Tag Archives: BIS

Is the Federal Reserve losing control of the gold price?

Financial Markets, Gold, Market Manipulation, Precious Metals, , , , ,

For the majority of the last 20 years, the western Central Banks, under the direction of the BIS, have been able to use the precious metals derivatives markets to “manage” the price of gold.  As long as counterparties who are “synthetically” long gold and silver are willing to settle the derivatives trade in cash or ETF shares, gold derivatives can be created in infinite quantities and used to keep a lid on the price of gold.

But since late spring, it seems that the attempts to use the paper gold and silver markets on the Comex and LBMA to drive the price lower have been met with aggressive buying.  For now the only explanation is that a large buyer  (or maybe several) may be accumulating physical gold/silver, which is preventing the price managers from indiscriminately printing and flooding the market with paper derivative contracts to drive the price down.  The tail may no longer be wagging the dog.

My friend and colleague, Paul Craig Roberts wrote this commentary about the possibility that the physical gold market is taking away:

After years of being kept in the doldrums by orchestrated short selling described on this website by Roberts and Kranzler, gold has lately moved up sharply reaching $1,510 this morning. The gold price has continued to rise despite the continuing practice of dumping large volumes of naked contracts in the futures market. The gold price is driven down but quickly recovers and moves on up. I haven’t an explanation at this time for the new force that is more powerful than the short-selling that has been used to control the price of gold.

You can read the rest of PCR’s analysis here:  Is The Fed Losing Control Of Gold

Gold And Silver May Be Setting Up For A Big Move

Financial Markets, Gold, Market Manipulation, Precious Metals, , , ,

The price of gold soared over $13 Monday as flight-to-safety money flowed into the precious metals sector while the stock market went into a downward spiral. I see Monday’s market action as a preview of what’s in store going forward as price discovery once again engulfs the stock market and causes the most extreme stock bubble in U.S. history to deflate.

Despite the fact that it seems to be taking forever for gold and silver to enter into a prolonged move higher, the chart below should offer encouragement.

Gold, silver and mining stocks are deeply oversold technically. It’s  obvious that the western Central Banks are throwing everything they can at the gold price via the paper derivative gold markets in London and NYC in an attempt to prevent a massive move higher.  The data for gold and silver futures on the Comex show that the banks are working hard to stunt any rally by unloading loads of paper gold on the market.

This effort is rewarding the large physical gold importing countries in the east. India’s net import of gold jumped by 27 per cent to 192.4 tonnes in the first quarter of calendar year 2019 from 151 tonnes in the same period last year. In April India unofficially imported 121 tonnes of gold, up significantly from April 2018. The increase in import activity is attributable to the lower gold price. Note that the official statistics do not include smuggled gold, which is thought to average around 25 tonnes per month. China also has stepped up its gold buying over the last several weeks.

At some point the Fed is going to be forced by the market to cut the Fed Funds rate, as the 1yr Treasury is now yielding less that the Fed Funds target rate. In addition, the yield curve is inverted from 1yr out to 7yrs, with a steep inversion between the 1yr and 3yr Treasurys. It won’t take much flinching from the Fed to ignite a rally in the metals. In addition, the investor sentiment as measured by MarketVane is about as low as I’ve seen it in a long time (34% bullish for both gold and silver).

Despite the 600 pt sell-off in the Dow today, complacency persists, along with an expectation that the Fed will continue to support wanton speculation in the stock market.  But the inverted yield curve, combined with an effective Fed Funds rate that is above the interest rate used to calculate the quantity of free money given by the Fed to the banks on excess reserves, is strong evidence that the Fed is losing its ability to control the financial markets.  At some point the Fed and its western Central Bank collaborators, led by the BIS, will also lose control of the gold price.

The explosive questions the gold riggers won’t answer-and the press won’t ask

Financial Markets, Gold, Market Manipulation, Precious Metals, , , , ,

Over the years, I’ve asked several skeptics of the idea that Central Banks and Governments, using the bullion banks as their agents, manipulate the gold price this question:   The Big Banks have been convicted and fined numerous times for manipulating interest rate and currency markets.  Is it realistically conceivable given this fact that they would leave the gold market alone?  The question, of course, is rhetorical and I’ve yet to receive an answer.

