Tag Archives: Deutsche Bank

The Yield Curve Is The Economy’s Canary In A Coal Mine

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

The economy has hit a wall and is now sliding down it. I don’t care what bullish propaganda may or may not be bubbling up in the headlines from the financial media and Wall Street, the hard numbers I look at everyday show accelerating economic weakness. The fact that my view is contrary to mainstream consensus and political propaganda reinforces my conviction that my view about the economy is correct.

As an example of the ongoing underlying systemic decay and collapse conveyed by this week’s title, it was announced that General Electric would be removed from the Dow Jones Industrial Average index and replaced by Walgreen’s. GE was an original member of the index starting in 1896 and was a continuous member since  1907.

GE is an original equipment manufacturer and industrial product innovator. It’s products are used in broad array of applications at all levels of the economy globally.  It is considered a “GDP company.” GE was iconic of American innovation and economic dominance. Walgreen’s is a consumer products reseller that sells pharmaceuticals and junk. Emblematic of the entire system, GE has suffocated itself with poor management which guided the company into a cess-pool of financial leverage and hidden derivatives.

As expressed in past issues (the Short Seller’s Journal), I don’t put a lot of stock in the regional Fed economic surveys, which are heavily shaded by “hope” and “expectation” metrics that are used to inflate the overall index level. These are so-called “soft” data reports. But now even the “outlook” and “expectations” measurements are falling quickly (see last week’s Philly Fed report). The Trump “hope premium” that inflated the stock market starting in November 2016 has left the building.

Something wicked this way comes:  Notwithstanding mainstream media rationalizations to the contrary, a flattening of the yield curve always always always precedes a contraction in economic activity (aka “a recession”). Always. Don’t let anyone try to convince you otherwise. An “inverted” yield curve occurs when short term yields exceed long term yields. When the yield curve inverts, it means something wicked is going to hit the financial and economic system.

Prior to the financial crisis in 2008, the yield curve was inverted for short periods of time during 2007. The most simple explanation for why inversion occurs is that performance-driven capital flows from riskier investments into the the longer end of the Treasury curve, driving the yield on the long end below the short end. The expectation is that the Fed will be forced to cut short term rates drastically – thereby driving the short-end lower, which in turn pulls the entire yield curve lower (the yield curve “shifts” down). This gives investors in the long-end a better rate-of-return performance on their capital than holding short term Treasuries for safety. The Fed’s dilemma will be complicated by the fact that it does not have much room to cut rates in order to combat a deep recession.

Studies have shown that curve inversions precede a recession anywhere from 6 months to 2 years. I would argue that, stripping away the affects of inflation and data manipulation, real economic activity has been somewhat recessionary for several years. The massive intervention in the Treasury market by the Fed, ECB and Bank of Japan has muted the true price discovery mechanism of the Treasury curve. The curve has been barely upward sloping for quite some time relative to history.  This could indeed be history’s equivalent of an inverted curve. That being the case, if an inversion occurs despite the Fed’s attempts to prevent it, it means that whatever is going to hit the U.S. and global financial and economic system is going to be worse than what occurred in 2008.

A note on gold and silver: The massive take-down in the price of gold and silver, which is occurring primarily during the trading hours of the LBMA and the Comex – both of which are paper derivative markets – is quite similar to the take-down that occurred in the metals preceding the collapse of Bear and Lehman in 2008. It is imperative that the price of gold’s function as a warning signal is de-fused in order to keep the public wallowing in ignorance – just like in 2008.  But keep an eye on the stock prices of Deutsche Bank, Goldman and Morgan Stanley – as well as the Treasury yield curve…

WTF Just Happened? Elites Scramble to Disable the Italian Economic Landmine

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

Italy is financially disintegrating.  The banking world would not care except for one small detail:  If Italy defaults in its debt obligations, it will set off a daisy-chain of OTC derivative credit default swap defaults resembling a financial nuclear holocaust.  This chart of Deutsche Bank’s stock price reflects the growing risk of this event:

Deutsche Bank has been hitting all-time lows since its listing on the NYSE in October 2001. The systemic risk posed by a financial collapse of Deutsche Bank is enormous. Yet, it should be allowed to occur to prevent the continued transfer of U.S. and European taxpayer money to fund DB’s payroll and large bonuses. The schizophrenic volatility of the stock markets is further reflection of the underlying financial volcano in danger of erupting.

