BofA, Barclays Sued by Houston For Libor Manipulation

Bank of America Corp., Barclays Plc (BARC) and Citigroup Inc. (C) are among a group of banks sued by the city of Houston for financial damages caused by the alleged manipulation of the London Interbank Offered Rate, or Libor.
Houston, the fourth-largest U.S. city, is one of the biggest to sue on rate-fixing allegations. The Texas city seeks unspecified damages for both receiving artificially low interest and paying artificially high rates on municipal investments dating back six years, according to a complaint filed today in federal court in Houston.
“The complaint specifically notes three examples of transactions in which the Libor manipulation was detrimental to the City of Houston,” Richard Mithoff, Houston’s lawyer, said in an e-mailed statement. “Damages to the city resulting from this global interest rate manipulation could be substantial.”
Global authorities have been investigating claims that more than a dozen banks altered submissions used to set benchmarks such as Libor to profit from bets on interest-rate derivatives or to make the lenders’ finances appear healthier.
Barclays, Royal Bank of Scotland Plc and UBS AG have settled regulators’ claims in the probe. A group of lawsuits against banks over manipulation of rates have been consolidated in federal court in Manhattan. In March, U.S. District Judge Naomi Buchwald dismissed antitrust claims by plaintiffs who said banks conspired to set Libor at artificial levels. She allowed some commodities-manipulations claims to proceed.

Cities

Besides Houston, other U.S. municipalities that have sued include Baltimore and San Diego County.
Danielle Romero-Apsilos, a spokeswoman for New York-based Citigroup, declined to comment on the lawsuit. Scott Silvestri, a spokesman for Charlotte, North Carolina-based Bank of America, didn’t immediately return a call or e-mail. A call and e-mail seeking comment from London-based Barclays weren’t immediately returned.
Houston alleged that other members of the “global conspiracy to manipulate LIBOR” include Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd., Deutsche Bank AG, HSBC Holdings Plc, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Lloyds Banking Group Plc and Royal Bank of Canada.
The case is City of Houston v. Bank of America Corp. (BAC), et al, 13-cv-02149, U.S. District Court, Southern District of Texas (Houston).

Financial Crisis Alert: Half A Million People Drop Off Workforce In One Month, Bank of America To Cut 2100 Jobs, Shut 16 offices, HP Has Chopped 22,700 Jobs Since Last Year, Polled Unemployment Soars To March 2012 Levels!

ALERT SHOCKING REALIST NEWS Half a million people drop off workforce

Record 90.5 Million Out Of Labor Force As Half A Million Drop Out In One Month; Labor Force Participation Rate Plunges To 1978 Levels
While the Establishment survey data was ugly due to both the miss and the prior downward revisions in the NFP print, the real action was in the Household survey, where we find that the number of people not in the labor force rose by a whopping 516,000 in one month, which in turn increased the total number of people outside the labor force to a record 90.5 million Americans.

And what is even worse, the Labor Force Participation Rate declined from 63.4% to 63.2%: the is the lowest print since August 1978!
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-09-06/record-905-million-out-labor-force-half-million-drop-out-one-month-labor-force-parti
BofA to cut jobs in mortgage business: report
LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) - Bank of America Corp. BAC -0.07% plans to cut roughly 2,100 jobs at its mortgage business, with demand for loans weakening as interest ratesincrease, according to a Bloomberg report Monday. The second-largest lender in the U.S. will also close 16 mortgage offices across the country, said the report citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter. About 1,600 employees who helped process home loans were notified of the layoffs on Aug. 29, and the reductions are expected to be completed by Oct. 31, said the report.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/bofa-to-cut-jobs-in-mortgage-business-report-2013-09-10
zerohedge ‏@zerohedge 5 min
Since Lehman, revolving credit has declined by $165 billion; non-revolving credit has increased by 475BN
HP has chopped 22,700 jobs since last year
HP is slicing jobs at a faster-than-expected rate.

The company has axed 27,700 people from its workforce, out of the the 29,000 it plans to cut, it said Monday in an SEC filing.
HP originally announced the layoff plan in May 2012, saying it would cut 27,000 (about 8% of its workforce) and then, in September, said it would cut 29,000.
HP also said the layoffs would happen very slowly, over about two years, ending at the close of its fiscal 2014 which is October, 2014.
Six months ago, in February, CEO Meg Whitman said HP had axed 15,000 employees, or was about half way done.
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/hp-cut-22700-jobs-2013-9#ixzz2eTpQYSkW
Gallup: Unemployment Rate Is 8.6 Percent for August
BLS isn’t the only organization tracking employment. Gallup also assesses the nation’s labor conditions, and according to its data, unemployment rose from 7.8 percent in July to 8.6 percent in August, a jump CNBC describes as “startling.”
When including the individuals who are underemployed, Gallup reports a staggering unemployment rate of 17.7 percent. 

Compare that to government figures from July, when the jobless rate was 7.4 percent, or 14 percent when including the underemployed and those who have quit looking, and it seems that there has been a sudden surge in unemployment.
Gallup’s data is based on a 30-day rolling average. The organization says, “because results are not seasonally adjusted, they are not directly comparable to numbers reported by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, which are based on workers 16 and older.” Gallup tracks data on people 18 and older.
Read more: http://www.moneynews.com/Economy/Gallup-unemployment-BLS-jobless/2013/08/23/id/521925
BLS, We Have A Problem: Polled Unemployment Soars To March 2012 Levels

Gallup tracks daily the percentage of U.S. adults, aged 18 and older, who are underemployed, unemployed, and employed full-time for an employer, without seasonal adjustment. Due to the lack of Arima-X ‘magic’ the results are specifically not comparable to the BLS data, but, as the chart below suggests, the correlation is high. What is most worrying about the latest data is the rapid rise in both unemployment and underemployment that the Gallup poll finds (to 8.9% unemployment and 17.9% underemployment. Unemployment rates have jumped notably in the last month to their highest in 13 months. Will the Fed ‘allow’ this data to filter into the BLS data and ‘avoid the Taper’ or are there non-economic reasons (G-20, deficits, technicals, sentiment)that the Fed needs to SepTaper.



Source: Gallup
http://www.zerohedge.com/node/477899
JPMorgan Chase to stop making student loans
Quite dramatically, being the biggest bull in the China shop, JPMorgan Chase made the striking announcement this past week that it would quit trading in physical commodities. This in a week during which a Senate panel held hearings on whether banks such as Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan are manipulating commodity/material markets through their trading activities and ownership of vast stores of raw materials ranging from aluminum, oil, gasoline, heating oil, copper, power, coal, extending to warehouses, oil facilities, power plants all the while also examining the degree these financial institutions are placing themselves at the center of the global supply chain for industrial materials
http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2013-09-05/business/41798769_1_private-student-loans-federal-loans-flexible-repayment-plans
JPMorgan Exits Physical Commodity Trading
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/raymond-j-learsy/jpmorgan-exits-physical-c_b_3669238.html
OPEC to cut Oil production by 500,000 barrels a day…..last time they did was fall of 2008 ..ARE THEY EXPECTING A CRASH IN DEMAND AGAIN
The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries(OPEC) may cut oil production by half a million barrels a day when its meets in December, the International Energy Agency(EIA) has said.
The body said if all go accoridng to plans, the reduction in production would be the first in five years since the last time such exercise was carried out was 2008.
It said: “ The last time OPEC cut its oil output was in late 2008 when it reduced production to 4.2 million barrels a day. During this time, oil demand fell and prices crashed amid the financial crisis.
http://thenationonlineng.net/new/opec-to-cut-production-by-500000-barrels/
Record $175 Billion Due Makes Banks Worst Losers
Banks are leading losses in China’s bond market this quarter as investors brace for a record $175 billion in debt due in 2014 and Standard & Poor’s warns that bad loans will escalate.
Notes issued by financial companies including China Construction Bank Corp. have lost 2.7 percent since the end of June, the most among the sectors tracked by Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s China Broad Market Index. The overall gauge slipped 1.8 percent, more than the 0.1 percent drop for industry securities globally. China’s banks have 1.07 trillion ($175 billion) of bonds maturing in 2014, up from 970 billion yuan this year, according to Citigroup Inc.
Lenders sold more bonds in the past two months after the People’s Bank of China engineered a cash crunch to prevent excessive lending from adding to the risk of defaults by property companies and local governments. Troubled borrowers are struggling to refinance maturing debt as a measure of total financing in the economy slumped for the fourth straight month in July, the longest losing streak in 11 years, and economic growth is forecast to slump to its slowest in 23 years.
“The very aggressive asset growth is a key risk for Chinese banks,” Liao Qiang, a Beijing-based senior director at Standard & Poor’s, said last week. “Credit losses for Chinese banks will go up substantially in the next two years.”
http://mobile.bloomberg.com/news/2013-09-10/record-175-billion-due-makes-banks-worst-losers.html
Luis

UPDATE: FED DISTRICT BANKS SEE ‘ESCALATING THREATS’ TO PAYMENT SYSTEM!!!$1 Trillion In US Bank Deposits Held Abroad Will No Longer Be Insured!