The answer is obvious to anyone who has looked at the facts.  I have written several articles with Paul Craig Roberts detailing how the manipulation is executed on the Comex and the motivation behind the manipulating the gold market.  Remarkably, there are public notes of a meeting chaired by Henry Kissinger in 1974  that discusses the importance of removing gold completely from the monetary system which is conveniently ignored.

The following is a re-post of an article posted by GATA’s Chris Powell. Even if you have your had in the sand and refuse to believe that Central Banks and Governments manipulate the global gold market using paper gold derivatives, at least brush the sand out of your eyes and read this carefully:

How easy it would be for any major financial news organization or trade association to confirm, expose, and combat the rigging of the gold market by governments and central banks. Such an effort could start with the documentation, most of it from official sources, collected by GATA and compiled here: Taxonomy

Everything could be nailed down to the present moment by a few specific questions put to the key participants in the rigging. These questions already have been prepared and posed, just not publicized enough.

— Three months ago U.S. Rep. Alex X. Mooney, R-West Virginia, wrote to the secretary of the treasury and the chairman of the Federal Reserve asking what the U.S. government’s policy on gold is and whether it remains, as government records from years ago establish, to drive the monetary metal out of the world financial system. Mooney also asked whether the U.S. government, directly or through intermediaries, like the Bank for International Settlements, trades in gold and gold derivatives and what the purposes of any such transactions are. Mooney’s letter is posted at GATA’s internet site here: Mooney Letter

Mooney has received no response.

– Last November GATA put similar questions to the BIS. What, GATA asked, is the purpose of the gold swaps and derivatives purchased and sold by the bank and the purpose of the bank’s involvement in the gold market generally?

The bank replied promptly but only to say it would not answer the question: BIS Letter

— Five weeks ago your secretary/treasurer and GATA consultant Harvey Organ wrote to the comptroller of the currency in the Treasury Department, Joseph M. Otting, whose office regulates the banking industry, calling attention to the recent explosion in use of the emergency procedure of “exchange for physicals” to settle gold and silver contracts issued on the New York Commodities Exchange by government-regulated banks. The financial risks undertaken by the banks in these transactions, GATA wrote, apparently were not being reported to the comptroller.

GATA’s letter concluded: “Could you review this matter and let us know your conclusions?” The comptroller has not responded.

Please click here to read the rest – it’s worth the time spent:   Unanswered Questions About Official Gold-Rigging

GATA: Those Who Deny Gold / Silver Manipulation Won’t Answer Basic Questions

Financial Markets, Gold, Market Manipulation, Precious Metals, , ,

IRD Note:  For nearly two decades, GATA has seized on Frank Veneroso’s original research which provided first-hand evidence that Central Banks were actively operating to suppress the gold and has presented direct evidence of precious metals manipulation.  Beyond this, there are public admissions from Henry Kissinger and Alan Greenspan acknowledging this fact.   Unfortunately, those who deny that gold/silver are manipulated have never offered any response to the direct proof that Central Banks intervene directly in gold trading.  The article below presenting just the facts was published by GATA.

Newsletter writer Steve Saville of The Speculative Investor, who long has denied that manipulation of the monetary metals markets means much, has seized on the recent essay by Keith Weiner of Monetary Metals as the conclusive refutation of silver market analyst Ted Butler’s longstanding complaint that JPMorganChase has been rigging the silver market.

Weiner’s analysis, headlined “Thoughtful Disagreement with Ted Butler” and posted here – LINK – argued that JPMorganChase is undertaking only ordinary arbitrage in the silver market, exploiting spreads between bid and ask prices.