In the latest episode of WTF Just Happened, Eric Dubin and Dave Kranzler discuss ongoing financial collapse of Italy and the likely method employed by the Fed, ECB, and BIS to keep the banking system corpse on life support (WTF Just Happened is a produced in association with Wall St. For Main Street – Eric Dubin may be reached at  Facebook.com/EricDubin):

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Visit these links to learn more about the Investment Research Dynamic’s Mining Stock Journal and Short Seller’s Journal.  I recommended Almadex Minerals at 28 cents in April 2016 – it closed Friday at $1.13.  I recommended shorting Hovnanian at $2.88 in January  – it closed at $1.89 on Friday and has been as low as $1.70.

Is Emerging Market Turmoil Deutsche Bank’s “Black Swan?”

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

Rising energy prices and collapsing emerging currencies are two developments that are not receiving much attention in the mainstream propaganda narrative. But either development which could end up “pulling the rug” out from underneath the markets.

I pieced together the graphic to the right from an article on Zerohedge about the developing currency and debt crisis in emerging markets and, specifically, Latin America. This topic is not receiving much attention from the mainstream financial media. I guess facts that undermine the “strong economy” narrative go unreported. If it’s not reported, it doesn’t exist, right?

The top chart shows the abrupt plunge in an index of emerging market currencies. But most
of that decline is attributable to the plunging currencies in Latin America. Currently the Brazilian real is in free-fall, followed closely by the Mexican peso.

The bottom chart shows an index of emerging market debt prices. The index has plunged over 6 points, or nearly 7% since mid-April. In terms of bond prices, that’s a mini-crash. And that’s an index. Individual bond issues are getting massacred.

I was trading junk bonds in 1994 when the emerging market debt crisis hit hard in late January. Prior to that, emerging market debt issuance had just been through a mini-bubble. The money pumped into the system by Greenspan to “save the markets” from the collapse of Drexel Burnham and the related S&L collapse, plus to save the markets from the blow-back from the collapse of Russia, precipitated a mini-boom in high yield and emerging market debt.

The crisis started with a loss of confidence in the Mexican banking system and quickly spread like the flu throughout Latin America. The effects soon spilled-over into the U.S. markets. Between January and the end of March 1994, the Dow plunged 10.6%. The credit markets were a mess, especially the junk bond market. A friend of mine on the EM desk at BT was worried about losing his job.

It’s impossible to know the extent to which Central banks are working to prevent the current EM crisis from spreading, but at some point there will be a spillover effect in our markets.

As everyone knows, Deutsche Bank has resumed the collapse that started in 2008 before the Fed, ECB and Bundesbank combined to keep DB from collapsing.  Why was DB saved? Because DB’s balance sheet likely represents the largest systemic risk to the global financial system.   It has been burning furniture for years and now the bank is unloading more than 10% of its workforce as well as dismantling its North American and Investment Banking operation.  25% of the equity sales and trading personnel are being elimated.

No one outside of DB has any possibility of understanding DB’s OTC derivatives book. It’s highly probably that DB insiders do not understand the scale of counter-party risk exposure.   When DB acquired Bankers Trust, Anshu Jain took the emerging market derivatives business and injected it with steroids. Why? Because the fees were enormous.

On top of this, DB has enormous exposure via credit default swaps to the risky southern European financial systems.   A good friend of mine has reason to believe that if Italy goes into a tail-spin, it could take DB down with it.

In truth, we don’t know how bad the situation is inside DB because the financial reporting requirements imposed on banks have been substantially rolled-back over the last several years.   However, really bad news began to leak out on DB about the time the LIBOR-OIS spread began to rise and the dollar began to rise quickly.   The misdirection propaganda attributed this to corporate dollar repatriation connected to the Trump tax cuts.   Now the cost to buy credit protection on DB debt is starting to soar.  Credit default swaps have become the financial’s new “smoke alarm.”

DB’s stock is down nearly 39% since December 18, 2017. Since mid-January 2014, DB stock is down 78%.  Not sure why this fact doesn’t get coverage from the mainstream financial media other than the fact that it throws a wet blanket on the warm and fuzzy “synchronized global recovery” fairytale.

The Collateral Grab Begins As Tesla Burns Through Cash

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Tesla bank creditors have forced the Company to add its Fremont manufacturing factory to the pool of assets which secure Tesla’s $1.8 billion credit facility. The cover story is that the banks “suggested” that Tesla add the additional collateral to support the asset base underlying the bank. However, that’s unmitigated propaganda.

Banks have access to the inside books at companies to which they lend. In this regard, bank creditors have valuable insight to the actual cash flows in and out of a borrower. Anyone who has dabbled professionally in the world of credit, especially junk credit, will recognize this as the beginning of the end for Tesla. This is a move by the bank lenders to grab title to Tesla’s most valuable assets. Soon there will be a scramble to tie anything not already pledged.