Morgan Stanley says many of its clients are preparing for an imminent loss of central bank control 
The Federal Reserve is contemplating unwinding its quantitative easing program, which at $85 billion in bond buying per month has constituted the single largest provision of marginal liquidity to global financial markets since this latest iteration of the stimulus program was launched in September 2012.
…
And while the Fed is in the spotlight, it’s not the only central bank that is trying to lean more heavily on forward guidance these days – these “open-mouth operations” are currently all the rage at the Bank of England, the European Central Bank, and the Bank of Japan as well.

However, investors don’t think central banks will be successful with these new forward guidance tactics, which are expected to ramp up soon.
“Most clients I met buy our story that the Fed, the Bank of England and the ECB will step up their efforts to push back on expectations of earlier and faster rate hikes in the next few weeks and months,” says Morgan Stanley global head of economics Joachim Fels in a Sunday note. “However, many doubt that Bernanke, Carney, Draghi & Co will be successful in their forward guidance efforts in the face of further improvements in the economic data.”
In other words, despite continued efforts by central banks to keep interest rates low, improving economic conditions will force interest rates up.
…
http://www.businessinsider.com/investors-think-central-banks-will-fail-with-forward-guidance-2013-9
JPMorgan Closes Precious Metals Sell Recommendation, Goes “Tactically Overweight” Commodities
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-09-08/jpmorgan-closes-precious-metals-sell-recommendation-goes-tactically-overweight-commo
zerohedge ‏@zerohedge 2 min
FED DISTRICT BANKS SEE ‘ESCALATING THREATS’ TO PAYMENT SYSTEM. they need fingerprint scanners
Hank “World Should Prepare For New Financial Crisis” Paulson Versus Jim “0% Chance” Gorman
Five years after the financial crisis former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson says “the world shouold prepare for a new financial crisis” in tomorrow’s Handelsblatt newspaper. His view, based on the “unacceptable” nature of too-big-to-fail banks and the lack of reform of the GSEs and the shadow-banking industry, stands in direct opposition to the leader of one of those TBTF banks. James ‘not Jim’ Gorman, CEO of Morgan Stanley, told Charlie Rose last week that “the probability of [it] happening again in our lifetime is as close to zero as I could imagine.”

Gorman’s reasoning is consensus:

“The way these firms are managed, the amount of capital that they have, the amount of liquidity that they have, the changes in their business mix — it’s dramatic.”

Paulson’s vew:

5 yrs after the financial crisis, the Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac reform has made no progress and the market of shadow banks hasn’t been addressed, Paulson writes, according to a preview of the commentary

Paulson calls the too-big-to-fail phenomenon “unacceptable” and proposes more stringent capital and liquidity requirements in order to minimize the advantages enjoyed by larger financial institutions: Handelsblatt

Who would you trust?
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-09-10/hank-world-should-prepare-new-financial-crisis-paulson-versus-jim-0-chance-gorman
$1 Trillion In US Bank Deposits Held Abroad Will No Longer Be Insured
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-09-10/1-trillion-us-bank-deposits-held-abroad-will-no-longer-be-insured
In the aftermath of the Cyprus bail in (and to a lesser extent the Polish pension fund debacle), it is understandable if depositors are a little sensitive about the insurance, and thus confiscability (sic), of their deposits. Starting today, following a 5-0 vote by the FDIC, depositors in foreign US bank branches will officially no longer have recourse to a $250,000 in deposit insurance. The notional amount of deposits at risk: $1 trillion. This is not a new development: the FDIC rule to curb insurance on this category of deposits was proposed earlier this year, and today was the formalization. However, questions do arise: if a major US depository institution does fail domestically, the financial state of their depositors abroad will hardly be the biggest issue.
WSJ adds:

The move rejects what officials called a “creative” legal proposal from the banking industry. “We don’t want to become the deposit insurer for the world,” FDIC officials said at a briefing.

The FDIC’s action was prompted by the move last year by U.K. regulators to propose changes in the way deposits held at overseas branches should be treated. FDIC officials said the U.K. proposal potentially opened the door to those deposits being insured by the FDIC; the rule being finalized Tuesday clarified that isn’t the case, said FDIC Chairman Martin Gruenberg.

“The final rule protects the deposit insurance fund, while at the same time recognizing both the FDIC’s commitment to maintaining financial stability through the prompt payment of deposit insurance and the evolving nature of the global banking system,” Mr. Gruenberg said in a statement.

Naturally, the whole point is to generate the “risky” impetus for foreign depositors to pull their money out of the “safety” of deposit accounts and buy risky assets, a trend which started with Cyprus but will certainly not end there.
However, a different question emerges: if the US offshore bank branches will no longer be insured by the US, the logical implication is that deposits of foreign banks in the US are not insured either. Of course, the good thing about deposits held by foreign banks in the US are mostly Fed excess reserve derived, as the following chart shows, which once again shows that of the $2.4 trillion in deposits in all US commercial banks, a majority, or $1.25 trillion belongs to foreign banks operating in the US. It also whos the total amount of Fed reserves in the system. The fact that the two are identical is not a coincidence.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-09-10/1-trillion-us-bank-deposits-held-abroad-will-no-longer-be-insured
Hank Paulson: The Too-Big-To-Fail Phenomenon Is “Unacceptable”

Top Economists, Financial Experts and Bankers Say Giant Banks Are Hurting Economy

The Treasury Secretary at the start of the 2008 financial crisis – Hank Paulson – says:

5 yrs after the financial crisis, the Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac reform has made no progress and the market of shadow banks hasn’t been addressed, Paulson writes ….
Paulson calls the too-big-to-fail phenomenon “unacceptable” and proposes more stringent capital and liquidity requirements in order to minimize the advantages enjoyed by larger financial institutions ….

Paulson joins the following top economists and financial experts who believe that the failure to rein in the “too big to fail” banks is unacceptable:

• Nobel prize-winning economist, Joseph Stiglitz

• Nobel prize-winning economist, Ed Prescott

• Nobel prize-winning economist, Paul Krugman

• Current chairman of the Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke

• Former chairman of the Federal Reserve, Alan Greenspan

• Former chairman of the Federal Reserve, Paul Volcker

• Former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich

• Current Vice Chair and director of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation – and former 20-year President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City – Thomas Hoenig (and see this)

• Chief Stability Officer at the Bank of England, Andrew Haldane (and see this and this)

http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2013/09/hank-paulson-the-too-big-to-fail-phenomenon-is-unacceptable.html
US has 5 weeks until X Date
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-09-10/treasury-x-date-may-hit-soon-october-18
BTFATH Is Back; Nasdaq At 13-Year Highs, 10Y Nears 3.00%
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-09-10/btfath-back-nasdaq-13-year-highs-10y-nears-300
Luis

How Big Banks Can Steal Your Home From You Even If Your Mortgage Is Totally Paid Off

By Michael Snyder

Did you know that the big banks have a way to legally steal your house from you even if you don’t owe a single penny on your mortgage?  Big banks and hedge funds are buying billions of dollars worth of tax liens from local governments all over the nation, and they are ruthlessly foreclosing on homeowners when they can’t pay the absolutely ridiculous penalties and legal fees that are tacked on to the original tax bill.  As you will see below, one 76-year-old man lost his $197,000 home that he fully owned over a $134 tax bill.  A 95-year-old woman lost her $300,000 home over a $44.79 tax bill.  This is a very, very dirty way to make money, and the predatory financial institutions that are involved in this business definitely do not want to talk about it.
Of course much of the blame should also be shouldered by the local governments that are coldly selling these tax liens to these ruthless predators.  If local governments want to collect their tax bills, they should do it themselves.  They should not be auctioning off their tax liens to cold-hearted financial institutions that are very eager to commit a legal version of highway robbery.
A few days ago, the Washington Post reported on the tragic story of a 76-year-old former Marine named Bennie Coleman.  Coleman had originally purchased his home with cash, but that didn’t stop tax lien predators from stealing his home over an unpaid $134 property tax bill…

On the day Bennie Coleman lost his house, the day armed U.S. marshals came to his door and ordered him off the property, he slumped in a folding chair across the street and watched the vestiges of his 76 years hauled to the curb.
Movers carted out his easy chair, his clothes, his television. Next came the things that were closest to his heart: his Marine Corps medals and photographs of his dead wife, Martha. The duplex in Northeast Washington that Coleman bought with cash two decades earlier was emptied and shuttered. By sundown, he had nowhere to go.
All because he didn’t pay a $134 property tax bill.

