Arizona could soon approve gold, silver as legal tender

Washington: Europe's biggest bank by market value HSBC is gearing up for thousands more job cuts, according to a report.

The job cuts target has still to be fixed, but people close to the bank suggested up to 5,000 staff could go as part of the one billion dollars savings plan.

If HSBC maintained the recent rate of staff cuts to cost savings, the number would be closer to 10,000, CNN reports.

According to the report, Stuart Gulliver, HSBC's chief executive, said when he announced annual results last week that he would "fixate on costs" over the coming year and promised to find a further one billion dollars of annual savings in 2013.

Gulliver has spent the past two years trying to streamline HSBC's global network of fiefdoms, both in order to impose more control from head office in London and to strip out overlaps and inefficiencies.

HSBC has already exceeded its target of finding 2.5-3.5 billion dollars of cost savings by 2013, announcing 3.6 billion dollars of "sustainable annual savings" with its 2012 results, the report said.

But the bank remains as far as ever from a related target, to cut the bank's elevated cost-income ratio to between 48 and 52 percent, the report added.

ANI

First Published: Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 10:05

Pictures From A Cyprus ATM Line

For a few days, the people of Cyprus were calm, quietly and orderly accepting the unreality of the levy being imposed upon them - incredulous that it was even possible. As we reach the 4th day of bank closures, amid rolling rumors and ECB threats, it appears the people have reached a tipping point as this series of images from Cyprus ATM lines indicates - the bank-jog has arrived. When will it become a full blown sprint?

It appears the catalyst for this latest move is the ECB threat and EU concerns over the future of the two biggest insolvent banks: As AFP reports:  EU calls on Cyprus to set capital controls and merge 2 biggest banks Laiki and Bank of Cyprus.

• *EU WANTS CYPRUS TO ADOPT MEASURES BEFORE BANKS RE-OPEN, ANSA
• *EU WANTS CYPRUS TO ADOPT MEASURES TO STOP DEPOSIT FLIGHT: ANSA

Via @Imeldaflattery


Via NYT


Via Sigma Live






Via @janinel83



Via @jkozakou




Source: Twitter and Fred

By Fraud and deciet: The Money Junkies and Oligarchs Will Self Destruct on Their Own

Yes there are mega Banks trying to suck the wealth out of the people. These banks would not have any power unless they have puppets and will servants in governments to carry out the theft of a nation. Right now the bankers and Wall Street oligarchs have a feeling of invincibility feeling safe with armed security details to be there to protect them from the angry mobs looking for them.
The governments that act as a rear guard to protect them will be unable because they are outnumbered. The government can pass all the laws exempting the bankers from prosecution or any liability will not shield them from public accountability. Both the money junkies and the willing accomplices in the government have bitten off more then they can chew. So how can it be?
I do not care if a person is rich or poor. We all suffer the consequences for our actions. If we try to do good or do harm. What goes around comes around. The government can do everything possible to make sure Wall Street and the Bankers never suffer any consequence for their actions. A man will reap what he sows. It is just a fact of life.
The bankers and oligarchs are not above the law. I am not talking about man’s laws the government uses to protect them from accountability.  I am talking above the laws of the universe. The universe always bends towards justice for those seeking it. This is a principle that knows no class of people, or social status can escape.
The money junkies and oligarchs are now out of control. Even some corrupt people have some discipline not to go to far killing the goose that lays the golden eggs. They know their limitations. Not the central bankers and oligarchs. They live a life in a bubble insulated from the rest of the world assuming nothing can touch them no matter what they do. This will be their downfall and demise.
I believe the end is coming real soon to them. They cannot start a war to distract the people from the looting. Their hand has been exposed of how they do things trying to start wars to divert people attention away from the big heist they plan to do. That is not working too well. The latest chemical attack in Syria as an excuse will not work. The Bankers tools they used in the past are not as effective as they were in the past.
Michael Rivero’s masterpiece of “All Wars are Bankers Wars” exposes the tactics of bankers use to enslave people through debt slavery using wars funding both sides of the wars. We now see this is not working out well for them. They are desperate to start a major war now so they can complete the looting of the nation’s wealth. They are unhinged now thinking they can get away with anything. They will be their own force that will destroy themselves.