The junk bond investors are totally screwed now. Not that we have any idea of the true “next best use” of Tesla’s primary assets. But by the time the liquidation of Tesla begins there will be a flood of EV’s on the market which means there will likely not be much demand from a company looking to use Tesla’s manufacturing facilities to produce even more EVs. In fact, its seems at this point that Tesla’s production process has major flaws, which means the facilities require a large infusion of capital to bring Tesla’s facility up to an acceptable standard of production quality. They may choose to bring in process engineering expertise or new technology and software from ICE Process Management to bring their facilities up to standard.

Perhaps the next best use in a place like Fremont is to convert the manufacturing facility into a homeless shelter. But that won’t help the banks.

This is to say that, intrinsically, the junk bonds are worth zero. The assets are tied by the banks and likely worth less than that the value of the debt that sits above the junk bonds in the pecking order. The bondholders have no prayer of ever receiving their principal back from cash flow. This means that the stock is intrinsically worth zero as well.

I guess the irony in this situation is that Deutsche Bank, of all banks, is the lead creditor. Talk about letting the inmates run the asylum…this also means, of course, that $10’s of billions in credit default swaps are likely connected to the credit facility as well as the junk bonds. As is, Deutsche Bank is radioactive. Add Tesla to that mix and the recipe for financial nuclear explosion has been created.

Famous Last Words – Deutsche Bank: “We Don’t Need A Bailout”

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

“[The] share price is low but that is not what is worrying us and that is not what we are looking at. What is really important to us is our credit story which is very strong, it is fundamentally strong.” – Jorg Eigendorf, head of communications at DB on CNBC (sourced from Zerohedge)

“The credit story is strong?”  To begin with, I’m not sure what the head of communications is doing on bubblevision talking about “credit.”  If he understood the meaning of the words he was regurgitating from script, he would not have made that statement if he were under oath.

From a German politician (as reported in Zerohedge):  “you can’t compare Deutsche Bank with Lehman. The bank is in a position to get out of this situation on its own.”  As the adage goes:  A rumor is confirmed as fact once that rumor is denied three times by politicians…

DB stock is down over 7% today.  It’s likely the primary reason that the SPX is down 13 points as I write this (that plus the dismal new home sales report).  DB stock has hit another all-time low.  DB has lost 51% of its market value this year.  The BKX bank stock index is down only 4% this year.  The relative performance isn’t just a red flag, it’s a “code red” five-alarm danger signal.

Here’s the biggest indicator that DB not only has credit problems, but its assets are significantly overvalued by its auditors and internal financial people:   DB’s stock market capitalization is 30% of it’s book value – i.e. DB trades at less than 1/3 its book value.   The amount of cash on DB’s balance sheet is nearly 7x greater than its market cap.

There’s no telling just how catastrophically insolvent DB is because we can’t look at its off-balance-sheet “assets,” which are primarily very risky OTC derivatives.  I also do not believe that DB is the infamous “black swan” because we all see it coming – especially the Central Banks.

But at some point some counter-party to DB is going to ask the bank to post more collateral against some type derivatives contract.  That’s when the fun will begin.  My bet is that right now the Bundesbank – with help from the Fed – is helping DB reinforce its collateral positions.   But if DB’s stock keeps dropping, the collateral calls will likely intensify and come from places that are hidden from even Central Bank view.

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As I was writing this, DB stock has been continuously hitting new lows.  Note the huge increase in monthly volume in the graph above (yellow box).  That’s institutional investors jumping off the sinking Titatanic into life rafts.  There has not been any insider share activity in the last 12 months because insiders don’t own any shares, other than a meaningless amount of unvested compensation shares.

Something ominous in the financial markets is unfolding behind the “curtain,” off-balance-sheet and out of the view of anyone who might care to know the truth.  DB’s balance sheet is a weapon of mass financial destruction in and of itself.  But the hidden financial bombs a DB blow-up will trigger is what the market should really be worried about…

IRD On Kennedy Financial: Janet Yellen Is A Complete Embarrassment

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Predictably, the FOMC once again fell flat on its face with regard to its continuous threats over the last month to hike rates. Despite the politically motivated rhetoric about the strengthening economy and tight labor market flowing from Yellen’s pie-hole, the fact that the Fed is afraid to raise rates just one-quarter of one percent tells us all we need to know about the true condition of the economy.

