Tag Archive: central banks

Six Banks Join UBS’s “Utility Coin” Blockchain Project

2017-09-03

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2017-09-03

Here’s a piece of news that the remaining human members of Wall Street’s FX sales and trading desks probably don’t want to hear. According to the Financial Times, six of the world’s largest banks have decided to join a blockchain project called “utility coin” that will allow banks to settle trades in securities denominated in different currencies without a money transfer.

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The Secret History Of The Banking Crisis

Accounts of the financial crisis leave out the story of the secretive deals between banks that kept the show on the road. How long can the system be propped up for? It is a decade since the first tremors of what would become the Great Financial Crisis began to convulse global markets. Across the world from China and South Korea, to Ukraine, Greece, Brexit Britain and Trump’s America it has shaken our economy, our society and latterly our politics.

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“Under Any Analysis, It’s Insanity”: What War With North Korea Could Look Like

2017-08-14

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2017-08-14

Kim Jong-Un and Donald Trump
Now that the possibility of a war between the US and North Korea seems just one harshly worded tweet away, and the window of opportunity for a diplomatic solution, as well as for the US stopping Kim Jong-Un from obtaining a nuclear-armed ICBM closing fast, analysts have started to analyze President Trump’s military options, what a war between the US and North Korea would look like, and what the global economic consequences would be.

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“Mystery” Central Bank Buyer Revealed: SNB Now Owns A Record $84 Billion In US Stocks

2017-08-11

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2017-08-11

Value of Swiss National Bank US Stock Holdings 2014-2017
In the second quarter of the year, one in which unlike in Q1 fund flows showed a persistent and perplexing outflow from US stocks and into European and Emerging Markets, a trading desk rumor emerged that even as institutional traders dumped stocks and retail investors piled into ETFs, a "mystery" central bank was quietly bidding up risk assets by aggressively buying stocks.

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Risk Off: Global Stocks Slide As “Fire And Fury” Results In “Selling And Fear”

2017-08-10

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2017-08-10

Volatility Pops, August 08 2017
US futures are set for a sharply lower open (at least in recent market terms) following a steep decline in European stocks and a selloff in Asian shares, following yesterday's sharp escalation in the war of words between the U.S. and North Korea. In a broad risk-off move U.S. Treasuries rose, the VIX surged above 12 overnight, while German bund futures climbed to the highest level in six weeks. The Swiss franc gained 1.2 percent to 1.1320 per euro...

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The Money Velocity Myth

2017-07-04

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2017-07-04

For most financial commentators an important factor that either reinforces or weakens the effect of changes in the money supply on economic activity and prices is the “velocity of money”.

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The Swiss National Bank Owns $80 Billion In US Stocks – Here’s The Catch

2017-07-03

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2017-07-03

Switzerland is a small country of just 8 million people, but they make an outsized impact on economics and finance and money. Because Switzerland is considered a safe haven and a well-run country, many people would like to hold large amounts of their assets in the Swiss franc. This makes the Swiss franc intolerably strong for Swiss businesses and citizens. So the Swiss National Bank (SNB) has to print a great deal of money and use nonconventional...

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London Property Bubble Bursting? UK In Unchartered Territory On Brexit and Election Mess

2017-06-30

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2017-06-30

UBS Global Real Estate Bubble Index
Is the London property market heading for tough times? The most recent housing figures and a new Bank of England report suggest it may well be. Recent figures show that 77% of London houses sold in May went at below asking price, up from 72% in April.

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Shrinkflation – Real Inflation Much Higher Than Reported

2017-06-29

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2017-06-29

Shrinkflation
600 new words entered our official lexicon this week as the Oxford English Dictionary announced the latest new additions to their online records.