Saville, in commentary headlined “A Silver Price-Suppression Theory Gets Debunked” – LINK – cheers Weiner’s essay and goes on to remark: “Entering a debate with someone who is incapable of being swayed by evidence that invalidates his position is a waste of time and energy, so these days I devote no commentary space and minimal blog space to debunking the manipulation-centric gold and silver articles that regularly appear.”

But when has Saville himself ever addressed evidence of manipulation of the gold and silver markets? Of course if he declines to address the evidence, he too can’t be swayed by it. The manipulation deniers never address the evidence. [IRD note: this is similar to Hilary Clinton never denying the allegations of corruption – instead she deflected the issue using the scare tactic of blaming the Russians for making the evidence public]

Weiner’s technical analysis is no refutation of silver market manipulation, for even if JPMorganChase is just doing arbitrage in silver, a judgment on manipulation would require knowing for whom the investment house was doing the arbitrage. JPMorganChase’s former chief of commodity operations, Blythe Masters, said on CNBC five years ago that the investment house had no position of its own in silver and was trading only for clients:  LINK

So might those clients include governments and central banks, entities with nearly infinite resources sufficient to nullify markets? The question is compelling because filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission by CME Group, operator of the major futures exchanges in the United States, assert that governments and central banks are clients of the exchanges and that the exchanges give them special volume trading discounts for trading all futures contracts, not just financial futures contracts: HERE and HERE

Do Weiner and Saville know that JPMorganChase is not trading silver futures for governments and central banks? Do Weiner and Saville know that governments and central banks are not trading gold and gold derivatives surreptitiously? If Weiner and Saville think they know, they’re wrong, for the Bank for International Settlements admits that it operates as a broker in gold and gold derivatives for its member central banks: BIS admission

Indeed, in 2005 the director of the BIS’ monetary and economic department, William R. White, told a conference at BIS headquarters in Basel, Switzerland, that a primary purpose of international central bank cooperation is “the provision of international credits and joint efforts to influence asset prices (especially gold and foreign exchange) in circumstances where this might be thought useful“: LINK

The BIS even advertises that its services to its member central banks include surreptitious interventions in the gold market: LINK

Anyone who wants to engage in honest argument about gold and silver market manipulation needs to address a few simple questions:

1) Are governments and central banks active in the monetary metals markets or not?
2) Are the documents asserting such activity genuine or forgeries?
3) If governments and central banks are active in the monetary metals markets, is it just for fun or is it for policy purposes?
4) If such activity by governments and central banks is for policy purposes, do those purposes involve the traditional objectives of defeating an independent world currency that competes with government currencies and interferes with government control of interest rates, objectives documented at length by GATA here?: LINK

Of course if largely surreptitious intervention in the monetary metals markets by central banks and governments is ever acknowledged, technical analysis of those markets is meaningless, which may explain why technical analysts like Weiner and Saville avoid the crucial questions and just sneer at those who raise them.

Why Is The BIS Flooding The System With Gold?

Financial Markets, Gold, Market Manipulation, Precious Metals, , ,

A consultant to GATA (Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee) brought to our attention the fact that gold swaps at the BIS have soared from zero in March 2016 to almost 500 tonnes by August 2017 (GATA – BIS Gold Swaps). The outstanding balance is now higher than it was in 2011, leading up to the violent systematically manipulated take-down of the gold price starting in September 2011 (silver was attacked starting in April 2011).

The report stimulated my curiosity because most bloggers reference the BIS or articles about the BIS gold market activity without actually perusing through BIS financial statements and the accompanying footnotes. Gold swaps work similarly to Fed repo transactions. When banks need cash liquidity, the Fed extends short term loans to the banks and receives Treasuries as collateral. QE can be seen as a multi-trillion dollar Permanent Repo operation that involved outright money printing.

Similarly, if the bullion banks (HSBC, JP Morgan, Citigroup, Barclays, etc) need access to a supply of gold, the BIS will “swap” gold for cash. This would involve BIS or BIS Central Bank member gold which is loaned out to the banks and the banks deposit cash as collateral to against the gold “loan.” This operation is benignly called a “gold swap.” The purpose would be to alleviate a short term scarcity of gold in London and put gold into the hands of the bullion banks that can be delivered into the eastern hemisphere countries who are importing large quantities of gold (gold swaps outstanding are referenced beginning in 2010).

I wanted dig into the BIS financials and add some evidence from the GATA consultant’s assertions because, since 2009, there has been a curious inverse correlation between the amount of outstanding gold swaps held by the BIS and the price of gold (as the amount of swaps increase, the price of gold declines). You’ll note that in the 2009 BIS Annual Report, there is no reference to gold swaps so we must assume the amount outstanding was zero. By 2011 the amount was 409 tonnes.

The gold swaps enable the BIS to “release” physical gold into the banking system which can then be used to help the Central Banks manipulate the price of gold lower. This explains the jump in BIS gold swaps between March 2016 and March 2017 and the drop in the price of gold from August 2016 until early July 2017. It also explains the rise in the price of gold between July and September this year, which correlates with a decline in the outstanding gold swaps between April and July . Finally, the hit on gold that began earlier this month coincides with a sudden jump in BIS gold swaps in the month of August. (Note: there would be a short time-lag between the gold swap operation and the amount of time it takes to “mobilize” the physical gold)

The graphic below shows the increase in gold swaps from March 2016 to March 2017:

As you can see, the total amount of the gold loans outstanding increased by 14.1 billion SDRs (note: the BIS expresses its financials in SDRs). The accompanying note explains that most of this gold loan is comprised of an increase in the BIS’ gold swap contracts outstanding.

I find it interesting that the reports of gold backwardation in London (see James Turk’s interviews on King World News) and the backwardation I have observed between the current-month (delivery month) Comex gold contract and the London gold fixings over the past several months correlates well with the sudden jump in gold swap activity at the BIS.

Backwardation in any commodity market indicates that the demand for delivery of the underlying commodity is greater than the near-term supply of that commodity. It’s hard to ignore that the backwardation observed on the LBMA and with Comex gold delivery-month contracts has been accompanied by soaring gold demand from India, as reported by the Economic Times of India (article link): Gold Imports Jump Three-Fold in April-August.

Furthermore, it appears as if the BIS gold swap activity continued to increase between March 2017 and August 2017, as the BIS’s August Account Statement shows another 2.2 billion SDR increase in amount of outstanding gold loans (a BIS monthly account statement only reports the balance sheet with no accompanying disclosure). These loans primarily are swaps, per the disclosure in the 2017 Annual Report.

However, this jump in gold swaps between March and August is somewhat misleading. The outstanding amount of loans declined from 27.2 billion SDRs at the end of March to 24.6 billion SDRs at the end of July. The price of gold rose over 11% between July and early September. By the end of August, the BIS balance sheet shows 29.3 billion SDRs. A jump of 4.7 billion SDRs worth of gold swaps.

It was around April that the World Gold Council began to forecast that India’s gold importation would drop to 95 tonnes per quarter starting in Q2. As it turns out, India imported 248 tonnes of gold in Q2 2017. This number does not include smuggled gold. Please note the curious correlation between the jump in BIS gold swap activity at the end of the summer and the unexpected surge in Indian gold imports.

In my view, there is a direct correlation between this sudden leap in the amount of gold swaps conducted by the BIS between July and August and the price attack on gold that began two weeks ago. The gold swaps provide bullion bar “liquidity” to the bullion banks who can use them to deliver into the rising demand for deliveries from India, China, Turkey, et al. This in turn relieves the strength and size of “bid” on the LBMA for physical gold which in turn makes it easier for the same bullion banks to attack the price of gold on the Comex using paper gold. This explains the current manipulated take-down in the price of gold despite the rising seasonal demand from India and China.