If I didn’t despise the fact that Yellen has been an incompetent political hack originally inserted into the Federal Reserve system as a political tool since her first tenure as an economist at the Fed in 1978, I would almost feel sorry for her. But the fact that she can stand in front of the public and read off of a sheet of paper scripted with lies about the state of the economy forces me to despise her as much as I despise the entirety of Washington, DC

This analysis of Yellen underscores my view that Yellen is either tragically corrupt or catastrophically stupid:  How Yellen Rationalizes Financial Bubbles

Phil and John Kennedy invited onto their podcast show to discuss the FOMC, Yellen, Gold, Deutsche Bank and some other timely topics:

mining-stock-journal-bannerNewSSJ Graphic

Bye Bye Deutsche Bank

Financial Markets, Market Manipulation, ,

It smells like death.

No way to know for sure when the Bundesbank, Fed and ECB lose control of Deutsche Bank’s balance sheet.  But its stock price just hit an all-time low since its NYSE-listing in October 2001.

Anyone who owns the Deutsche Bank “Tier 1” bonds should sell them now. They are currently yielding about 8%, which puts on the same “tier” as U.S. triple-C (CCC/Caa) rated credits.

I’ve been wondering for quite some time if DB’s demise would be the 2016 “Lehman” event, but I don’t think it will be.  Why?  Because Germany has a fabled history in which it has demonstrated a willingness to print trillions to keep its system from collapsing.

Orwell’s Nightmare In Real-Time

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

“They” know they are losing control.  “THEY” are the elitists who stand silently – some invisibly – behind Capitol Hill and run the country.  “They” includes the Deep State, CEO’s and directors of the largest corporations and the country’s wealthiest families and individuals.  If you would like to see names of some of the latter, read this:  Meet Wealthy Political Donors.

But that list is far from complete.  Missing are people/families/foundations like Warren Buffet, Bill Gates, Phil Anschutz and the Walton family.

Also see, Rogue’s Gallery – Exposing the Group of 30, to better understand who writes the monetary policies and be introduced to another branch of “They”. These are real people, not made-for-TeeVee characters, but actually people that dictate our lives.

The United States’ system of Government has become a pure “Money-ocracy.”  If you have enough money in your bank (and you might own the bank) and are willing to write the checks to the proper depositories (like the Clinton Foundation and the DNC, for instance) then you are part of the Money-ocracy.  If you are not part of the Money-ocracy, you are a middle class yeoman and soon a serf (per Warren Buffet).

In today’s Shadow of Truth (aka the RUCK Report – Rainbows, Unicorns and Cute Kittens), we discuss the transformation of the United States into the largest Banana Republic in history:

The 2008 Collapse Will Continue Without More QE

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

Craig “Turd Ferguson” Hemke invited me onto this Thursday A2A podcast show last Thursday.  As usual, Turd does a great job of blending irreverent humor and truthseeking in order to flush out cutting-edge insight on the issues affecting our markets.  In this episode we discuss:

  • The history of DeutscheBank and how this is all still relevant today
  • Jim Rickards and his role as a “spokesperson” for gold
  • The relative safety of working with different custodians and online clearing firms
  • The benefits of owning shares in streaming/royalty companies
  • And, as usual, a whole lot more

You can hear our conversation and the excellent questions asked by the members of Turdville here:   A2A with Dave Kranzler of Investment Research Dynamics

Paper Gold Is Legalized Fraud

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A lot of questions were raised when it was reported that Deutsche Borse failed to deliver physical gold in exchange for its Xetra-Gold Notes.  But the only real answer to those questions is simple:  the only way you ever own physical gold is if you buy actual physical gold and take possession.

The allegations that Xetra-Gold or Deutsche Bank or Deutsche Borse committed fraud or failed to deliver gold are strictly false.  One thorough reading of the Xetra-Gold prospectus dispels those allegations.  The prospectus little more than a blanket legal disclaimer.   The language is clear.  It says right in the prospectus that the an investment in the Notes “does not constitute a purchase or other acquisition of Gold.”  There is not case for fraud because none of the participants in Deutsche Borse, and Deutsche Borse itself, did not commit any breach of contract per the terms of the prospectus.

The term “economic” in the prospectus is defined (pg 12) to mean that the “bears the market risk associated therewith. If the gold price decreases, provided that all other conditions remain unchanged, such decrease may result in a partial or complete depreciation of the invested capital. If the gold price increases, provided that all other conditions remain unchanged, such increase may result in an increase in the invested capital.”

In this latest episode of the Shadow of Truth we discuss why buying paper forms of gold like GLD or Xetra-Gold is nothing more than an investment in a paper claim to the rate of return on gold during the period in which you own the security.  If you don’t hold your gold in your own possession, you don’t own it: