Tuesday, June 30, 2015

Greece Done - Maybe

Greek debt talks collapse, banks close, capital controls in place and gold barley moves. The initial reaction on the Asian open was a quick $15 rise in gold and a 2% drop of the Euro against the US$. There is a sense that a last-minute deal may still be pulled off, but the general mood is one of who cares. I would suggest that there may be more nervousness than is suggested by gold’s price action and the risk to traders lies in more upside pressure. With holidays in Canada and a shortened July 4th week expect high volatility.
By Peter Hug 
Global Trading Director
Kitco Metals Inc.

‘Greece will collapse this week and people will be terrified’ – Jim Rogers


Hundreds gathered in Paris to show their solidarity with Greece, supporting Athens’ resilience in fighting the harsh bailout conditions now being demanded. The protesters were mainly from France’s left-wing parties.The prime minister is calling for Greece to be respected, to make sure it stays in the eurozone. For more RT is joined by Jim Rogers, Financial commentator and co-founder of the Quantum Fund.

GREECE: BANKS & STOCK EXCHANGE CLOSE FOR 6 DAYS; HOARDING GROCERIES, GAS, BUT CAN’T GET CASH


Greeks up a river without a paddle. Don’t wait until it’s too late. Get your money out of banks, stock up on essentials, food, water, gas, etc.
http://news.sky.com/story/1509799/gre…
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/29/wor…

Michael Pento: Most Dangerous Time-Since the History of Economics, Every Asset in a Bubble, Except Gold and Silver


Financial expert Michael Pento on gold and silver update, Greek debt crisis and also thinks the biggest danger in the world is overconfidence in central banks. Pento explains, “The biggest bubble out there is an increase in faith that central bankers can save the world. This is why Chinese shares can drop 7 ½% overnight and the Dow can be up 90 points. What do I hear on radio and TV is who cares if Greece leaves the Eurozone because didn’t Mario Draghi say he would do ‘whatever it takes’? Who cares it Chinese shares collapse, because the Peoples Bank of China will just print money. Who cares if inflation in the United States becomes intractable? Didn’t they say Fed Head Janet Yellen and company would just buy all the sovereign debt there is to keep interest rates low? Who cares? The free market always wins, and it will always trump government. That’s why I am so petrified about investing right now. I think we are in the most dangerous time frame we have ever been since the history of economics. I think what is going to replace this misguided spurious faith in central bankers is going to be a renewed interest in hard money-precious metals. We are going to throw out the central bankers, and we are going to universally think it is absolute madness to think we can put our faith in a small unelected, unaccountable group of people. We are going to put our faith back into gold and silver as money. That’s what I am looking forward to. It will be great news to Americ and the economy in the long run.”
Join Greg Hunter as he goes One-on-One with money manager Michael Pento of Pento Portfolio Strategies: http://usawatchdog.com/every-asset-in…

THE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE HAS BEGUN IN GREECE, GREEK BANKS CLOSE/US STOCK FUTURES FALLING!


THE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE HAS BEGUN IN GREECE BREAKING S&P 500 EMINI FUTURES SLIP 1.7% AT THE OPEN Greek banks will not open until July 7 in an attempt to avoid financial panic, after ECB capped the emergency funds keeping them running
TSIPRAS ANNOUNCES CAPITAL CONTROLS
Financial stability council says banks won’t open
ATM limits could be €60/day
Euro getting hammered
US urges Europe to act
Earlier:
ECB caps Greece’s emergency liquidity
ECB statement in full
Queues and confusion in Athens

China-led AIIB development bank holds signing ceremony

China has hosted the signing ceremony of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), a new international financial institution set to rival the World Bank and Asian Development Bank.
Delegates from 50 countries signed articles that determine each member's share and the bank's initial capital.
The UK, Germany, Australia and South Korea are among the founding members.
Japan and the US, which oppose the AIIB, are the most prominent countries not to join.
The US has questioned the governance standards at the new institution, which it sees as spreading Chinese "soft power", and tried to persuade others to stay away.
The AIIB, which was created in October by 21 countries, led by China, will fund Asian energy, transport and infrastructure projects.
Australian Treasurer Joe Hockey was the first to sign the articles of association

