Monthly Archives: May 2012

Headline of the year: “Should we Hide Low-Dose Radiation Exposure from the Public?”

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Source: Forbes

When fallout from the Fukushima nuclear disaster began appearing last Spring in U.S. air, rainwater, drinking water, and milk, many U.S. media outlets ignored the story.

It was a difficult story to cover. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was releasing raw data erratically, sometimes late on Friday afternoons, and reporters either had to possess radiation expertise or take a crash course in picocuries, millisieverts, MCLs and DILs.

It was much easier for reporters to accept reassurances from government officials that the fallout drifting across the U.S. was “well below levels of public concern.” And it was much easier to heed pleas from government and industry that we not alarm the public.

But experts in low-dose radiation will tell you scientists know too little about the effects of low-dose radiation for public officials to make such sweeping statements, and most scientists believe that across large populations, more exposure means more cancer:

“There is scientific consensus on a prevailing hypothesis that, down to near-zero levels, the occurrence of future cancer is proportional to the dose of radiation received,” writes Gordon Thompson, executive director of the Institute for Resource and Security Studies, in the May/June issue of The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.

 

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Rothschild buys 37% stake in Rockefeller Financial Services

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This is big, and it’s hard to really understand how big it is or what it means without an understanding of the context surrounding this decision.  It is well known that the Rothschild and Rockefellers have worked together for decades, but what this specific investment signals is intangible at the current moment.

Source: Financial Times:

Source: Bloomberg

Two of the best-known business dynasties in Europe and the US will come together after Lord Jacob Rothschild’s listed investment trust and Rockefeller Financial Services agreed to form a strategic partnership.

RIT Capital Partners is to buy a 37 per cent stake in the Rockefeller’s wealth advisory and asset management group for an undisclosed sum, giving Lord Rothschild’s London-listed trust a much sought-after foothold in the US.

The transatlantic union brings together David Rockefeller, 96, and Lord Rothschild, 76 – two family patriarchs whose personal relationship spans five decades.

The Rockefeller group traces its roots back to 1882 when John D. Rockefeller established one of the world’s first family offices dedicated to investing his wealth. It has since developed into a provider of wealth and asset management services to other families, foundations and institutions. It is majority-owned by the 19th century oil magnate’s family and has $34bn of assets under administration.

The partnership with RIT will focus on setting up investment funds, eyeing joint acquisitions of wealth and asset managers and granting each other non-executive directorships.

RIT Capital Partners is minority-owned by Lord Rothschild and its net assets of £1.9bn are spread across global investments from public equities to government bonds and private equity.

The deal stemmed from a meeting two years ago when Mr Rockefeller introduced Lord Rothschild to the US group’s chief executive, Reuben Jeffery.

In a follow-up meeting one year later at Lord Rothschild’s office at Spencer House in London, the financier won Mr Jeffery’s blessing for opening talks to buy a stake in the Rockefeller group.

He then launched long negotiations with Société Générale Private Banking, which has owned the shareholding since 2008.

The French bank’s wealth management arm has had several suitors for the minority stake – estimated to be worth less than £100m – but Lord Rothschild was the only one supported by the Rockefellers.

Lord Rothschild concentrated on RIT Capital Partners three decades ago after he fell out with his cousin Sir Evelyn de Rothschild and disposed of his stake in NM Rothschild, the family’s UK branch.

Sir Evelyn at the time ran NM Rothschild, which rose to fame in 1815 when Nathan Meyer Rothschild made a fortune buying British government bonds in anticipation of Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo.

Baron David de Rothschild, chairman of the Rothschild Group, is currently bringing the UK-based investment bank under a joint roof with the French family operations.

At the same time Lord Rothschild launched an investment partnership in March with the Franco-Swiss private bank Edmond de Rothschild Group, which is yet another separate branch of the sprawling banking dynasty.

