skip to main |
skip to sidebar
I'm
An 86-Year-Old Retired Executive, And The FBI Tracked Me Down Because Of One
Photo I Took - (www.businessinsider.com) The
Rainbow Swash is an iconic piece of public art near Boston painted on the
circumference of a 140-foot high liquefied natural gas storage tank in 1971 and
repainted in 1992 at an adjacent site. It is actually one of the largest
copyrighted pieces of art in the world. The original artist was Korita Kent. I
went to Dorchester, Mass., to photograph it, but before I could take a picture,
I was confronted by two security guards who came through their gate and told me
I could not because the tank was on private property. I pointed out that I,
being well outside the fenced area, was not on private property – but they
insisted I leave. If one goes to Wikipedia there are number of excellent close-up shots
for the entire world to see. A few months later, I found a business card on the
front door of my home in Sacramento from Agent A. Ayaz of the Joint Terrorism
Task Force, asking me to call him. One of my neighbors, an elderly woman, told
me that two men wearing suits had come to her door to ask her about me, her
neighbor.
Russia
warns Ukraine of ‘irreversible consequences’ after cross-border shelling - (www.washingtonpost.com) Russia
on Sunday accused Ukraine of lobbing a shell over the border and killing a
Russian civilian and warned of “irreversible consequences,” in a sharp
escalation of rhetoric that raised fears of a Russian invasion in Ukraine’s
east. The accusation, which Ukrainian officials denied, set off furious
denunciations in Russia, with one senior legislator calling for pinpoint
airstrikes on Ukrainian soil of the sort he said Israel was making in the Gaza
Strip. Ukrainian security officials, meanwhile, said that about
100 military vehicles driven by “mercenaries” had attempted to cross the
border from Russia early Sunday, and that Ukraine’s military had destroyed some
of the vehicles.
Owners
of Trump Plaza casino expect it will close - (www.hosted.ap.org) Atlantic
City's crumbling casino market disintegrated even further Saturday as the
owners of the Trump Plaza casino said they expect to shut down in
mid-September. Trump Entertainment Resorts told The Associated Press that no
final decision has been made on the Boardwalk casino. But the company said it
expects the casino to close its doors Sept. 16. Notices warning employees of
the expected closing will go out to the casino's 1,000-plus employees Monday. If
Trump Plaza closes, Atlantic City could lose a third of its casinos and a
quarter of its casino workforce in less than nine months. The Atlantic Club
closed in January, the Showboat is closing next month and Revel might do
likewise if a buyer can't be found in bankruptcy court.
Berkeley dispensaries
must give free pot to poor members, city says - (www.latimes.com) Medical
marijuana dispensaries in Berkeley must give some of their pot free of charge
to low-income patients under an ordinance approved by the City Council. At
least 2% of the marijuana each dispensary doles out needs to be given free to
dispensary members who have “very low” incomes and are Berkeley residents, the ordinance, approved Tuesday, says. The ordinance also stipulates that free pot
must be the same quality, on average, as the pot that other members buy. According
to NBC Bay Area, the City Council has defined very low income
as $32,000 a year for one person and $46,000 a year for a family of four. Berkeley
had three permitted dispensaries as of early 2012, according to the ordinance.
Facebook
Pays This Police Officer's Salary, And Residents Aren't Too Happy About It - (www.businessinsider.com) Thirty-four
year-old Mary Ferguson is just your average police officer, patrolling the
city of Menlo Park, California. But what separates her from her peers is that
her salary comes from an unusual place: Facebook. According to the Wall Street Journal, the social media giant pays Ferguson's annual
salary of $194,000. Apparently company-funded police officers isn't necessarily
a new thing. In the 90s, tech companies helped pay police salaries for
computer-crime departments. But this definitely isn't all that common. The deal
benefits Facebook since part of Ferguson's job is to help large businesses plan
for emergencies like break-ins or natural disasters, but Ferguson is also in
charge of working with juvenile offenders and keeping kids in school.
TOP STORIES:
Portugal's
BES steadies nerves, losses still a puzzle - (www.reuters.com) Portugal's government and central bank assured
investors on Friday that the southern European country's financial system was
sound, aiming to quell worry about the spillover effects of trouble at the
Espirito Santo business empire. "It is important that Portuguese and foreign
investors... remain calm about the bank and our financial and banking
system," Portuguese Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho told reporters in
Lisbon. Recent disclosures of financial irregularities at a web of family-held
holding companies behind Portugal's largest listed bank, Banco Espirito Santo (BES.LS), have raised questions about
potentially destabilizing losses at the bank and other companies in the
family's orbit. That worry sparked a rout in global markets on Thursday,
pushing up
Puerto
Rico Electric Agency Used Reserves for July 1 Payment - (www.bloomberg.com)
The Puerto
Rico Electric Power Authority, which supplies most of the
island’s electricity, used reserve funds to pay investors July 1, according to
a Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board filing. The utility, known as Prepa,
paid bondholders $417.6 million on maturing bonds and interest, according to a
statement from the Government Development Bank, which manages the
commonwealth’s finances. The provider used about $41.6 million from reserves
for that payment, according to a notice today on MSRB’s Electronic Municipal
Market Access website, known as EMMA. Investors were doubting Prepa’s ability
to make the July 1 payment after it took $100 million from its capital fund in
May to purchase fuel. The utility must repay $671 million of bank lines of
credit by mid-August and doesn’t have the cash to pay the full amount, Judith
Waite, a Standard & Poor’s analyst, wrote
in a report.
