Greek
Banking System Was Propped Up With "Airlifts" of Euro Notes In
2011-12 - (www.dailymail.co.uk) Soon
there would be not enough euro notes in the country to cope with the number of
Greeks trying to get their hands on their money from cash machines and banks.
And so a secret plan was activated. `We're talking about June 2011,' a
senior official overseeing Greece's bailout told me. `Greeks were taking about
one to two billion euros a day from the banking system. The Greeks had to send
military planes to Italy to get banknotes. It got to that point.' A decade
after it gave up the drachma, the world's oldest existing currency, Greece
faced the crushing reality that it did not have the sovereign authority to meet
the demand for paper currency from its own citizens.'' The response was
extraordinary. While issuing public threats to Greeks, in private the Troika
authorised military and commercial cargo planes to feed them euros --
billions-worth on every flight. They were intended not only to preserve
Greece's fracturing social stability, but also to preserve the single currency
itself. The airlift was only the first stage of the mission. Scores, if not
hundreds, of journeys by truck and boat spread the new notes across the
mainland and the Greek islands, from Rhodes to Corfu, from Crete to Komotini.
Staff worked through the night to ensure that bank branches across Greece had
sufficient notes to meet depositor demand, and contain any incipient bank run.
China
Rethinks Deals for Resources - (www.online.wsj.com) A
dusty $8 billion Australian mine that has yet to export a chunk of ore is
emblematic of why China is rethinking its huge, multiyear effort to buy up
resources abroad.The mine, the Sino Iron project
more than 900 miles north of Perth, in Western Australia, was launched in 2006
with an estimated $2.5 billion in development costs. The mine was to supply
China with iron ore, a crucial steelmaking ingredient, and help China break
into a global mining market dominated by BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto and Vale SA.
Instead, Chinese owner Citic Pacific Ltd. has
grappled with everything from high labor costs and naturally occurring asbestos
in the rock to a massive ore-grinding mill that years after its installation
still doesn't work. "These mills are the
biggest in the world, and it is not unreasonable to expect that there would be
some problems due to their complexity," said Damian Connelly, director of
Perth-based consultancy Mineral Engineering Technical Services. "Had they
used conventional gearbox pinion-drive mills, these problems wouldn't have
arisen to the same extent."
Regulators
close small banks in Tennessee, Arizona - (www.reuters.com) Regulators
have closed small banks in Tennessee and Arizona, bringing the number of U.S.
bank failures to 20 this year. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. says it
seized Community South Bank, based in Parsons, Tenn., with 15 branches and
about $386.9 million in assets and $377.7 million in deposits as of June 30. It
also shuttered Phoenix-based Sunrise Bank of Arizona, with six branches, $202.2
million in assets and $196.9 million in deposits. CB&S Bank, based in
Russellville, Ala., agreed to assume all of Community South Bank's deposits and
to buy about $121.7 million of its loans and other assets. First Fidelity Bank,
based in Oklahoma City, agreed to assume all of Sunrise Bank's deposits and to
buy all its assets.
Global
corporate bond issuance at lowest level in five years - (www.ft.com) Global
corporate bond issuance has this month fallen to the lowest level in five years
as market turmoil triggered by rising US Treasury yields persuades companies
worldwide to shelve funding plans. Just $61bn in investment grade corporate
debt has been raised so far in August, putting it on course to be the weakest
month since 2008, according to data from Dealogic. In August last year, more
than $121bn in new corporate debt was issued. The slowdown follows the US
Federal Reserve’s announcement that it would slow the pace of its asset
purchases, or “quantitative easing”, from as early as next month. Ben Bernanke,
Fed chairman, first hinted at his QE “tapering” plans on May 22. Since then the
yield on 10-year US Treasuries has risen to more than 2.9 per cent, compared
with a low of 1.61 per cent at the start of May. Higher bond yields, which move
inversely to prices, have left investors nursing losses on the value of their
portfolios.
NY
AG Sues Trump, 'Trump University,' Claims Fraud - ABC News - (www.abcnews.go.com) New
York's attorney general sued Donald Trump for $40 million Saturday, saying the
real estate mogul helped run a phony "Trump University" that promised
to make students rich but instead steered them into expensive and mostly
useless seminars, and even failed to deliver promised apprenticeships. Trump
shot back that the Democrat's lawsuit is false and politically motivated. Attorney
General Eric Schneiderman says many of the 5,000 students who paid up to
$35,000 thought they would at least meet Trump but instead all they got was
their picture taken in front of a life-size picture of "The
Apprentice" TV star. "Trump University engaged in deception at every
stage of consumers' advancement through costly programs and caused real
financial harm," Schneiderman said. "Trump University, with Donald
Trump's knowledge and participation, relied on Trump's name recognition and
celebrity status to take advantage of consumers who believed in the Trump
brand."
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