25 Signs That the Smart Money Has Completely Written Off Southern Europe

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Source: The Economic Collapse Blog

25 Signs That The Smart Money Has Completely Written Off Southern Europe

When it comes to the financial world, it is important to listen to what the “smart money” is saying, but it is much more important to watch what the “smart money” is actually doing.  The ultra-wealthy and those that run the biggest financial institutions on the planet are far more “connected” to what is really going on in financial circles behind the scenes than you and I could ever hope to be.  But if we watch their behavior we can get clues as to what they think is about to happen.  As is the case with so many other things, if you want to figure out what is really going on in Europe, just follow the money.  And right now, money is rapidly flowing out of southern Europe and into northern Europe.  In fact, some large corporations are now pulling the money that they make in Greece during the day out of the country every single night.  It is becoming increasingly clear that the upper crust of the financial world considers a Greek exit from the euro to be “inevitable” and that it also considers much of the rest of southern Europe to be a lost cause.  Unfortunately, a financial collapse across southern Europe is also likely to trigger another devastating global recession.

Even though all the warning signs were there, very few people actually expected to see the kind of financial crisis that we saw back in 2008.

But it happened.

Now very few people actually expect another “Lehman Brothers moment” to happen in Europe although the warning signs are all around us.

Sadly, most people never want to believe the truth until it is too late.

The following are 25 signs that the smart money has completely written off southern Europe….

#1 Lloyd’s of London is publicly admitting that it is rapidly making preparations for a collapse of the eurozone.

#2 According to the New York Times, top global law firms are advising their clients to withdraw all cash and all other liquid assets from Greece….

So their advice is blunt: Remove cash and other liquid assets from Greece and prepare to take a short-term hit on any other investments.

“My personal view is that it is irrational for anyone, whether a corporation or an individual, to be leaving money in Greek financial institutions, so long as there is a credible prospect of a euro zone exit,” said Ian M. Clark, a partner in London for White & Case, a global law firm that has a team of 10 lawyers focusing on the issue.

#3 According to CNBC, large numbers of wealthy Europeans have been moving their money from banks in southern Europe to banks in northern Europe….

Financial advisers and private bankers whose clients have accounts too large to be covered by a Europe-wide guarantee on deposits up to 100,000 euros ($125,000), are reporting a “bank run by wire transfer” that has picked up during May.

Much of this money has headed north to banks in London, Frankfurt and Geneva, financial advisers say.

“It’s been an ongoing process but it certainly picked up pace a couple of weeks ago We believe there is a continuous 2-3 year bank run by wire transfer,” said Lorne Baring, managing director at B Capital, a Geneva-based pan European wealth management firm.

#4 The President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, Charles Plosser, says that the Federal Reserve is advising money market funds to reduce their exposure to Europe….

The Fed and regulators have tried to stress to money market funds, for example, to reduce their exposure to European financial institutions.

#5 The yield on 10-year Spanish bonds is rapidly moving toward the very important 7 percent level.

#6 Many multinational corporations that operate in Greece are now pulling their funds out of the country on a nightly basis.

#7 Juergen Fitschen, the co-CEO of Deutsche Bank, has publicly proclaimed that Greece is a “failed state“.

#8 The head of the Swiss central bank has admitted that Switzerland is developing an “action plan” for how it will handle the collapse of the eurozone.

#9 The European Commission has urged all member states to develop contingency plans for a Greek exit from the euro….

Last week, the European Commission said that it has asked member states to make plans to deal with a potential Greek exit, ahead of a second round of Greek elections on 17 June.

#10 PIMCO CEO Mohamed El-Erian says that a Greek exit from the euro “is probably inevitable“.

#11 Spanish stocks continue to drop like a rock.

#12 The percentage of bad loans on the books of Spanish banks has reached an 18 year high.

#13 Late on Friday, the Spanish government announced that banking giant Bankia is going to need a 19 billion euro bailout.

#14 Standard & Poor’s downgraded the credit ratings of five more Spanish banks to junk status on Friday.

#15 Moody’s downgraded the credit ratings of 16 Spanish banks back on May 17th.

#16 According to the Telegraph, “struggling European banks could be seized and controlled by Brussels as part of secret plans being drawn up”.