So why couldn’t he pay such a small bill?
Well, as the Post explained, these big banks and hedge funds keep tacking on interest, penalties and legal fees until the tax bills are many times the size that they originally were.  When the distressed homeowners can’t come up with thousands of dollars to pay off the debts, the big banks and the hedge funds move in for the kill…

For decades, the District placed liens on properties when homeowners failed to pay their bills, then sold those liens at public auctions to mom-and-pop investors who drew a profit by charging owners interest on top of the tax debt until the money was repaid.
But under the watch of local leaders, the program has morphed into a predatory system of debt collection for well-financed, out-of-town companies that turned $500 delinquencies into $5,000 debts — then foreclosed on homes when families couldn’t pay, a Washington Post investigation found.

In particular, hedge funds have discovered that this is a great way to make huge piles of money.  The following is a short excerpt from a CNN article that was published back in May…

With buyers identified only by numbers or unrelated names, the fragmented, unregulated industry is opaque. Even the market’s size is debated — $15 billion a year, according to Howard Liggett, the chief executive of Distressed Real Estate Consulting Services, or $5 billion a year, according to the National Tax Lien Association, a trade group. While returns are a closely kept secret, investors typically make between 2.5% and 10% a year, or in the low teens for larger buys.

“The hedge funds are chasing yield in this business” says Albert Friedman, a principal at Alterna Capital, an alternative investment firm in Boca Raton that buys tax liens.
Insiders estimate hedge funds now control 40% of the tax-lien market, from under 5% five years ago, with regional banks, obscure partnerships sporting names like God’s ATM LLC, and mom-and-pop investors making up the rest.

And a number of “too big to fail” banks are involved in this business as well.
In a previous article, I described exactly how this works…

1) The big Wall Street banks set up or invest in shell companies that will disguise who they really are.
2) These shell companies run around and buy up all of the tax liens that they can get their hands on.
3) Predatory levels of interest (in some states as high as 18 percent), fees and penalties rapidly pile up on these unpaid tax liens.  The affected homeowners quickly end up owing much, much more than what the original tax bills were for.
4) If the collecting firm has to hire a lawyer, then that gets charged to the homeowner as well.  The bloated legal fees for some of these lawyers can end up being the biggest expense of all.
5) If the tax liens do not get paid, the collecting firms move in to foreclose as quickly as legally possible.
According to the Huffington Post, Wall Street banks such as Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase have been gobbling up several hundred thousand tax liens from local governments.  It appears that “distressed housing markets” are being particularly targeted.
Many of these tax liens are sold in online auctions, so it is unclear if many local government officials even realize who the big money behind many of these shell companies is.

These big financial institutions may consider this to be “good business”, but the truth is that they are absolutely shattering lives in the process.  This is particularly true when it comes to older people that do not fully understand what is happening to them.  Just consider the following examples from a recent Washington Post article…

A 48-year-old math teacher paid his taxes in 2007, but the tax office took his $1,400 payment and applied it to the wrong house, crediting an entirely different taxpayer.
A 58-year-old bank employee almost lost her house in 2010 because the tax office mistakenly sent bills and notices to a wooded lot across from a strip shopping center in Virginia — 12 times.
A 69-year-old hat designer was given the wrong payoff amount and ended up in court to save her property, owned by her family since 1943.
Those homeowners found out about the mistakes in time to fight. Ninety-five-year-old Daisy Dolsey, living in a nursing home and struggling with Alzheimer’s, wasn’t so lucky: She lost her $300,000 house over a $44.79 tax debt even after she paid her taxes.

Doesn’t that just sicken you?
And then the big banks and the hedge funds have the gall to wonder why people dislike them so much.
In this day and age, large financial institutions have become more cold-hearted than ever before.
Always make sure that your property taxes are fully paid, and always keep a paper record of all financial transactions involving your home.
If you do slip up and make a mistake at some point, there is a very good chance that a ruthless financial institution will try to swoop in and steal your home right out from under your nose.

James Rickards & John Williams: US Fed Won’t Taper QE, Policy Causes Asset Bubbles (And They’re Here To Stay)

James Rickards – Why the US Fed won’t taper QE, author of Currency Wars-The Making of the Next Global Crisis

Is the US painting itself into a corner from which there is no good way out?
- DOWNLOAD THIS INTERVIEW
HILTON TARRANT: US job growth came in lower than expected in August, and the unemployment rate dropping to a  four-and-a-half year low as workers gave up the search for work in the US could delay the Federal Reserve’s scaling back its massive monetary stimulus later this month.
All eyes are on the Federal Open Market Committee meeting in just over 10 days’ time. Until today’s data it was widely anticipated we would see some easing or tapering of the stimulus programme. But James Rickards, author of Currency Wars: the making of the Next Global Crisis, believes that we won’t see any cutting back at all of the Fed stimulus because the American economy remains just too weak.
JAMES RICKARDS: I don’t think it’s going to happen. Certainly it’s on the agenda in the sense that the Fed is talking about and thinking about it – they certainly would like to taper. I don’t think there’s much doubt about that. And to a great extent the markets have priced that in.
  I don’t think the Fed actually will taper in September – in fact, I don’t think they’ll do it at all this year and the reason is I’m sort of taking the Fed at their word. They said we’d like to. Tapering is the jargon, it’s reducing asset purchases, but asset purchases are the way they print money. So what they are really saying is we are going to print less money….

Fed Uberdove Admits Policy Causes Asset Bubbles (And They’re Here To Stay)

San Francisco Fed head John Williams – known for his extremely dovish views on monetary policy (and support of record accomodation)  – appears to have taken some uncomfortable truth serum this morning. In a speech reminiscent of previous “froth” discussions and “irrational exuberance” admissions, Williams explained:

• *WILLIAMS SAYS POLICY MAY YIELD ASSET BUBBLES, UNINTENDED RESULT
• *WILLIAMS: ASSET-PRICE BUBBLES AND CRASHES ‘ARE HERE TO STAY’
• *WILLIAMS: ASSET-PRICE BUBBLES ARE ‘CONSEQUENCE OF HUMAN NATURE’

His words appear to reflect heavily on the Fed’s Advisory Letter (from the banks) from 3 months ago [20] - warning of exactly this “unintended consequence.” This, on the heels of Plosser’s recent admission that the Fed was responsible for the last housing bubble [21], suggests with the black-out period before September’s FOMC about to begin, the Fed is sending us a message that Taper is coming – as we know they are cornered for four reasons (sentiment [22], deficits [23], technicals [24], and international resentment [25]).

How Bubbles Form…
 [26]

and How They Pop…
 [27]
…
http://www.zerohedge.com/print/478633

Fed critics demand change with Bernanke exit

The central bank — soon to celebrate its 100th anniversary — has painted itself into a corner with its quantitative-easing program, which has only perpetuated the economic malaise from the Great Recession.

