Tag Archives: Credit Suisse

A “Cat 5” Financial System Hurricane Swirls Offshore

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

One of the biggest benefits I get from writing newsletters (Mining Stock and Short Seller’s Journal) is that I get “grassroots Main Street” intel from subscribers.  This has led to some invavluable insights into the housing market and the general economy all over the country.

Yesterday I received this email:

Heard from a friend east of the Atlantic that things are worse than are even being reported by alternative media. I bet the only thing the banks would like more is if the Chinese took another week off! I also heard next week could be big trouble.

‎My friend’s employer is a financial institution in Europe – you can probably guess which country.  Words used were “chaos” and “possible shutdown.” Advised to buy silver as much as possible.

I tried to pull more info out of him but he was understandably compelled to pass on generalities in order to protect the identity of his friend.

Having said that, the information is consistent with what is unfolding at Deutche Bank.  It also dovetails with the systematic take-down of gold.  I’ll have more on that later today.   Interestingly, the media attention has focused on DB.  But the stock market is telling us that Credit Suisse has huge balance sheet problems as well:

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Both DB and CS have significantly underperformed the benchmark bank index since early March. The index is composed of U.S. Too Big To Fail and super-regional banks. With all the “smoke” coming from DB, it’s entirely possible that Credit Suisse is either inextricably tied to the fate of DB via a perilous derivatives counterparty relationship or CS has catastrophic problems of its own that swirling around but receiving less media attention.

The reality is that all of the U.S. Too Big To Fail banks are also inextricably tied to DB through OTC derivatives counterparty relationships. DB was excessively aggressive in underwriting exotic energy-related derivatives both in the U.S. and Canada (this comes from an inside source of mine), which means that JP Morgan and Citi, specifically among several others, are tied to DB’s fate.

As detailed here, Deutsche Bank received two bailouts from the Fed and the Government approaching $100 billion in 2008: U.S. Taxpayers Bailout DB. Without question, this is because the big U.S. banks are tied at the hip to the fate of DB.

I have no doubt that Fed is using its resources to help the German  Government and the ECB keep DB propped up for now.  I also have no doubt that there are huge hidden financial bombs at DB that the Fed et al will be unable to locate before they detonate.  I would suggest that notion is reflected in the warning above passed on to me yesterday.

Deutsche Bank Is Collapsing – But It’s Not The “Black Swan”

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

The global financial system is close to going supernova.

Both Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank stocks are hitting all-time lows.  Both are collapsing despite billions in Central Bank – Fed, ECB, Bundesbank, Swiss National Bank – monetary support.

Deutsche Bank had been advertising a 5% interest rate to customers in Belgium on  90-day deposits of at least 50k euros .  Bank deposits are essentially “loans” to a bank from the depositor (creditor).  This implies that the rate that DB had to pay to attract deposits is equivalent to a triple-C rated credit (although the 10-yr junk bond rates for double-B  rated bonds are around 5.5%, keep in mind that DB is paying 5% for 3-month money).   This is the unmistakable sign of a company that is collapsing.

DB stock was down over 3% yesterday on a day when most big TBTF banks for down 1% or less. It’s down another 2.8% 3% as I write this today, trading below $15/share for the first time ever.   This bank is obviously collapsing and any money manager who holds onto this stock for clients is in serious breach of fiduciary duty.  This is the 2016 version of Enron.

But it won’t be a “Black Swan” event.  The Central Bank authorities knew DB was going to collapse when Anshu Jain was fired in June 2015, literally about  2 weeks after DB’s board had given Jain even more control over bank operations.  However, the Central Banks mentioned above collectively had a year to put a “ring” around the collateral damage – i.e. the derivative counter-party default risks – that occurs from DB collapsing.

The Credit Suisse problems have been far less visible but the behavior of the stock is signalling to us that CS’ problems are on par with DB’s.  I don’t know if both banks will ultimately end up being monetized by a combination of taxpayer bailiouts (including U.S. Taxpayers) and bail-ins.  I would suggest that bail-in capital available would not even remotely address the derivatives-related liabilities embedded in the Credit Suisse’s and DB’s balance  sheets.

My point here is that – unless there’s even bigger problems hidden from the Central Banks, which have had a year now to address the DB/CS situation – a DB collapse will likely cause a sell-off in the stock market, but would not be the “Black Swan” for which everyone is searching.