The truth is, these Bankers and money junkies and oligarchs maybe intelligent in one way. But they are very ignorant in others. The Banksters can only be insulated from any consequence for so long until they make it so bad for the people who suffer the most. They will self destruct on their own.
When they try to steal people bank accounts and attempt to go after the private pension funds to bail themselves out. That is a sign they are getting ready to self destruct and the private central banking system getting ready to collapse. The derivative I have said in the past will be the very weapon they tried to use on us will be the very thing that will destroy them.
They bankers got away with fraud for hundreds of years with wars getting nations into debt and compound interest. So lets help the bankers self destruct. Don’t barrow on credit, Stop the wars, prevent anymore  conflicts from starting. Pull your money out of the banks. Let the financial system crash and the federal Reserve note crash. Let the US government  collapse. If It’s built on lies. Let the corrupt system implode from the moral rot from within. Dynasties and empires come and go. Not always from armies or coups. It’s because corruption caused these bankers to self destruct by their own actions.
It’s a matter of time before the chickens comes home to roost. These consequences no one can escape nor immune from. The bankers are beginning to self destruct is coming. They sowed into the wind and now will reap the whirlwind.  It’s the law of the universe will bend toward justice that cannot be legislated away.

Big Banks Offer Payday Loans At 300 Percent Interest: Study

Huffington Post – by Mark Gongloff
Step aside, Tony Soprano: Big banks will now lend money at 300 percent interest without threatening to break a leg.
Then again, the payday loans some big banks are offering can have other ill effects, such as financial ruin, according to a new study by the Center for Responsible Lending. Even as public anxiety grows about the dangers of payday lending, with 15 states recently banning the practice, many big banks are offering the service to their customers.   
“Despite federal banking regulators’ recognition of the abuses of payday lending and aggressive action blocking previous bank partnerships with payday lenders, a few large banks have begun offering payday loans directly through checking accounts,” the study says. Large banks offering the service include Wells Fargo, U.S. Bank, Regions Bank and Fifth Third Bank.
The average annual percentage rate on a bank payday loan is 225 to 300 percent, the study says. Banks that offer payday loans extract payments automatically from the borrowers’ checking accounts on the next pay cycle. In some cases, that withdrawal cleans out a borrower’s checking account, leading to bounced checks. According to the study, users of paycheck advances are twice as likely to overdraw their bank accounts, leading to even more fees for the banks. And that’s just the start of the potential problems.
“Research has shown that payday lending often leads to negative financial outcomes for borrowers,” the study says. “These include difficulty paying other bills, difficulty staying in their home or apartment, trouble obtaining health care, increased risk of credit card default, loss of checking accounts, and bankruptcy.”
The elderly, already financially vulnerable and short on retirement savings, are making increasing use of these loans. According to the study, more than a quarter of bank payday loan borrowers are on Social Security.
Wells Fargo spokeswoman Richele Messick said the bank has been offering a payday loan service it calls “Direct Deposit Advance” since 1994. Available only to Wells Fargo customers, this loan has a set fee of $7.50 per $100, regardless of the length of the loan, which Messick said compares to the payday loan industry standard of about $17 per $100.
“It is an expensive form of credit, and we’re very clear with our customers that it is an expensive form of credit and not to be used as a long-term solution,” Messick said. “We have policies in place to make sure customers don’t use the service in the long term.”
Wells Fargo will not clean out a borrower’s account when taking money to pay itself back for payday loans, Messick said. The bank makes sure the customer gets to keep at least $100 from each paycheck, and if customers use the service for six months in a row, Wells Fargo will cut them off from more paycheck advances for a bit — what the CRL study calls a “cooling-off” period.
The study singles out this Wells Fargo practice for criticism, saying it’s not enough to keep borrowers out of trouble.
“After six consecutive months with loans, a borrower will typically have paid hundreds of dollars in fees and still effectively owe the original principal on the loan — a deep hole from which to recover,” the study says. “As currently structured, banks’ cooling-off periods allow borrowers to become mired in a significant, destructive cycle of debt before the cooling-off period is triggered.”
