10 yr +5.3% to 5.5% and 2 yr +7.6% to 3.4%
Comments »EL-ERIAN: We’re Suffering From ‘A Crisis In Capitalism’
“Most everyone agrees the global capitalist system has failed on two main counts–growth and fairness, writes PIMCO CEO Mohammad El-Erian in a column published today in the Financial Times.
He argues that continuing failure to address both (not just one) of these problems not only constitutes a “crisis,” but “raises legitimate questions about the model itself.”
If the system is going to continue, three things have to happen:
- Capitalism is prone to occasional market failures, and the world has to accept this.
- Global imbalances, created by the rise of countries like China, have become unsustainable and must be addressed.
- Global institutions must transform to fairly represent the global population in order to adequately recognize and deal with problems.
He concludes:
Each of these areas can be corrected. Theoretically at least, what has occurred is less a calamity of the system as a whole, and more an issue of how it was run. Yet, four years into the crisis, little has been done to repair the damage coherently and comprehensively and to safeguard the real victims, let alone counter the risk of further costly dislocations. Until this is done, it will be difficult to convince the world that capitalism itself is not the problem.
Read El-Erian’s full editorial here >“
Comments »Lagarde Sounds the Austerity Alarm Ahead of Davos
Preliminary Results Show Further Contraction in Chinese Manufacturing; Doves Hopeful of Easing
European Bonds Already Show Measures Thus Far are Just Temporary
GLOBAL CDS SPREADS COLLAPSE AGAIN
SHOCK: ITALIAN CRUISE SHIP CAPTAIN ORDERED DINNER AFTER SHIPWRECK
One final meal after he knew he screwed himself and everyone else…
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The captain of the Costa Concordia ordered dinner for himself and a woman after the ship struck rocks off Italy’s coast, a cook from the ship told a Filipino television station.
In an interview with GMA Network, cook Rogelio Barista said Capt. Francesco Schettino ordered dinner less than an hour after the accident.
“We wondered what was going on. … At that time, we really felt something was wrong. … The stuff in the kitchen was falling off shelves and we realized how grave the situation was,” Barista told GMA.
Schettino ordered dinner around 10:30 p.m. Friday, Barista said. Authorities say the ship struck the rocks at 9:41 p.m.
“I have had 12 years of experience as a cook on a cruise ship. … I have even witnessed fires, so I wasn’t that scared,” Barista said. “But I did wonder, though, what the captain was doing … why was he still there.”
The ship hit rocks off the coast of the Italian island of Giglio on Friday night.
At least 11 people are known to have died in the disaster, and 21 are still missing, according to the Italian Crisis Unit.
Criticism from both Costa Cruises and the authorities has focused so far on Schettino, who is under house arrest and facing possible charges of manslaughter, shipwreck and abandoning ship.
Coast guard records published Thursday by an Italian newspaper pile further pressure on the captain of the Concordia and his officers, suggesting that the authorities first became aware of the crash from a friend of the mother of a passenger about 15 minutes after the ship hit rocks.
Schettino’s brother-in-law defended him in an Italian newspaper Thursday.
Schettino “managed to avoid a tragedy — it could have been worse,” Maurilio Russo said in Corriere della Sera.
And he denied that the captain had abandoned ship.
“He was not running away, he came down (from the ship) to survey the damage,” Russo said.
Comments »{PHOTO} BLONDE WOMAN ACTED AS SIREN FROM GREEK MYTHOLOGY AS CAPTAIN CRASHED SHIP
(via NY POST)
GIGLIO, Italy — The search for bodies on the wreck of the Costa Concordia resumed Thursday amid reports that a mystery blonde woman was on the bridge alongside the ship’s captain before the liner crashed off the Italian coast.
The woman is believed to be Domnica Cemortan, a 25-year-old Moldovan, thought to be the same female seen dining with Captain Francesco Schettino at around 9 p.m. last Friday, just under half an hour before the disaster, Italian newspaper Il Secolo reported.
Cemortan, who may have been a guest of either Schettino or another officer, or a ship employee, may emerge as a key witness to Friday night’s events, but Italian prosecutors will neither confirm nor deny the reports.