What Western Supply and Asian Demand Mean for Gold: Brien Lundin

What Western Supply and Asian Demand Mean for Gold: Brien Lundin
Source: Brian Sylvester of The Gold Report (9/9/13)
The global rally for gold underway since late June will soon translate to juniors, says Brien Lundin, CEO of Jefferson Financial and the publisher/editor of Gold Newsletter. With so many undervalued companies in safe North American jurisdictions, he sees no reason to add sovereign risk to a portfolio. In this interview with The Gold Report, Lundin details which companies he follows and why, highlighting one area where major discoveries are “lined up like pearls on a string.”
The Gold Report: Brien, judging from the tone of the September 2013 issue of Gold Newsletter, you have renewed excitement for precious metals equities. Why?
Brien Lundin: You’re absolutely right, and it’s all based on the metals markets. In a typical year, the precious metals markets bottom out at the end of July to early August, when physical demand from Asia abates, before kicking back up in late August and September.
This year, gold bottomed out in a final downward thrust at the end of June and then started building back up. At the same time, a lot of anecdotal evidence began to reveal an extremely tight supply situation in the global gold market. Taking all of that together, I was fairly confident in calling a bottom for gold.
Then, the equities started to respond. However, the situation in Syria prompted some safe-haven demand in the last few days and the mining equities stepped back; with safe-haven demand, investors want the metal, not the paper. But that was just a brief blip. I see an open road ahead for gold metal and gold equities.
TGR: Gold is moving higher, but without much of an explanation. What is your take on the situation?
BL: The market has had some strong performance, jumping $15, $25, even $35 in a day. I think those spikes are a result of the extremely tight demand situation in the gold market. In the spring, Western speculators and some of the big holders of SPDR Gold Trust (GLD), the gold exchange-traded fund (ETF), abandoned the market in anticipation of the imminent end of quantitative easing (QE). We also had some manipulation, notably on April 12 and April 15, in a blatant attempt to force the market through sell stops, thus benefiting from short positions. As a result of these speculative selloffs, the market was dramatically oversold.
But this rapid price decline sparked tremendous bargain hunting in Asia. Asian demand more than overcame the selling by Western speculators. The supplies of gold in the Comex warehouses dropped to record low levels. We saw gold being transferred from vaults in the West to the East, causing the rare occurrence of a negative Gold Forward Offered (GOFO) rate—the interest rate difference between gold holdings and LIBOR. That has happened only twice in this bull market, at the beginning of the major bull trend around 2000, and in 2008. Both times it marked a major turnaround in the metal.
There is a lot of evidence that this unprecedented supply situation was behind the sharp, brief upward spikes in the gold price. As you add up these sharp spikes, gold was gradually and then more rapidly coming off that bottom in late June.
There are number of players in the East who want gold and are willing to pay higher prices. There also is a shortage of gold in the West. From a fundamental supply-demand standpoint, we still have some room to go in this oversold rebound.
TGR: Could you expand on why you believe China will soon be “driving the bus” for the global gold market?
BL: The Shanghai Gold Exchange (SGE), putatively a futures exchange, is actually a physical delivery mechanism for the Chinese market. Most of the gold traded on the SGE is actually delivered to end-users. As of the end of June, SGE reported nearly 1,100 tons of gold have been traded so far this year. That equates to all of the metal that had been traded on the SGE in 2012, which itself was a record year.
Put another way, at this rate of consumption, demand on the SGE this year will equal the entire newly mined global output projected for 2013. In effect, all of the new gold supply in the world is being consumed by a single exchange in a single nation.
China will soon exceed India as the largest source of gold demand in the world. There are demographic factors behind this: a deep cultural affinity for gold, a growing population and a rapidly growing middle class. The per-capita use for gold in China is still relatively low but has a lot of upside. As incomes grow in China, gold demand will grow on a per-capita basis even as the population grows. The potential for growth in the demand for gold is almost exponential.
TGR: Who in China is buying gold?
BL: The assumption is that the People’s Bank of China is buying gold to build up the nation’s gold reserves. China also has become the world’s largest gold producer, yet none of the gold it produces ever gets exported.
There is tremendous upside potential in central bank buying of gold in China, in that China holds a huge amount of U.S. dollars in its foreign currency reserves. If it were to increase its gold reserves to the average level of most developed nations, it would quickly absorb all of the available metal in the global gold market.
TGR: Would the gold price be on an even stronger upward trajectory if India hadn’t taken measures to curb gold buying?
BL: Yes, Indian demand would have been much stronger if its central bank hadn’t increased the tariff in phases to 10%. Just as importantly, it imposed an 80/20 rule, which requires that 20% of all of the gold imported into India must be subsequently exported as finished goods. Those rules, imposed without explanation of how to follow them, effectively shut down Indian gold imports from the end of July through the end of August.
TGR: You recently wrote “Gold has bottomed. The market is set up for a large sharp rally when and if a short covering stampede is sparked.” What could those sparks be?
BL: One appears to be the situation in Syria, although we don’t know how that will develop.
A more important and fundamental driver for a short-covering rally would be the flow of economic data in the U.S., where economic growth had been showing signs recently of slowing. That slowdown, if it were confirmed, would eliminate any justification for tapering off the Federal Reserve’s QE program. A growing consensus that QE will be here for a while will be the driver that gets the shorts to abandon their bearish gold positions.
TGR: How does all this translate to gold equities?
BL: The majors had a fairly good rebound and were outperforming gold until the Syria situation erupted. That touched off broader equity market selloffs, and the gold stocks were victimized.
Interest is just starting to filter down to the junior resource stocks. I’m not as negative on that subsector as some of my compatriots. Greed is the most powerful motivator in the investment markets, and greed will draw investors to the juniors like iron filings to a magnet if we see a sustained upward trend in gold and silver.
TGR: What do patterns in the market trends tell you?
BL: This year the gold market has experienced a number of head fakes, where we thought we had a bottom, then it dropped to a lower plateau, then dropped again. I think the June 28 bottom will hold. The fundamental evidence argues for an extremely tight situation in the gold market, which will keep the prices from dropping to an even lower plateau.
A lot of evidence, from stochastics to moving averages, is delivering very strong buy signals. There is anecdotal technical evidence like the negative GOFO rate and backwardation in the near-term futures. All this added together points to higher gold prices and a more sustained rally.
Yet, in the broader market, sentiment is still not very positive for gold. We’re still climbing a wall of worry in regard to sentiment, yet, for those willing to look, an increasing amount of evidence is pointing toward higher prices. This is really the perfect situation.
TGR: Your newsletter reports on a host of companies. Can you tell us about some junior plays with leverage to the gold price, starting with those that have assets in safer jurisdictions like Canada and the U.S.?
BL: Safer jurisdiction is an important point. In this market, there are so many undervalued companies out there that there is no reason to take on sovereign risk if you don’t have to. As we start this rebound, it’s important to look for undervalued juniors that have proven resources or are in production. You can get them at bargain level prices, and they will be the first to respond.
I expect Brigus Gold Corp. (BRD:NYSE.MKT; BRD:TSX) to surprise a lot of people. The company spent a lot of money to upgrade its facilities and prepare for a higher production rate. Its capital expenses will therefore drop considerably going forward, while it benefits from the higher production rate.
TGR: Brigus just recently increased its guidance by 5,000 ounces (5 Koz) through the end of 2013.
BL: And the exploration potential in the Grey Fox deposit gives it a good growth profile.
TGR: Brigus’ new estimate for Grey Fox, issued in July, is up to 736 Koz. How big could Grey Fox get?
BL: It’s hard to tell, but grade is just as important as size. Its grades are so exceptional that, if Brigus were a junior, it would be the exploration story of the year. The widths are good, too. Grey Fox should generate fairly high-margin production given the richness of the mineralization. It will be significant to the company’s growth profile because of its size, and significant to its earnings profile because of the high grades.
TGR: How about some other names?
BL: A number of exploration stories in the U.S. and Canada are undervalued. Gold Standard Ventures Corp. (GSV:TSX.V; GSV:NYSE) had great exploration success in 2011 and 2012 in Nevada, then was forgotten by the market in the downturn. It has a great geological staff. I think it has narrowed down on the trend and the mineralization. The company is selling at prediscovery price levels, which I find very attractive.
TGR: Gold Standard Ventures recently raised $5 million ($5M) to continue exploring the Railroad project in Nevada. How important was that?
BL: Its ability to raise money validated its project and its upside. Any experienced, knowledgeable hand in Nevada exploration will tell you that Gold Standard Ventures is as close to a sure thing as you can find in Nevada. It’s the wise guys’ play in Nevada exploration.
Comstock Metals Ltd. (CSL:TSX.V) has a project in the Yukon that could be an analogue to the Underworld Resources Inc. discovery at Golden Saddle—the discovery that sparked the new Yukon gold rush. Recent results were mixed, but did nothing to extinguish the upside potential because it has a number of targets on the project. The question is whether the grades will be high enough over the current widths to justify development in the Yukon. I think it has a really good shot at it.
TGR: Comstock had some good results in the VG zone of the QV project. Is that the tip of the iceberg?
BL: It’s the tip of the exploration potential. It will take a bit of drilling to see if there’s an iceberg underneath. Comstock has good showings from the Shadow and Stewart zones. By no means is the potential for VG cut off at this point. The company knows where the mineralization is trending. There is plenty of potential there.
At this point, the company needs another phase of drilling before the season shuts down to see if it can expand the known gold zones. In my view, there is a joint venture ahead for Comstock. That would advance the project without further financial drain.
TGR: What’s happening with Colorado Resources Ltd. (CXO:TSX.V)?
BL: Similar to GoldQuest Mining Corp. (GQC:TSX.V), Colorado Resources had some blockbuster results on its first few discovery holes, but subsequent holes did not live up to those standards. The company has established the potential for a very large resource at low, but mineable, grades. Its job now is to figure out the targets and maximize the grades.
TGR: Do you have another name?