#17 The head of equity strategy at Societe Generale, Claudia Panseri, is warning that European stocks could fall by as much as 50 percent if Greece leaves the euro.

#18 Economist Marc Faber is warning that there is now a “100% chance” that there will be another global recession.

#19 There seems to be an increasing attempt to pin the problems that Greece is now experiencing on the behavior of Greek citizens.  The following are some of the shocking things that the head of the IMF, Christine Lagarde, said in a recent interview….

“Do you know what? As far as Athens is concerned, I also think about all those people who are trying to escape tax all the time. All these people in Greece who are trying to escape tax.”

Even more than she thinks about all those now struggling to survive without jobs or public services? “I think of them equally. And I think they should also help themselves collectively.” How? “By all paying their tax. Yeah.”

It sounds as if she’s essentially saying to the Greeks and others in Europe, you’ve had a nice time and now it’s payback time.

“That’s right.” She nods calmly. “Yeah.”

And what about their children, who can’t conceivably be held responsible? “Well, hey, parents are responsible, right? So parents have to pay their tax.”

#20 According to the Telegraph, an unidentified member of Angela Merkel’s cabinet has stated that Germany simply will not “pour money into a bottomless pit”.

#21 This week the Bank of England is holding a “secret summit” of global central bankers to address the European financial crisis….

The summit will be dominated by central bankers including the host, Sir Mervyn King, Governor of the Bank of England. Mario Draghi, president of the European Central Bank, and Zhou Xiaochuan, governor of the People’s Bank of China, have been invited.

#22 According to Zero Hedge, a major German newspaper is reporting that a Greek exit from the eurozone is a “done deal”….

“The Greece-exit is a done deal: According to the German economic news from financial circles EU and the ECB have abandoned the motherland of democracy as a euro member. The reason is, interestingly, not in the upcoming elections – these are basically become irrelevant. The EU has finally realized that the Greeks have not met any agreements and will not continue not to meet them. A banker: “We helped with the Toika. The help of the troika was tied to conditions. Greece has fulfilled none of the conditions, and has been for months now.”

#23 According to CNBC, preparations are quietly being made to print up and distribute new drachmas should the need arise….

British banknote printer De La Rue is drawing up plans to print new drachma notes in the event of a Greek euro exit, according to an industry source with knowledge of the matter.

The world’s biggest security firm G4S expects to be involved in distributing notes around the country.

#24 Citibank’s chief economist Willem Buiter is warning that any new currency issued by the Greek government could “immediately fall by 60 percent“.

#25 Reuters is reporting that a planning memo exists that suggests that Greece could receive as much as 50 billion euros to “ease its path” out of the eurozone.

If Greece does leave the eurozone, the cost to the rest of Europe is going to be astronomical.  The following is from a recent article by John Mauldin….

The debate among very knowledgeable individuals and institutions as to the future of Europe is intense. There are those who argue that the cost of breaking up the eurozone, even allowing Greece to leave, is so high that it will not be permitted to happen. Estimates abound of a cost of €1 trillion to European banks, governments, and businesses, just for the exit of Greece. And that does not include the cost of contagion as the markets wonder who is next. Keeping Spanish and Italian interest-rate costs at levels that can be sustained will cost even more trillions, as not just government debt but the entire banking system is at stake. Not to mention the pension and insurance funds. If the cost of Greece leaving is €1 trillion, then who can guess the cost of Spain or Italy?

As I have written about previously, a Greek exit from the euro would cause the “bank jogs” that are already happening in Spain and Italy to accelerate.

The problem in Europe is not just government debt.  The truth is that the entire European financial system is in danger of melting down.

Unfortunately, there are no more grand solutions on the horizon and so things are going to continue to get worse for Europe.

As I have talked about so many times, the next wave of the economic collapse is going to start in Europe, but it is going to deeply affect the entire globe.

During the next major economic downturn, the official unemployment rate in the United States will rise well up into the double digits.

Once that happens, perhaps many more Americans will finally figure out that they should have been paying much more attention to what was taking place in Europe.