Germany
Expels U.S. Intelligence Envoy Amid Spying Allegations - (www.bloomberg.com) German Chancellor Angela
Merkel’s government expelled the top U.S. intelligence official in
Berlin over allegations of espionage, escalating a conflict that one of her
aides said has caused “grave” political harm. The U.S. embassy official was
asked to leave Germany after the Federal Prosecutor began investigating spying
practices, according to the statement from Merkel’s Chancellery today. “The
government takes these activities very seriously,” Steffen Seibert, Merkel’s
press secretary, said in the statement. A trustful relationship with the U.S.
remains “indispensable” to Germany, “but for that, mutual trust and openness
are necessary,” he said.
He's
the Top U.S. Mortgage Salesman. His Daughter Isn't Buying It - (www.bloomberg.com) David Stevens, chief executive officer of the
Mortgage Bankers Association, has spent his career lauding the merits of
homeownership. One person still isn’t buying it: his daughter. Sara Stevens, 27, knows interest rates are
low, rents are high and owning a home can build wealth. She also had a
front-row seat to the worst real-estate slump since the Great Depression. “The
world has changed,” she said. Six years since the collapse of Lehman Brothers
triggered a financial meltdown, some young adults are more risk averse and view
the potential upsides of status and wealth more skeptically than before the
crisis, altering the homeownership calculation. It’s more than the weight of
student loans, an iffy job market and tight credit -- even those who can buy
are hesitant.
Fed's
George says rate hike possible this year - Dow Jones - (www.reuters.com) Certain economic formulas are pointing to a
Federal Reserve interest rate hike as early as this year, a Fed official said
on Thursday, according to Dow Jones. "As I look at some of the policy
prescriptions that the Federal Reserve relies on, looking at formulas that help
guide you on when it's time to change, many of those are already pointing to
lifting off of zero as early as even this year or next year," Kansas City
Federal Reserve President Esther George said, according to Dow Jones.
Espirito
Santo Financial Suspends Shares, Bonds on ESI Exposure - (www.bloomberg.com) Espirito
Santo Financial Group SA, which owns 25 percent of Portuguese lender Banco
Espirito Santo SA, said it decided to suspend its shares and listed bonds on
the Luxembourg and Euronext exchanges due to its exposure to Espirito Santo
International SA. “Due to ongoing material difficulties at its largest
shareholder Espirito Santo International and ESFG’s exposure to that company,
ESFG has decided to suspend its shares and listed bonds, including the bond
issued by its fully-owned subsidiary Espirito Santo Financiere SA,” ESFG said
today in a filing posted on the Portuguese securities
regulator’s website. “ESFG is currently assessing the financial impact of its
exposure to ESI.” Banque Privee Espirito Santo SA, which is fully owned by
ESFG, on July 8 said there is a delay in payments of some of the last
maturities of short-term debt securities issued by Espirito Santo
International, or ESI. These delays affect “only a few clients,” Banque Privee
said. ESFG is 49 percent owned by Espirito Santo Irmaos SGPS SA, which in turn
is fully owned by Rioforte Investments SA, which is fully owned by ESI.
Banker
Suicides Return: JPMorgan Executive "Blasts Wife, Kills Self" With
Shotgun - (www.zerohedge.com) In what appears to the 15th financial services executive suicide
this year, yet another JPMorgan Director took his own
life. As IBTimes reports, Jefferson Township (New
Jersey) police report that the Global Network Operations Center Executive
Director, "Julian Knott, age 45, shot his wife Alita Knott, age
47, multiple times and then took his own life with the same weapon."
They are survived by 3 teenage children... As IB Times reports, JP Morgan executive director Julian Knott
blasted his wife Alita to death with a shotgun before turning the gun on
himself. The 45-year-old, who worked for the investment bank in
London until July 2010, shot his 47-year-old wife multiple times before
committing suicide with the same weapon …. Julian moved to the United States
from London in 2010 and was working at JP Morgan's Global Network Operations
Center in Whippany, New Jersey, at the time of the tragedy.