BL: Another overlooked company working in Nevada is Rye Patch Gold Corp. (RPM:TSX.V; RPMGF:OTCQX). It had a great plan to develop a number of larger-scale, lower-grade satellite deposits in Nevada where, due to the infrastructure, resources can be produced in a hub-and-spoke type of an operation with a central mill.
The key with Rye Patch is its legal dispute with Coeur Mining Inc. (CDM:TSX; CDE:NYSE), in which Rye Patch restaked some claims that Coeur had let lapse. The two companies recently came to an agreement, but the agreement didn’t meet the market’s hopes of a buyout for Rye Patch. However, the agreement did give Rye Patch significant cash flow in the form of a $32M royalty on the disputed claims. This will limit dilution or will allow the company to explore with no drain on its capital resources for years to come.
The next step for Rye Patch is to prove the viability of its resources and exploration targets. It has some walking-around money and a great management team. For a junior, $32M is extraordinary. Today, the company isn’t being valued on the basis of that cash flow. Based on cash flow alone, it is a great speculative investment.
TGR: How does silver fit into what’s happening with gold?
BL: Silver is leveraged to gold. It follows the moves of gold, but it exaggerates those moves both upward and downward.
With gold rising, silver is outperforming gold—a sign of a healthy bull market. In turn, silver equities are a way for investors to leverage the moves in silver. Investors get a double-play action by investing in silver equities.
TGR: Which silver plays are you following?
BL: I like Endeavour Silver Corp. (EDR:TSX; EXK:NYSE; EJD:FSE) and Great Panther Silver Ltd. (GPR:TSX; GPL:NYSE.MKT). Santacruz Silver Mining Ltd. (SCZ:TSX.V; 1SZ:FSE) is a new recommendation of ours.SilverCrest Mines Inc. (SVL:TSX.V; SVLC:NYSE.MKT) has been a very profitable recommendation forGold Newsletter readers.
We also like Silver Standard Resources Inc. (SSO:TSX; SSRI:NASDAQ) and Silvercorp Metals Inc. (SVM:TSX; SVM:NYSE).
TGR: Do you want to expand on any of those?
BL: Santacruz made it into production at an incredibly low cost. It has laid out production plans for its three projects over the next few years. It’s a great growth story.
SilverCrest has two projects in line, is growing production and has a great management team. It offers leverage to the rising silver price and to the company’s growth.
Endeavour Silver has become much more aggressive in its acquisitions over the last year, taking over and turning around mines that other companies had trouble with. That aggressive growth strategy will pay dividends going forward.
Great Panther is a well-managed company with a number of projects under development. It is cutting costs and optimizing operations.
TGR: All of those projects are in Mexico. Are you following any Mexican gold plays?
BL: Mexico is a great mining region. I really like Cayden Resources Inc. (CYD:TSX.V; CDKNF:NASDAQ). The company has two primary projects, one in the Guerrero Gold Belt. It sold off a portion of that project—Morelos Sur—to Goldcorp Inc. (G:TSX; GG:NYSE)—and raised $15.7M in cash to fund another couple of years of exploration without any dilution.
Cayden’s primary exploration project now is El Barque?o, where it has gotten tremendous trench results over a wide-scale area. It recently received its drilling permits and will start drilling soon. That project’s potential, combined with the company’s cash position, its great management team and its relatively tight share structure, offers a lot of upside.
TGR: The Guerrero Gold Belt is one of the prime areas for gold exploration in Mexico.
BL: It is. Geophysical anomalies mark every big discovery along that belt. A number of multimillion-ounce discoveries line up along that belt like pearls on a string.
Cayden adjoins Goldcorp’s Los Filos project, one of the top two gold-producing mines in Mexico. That’s why Cayden was able to sell some of Morelos Sur and can still sell the Las Calles portion of its property, where it has already demonstrated that the mineralization extends onto its ground from Goldcorp’s operations.
Cayden also has a large geophysical target called La Magnetita, where it has only scratched the surface, so far without very positive results. Given that La Magnetita is the largest geophysical anomaly in the trend, there is still tremendous blue-sky potential there.
TGR: When will it get to drill that?
BL: It has already completed a first-pass drill program. The results indicated the right kind of mineralization, but the grades were low. La Magnetita is such a large target that it will take time and more drilling to find the deposit or kill off the potential. Right now, Cayden is focusing on El Barque?o, which offers the near-term potential to move the company with some good drill results.
TGR: Gold Newsletter is good at getting out in front of certain companies. What are some new names that have had early success?
BL: Columbus Gold Corp. (CGT:TSX.V) is one. The company has a resource of more than 4 million ounces. People don’t seem to realize that it has upside potential and appears to be an economic project. It’s still selling for a pittance, a fraction of where it should be compared to its peer group.
You also don’t read much about Lara Exploration Ltd. (LRA:TSX.V). The company’s focus is on South America, primarily in Brazil and a bit in Peru. It is a pure prospect generator, with a superb management team that sticks to the business model. It also has a number of strong, smart shareholders, so there has not been a lot of volatility in the stock. Nonetheless, it took a downturn recently when it reported that several of its projects had been dropped by its joint venture partners. But that really is just part of the business plan; it’s a numbers game, rolling through a long list of projects in its pipeline. This is a bargain right now.
TGR: Tell us what people can expect at the New Orleans Investment Conference this November.
BL: We have a tremendous lineup, highlighted by Dr. Ron Paul, the iconic leader of the libertarian movement in the U.S. Dr. Charles Krauthammer, one of the smartest guys in geopolitical analysis out there today, and Peter Schiff, one of the smartest guys in the investment business, will be there. Other big names include Dr. Marc Faber and Dr. Benjamin Carson.
Dennis Gartman, who has made some very accurate calls on the commodities markets, and Dr. Martin Weiss, a leading authority on the bond market and rating financial institutions, are scheduled. And, of course, we have dozens of today’s top experts in every investment area.
TGR: Do you have any parting thoughts on the gold and equities space?
BL: Over the past 12 or 13 years we’ve seen a shift to a secular megatrend in the metals and commodities markets. There have been some tremendous profit opportunities along the way, including periods when junior resource stocks multiplied in value very rapidly. We’ve also seen some severe setbacks.
Right now, we’re seeing an analogue to previous periods where, with courage and cash, investors could reap tremendous gains as the metals rebound. All the evidence is pointing toward a new rally in the metals. It’s time finally for investors to get back into the market.
TGR: Brien, it’s always a pleasure to talk with you.
With a career spanning three decades in the investment markets, Brien Lundin serves as president and CEO of Jefferson Financial, a highly regarded publisher of market analyses and producer of investment-oriented events. Under the Jefferson Financial umbrella, Lundin publishes and edits Gold Newsletter, a cornerstone of precious metals advisories since 1971. He also hosts the New Orleans Investment Conference, the oldest and most respected investment event of its kind.
Want to read more Gold Report interviews like this? Sign up for our free e-newsletter, and you’ll learn when new articles have been published. To see a list of recent interviews with industry analysts and commentators, visit our Streetwise Interviews page.
DISCLOSURE:
1) Brian Sylvester conducted this interview for The Gold Report and provides services to The Gold Report as an independent contractor. He or his family own shares of the following companies mentioned in this interview: None.
2) The following companies mentioned in the interview are sponsors of The Gold Report: Brigus Gold Corp., Gold Standard Ventures Corp., Comstock Metals Ltd., Rye Patch Gold Corp., Great Panther Silver Ltd., Santacruz Silver Mining Ltd., SilverCrest Mines Inc., Silver Standard Resources Inc., Cayden Resources Inc., Colorado Resources Ltd. and Goldcorp Inc. Streetwise Reports does not accept stock in exchange for its services or as sponsorship payment.
3) Brien Lundin: I or my family own shares of the following companies mentioned in this interview: Comstock Metals Ltd., Rye Patch Gold Corp., Cayden Resources Inc. and Lara Exploration Ltd. I personally am or my family is paid by the following companies mentioned in this interview: None. My company has a financial relationship with the following companies mentioned in this interview: None. I was not paid by Streetwise Reports for participating in this interview. Comments and opinions expressed are my own comments and opinions. I had the opportunity to review the interview for accuracy as of the date of the interview and am responsible for the content of the interview.
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Godfrey Bloom – The Central Banks Are All At It, Counterfeiting Money!