Like Wells Fargo, Regions Financial also warns its customers that its payday lending service, called Ready Advance, is expensive. It charges $1 per every $10 advanced during an early probationary period and 70 cents thereafter. (Non-bank payday lenders typically charge between $1.50 and $2 for every $10.) It also charges high interest if a customer wants to pay back the loan in installments — 21 percent above prime rate.
“We introduced the product after extensive research with our customers, who told us that they were either already using a non-bank advance loan product, or would like for Regions to offer an alternative,” Regions spokeswoman Evelyn Mitchell said in an statement to The Huffington Post. “Ready Advance is intended to meet the credit needs of existing Regions Bank customers who have a checking account in good standing. Our fees are generally half what customers would pay elsewhere and we offer customers a pathway to qualify for less expensive credit products.”
Fifth Third, which calls its payday-loan service “Early Access Advance,” costing $1 per $10 advance, declined to comment on CRL study.
“Our goal is to give customers access to funds in the case of an emergency,” U.S. Bank spokeswoman Teri Charest said in an email to the Huffington Post. “We make it very clear that [U.S. bank's payday-loan product] Checking Account Advance is for short-term use only, and that lower cost alternatives may be available. Of those that have used the advance, more than 96 percent say they are satisfied or very satisfied with the service.”
Even banks that do not directly offer payday loans themselves often help the less-scrupulous lenders who do, giving them access to customers’ bank accounts to extract payments for loans at interest rates that sometimes run to 500 percent. JPMorgan Chase recently said it would do more to help protect its customers from these lenders, making it easier for them to block withdrawals and close accounts. The bank will also offer a discount on the fees it charges to customers whose accounts have been picked clean by payday lenders.
JPMorgan’s policy shift comes as regulators, including the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, are investigating how banks help payday lenders, The New York Times reports. Those lenders are in turn scrambling offshore and online as they come under increasing scrutiny in the U.S.

Bank Manager Verifies Cash Withdrawal Limits and Reduced Hours coming to US Banks within 60 Days

Steve Quayle Alerts
Gentlemen:
Just received a call from a highly agitated bank manager who stated that within 60 days, banks will be greatly reducing their hours, days of operation, amount of withdrawals and a requirement to fill out “paperwork” if the amount is questioned by bank officials. Unless the form is completed, money will not be disbursed.  
What really irritated this manager is that after hearing our statements on the air, and receiving years of assurance that our positions and contacts were so much bravo sierra, now he hears from corporate people that it is apparently true after all.
He said, “Screw them, grab the money while you can.”
The parameters given were banks open two days a week for four to five hours with below minimum staffs, increased security and greatly reduced amounts of actual cash in the vault. Amount of withdrawal will be held to $500-2000 per day per customer account–not customer. So my account could only have either my wife or I withdraw, not both. That level could change at ANY time. There is no plan (at least known) for automatic confiscation from accounts–yet, and he said that the banks hold the “ownership” authority and final disposition of any items found in safety deposit boxes. (Surprise, surprise!) Withholding mortgage payments could result in expedited (30) day foreclosures and 15 day Sheriff’s locks on your front door.
The Federal Reserve could and will initiate other more draconian restrictions on all aspects of “private” banking and access to any property held by banks. It could include forfeiture of your primary (paid for) residence if your summer cottage has a mortgage and you fail to pony up to keeping it current or any forthcoming restrictions on your accounts.
Clearly, the only option is to close accounts or only keep funds that can be paid instantly to keep electric, water, or other critical accounts paid. Cash will be drying up—so, unless people hold precious metals, bullets (the new currency) or medicines, etc., you are screwed. Barter will be king. As the Colonel said yesterday, “the universe is contracting into the black hole. There is no way to escape its pull.” (Political/economic/social order black hole)
Received at 15:45 hours
20 March 2013
The Lawman