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Goldman, Citi Turn Positive On Gold – Despite “Mysterious” Flash Crash

2017-06-28

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2017-06-28

Gold in USD, June 2017
Gold in USD - 1 Week - Massive selling at 0400 EST when U.S. markets closed and thin trading amid holidays in Muslim countries including Turkey, Singapore and Malaysia. - Mystery is that "fat fingers" in gold market are always sell trades that push prices lower

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Central Banks Buying Stocks Have Rigged US Stock Market Beyond Recovery

2017-06-27

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2017-06-27

Central banks buying stocks are effectively nationalizing US corporations just to maintain the illusion that their “recovery” plan is working because they have become the banks that are too big to fail. At first, their novel entry into the stock market was only intended to rescue imperiled corporations, such as General Motors during the first plunge into the Great Recession, but recently their efforts have shifted to propping up the entire stock...

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The Fed Rate Hike and Gold – Precious Metals Supply and Demand

2017-06-20

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2017-06-20

Whole Food Market
Keith Weiner’s weekly look on Gold. Gold and silver prices, Gold-Silver Price Ratio, Gold basis and co-basis and the dollar price, Silver basis and co-basis and the dollar price.

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Is the Central Bank’s Rigged Stock Market Ready to Crash on Schedule?

2017-06-12

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2017-06-12

We just saw a major rift open in the US stock market that we haven’t seen since the dot-com bust in 1999. While the Dow rose by almost half a percent to a new all-time high, the NASDAQ, because it is heavier tech stocks, plunged almost 2%.

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Negative Rates: The New Gold Rush… For Gold Vaults

2017-06-09

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2017-06-09

Negative interest rates and the populist uprising that spurred the UK to vote for Brexit and Americans to elect Trump has helped reignite a rush into physical safe haven assets like gold and silver, which however has led to a shortage of safe venues where to store the precious metals (unlike bitcoin, gold actually has a physical dimension).

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Remembering A Still Falling Hero: Small Business

2017-05-30

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2017-05-30

On this holiday weekend known here in the U.S. as Memorial Day, I would like to make a slight turn in the narrative that many give little to no attention too, yet, is one of the most important underlying principles or fundamentals which helped shape, lift, mold, sustain, and create one of the world’s greatest economic powerhouses bar none.

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Gold’s Advantages Over Fiat Currency – An Interview with Claudio Grass

2017-05-28

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2017-05-28

Central Banks Produce Dire Consequences for the Free Market. Todd “Bubba” Horwitz has recently produced a podcast with our friend Claudio Grass of Global Gold, which we can be called up further below. Bubba has provided a summary of the topics discussed, an edited version of which you find below as well.

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A Problem Emerges: Central Banks Injected A Record $1 Trillion In 2017… It’s Not Enough

2017-05-11

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2017-05-11

Aggregate Balance Sheet Of Large Central Banks, 2000 - 2017
Two weeks ago Bank of America caused a stir when it calculated that central banks (mostly the ECB & BoJ) have bought $1 trillion of financial assets just in the first four months of 2017, which amounts to $3.6 trillion annualized, "the largest CB buying on record."

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“Mystery” Central Bank Buyer Revealed, Goes On Q1 Buying Spree

2017-05-08

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2017-05-08

Nikkei 225 vs. BoJ ETF Holdings 2011-2017
In the first few months of the year, a trading desk rumor emerged that even as institutional traders dumped stocks and retail investors piled into ETFs, a "mystery" central bank was quietly bidding up risk assets by aggressively buying stocks. And no, it was not the BOJ: while the Japanese Central Bank's interventions in the stock market are familiar to all by now, and as we reported last night on sessions when the "the BoJ comes in big, the...

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Where There’s Smoke…

2017-04-25

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2017-04-25

Evolution of Atlanta Fed GDP, December 2016 - April 2017
Central banks around the world have colluded, if not conspired, to elevate and prop up financial asset prices. Here we'll present the data and evidence that they've not only done so, but gone too far. When we discuss elevated financial asset prices we really are talking about everything; we're talking not just about the sky-high prices of stocks and bonds, but also of the trillions of dollars’ worth of derivatives that are linked to them, as well...

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Strange Moves in Gold, Federal Reserve Policy and Fundamentals

2017-04-07

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2017-04-07

Something odd happened late in the day in Wednesday’s trading session, which prompted a number of people to mail in comments or ask a question or two. Since we have discussed this issue previously, we decided this was a good opportunity to briefly elaborate on the topic again in these pages.

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