Reality Check: More Americans Are “Rethinking” 9/11?

Did you know that a 3rd building fell on 9-11?  That bill board is today over Times Square.  It was placed there through donations to a campaign called Rethink 9/11.
In fact, that group has placed posters and signs across the world, from Australia, to Canada, from San Francisco to right here in New York City.
So what is Rethink 9/11?  Wouldn’t only a fringe group of people would still question 9/11?  Perhaps not, because today we will tell you about new polling that shows a majority of those polled either question the official 9/11 story or don’t believe it at all.  Is that possible?
The first step toward truth, is to be informed.
Here in New York City, today at the site of the 9/11 Memorial, promises to never forget what happened the morning of September 11th, 2001.  But never forgetting doesn’t mean that you don’t rethink what you have been told.
Rethink 911 is the first ever global 9/11 anniversary campaign. Sponsored by a coalition of more than 40 organizations, ReThink911 is placing ads in 11 major cities around the world this September 2013.
But what is there to rethink? According to a group called Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth, you need to start by rethinking the third building that fell that day.
Building 7,  behind me.   That rectangular building is the new building 7.  It stands a little smaller but in the same place where the original World Trade Center 7 once stood.
To be fair, the collapse of building 7 has long been the claims of conspiracy theorists. In 2008, the National Institute of Standards and Technology or (NIST) released its long-awaited report on the collapse of World Trade Center 7.  The lead investigator Shyam Sunder told journalists,  “WTC 7 collapsed because of fires fueled by office furnishings. It did not collapse from explosives or from diesel fuel fires.”
But that claim has been taken on by that rapidly growing group known as Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth.

Today, more than 2,000 progressional architects and engineers from around the world have joined together to say that the NIST claim that Building 7 came down because of office fires is not only untrue, it is not possible.  That no skyscraper in history has ever come down that way.
That the way Building 7 fell was without the building tipping or rocking and that in order to fall like this, a building could only come down IF all the internal columns supporting building were to give way at the same time.
Enginneering is a technical field but most of us would know this as a controlled demolition.
To better understand the claims of AE for 9/11 Truth, I talked with Tony Szamboti, a mechanical design engineer with 27 years of experience in the aerospace and communications industries and one of the 2,000 engineers calling for an a new, independent investigation of the collapse of Building 7 and the World Trade Center towers.
Swann:  “So you look at this image of the building falling, again NIST says that its office fires that have caused this.  You say.. ‘give me another example?’”
Szamboti:  “There is no other example.”
Swann:  “No other example in the world?”
Szamboti: “They have no other example,”
Swann:  “So this has never happened?  This would be the first building in the world to come down this way?”
Szamboti: “And they say that.  They say that thermal expansion caused it.  What I say caused it and you can cut this out or leave it in, but I think they took out the core columns for 8 full stories, and that pulled in the exterior.  When you have controlled demotion, and when take the core out, you pull in exterior and it comes down.  When you take out 8 stories it all comes in.”
Swann:  “What happens if you leave half of them?  If it is not a controlled demolition and you have a failure of some columns?”
Szamboti: “Then you have a partial collapse.”
And there is another issue of how NIST says Building 7 came down.  The say it was normal office fires.  The technical explanation is that floor beams expanded because of heat and ultimately pushed a single column, column 79 off of its seating.  That, NIST says, caused the entire collapse of the building.  But what NIST told the public in 2008 was the reason these columns were pushed loose is because they were unrestrained.
What was discovered last year in 2012 after a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request was granted, that claim was not true, that the columns were not unrestrained.  In fact there were 3,896 shear studs holding those columns in place.
Szamboti: “One is, the beams could not expand far enough and if they could expand enough, those stiffeners would stop that girder from falling off.  They were bonded.”
Swann: “But for the person that say, so you have so disagreements on some technical things.”
Szamboti: “No, no, its much more than that, it can’t happen to start.  It would be sorta like me saying, I can put something thats a half inch wide and if i push it a half inch it will fall off this rail and thats not true.  Thats what they’re saying, its that simple.”
There is something else Tony is passionate about.  The claim by NIST in 2008 was that not only that building 7 came down as as the result of office fires but that the north tower fell down because of something called “deceleration”.  Simply put, when you use a hammer to strike a nail, the force used does two things, it drives the nail downward but a certain moment pushes the hammer upward.
When you watch the video of the north tower coming down, Tony says there is no moment of impact where the burning top of the tower creates impact against the rest of building.  Instead it all just free falls.  Without that impact, the top of the tower could not have cause the rest of the building to collapse.
Szamboti: “What a legitimate investigation would have done would be to have interrogated anyone who had access to those interiors.  I’m not talking about office people, (I’m talking about) security people, contractors, those types of people.  That has never been done, that has never been done. I think our government is responsible to do that but we would want it to be above board.  I don’t think the investigations we have had so far have been above board.”
So that is the professional challenge to the official story.   Only a controlled demolition could have brought the building down and again, during the government investigation the evidence of explosive materials or a demolition was ruled out, not because the evidence didn’t exist, but because the inspectors didn’t bother to look for it.
How do families of 9/11 victims feel about this?  Are they insulted by this campaign?  Some may be but others are the ones supporting it.
Bob McIlvaine lost his son on 9/11.
McIlvaine:  “Bobbie had just started Merrill Lynch two or three weeks before 9/11.  Bobbie was VP of media relations, he was going to be writer and he was writing for a PR firm and their only client was Merrill Lynch and they loved his writing so much that they hired him.  That day Merrill Lynch was holding a training on the 106 floor of the north tower.  No one was able to get a hold of Bobbie.  The tower was hit.  We weren’t that worried because we knew he worked at Merrill Lynch.  150 people called him that morning.  No one ever got a response.”
Swann:  “But if he worked at Merrill Lynch why was he in the north tower?”
McIlvaine:   “Well, this is what we are guessing because Merrill Lynch was sponsoring a seminar on the 106 floor that day.”
For Bob the most shocking thing about his son’s death, unlike most 9/11 families, Bob was able to recover parts of his son for burial and he actually received a cause of death from the coroner.
McIlvaine:  “I got up to the morgue, talked to the doctor who examined him. He gave me the pictures, he asked me if I wanted to see the actual pictures and i didn’t want to see it.  I felt bad about it.   But no matter how you look at it, he got hit by a sudden force.  He was impacted by something, yeah, a force, the top of his head was taken out.  His right arm was blown off and his body had lacerations.  If he had been on the 106 floor, we would have heard from him because a lot of people would have been calling out on the 106 floor.
But part of that autopsy reveled that Bobbie was not killed by being burned.  In fact, the burns he received came after he had died.
McIlvaine:  “So post-mortum means that he had burns after he died.  I can say with confidence that Bobbie died, and I can say with confidence before the planes hit.   So the point is, the planes had nothing to do with his death and I could prove that in a court of law pretty easily.  And therefore if the planes had nothing to with his death, who killed him?”
The claims being made by Bob and Tony are compelling but the question we must ask, where is the American public on this issue?  A newly commissioned poll on this very subject finds that 12 years after the 9/11 attacks, there is growing skepticism in the public.
According to that poll, 38% of Americans have doubts about the official account of 9/11 and 10% do not believe it at all.  That is compared to only a minority of those polled, 40% who are completely satisfied.
But there is more. Because when you start asking questions about Building 7, the public is even more skeptical.  46% suspect or are sure it was controlled demolition, compared to 28% who say it was fires (the official story), and 27% who don’t know.  And of those polled, the largest group, 41% support a new investigation of Building 7′s collapse, compared to 22% who opposed.
What you need to know, is that the idea that we rethink 9/11 some would call unpatriotic, others would call conspiratorial, but increasingly, those folks are now in the minority.
How far we come in 12 years.
But regardless of how you feel about this campaign, rethinking 9/11 is about more than just what happened in 2001.  Over the last 12 years, we have watched just about every single constitutional liberty afforded to Americans taken away as a result of our “war on terror”.  We have watched our government take away our right to speech, due process, freedom from search and seizure, the right to privacy of your person or papers, all taken away in the name of security.  We can argue about whether that quest for security has made us more secure but what is beyond argument is that we are certainly less free. Despite all the rights that have been taken away, at least one right that still remains… the right to question who took those rights, how and why.
And that is Reality Check.