‘Open talk’ of Cyprus leaving euro as British savings are put at risk

The Telegraph – by Richard Spencer, Nicosia, Bruno Waterfield in Brussels, Tom Parfitt in Moscow and Alex Spillius

Unless the island signs off on a radical debt-cutting programme, the ECB will on Monday withdraw “emergency liquidity assistance” leading to the immediate collapse of the two largest Cypriot banks and a financial crash in Cyprus.

It has also emerged that talks over Cyprus leaving the EU’s single currency took place on Wednesday night between senior finance officials who have drawn up plans for capital controls to prevent a meltdown of the eurozone’s financial system.  

In minutes seen by Reuters of a telephone conference that Cyprus refused to take part in, one senior ministry official described emotions as running “very high” and “open talk in regards of (Cyprus) leaving the euro zone”.

The officials, heads and deputy heads of the eurozoneﾒs finance ministries discussed draconian capital controls to “ring-fence” the rest of the eurozone from the impact of Cyprus leaving the euro and to ensure there was no contagion.

Fears were raised of large outflows of capital once Cypriot banks reopen on Tuesday with ﾓtechnical preparations” being made to try to limit capital flight.

“Some additional laws need to be passed. Overall we are in a very difficult situation,” said one official. “(We’re) trying to do everything within the powers to limit any unauthorised outflows.”
The chairman of the ﾓeuro working group, Thomas Wieser, an Austrian, warned: “The economy is going to tank in Cyprus no matter what. Restrictions on capital will probably be imposed.”
Cypriot banks are totally reliant on the ECB for funding and have taken over €9.1 billion in an emergency programme to ensure cash does not run out.
“The governing Council of the ECB decided to maintain the current level of Emergency Liquidity Assistance (ELA) until Monday, 25 March 2013,” the bank said in a statement.
“Thereafter, ELA could only be considered if an EU/IMF programme is in place that would ensure the solvency of the concerned banks.”
Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the Dutch finance minister who chairs meetings of eurozone ministers, warned that Cyprus poses a “systemic risk” to Europe’s economy and banking sector, meaning a bank meltdown there could plunge other European countries into a new crisis.
“In the present situation I think there is definitely a systemic risk and I think the unrest of the last couple of days has proven this, unfortunately,” he said.
He told Cyprus that it would have to carry out a raid on Russian bank depositors to pay off €6 billion in debts and insisted that new loans from Russia would not solve the Cyprus debt problem, only add to it.
“The Cypriot government is now talking to the Russian government whether more can be done, I don’t know the outcome of that yet,” he said.
“The only thing I can say that if the Russians were to say we could lend, that wouldn’t help on the sustainability of the debt situation. Building up the debt in Cyprus does not help them to work towards a new future.”
Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian Prime, attacked plans to raid large Russian depositors in Cypriot banks as “absurd” and demanded that Moscow was involved in eurozone talks.
“This scheme that is being discussed on Cyprus now looks absolutely absurd,” he said.
“I think that in any case the Eurogroup could examine a future plan of regulating Cyprus with the participation of all the interested sides, including Russian structures.”
Mr Medvedev threatened an all-out currency war with the euro by saying that Russia may need to review the share of euros it holds in its central bank reserves, cash totalling around €175 billion.
“We have 41 or 42 per cent of our reserves denominated in euros – that is a lot of money, but for us, as for any country, predictability is important, and the offer that was made is not just unpredictable, it is evidence of some lack of rationality,” he said.
“A large number of our open public structures work through Cyprus. They now have money blocked for reasons that are unclear, because the source of that money is obvious. This money is declared everywhere. These include government structures. That’s why we have to take quite a firm position on the events around Cyprus and regulating the debt of Cyprus.”
Michael Sarris, the Cypriot Finance Minister, is in Moscow since Tuesday seeking to negotiate a deal to sell Cyprus newly discovered natural resources and remaining bank assets.
“We are discussing the subjects of gas, bank cooperation and other subjects,” he said.
Cyprus is angering the EC and eurozone by resisting a plan – originally advocated by Finland and Germany – to merge its two largest and most troubled banks, Laiki and Bank of Cyprus.
The plan, billed as the “Icelandic solution”, would create a new safe bank that would carry all deposits of under 100,000 euros, including the savings of thousands of Briton, and a “bad bank” with larger investments.
Cyprus opposed the scheme because it would put large uninsured deposits into the bad bank, wiping many out, hurting Russians and destroying the island’s reputation as an offshore banking haven.
Thousands of British pensioners are caught in the middle of the three-way battle between Cyprus, the EU and Russia as the authorities drew up plans to prevent them taking their money out of the country.
The finance ministry announced that the country’s banks would remain closed until Tuesday as it proposed measures to impose capital controls, limiting the amount of money depositors could remove.
The proposals, which could have severe consequences for the 60,000 Britons on the island – including around 20,000 pensioners – came as politicians struggled to forge a new deal to replace the EU bank levy, which was voted down by parliament.
Designed to prevent a run on the banks once they open, the move posed a particular threat to the savings of expatriates. About €2 billion (£1.7 billion) is held by British citizens and companies on the island, the second highest amount of any EU country behind Greece.