Central Bank Intervention Slams Paper Gold

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This isn’t some trader’s “fat finger” accidentally overloading the sell button and pressing “sell.” This is unadulterated BIS/ECB/BoE/Fed sponsored market intervention:

At 4:01 EST, a paper gold nuclear bomb was detonated in the Comex Globex computer system. The graph above is just the August “front month” paper gold contract on the Comex. In that contract 1.49 million ozs of paper gold were dumped into the Comex electronic trading system. Zerohedge is attributing 1.88 million ozs. That would include the selling in all of the paper gold contract months.

But that’s not the entire amount of the paper hit. There would have been a large amount of LBMA gold forward paper gold contracts dumped in correlation with the Comex paper avalanche. ZH attributes $2.2 billion in paper gold dumped.  But the real number including LBMA forwards dumped was much larger.

“The mysterious plunge has the market spooked,” says some idiot named Bob Habercorn from RJO. This was not “mysterious.” It was intentional – a shock and awe market intervention that was intended to “spook” the market. That quote is from a Bloomberg report full of fake news (caution, this article contains fake news:  LINK).

The article claims that China bought less from Hong Kong in May. In fact, the amount of gold exported from Switzerland to India and Hong Kong was up 39% from April, according to Platts. Furthermore, we have no clue how much gold moves into China through Beijing and Shanghai, numbers which are intentionally hidden from the world.

Here’s the reason that today was selected by the BIS et al to attack gold in the paper market in an effort to scare the crap out of the market:

the day was well chosen as the Muslim world including Turkey was closed for the end of Ramadan as was India which has the amiable habit of observing the holidays of religious minorities. – from John Brimelow’s Gold Jottings

Two of the largest buyers of physical gold in the world right now, India + Turkey, were closed for the observance of a religious holiday. And Shanghai closed for the day 31 minutes before the paper dump.

4:00 a.m. EST is one of the slowest, lowest volume trading periods during any 24 hour period. Why would a seller of a large number of contracts sell at that time of day, when the largest buyers of what is being sold are not in the market at the time of the sale?

If it were merely a “fat finger” – the fake news narrative – then the mistake would have been immediately corrected and the price would have quickly recovered.  Anyone who buys the “fat finger” story is either tragically ignorant or hopelessly naive.

When India returns tonight to the market, I would expect gold to get a strong bid.  Indians have a habit of buying a lot more physically deliverable gold than they might have otherwise when the western Central Banks put gold “on sale” by lowering the price in the paper market.  I suspect Turkey and China will increase their appetite as well.

The mining stocks per the HUI barely acknowledge the artificial price take-down.  The HUI is down less that 1%.  In the past, on a day when gold was taken down to this degree, the HUI would have dropped at least 4-5%.   It’s almost as if mining stock traders are laughing at the latest Central Bank antics.  I know I am…

Derivatives: Unexploded Financial Weapons

Financial Markets, Gold, Market Manipulation, Precious Metals, U.S. Economy, , , , ,

Central counterparties keep records of trades and help suck risk out of the banking system, but this only works if they themselves are well capitalised and have plans in place to deal with a sudden collapse of one or more of its members and get close to failure. Otherwise, they’re just unexploded nuclear bombs nestling deep in the financial system.   – Business Insider LINK.

Who are we kidding.  Since the 2008 de facto banking system collapse, the OTC derivatives problem has mushroomed out of control.   The Obama Government heralded in the Dodd Frank legislation, which allegedly made the financial system safer for everyone.  In reality it is nothing more than a fairlytale written with  the goal of allowing the Too Big To Fail banks to cover up their continued derivatives Ponzi scheme.

Now the BIS has issued yet another warning about the dangers lurking with derivatives. The “central clearing exchanges,” like the Depository Trust Clearing Corporation, are giant derivatives-infested vipers nest which harbors the next – and possibly imminent – financial system collapse.

This is one of the reasons behind Carl Icahn’s recent candor regarding the U.S. financial system:  “sooner or later there’s going to be a massive problem.”  LINK

In today’s episode of the Shadow of Truth,   we discuss the reasons why the BIS is sounding the derivatives alarm bell again and why Carl Icahn has become “Dr. Doom” on the stock market:

Where Is The IMF’s Gold?