Sources:
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/nyregion/20050812_WTC_GRAPHIC/9110442.PDF
http://rethink911.org/docs/ReThink911_YouGov_Poll_Results_Summary.pdf

COMER VS BOC

Ohio Gov. Kasich: Able-bodied Adults Will Work for Food Stamps

Governor John Kasich’s administration announced this week that beginning next month, able-bodied adults in all but sixteen economically depressed areas will be required to work or participate in job training or volunteer work as a condition of receiving food stamps. The Dispatch reported:

To qualify for benefits, able-bodied adults without children will be required to spend at least 20 hours a week working, training for a job, volunteering or performing a similar type of activity unless they live in one of 16 counties exempt because of high unemployment. The requirements begin next month; however, those failing to meet them would not lose benefits until Jan. 1.

The work requirement is actually a federal regulation, part of the 1996 welfare-reform legislation that Kasich helped pass as chairman of the House Budget Committee when he was in Congress. For years Ohio has taken advantage of a federal waiver exempting food stamp recipients from the work requirements. Though Ohio still qualifies for the federal waiver, the Kasich administration decided to only extend it to those counties whose two-year average unemployment rate was more than 120 percent of the national rate
“The governor believes in a work requirement,” Kasich spokesman Rob Nichols told The Dispatch. “But when the economy is bad and people are hurting, the waiver can be helpful. Now, fortunately, Ohio’s economy is improving.”
According to the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, 1.8 million individuals received Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits in the month of June with an average benefit of $137. The state spent $245 million on the program in June, a decrease of 2.1 percent from the same time last year.
“It’s important that we provide more than just a monetary benefit, that we provide job training, an additional level of support that helps put (food-stamp recipients) on a path toward a career and out of poverty,” said Ben Johnson, spokesman for the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.  Johnson estimates that 134,000 adults in 72 Ohio counties will be subject to the new work requirement. They range in age from 18-50, without dependent children in the home and deemed physically and mentally able to work.
Critics say that many will lose their food benefits because jobs are not available or because participants lack transportation.
“The rolls will go down because of this. Some people will leave because of the requirement, and some won’t be able to meet it. It will be similar to what we saw with (welfare) rolls,” said Joel Potts, executive director of the Ohio Job and Family Services Directors’ Association, referring to the 2011 federal work requirement for cash assistance. More than 100,000 have left the welfare rolls since the onset of the new requirement. The number of Ohioans dependent on the Ohio Works First (cash assistance) program is down 15% this past year alone.

Taxpayer Burden Rises as Big Companies End Retiree Plans

America’s biggest employers, from GE to IBM, are increasingly moving retirees to insurance exchanges where they select their own health plans, an historic shift that could push more costs onto U.S. taxpayers.
Time Warner Inc. has said it would steer retired workers toward a privately run exchange, days after a similar announcement by International Business Machines Corp. General Electric Co. last year said it, too, would curb benefits in a move that may send some former employees to the public insurance exchanges created under the 2010 Affordable Care Act.
While retiree health benefits have been shrinking for years, the newest cutbacks may quickly become the norm. About 44 percent of companies plan to stop administering health plans for their former workers over the next two years, a survey last month by consultant Towers Watson & Co. found. Retirees are concerned their costs may rise, while analysts predict benefits will decline in some cases.
“Things are going to change dramatically,” said Ron Fontanetta, a partner at New York-based Towers Watson, which advises GE and other large companies. “Over the next two to three years, we see a much more aggressive rethinking of what employers are going to provide.”
The adjustments come as insurers have increased access the past few years to Medicare Advantage plans that provide benefits beyond the U.S. government health program for the elderly. Additionally, the health-care law promises to make it easier for those younger than 65 to buy insurance that’s guaranteed and subsidized by taxpayers.
Private Exchanges
The private exchanges are designed to join with companies to find the best deals for the former workers. The public exchanges established under Obamacare, set to open Oct. 1, were created to provide insurance for millions of uninsured Americans. In both cases, enrollees will be able to select from a menu of private health plans.
Companies argue that many retirees can find more choice and a better deal on the exchanges, said John Grosso, head of the retiree health task force at Aon Hewitt LLC, a Chicago-based consultant. Instead of taking a one-size-fits-all company plan, a healthier retiree might find a less expensive policy with a higher deductible, or one that saved money by favoring generic drugs, he said in a telephone interview.
Less healthy workers or those who need more comprehensive coverage may not fare as well, Grosso said.
‘Gold-Plated’ Plans
“Some of them may not be as well off because they had a really gold-plated plan, but others who are paying a meaningful contribution to their own plan now can right-size the coverage,” he said.
At the same time, retirees have expressed concern that subsidies provided by companies in private exchanges may not keep up with rising medical costs, potentially putting them at financial risk in the future. And an influx of retirees could put added pressure on public exchanges that provide taxpayer-supported subsidies.
Retirees aren’t the only ones feeling the pinch. Last month, United Parcel Service Inc. told workers it would no longer provide health care for 15,000 spouses who can get benefits through their own employer. The company cited rising medical costs in general as well as the added expenses and new insurance options created by the health law.
IBM’s Decision
IBM said last week it will shift about 110,000 Medicare-eligible retirees to Tower Watson’s Extend Health, the largest private Medicare exchange. Former workers will find more options than the business could provide through its own plan, IBM, the third-largest U.S. employer according to data compiled by Bloomberg, said in a statement e-mailed Sept. 7. Caterpillar Inc. and DuPont Co. also have moved Medicare-age retirees onto the Extend exchange.
For most, coverage will come “at the same or lower cost” than they pay now. The Armonk, New York-based company will still make contributions to a tax-free health retirement account for the workers.
IBM capped its subsidies to retirees in the 1990s and “didn’t make this change to save money,” Doug Shelton, a spokesman, said in an e-mail. “It does not reduce our costs.” Rather, the company is making the change to help former workers, whose premiums and out-of-pocket charges are projected to triple by 2020 under the current plan, Shelton said.
Ted Greenberg, 69, worked for IBM for 39 years and retired in 2007. He said he wasn’t sure what the changes would mean for his family and worried IBM will follow the lead of competitors and eliminate health-care subsidies altogether.
Subsidies, Stipends
“A couple of them basically did away with all subsidies and stipends and said to the retirees, ‘You’re on your own.’” Greenberg, a former director of billing and contracts, said in a phone interview. “Given the trends in the industry, I am concerned.”
Retiree coverage has been dwindling since the early 1990s, as health-care costs increased and changes to accounting standards forced companies to declare future health-care liabilities. Only about half of large employers still provide the benefit, a decrease from 80 percent two decades ago, Aon Hewitt’s Grosso said.
Already, many companies exclude new hires from retiree benefits and cap contributions to covered retirees, said Paul Fronstin, a researcher at the nonprofit Employee Benefits Research Institute in Washington. At the unionized or public-sector employers where the benefits are more common, “they’re dealing with the same cost pressures,” he said.
Limiting Participants
General Electric said last year that it would close its retiree plan to new entrants starting Jan. 1, 2015. The Fairfield, Connecticut-based company has established a call-in line and other resources for former workers who’ll be buying their own insurance after that point, said Seth Martin, a spokesman.
“We continuously assess our benefit programs to strike a balance among employees, retirees, investors and our ability to compete,” Martin said by e-mail. “The changes we made to our post-65 retiree health coverage are consistent with national trends in employer-sponsored retiree health plans.”
The change hasn’t come without controversy. Retirees feel GE “stripped them of something of substantial value that they believed they earned,” Dennis Rocheleau, 71, a former GE labor negotiator, wrote last year in a letter to the company’s board. Rocheleau, whose benefits were unaffected, said the company should reconsider.
“They’re saving millions of dollars and the people they’re taking it from are the ones who can afford it the least,” Rocheleau said in an interview.
© Copyright 2013 Bloomberg News. All rights reserved.