China’s Solar Billionaire Undone as Banks Push Suntech to Brink

Shi Zhengrong, once China’s richest man, saw his fortune further unravel yesterday as the solar company he founded allowed its main unit to tip into insolvency.
Shi’s stake in Suntech Power Holdings Co. (STP) was valued at $1.7 billion when he emerged at the top of the Wall Street Journal’s rich list for China in 2006. His roughly 30 percent stake today is down to about $32 million, if shareholders get anything out of the Chinese bankruptcy process.
Suntech was once the world’s biggest solar company and Shi, 50, set his sights on growing as big as BP Plc (BP/) or Royal Dutch Shell Plc. (RDSA) The decline of China’s first solar billionaire shows how the industry built itself with cash from Wall Street and Chinese authorities, creating a boom in factory expansions that ultimately drove down prices.
“Being in the solar manufacturing industry over the past eight years has been an excellent way to turn a big fortune into a small one,” said Jenny Chase, lead solar analyst at Bloomberg New Energy Finance in Zurich.
Suntech had debt of $2 billion at the end of August and defaulted on a $541 million bond that matured last week. That prompted eight Chinese banks to ask a court in Wuxi, where Suntech is based, to start bankruptcy proceedings on its main manufacturing unit.
Shi was ousted as chairman March 4, and spoke out about the company’s inability to restructure the debt. “The problem is they don’t have a solution,” he said in an interview. “They need a viable business plan.”

Suntech Debt

The company had about $1.44 billion of bank credit and a $50 million loan from the International Finance Corp., according to regulatory filings. China Development Bank Corp. is among its lenders. Suntech (STP) raised a total of $743 million from Wall Street in two separate stock offerings in 2005 and 2009. The bonds traded in New York.
Shi started Suntech in 2001 after serving as research director at another solar company in Australia, Pacific Solar Pty. He received a bachelor’s degree in optical science from Changchun University of Science and Technology in 1983 and a master’s in laser physics from the Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics in 1986.
After moving to Australia in the late 1980s, he earned his doctorate in electrical engineering at the University of New South Wales in Sydney in 1992.
Calls to Shi in Beijing weren’t answered, and he didn’t respond to e-mails seeking comment after Suntech’s announcement last night.