Financial Markets, Gold, Market Manipulation, Precious Metals, U.S. Economy, , , , ,

In mid-2009, the IMF announced that it was going to sell a portion of its gold.  It ended up selling 403 tonnes of its then-reported 3218 tonnes of gold.  Back then the original announcement made it sound like the IMF was trying to push down the price of gold with a big sale announcement, as the price of gold went parabolic after the 2008 de facto collapse of the financial system.   The excuse for the gold sale was to “shore up” IMF finances.  However, historically, the IMF has sold off portions of its gold holdings as a policy to reduce gold’s role in the global fiat currency system.

At the time, India and China jointly delivered a research paper which suggested that, if the IMF were interested, the two countries would be interested in buying all of the IMF’s gold. The IMF limited its sale to the 403 tonnes:   200 tonnes to India, 2 tonnes to Mauritius and 10 tonnes to Sri Lanka.  By  December 2010 the IMF concluded the sale of the balance of the gold without ever disclosing the buyers.

The IMF’s gold comes primarily from the member countries, who pledge gold to the IMF as part of the cost of their “quota” assigned to become a member country.  25% of a country’s “quota” were to be paid in gold.  The IMF states that its gold is held in various depositories, like the NY Fed, around the world.  The truth is that most of the gold “pledged” to the IMF has likely been leased out by the custodial Central Banks.

Curiously, over the IMF’s 71 year history, it sold its gold intermittently.  Each time the demand by Central Banks to buy that gold has far exceeded the amount of gold offered.  This is an important point to note because it drives home the point that gold is significantly undervalued and that real Central Bank demand emerges when large quantities (100’s of tonnes) of gold are offered for sale.

In the latest episode of the Shadow of Truth, we discuss the interesting shift occurring in the IMF’s SDR structure and what it means for the U.S. dollar as a reserve currency.  We also discuss why the price of gold will likely begin to move much higher as we move from summer into autumn – we also discuss why GLD is a total fraud:

“Somebody Big Is Sitting On The Gold Price”

Financial Markets, Gold, Market Manipulation, Precious Metals, , , ,

Arabianmoney.net posted a conversation with Ross Norman, who is the CEO of Sharps Pixley, the London-based bullion broker with roots that go back to the late 1770’s.  What makes this admission astounding, and was overlooked by Arabianmoney, is that Ross Norman was at one time a gold trader for the Rothschild family at NM Rothschild.  In other words, he has access to the “wizard” behind the curtain that controls the London Buliion Marketing Association.

Here’s who it is, Ross, and I’m sure you already knew:

I am on an email distribution list operated by Gijsbert Groenewegen, who many of you may know from his articles posted on 321gold, Goldseek and Gold-Eagle.com.   Interestingly, Gijsbert sent out an email this morning with very interesting analysis from someone on his list who is an expert in the precious metals market.  The reader had just finished pouring over the latest BIS annual report, which was released in June.   Here’s his commentary:

Last week I scanned through the Bank of International Settlement’s 2014/2015 annual report, which came out in late June.  While I don’t have any investable conclusion from what I noted, I was impressed with how important gold is to its operations.   I don’t think the general gold market pays much attention to the BIS, but after going through the report, it was clear to me the BIS has the potential to have a major influence on the gold price, and that would certainly be true relative to the currencies it owns and manages.

If one considers that the BIS is the banker to central bankers  — 60 listed in total – then it is understandable that 95% of its deposits are denominated in currencies (74% USD, 13% euros, and 6% sterling) and the rest is gold (about USD$13.8 bn).  If the BIS role is to facilitate capital flows and smooth out FX, it makes a lot of sense that gold is central to its function.  It certainly appears prevalent in the annual report.