6 Russians elected to the board of directors of Cyprus' largest bank

NICOSIA, Cyprus –  Shareholders of Cyprus' largest bank have elected six Russians to sit on its new, 16-member board of directors.
Tuesday's vote puts more foreign nationals on the board of the Bank of Cyprus than ever before.
The significant Russian representation on the board of the bailed-out bank is a consequence of the multibillion euro financial rescue package that Cyprus agreed with its Eurozone partners and the International Monetary Fund in March.
In exchange for a 10 billion euro ($13.2 billion) loan, depositors with over 100,000 euros in the Bank of Cyprus, and the second-largest lender Laiki, took huge losses on their savings.
Russians kept billions in Cypriot bank accounts.
Under the terms of the bailout, 47.5 percent of uninsured savings in the Bank of Cyprus were converted into shares.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/09/10/6-russians-elected-to-board-directors-cyprus-largest-bank/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+foxnews%2Fworld+%28Internal+-+World+Latest+-+Text%29#ixzz2eZQzoBjJ

3 Infuriating Facts About CEOs 5 Years After the Financial Crisis

Five years ago this week, the investment bank Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. declared bankruptcy and triggered the financial collapse that brought us the Great Recession. Things have turned out quite well for former Lehman Brothers CEO Dick Fuld and four other industry executives whose work contributed substantially to the cycle of subprime lending and financial swindling that caused the crisis. Fuld and his colleagues haven’t just avoided legal repercussions for the crisis. They’re also among the wealthiest people in the country.

As part of a series commemorating the fifth anniversary of the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy, the Center for Public Integrity (CPI) published a look at Fuld and executives from Bear Stearns, Merrill Lynch, Citigroup, and Bank of America on Tuesday. Here are three infuriating facts CPI unearthed about the masters of the financial universe.
1. Dick Fuld walked away with half a billion dollars and three homes.Fuld’s $529 million fortune is actually a lot less than he could have been worth had he been able to cash out all of his stock before the Lehman bankruptcy. He had been paid $889.5 million in salary and stock between 2000 and 2007, and at one point his stock options were worth a full $900 million. CPI offers a digital tour of Fuld’s three homes: mansions in Greenwich, Connecticut and Jupiter Island, Florida, and a ranch in Sun Valley, Idaho. When Lehman settled for $90 million with former investors who the firm had deceived through an accounting trick approved by Fuld, it was an insurance company that paid, not executives like Fuld.
2. The former Bear Stearns CEO who walked away with over $300 million plays high-stakes bridge in retirement. Jimmy Cayne oversaw Bear Stearns’s massive gambling on home loans and related financial products prior to the company’s collapse. Today, he oversees a different sort of gambling. Cayne is the number 22-ranked bridge player in the world. He walked away from the company two months before it went belly up, having cashed out $289 million in stock and received another $87.5 million in direct cash bonuses from 2000 to 2007. Cayne and his wife own two Manhattan apartments, a mansion on the Jersey shore, and a $2.75 million condo in Boca Raton, Florida. “He’s paid no judgments or settlements from any lawsuits,” CPI reports.
3. Three bailed out CEOs whose “golden parachutes” were worth a combined $272 million are doing just fine. Charles Prince left Citigroup in 2007 following the announcement he’d lost the firm $11 billion in mortgage-backed gambles. The company paid him $28 million to leave. Stan O’Neal was fired by Merrill Lynch the same month, and the firm sent $161.5 million out the door with him. Ken Lewis left Bank of America in 2009 with a parachute payment of $83 million. All three of their firms had to be bailed out by taxpayers. The three men’s exit payments dramatically understate their total compensation. O’Neal and Prince each have vacation homes in the islands off of Cape Cod. Lewis has sold two homes in recent years but retains a condo in Naples, Florida.
While these stories of huge personal success in the face of clear business failure are infuriating, they are far from exceptional. Fully one-third of the highest-paid financial industry CEOs of the past two decades have been fired, bailed out, or busted for fraud.

Meanwhile, 11.3 million Americans remain unemployed, with tens of millions more having dropped out of the workforce or struggling to survive on low-wage part-time service industry jobs. Those who do have work are earning less than they did prior to the crisis, and American workers as a whole have experienced a lost decade in wage growthdespite boosting their productivity substantially. By contrast, the financial industry that caused the crisis has bounced back rapidly, with record profits and near-record bonuses for its executives.
Copyright: AlterNet

New Poll Finds Most Americans Open to 9/11 Truth

One in Two Surveyed Have Doubts About Government’s Account of 9/11. 46% Suspect Controlled Demolition of World Trade Center Building 7 after Viewing Video Footage of Collapse. On the 12^th anniversary of 9/11, a new national survey by the polling firm YouGov reveals that one in two Americans have doubts about the government’s account of 9/11, and after viewing video footage of World Trade Center Building 7′s collapse, 46% suspect that it was caused by a controlled demolition. Building 7, a 47-story skyscraper, collapsed into its own footprint late in the afternoon on 9/11.
The poll was sponsored by ReThink911, a global public awareness campaign launched on September 1. The campaign includes a 54-foot billboard in Times Square and a variety of transit and outdoor advertising in 11 other cities, all posing the question, “Did you know a third tower fell on 9/11?”

Among the poll’s findings:

• 38% of Americans have some doubts about the official account of 9/11, 10% do not believe it at all, and 12% are unsure about it;
• 46%, nearly one in two, are not aware that a third tower collapsed on 9/11. Of those who are aware of Building 7′s collapse, only 19% know the building’s name;
• After seeing video footage of Building 7′s collapse:
  • 46% are sure or suspect it was caused by controlled demolition, compared to 28% who are sure or suspect fires caused it, and 27% who don’t know;
  • By a margin of nearly two to one, 41% support a new investigation of Building 7′s collapse, compared to 21% who oppose it.

30-Second Video Shown to 1,194 Survey Respondents:

“The poll shows quite clearly what we already knew. Most people who see Building 7′s collapse have trouble believing that fires brought it down,” said Richard Gage, a member of the American Institute of Architects and founder of Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth, the campaign’s major sponsor. “It simply doesn’t look like a natural building collapse, and that’s because all the columns have been removed at once to allow it to come down symmetrically in free-fall. The evidence of controlled demolition is overwhelming. As more and more people learn about Building 7, public demand for a new investigation grows. People want the truth.”

According to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), normal office fires caused the failure of a single column, starting a chain reaction that brought Building 7 down. More than 2,000 architects and engineers have signed the Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth petition that questions NIST’s explanation of the building’s collapse.
“Even the government’s own computer model disproves its theory. It looks nothing like the actual collapse,” said Tony Szamboti, a mechanical engineer from the Philadelphia area. “Not only that, they refuse to release the data that would allow us to verify their model. In the world of science, this is as bad as it gets. I’m glad most people can look at the collapse and see the obvious.”
The ReThink911 campaign calls for a new investigation into Building 7′s collapse, as well as the destruction of the Twin Towers. The YouGov poll and the ad campaign were financed with more than $225,000 in donations from thousands of supporters.
All figures, unless otherwise stated, are from YouGov Plc. Total sample size was 1194 adults. Fieldwork was undertaken between 27th – 29th August 2013. The survey was carried out online. The figures have been weighted and are representative of all US adults (aged 18+).
Press Release: New Poll Finds Most Americans Open to Alternative 9/11 Theories (PDF)
Download a Summary of the Poll Results (PDF)
Download the Full Poll Results (EXCEL)
Copyright: Global Research