Fast Learner

The native of Jiangsu province was one of the fastest to finish the program at UNSW’s School of Photovoltaic and Renewable Energy Engineering, according to Martin Green, a professor at the university.
“He was the type of student to get a result at just about anything he did,” Green said by phone in October. “Something about the way he tackled problems. He was able to overcome difficulties that might emerge and see his way through.”
The Chinese scholar went to work for Pacific Solar, a university spinoff, in 1995 and became an Australian citizen.
When Shi decided to return to China in 2001 to start the solar-power company, lured by $6 million in funding from a regional government in Wuxi in eastern China, his fellow researchers in Sydney tried to talk him out of it.
Green, known by some in the solar industry as the “father of photovoltaics,” reminded Shi of their unsuccessful trip to China seven years earlier to find a partner and open a manufacturing facility in the country, Green said. They had hoped to commercialize the university’s solar technology.

Hopeless Situation

“We thought the situation was pretty hopeless,” Green recalled. “The companies weren’t operating very efficiently or effectively. So I was pretty pessimistic about his chances based on how difficult I perceived it to be.”
David Hogg, who worked with Shi at Pacific Solar and again at Suntech as chief operating officer for two years until 2011, said Shi helped attract Chinese researchers and eased communication with their Australian peers.
“He was able to get the best out of people,” Hogg said in an interview in October. “While he was of Chinese origin, he was quite a Western guy in many ways.”
Four years after leaving Australia, Suntech began trading on the New York Stock Exchange. The Chinese company later won a contract to supply the solar system for the stadium at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, opened its first U.S. factory in 2010 and reached 2 gigawatts of production the next year.

Record High

The company’s American depositary receipts, each worth one ordinary share, climbed to a high of $88.35 on Dec. 26, 2007, from an initial price of $15 in 2005. The stock closed at 58.6 cents on March 19, valuing the company at $105.6 million.
“Dr. Shi was very popular with investors and clients, and was one of the most sought-after speakers on the conference circuit from 2005,” said Chase, the New Energy Finance analyst in Zurich. “Then, the supply balance flipped from undersupply to oversupply in late 2008.”
Shi set his targets on rivaling Big Oil in scale. He told the Guardian that year that Suntech within a decade may be as big as BP or Shell.
Suntech’s capacity to make solar modules more than quadrupled to 2,400 megawatts in 2011 from 540 megawatts in 2007, part of China’s effort to wrest control of the industry away from German and Japanese companies.

Top Companies

Four of the six top panel manufacturers are based in China, including Trina Solar Ltd., Yingli Green Energy Holding Co., and Suntech, which fell to fifth in production capacity in 2012, according to New Energy Finance. Sharp Corp., which is based in Osaka, Japan, dominated the industry until 2006. Then Q-Cells SE of Thalheim, Germany, took over the lead.
In November 2010, Shi joined Oscar-winning actress Cate Blanchett at the Sydney Theatre Co. to mark the start of a rooftop solar-power system using Suntech panels. The company was the world’s biggest cell maker that year and the next.
Giving a speech on a wharf overlooking Sydney Harbor, Shi, who donated A$2 million ($2.08 million) to the project, called the effort to replace fossil fuels with renewable energy the “challenge of our generation.”
“Twenty years ago, while performing solar research at the University of New South Wales, few people believed solar technology could be one day part of the beauty of a place such as this wharf,” Shi said in 2010. “Even 10 years ago skeptics would ask, ‘Do you really believe solar technology will be economically competitive with fossil fuels?’’

Solar Expansion

It was the scale of the industry’s expansion that undid Shi’s ambitions. Solar cell prices that as recently as October 2010 were $1.50 a watt are now less than a third of that price, costing about 38 cents on March 11, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Suntech last reported a profit in the first quarter of 2011 and in July disclosed that it was a victim of accounting fraud involving an affiliated company in Europe. It hired UBS AG to help restructure debt payments then the unit succumbed to insolvency after failing to retire its bonds on schedule last week.