Analysis: Carrie Gracie, China editor, BBC News

This is not just a diplomatic win for China, it serves an important economic objective too. China wants to move away from building infrastructure at home. Its engineering giants need somewhere else to build ports, roads and cities.
Answer - lend the region the money to pay Chinese companies to build a 21st Century Asia according to a Beijing master plan and with Chinese influence at its core.
This is China under President Xi Jinping flexing its muscle as a major power, but many observers say the move might not have come so soon if the US had been able to lead the reform of existing global financial institutions to make room for China at the top.
After 30 years of breakneck Chinese growth, the distribution of power in those institutions no longer reflects the reality of the global economic landscape.
One British official told me: "If an alien landed on earth they would be puzzled by its international financial institutions as China is grossly underrepresented."
Country delegates gathered at Beijing's Great Hall of the People for the signing ceremony.
Australia was the first country to sign the articles of association creating the AIIB's legal framework, followed by 49 other members. Seven more countries are due to sign by the end of the year.
Most Asian countries and countries from the Middle East and Latin America have joined, with the launch of the Beijing-led bank being hailed as a diplomatic and strategic success for China.
It is one of several institutions China has created to push its own economic agenda, largely driven by frustration over its lack of influence in the big global financial institutions such as the World Bank, says the BBC's Martin Patience in Beijing.
The AIIB will begin with authorised capital of $50bn (£31.8bn), eventually to be raised to $100bn.
China will hold a 30.34% stake making it the largest shareholder of the bank, Reuters quotes China's Finance Ministry as saying.
This would give China 26.06% of the voting rights within the multilateral institution.
India will be the second-biggest shareholder with a possible 10-15% stake, while Russia and Germany will make up the third and fourth biggest member stakes, Reuters news agency reports.
Chinese Finance Minister Lou Jiwei said on Monday he was confident the AIIB could start functioning before the end of the year, according to Reuters.

57 countries set to sign on to China-backed investment bank AIIB

One of China’s biggest foreign policy successes ever will take concrete shape Monday when delegates from 57 countries sign an agreement on the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) in Beijing.
The founding members of the China-backed AIIB will sign articles of agreement that decide each member’s share and the bank’s initial capital.
The multilateral institution, seen as a rival to the Western-dominated World Bank and Asian Development Bank, was initially opposed by the United States but has attracted many prominent U.S. allies including Britain, Germany, Australia and South Korea. Other founding members include most Asian nations and countries from the Middle East and South America.
Japan and the United States are the most prominent nations not to have any representation in the venture. China has said it has left the door open for them to join.
ADVERTISING
“It’s a huge diplomatic and strategic win for China,” Malcolm Cook, a senior fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore, said of the AIIB.
“(But) the fact that so many have signed on will mean that the management of the AIIB will be quite complicated. . . . The more countries you have on board, the more interests will be at play and more each member will of course want the institution to serve their own interests.”
One senior Western diplomat in Beijing said China felt it had no choice but to set up its own bank after repeated attempts to reform existing institutions like the International Monetary Fund to take into account China’s role as the world’s second-largest economy were blocked in Washington.
“The United States only has itself to blame,” said the diplomat, from a country which has signed up to the AIIB, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Asian countries are expected to own up to 75 percent of the bank while European and other nations will own the remainder. Each Asian member will then be allotted a share of that 75 percent quota based on their economic size, two Japanese sources have said.
The AIIB will begin with authorized capital of $50 billion. This will eventually be raised to $100 billion.
China is likely to hold a 25-30 percent stake, while India will be the second-biggest shareholder with a possible 10-15 percent , delegates at a meeting to finalize the new bank’s articles of agreement said in May.
Germany plans to take a 4.1 percent stake to become the fourth-biggest member after China, India and Russia, according to a Finance Ministry draft document seen earlier this month.
Australia said last Wednesday it would contribute 930 million Australian dollars ($719.36 million) over five years to become the institution’s sixth largest shareholder.
China says it will not hold veto power within the AIIB, unlike the World Bank where the United States holds a limited veto.
The AIIB is the brainchild of influential Chinese think tank China Center for International Economic Exchanges, which is helmed by former vice premiers and ambassadors, among others. The think tank proposed the creation of the bank in 2013 as an institution that balances China’s political and economic priorities, CCIEE officials said.
“The AIIB has made a lot of progress so far in its preparatory work, but this is only the first step in a long road ahead,” Chinese Finance Minister Lou Jiwei said in a commentary published on the website of the official People’s Daily newspaper Thursday.
“It will require a lot more effort to bring the AIIB up to the standards of global financial institutions.”
Apart from backing the AIIB, China has also pledged billions of dollars to the Silk Road fund and the “One Belt, One Road” initiative, which are also aimed at funding infrastructure to increase trade and connectivity between Europe and Asia.