiding money to report on their clients. The law will make business with Americans harder, but the US hopes it will raise billions.

The US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, or FATCA, comes into force on July 1 and requires foreign banks to hand over data on clients to the US International Revenue Service (IRS). If a bank does not report such information, it could be subject to a 30 percent withholding tax.

FATCA legislation, signed into law in 2010, requires overseas financial institutions to identify their American customers to the IRS. The law applies to any account with more than $50,000.

Hot money exodus ends currency wars

Turkey’s efforts to pull the lira off record lows on Monday are likely to be emulated across emerging markets as central banks fight to avert an exodus of foreign capital driven by the impending turn in US policy.

It’s all a far cry from a year or so ago, when emerging market exporters were battling rising exchange rates and Brazil was accusing Western policymakers of waging currency wars by flooding the world with cheap money.