I don’t know what the Black Swan is or what it will look like.  Otherwise it wouldn’t be a Black Swan, right?  What I will suggest is that the day in which the “box” with Schrodinger’s cat appears and we look into to it to see a dead cat is quickly approaching.  I would also suggest that this is why those who have been calling for a short-term wipe-out in the price of gold have been proved wrong for over two months, despite the blatant daily attempts by the Fed/ECB/bullion banks to push the price of gold lower.

This is a development that no one is talking about – but I believe that is represents a hidden slow-motion financial collapse that will soon accelerate:

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Global Economic And Banking Collapse On Deck

Financial Markets, Gold, U.S. Economy, , , , ,

Always love your analysis. A friend shared with me one week of your short sellers journal and I was impressed. GLNG took an extra week after you published it but it did start dropping.  I’m very experienced in options. Just ordered it for your short picks…I don’t really need the info of how to play options… just like your research and analysis. – “Colin” – SHORT SELLER’S JOURNAL (link)

All eyes are focused on Deutsche Bank.  Rightly so, for the most part.   “As you said, Deutsche Bank is blowing up” (Dr. Paul Craig Roberts in an email to me this morning).  It was reported this morning that the bank’s CEO released a memo to employees in which he assured the “troops” that everything was fine.   Most people do not remember this but I’ve been cursed with a great memory for certain details.  Jimmy Kayne, the CEO of Bear Stearns, when Bear blew up gave the same type of pep talk to Bear employees shortly before Bear was flushed down the toilet.  Reaching even further back in the annals of epic corporate fraud induced collapses, Ken Lay gave the exact same kind of pep talk to his people right before Enron collapsed.

As the adage goes, once a rumor is denied at least three times, the fact-basis of the rumor has been confirmed.

But it’s not just DB – it’s the entire western banking system.  While DB stock was getting pummeled yesterday, it escaped everyone’s attention that Morgan Stanley stock was down over 7% as well.   Bank of America stock was hit 5.4%.  Goldman Sachs as drubbed Untitlednearly 6%.  Today Credit Suisse stock is getting hit 7.7%.   These banks all have one common denominator:  an exceedingly high degree of exposure to Euro-debt credit default swap counterparty risk.   Include RBS and Barclays on that list as well, both of which are headed for the credit default swap waste bin unless the Fed and the ECB decide to print enough digital money to keep them alive.   The most stunning collapse in stock price is perhaps Credit Suisse (green line) which had been the best performing stock among the group until mid-July.  Wonder what changed?   Nearly as a notable as CS is Morgan Stanley (dark purple), which has managed to stay out of the media but it clearly exhibiting signs of extreme underlying financial distress.  Most might not remember, but Morgan Stanley should have been one of the primary casualties of the 2008 de facto collapse but it was quietly re-monetized so that it could continue fleecing the public by raking in big fees from the huge volume of “Club Med” European credit default swaps that it sells.

It’s nearly impossible to identify the specific root cause of the obvious banking system melt-down that is occurring. By design the use of OTC derivatives  by the banks has been completely obscured and hidden from sight.   As was evident from Jamie Dimon’s admissions during the “London Whale” crisis at JPM, even the people running these banks do not have a full understanding of the magnitude and degree of risk buried in the big bank balance sheets.  Since the Central Banks get their bank-specific information from the banks, it means that Central Banks therefore do not fully understand the scope and severity of the problem either.

That fact alone should be enough to frighten anyone paying attention out of the banking system and into the relative safety of precious metals.

I was chatting with a close friend of mine in NYC.  He lived with me through the turbulence at Bankers Trust (Proctor and Gamble derivatives lawsuit, Long Term Capital exposure, etc).  He stayed on and worked at Deutsche Bank and then at Lehman.  He knows when something is irrevocably wrong at these banks.  His comment to me this morning was that “something is blowing up behind the curtain in the banking system and it has to be the derivatives.”

Of course, the reason the derivatives are blowing up is because the underlying credit instruments from which they are “derived” are melting down as well.  We know about energy, industrial commodities and high yield – all of which the banks above have heavy exposure – but I would also suggest that auto loans and mortgage paper (luxury housing bubble pops) are starting to crack hard too.  Banco Santander has been one of the more aggressive auto finance lenders and its stock has is down 50% since April and down 38% since early October.  Capitol One down 25% since early December.

The message is clear:   the credit markets are beginning to accelerate in their collapse.