Read more: http://trade.cc/aaqm
Comments »Richard Koo Was Right on Deficits During a Balance Sheet Recession; Hence No Hyper Inflation
Demand for Cement Has Fallen Off a Cliff Worldwide
The World Bank Cuts Global Growth to 2.5% From 3.6%
Eastern Europe is Now Concerned Over Funding Issues; Countries Seeking IMF Assistance
Germany Slashes GDP Estimates to Reflect a Global Slow Down
China Lending Increased 5% in Q1 Over 2011; However Sources Say They are Asking Banks to Curb Lending
The IMF Will Leverage its Lending Plan by $500 Billion to Help Stem the Euro Crisis
Currently the OMF has $385 billion on hand; they are seeking to boost that to $885 billion to help fund a trillion dolar funding gap over the next two years.
Comments »Central Banks Increase Gold Lending
By Jack Farchy in London
Central banks increased the amount of gold they lent for the first time in a decade in 2011, as they used their bullion reserves to help commercial banks raise US dollars.
Although central banks hold one-sixth of all the gold ever mined in their reserves, their activities in the bullion market are opaque, with not a single institution revealing its day-to-day operations. In addition to holding gold for their reserves, some central banks also trade the metal, lending it on the open market in order to obtain a yield.
Thomson Reuters GFMS, the precious metal consultancy that publishes benchmark statistics on the gold market, on Tuesday said that the quantity of gold lent by central banks had risen last year for the first time since 2000.
Read the rest here.
Comments »Iran cautions West against oil embargo
Comments »TEHRAN, Iran (AP) – Iran’s OPEC governor said Tuesday a European Union embargo on Iranian oil would be “economic suicide” for Europe, the latest stiff statement reflecting Iranian concern about the prospect of deeper sanctions over its nuclear program.
Iran is OPEC’s second largest oil producer, and oil exports account for 80 percent of Iran’s foreign currency income. Iran sells about 20 percent of its oil exports to Europe.
European nations are considering whether to go along with new U.S. legislation outlawing transactions with Iran’s central bank, indirectly limiting Iranian oil shipments by making it harder for customers to pay for them. The law takes effect later this year.
Iran has reacted with a string of strong pronouncements. It threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz, where most of the Gulf’s oil exports pass, it scheduled war games in the area of the strait, it warned the U.S. not to send an aircraft carrier back into the Gulf — and now it is cautioning Europe over the consequences of abandoning Iranian oil.
Slow Motion Bubble Bursting
If you missed the last documentary on Friday the 13th then i suggest you hold your nose on foreign policy accusation and read in between the lines…. I promise if you endure the 2 hours presented here; your mind will be blown away.
Comments »
LONDON OLYMPICS SECURITY SECRETS LEFT ON TRAIN BY COP
A secret dossier detailing plans for policing this summer’s London Olympics was left on a train.
The file, which could have provided terrorists planning an attack with invaluable data, was lost by a cop.
A commuter found it and handed it to The Sun, who returned the file to the police, the newspaper reported Tuesday.
The chief inspector in Scotland Yard’s Territorial Policing branch is said to be “hugely embarrassed” by the potentially serious blunder.
“Restricted” files spell out the security plans in place at the sites of events and provide minutes of top-level meetings in which ways to beat terrorists were discussed.
The dossier contains dates and details of pre-Olympics rehearsals, explains emergency lockdown procedures and sets out plans to avoid traffic congestion.
It also reports at length on damning complaints from officers about the radios they will use during the Olympics.
The documents were found by a commuter on a train in Dartford in Kent, southeastern England, on Jan. 5.
“I couldn’t believe any policeman could have left this on a train. It’s a worry,” the unnamed commuter said.
London’s Metropolitan Police played down the incident, saying the files were not thought to be operationally sensitive.
A spokeswoman said, “An officer lost his bag containing a number of documents. He reported the loss. The Directorate of Professional Standards have been informed, as is routine.”
Gold Bugs Get Freaky to Smuggle
SEOUL, South Korea – South Korean customs officials say they have arrested eight men over a scheme to allegedly smuggle gold out of the country by hiding it in their rectums.
The Korea Customs Service said Monday the men allegedly transformed $260,000 in gold bars into small beads and smuggled them in their rectums to Japan two times in 2010 to avoid import taxes.
South Korea says Japanese custom officials caught the men on their second attempt and sent them home after imposing fines. Later, one of the suspects allegedly orchestrated an unsuccessful bid to smuggle gold bars from Mongolia to Hong Kong using a similar method.
Meanwhile, South Korean officials gathered evidence against them at home. They say the suspects recently admitted to the smuggling after initial denials.
Read more: http://trade.cc/zto
