Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
The Swiss take action to cap the franc:
1. Helped strengthen the Cando.
2. After a short period it will fail.
3. Safe haven is being offered to all at a discount to all.
4. Markets rule, not central banks, in a Western world monetary meltdown.
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
You have to love this place. They might be the only society that really understands OTC derivatives.
Iceland tries ex-premier over collapse
September 6 2011 at 10:37pm
Iceland’s former premier, Geir Haarde, yesterday became the first political leader to be tried over the global financial crisis as judges began to decide whether he can be held responsible for the collapse of the country’s banking sector.
Haarde, who has dismissed the case as a farce, was one of four politicians blamed in a report last year for contributing to the country’s stunning economic collapse, when all its major banks failed in a matter of weeks in October 2008.
But parliament voted last September that he was the only one who should be charged with “gross neglect” and he will thus become the first person to go before the Landsdomur, a never-before used special court for current and ex-ministers.
Haarde, who was set to present his third request for a dismissal, said last week that his arguments for throwing out the charges would be published after the hearing.
Haarde insisted the whole trial was “a political farce motivated by some old political enemies who are cloaking this farce under the cover of a political trial”.
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
From our friends at GATA:
Le Metropole Members,
More Beijing embassy cables show China sees gold as central in currency war
Submitted by cpowell on 05:58PM ET Monday, September 5, 2011. Section: Daily Dispatches
9:17p ET Monday, September 5, 2011
Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:
More news media-monitoring cables from the U.S. Embassy in Beijing to the State Department in Washington show that both China’s government and the nation’s financial press, tightly controlled by the government, consider gold to be the main weapon in a world currency war that is under way.
The additional cables, published a few days ago by Wikileaks and located by GATA’s Irish friend R.M., disclose that China thinks that the United States is trying to prevent China’s foreign exchange surplus from being converted into gold because the U.S. and its European allies plan a return to a gold standard that will favor them because they hold most of the world’s gold reserves.
China itself has acknowledged that it is rapidly building its own gold reserves to facilitate international use of its currency, the renminbi.
The citation of the gold-related commentaries by the U.S. embassy cables suggests that China’s acquisition of gold is of great concern to the U.S. government as well.
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
This has been a well hidden ongoing crisis. The most endangered species is the retiree.
Analysis: Pension funds in new crisis as deficit hole grows
By Natsuko Waki | Reuters – Mon, Sep 5, 2011
LONDON (Reuters) – Pension funds in developed economies are facing a new crisis as falling equities and tumbling bond yields widen their deficits, threatening the incomes and retirement dates of future retirees.
At the heart of their problems is a steady move by pension plans in the United States, euro zone, Japan and the UK to cut exposure to risk after the financial crisis.
But this "de-risking" may end up depressing their long-term returns from stock market investment and challenge the conventional wisdom that shares generate higher returns than bonds.
With weaker holdings and increased liabilities, companies will find it more difficult to fund existing pension schemes. They may cut new business investments as they use more cash to pay pensions.
For future pensioners, it means they will potentially face a lower retirement income and a longer working life — or both.
This year has been a nightmare for many in the industry — which controls $35 trillion, or a third of global financial assets — and funding deficits are posting double-digit rises.