To me, it appears that gold is sort of a relief valve to some of the functions the BIS undertakes.   The BIS owns 108 tonnes of gold and accounts for 443 tonnes as off-balance sheet gold.  Also noteworthy is presence of gold derivatives.  Of the SDR 437.19 billion total notational derivative financial  instruments (1 Special Drawing Right = USD$1.40 ) —  gold related options, forwards, and swaps make up 30%; while interest rate swaps account for about 60%.  Its net gold investment assets account for 16% of its equity.   Gold is about 6.5% of assets and about 5% of liabilities.   I figure about 12% of its profits came from its gold transactions.

If there is one financial institution capable, willing and basically obligated ( per the 60 central banks it represents!) to influence the gold price, it is the BIS.  If they are not influencing the gold price / FX, then the 60 member banks are not getting well served!!

Between the above analysis and Ross Norman’s interesting admission, I think it’s pretty clear who the 600 lb. gorilla is in the gold market.  Which means that the Fed and the U.S. bullion banks are de facto manipulating the gold market on a daily basis, as the they are subservient to the BIS.

If nothing else, it certainly explains this:

GOLD_Q1SilverOTCderivs1

You can get into contact with Gijsbert here: LINK

EU Regulators Order 11 Countries To Adopt Bail-In Rules

Financial Markets, Gold, Market Manipulation, Precious Metals, U.S. Economy, , ,

If there is a risk in a bank, our first question should be:  “Ok, what are you the bank going to do about that? What can you do to recapitalise yourself?”  If the bank can’t do it, then we’ll talk to the shareholders and the bondholders. We’ll ask them to contribute in recapitalising the bank.  And if necessary the uninsured deposit holders:  “What can you do in order to save your own banks?” – Jeroen Dijsselbloem, President of the Board of Directors of the European Stability Mechanism,  March 26, 2013

The bail-ins are coming.  Reuters reported today that European Commission today gave France, Italy and nine other EU countries two months to adopt bank bail-in regulations or face legal action – LINK

The move to require bank bail-ins originated at the BIS – Bank for International Settlements beginning in 2008.   In 2011, the Financial Stability Board (FSB) – a sub-committee of the BIS – drafted the boilerplate model for big bank bail-ins:  Key Attributes of Effective Resolution Regimes for Financial Institutions.

The objective of an effective resolution regime is to make feasible the resolution of financial institutions without severe systemic disruption and without exposing taxpayers to loss, while protecting vital economic functions through mechanisms which make it possible for shareholders and unsecured and uninsured creditors to absorb losses in a manner that respects the hierarchy of claims in liquidation.

The bank rescue model as drafted lays out a complete systematic procedure for the rescuing and restructuring of any financial institution considered “SIFI” – a Systematically Important Financial Institution.  In layman terms this translates into “Too Big To Fail.” This model was endorsed by the G20 at Summit in 2011.

The “model” requires that funds required for a bail-in to prevent a TBTF from collapsing would first be taken from unsecured creditors.  This is primarily any depositor money in excess of the amount insured by the Government.  Incredibly, and this has been ratified by legislation in the United States, holders of derivative securities of the collapsing bank are considered super-secured.  In other words, those stakeholders in the banks would be the last to suffer any losses resulting from the restructuring of an insolvent bank.

In the United States there is over $4 trillion in depositor cash in excess of the amount covered by the FDIC sitting in banks.

Make no mistake about this, bail-in legislation is coming to the U.S.  In fact, a $1.1 trillion spending Bill passed by Congress and signed by Obama on December 16, 2014 contained specific provisions drafted (and paid for) by Citibank which ensured that big bank OTC derivatives holdings will be covered by the FDIC (i.e. taxpayer).  This is a back-door way of making the next taxpayer bailout of the big banks a legal requirement.

Anyone who keeps any cash in a bank is either completely ignorant of the ways in which that money can be “confiscated” or just completely brain-dead.  I suppose there could be a strong element of denial involved as well.  Big bank balance sheets are in far worse shape than they were in 2008, especially once you peel away all of the accounting shenanigans and include the off-balance-sheet ticking bombs.   It’s not a question of “IF” – It’s a question of “WHEN.”

We can ignore reality, but we cannot ignore consequences of ignoring reality.  – Ayn Rand