Wall
Street Finds New Subprime With 125% Business Loans - (www.bloomberg.com) Doug
Naidus made his fortune selling a mortgage company to Deutsche Bank AG months
before the U.S. housing market collapsed. Now he’s found a way to profit from
loans to business owners with bad credit. From an office near New York’s Times
Square, people trained by a veteran of Jordan Belfort’s boiler room call
truckers, contractors and florists across the country pitching loans with
annual interest rates as high as 125 percent, according to more than two dozen
former employees and clients. When borrowers can’t pay, Naidus’s World Business
Lenders LLC seizes their vehicles and assets, sometimes sending them into
bankruptcy. Naidus isn’t the only one turning to subprime business lending.
Mortgage brokers and former stock salesmen looking for new ways to make fast
profits are pushing the loans, which aren’t covered by federal consumer
safeguards. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) and Google Inc. are among those financing
his competitors, which charge similar rates.
Junk
Loans Turned Into AAA Debt at Record Pace: Credit Markets - (www.businessweek.com) Deals
packaging junk-rated corporate loans into securities with ratings as high as
AAA are being done at a record pace, fueling a boom in the underlying debt that
the Federal Reserve says is showing signs of froth. Led by Leon Black’s Apollo
Global Management LLC, $13.8 billion of collateralized loan obligations were
raised in the U.S. last month, an all-time high, according to Morgan Stanley
and data compiled by Bloomberg. Julian Black, a Cayman Islands-based lawyer who
helped raise more than $25 billion in CLOs in 2013, predicts as much as $120
billion will be sold this year, a record. “The market has been surprised by the
volume,” Black, the global head of structured finance at Appleby Global Group
Services Ltd., said in a telephone interview.
Genius:
IMF Pronounces Bulgaria's Banks "Safe" Just 2 Weeks Before Bank Run - (www.zerohedge.com) Earlier
this summer, IMF bureaucrats went to Sofia, Bulgaria to study the country’s
economic progress; and roughly a month ago, they released an official report
which stated, among other things, that Bulgarian banks are “stable and liquid.”
Then 2 weeks later, there was a run on two of the nation’s largest banks (as we
discussed at length here). But it's not just the IMF...the EU Commission
soothingly announced that "the Bulgarian banking system is
well-capitalized and has high levels of liquidity compared to its peers in
other member states." The lesson here is clear: The people in charge
of regulating the system and making these proclamations about bank safety are
totally clueless. Clearly, Bulgaria (and Portugal) shows that the
entire system can really be a bunch of smoke and mirrors.
Muni
Fund Collapses To Record Lows As Puerto Rico Risk Rises - (www.zerohedge.com) Quietly
behind the scenes and away from the exuberant stock market trading headlines of
the mainstream media, Muni bond markets are in turmoil. Thanks to the
'shenanigans' in Puerto Rico - after lawmakers last month approved a bill
allowing some public corporations to restructure debt - PR bonds have
collapsed to record lows (and dragged a number of large Muni funds with them). As
Bloomberg's Michelle Kaske reports, A Franklin Templeton Investments
municipal-bond fund with the industry’s biggest allocation to Puerto Rico has
sunk to the lowest in its 29-year history as prices on the struggling
commonwealth’s debt set record lows. The price per share of the $300.4 million
Franklin Double Tax-Free Income Fund fell to $9.28 yesterday, the lowest since
its inception in April 1985. The drop follows Moody’s three-step downgrade of
Puerto Rico’s GOs last week to B2, five levels below investment grade.
Espirito
Santo Bonds Tumble to Records Amid Missed Note Payments - (www.bloomberg.com) Banco
Espirito Santo SA bonds plunged to record lows after a parent company delayed
payments on short-term notes, reawakening concern that banks remain vulnerable
as the euro region emerges from the sovereign debt crisis. Portugal government
bonds also fell, sending the 10-year yield up the most in two months, leading
declines among securities from Europe’s most indebted nations. A gauge of Portuguese stocks fell to a seven-month low. The selloff
was prompted by Espirito Santo International SA saying it delayed payments on
some securities and follows a warning from the bank in May that its parent
company faced a “serious financial situation” that could be damaging. Moody’s
Investors Service placed Banco Espirito Santo
'Second CIA spy in Germany':
Berlin raids Ministry of Defense - (www.rt.com) German
authorities have carried out a raid on the residence of a defense ministry
official suspected of passing secrets to the US, just one week after the arrest
of a German intelligence officer who worked as a double agent. Officials from
the Federal Prosecutor's Office said Wednesday that residential and office
premises of the staff of the Federal Ministry of Defense in Berlin were
searched on “initial suspicion of activity for an intelligence agency.”
According to the German newspaper Die Welt, a soldier of the Bundeswehr is
suspected of committing espionage. The individual was said to have made “intensive
contacts” with alleged US intelligence officials and was under the
surveillance of the Military Intelligence (MAD) some time ago. "When
sufficient evidence existed, the case was handed over to the federal
prosecutor," security sources told the paper.
US
government made at least $100 bn in improper Medicare payments last year - (www.rt.com) The
US government estimates that it made about $100 billion in improper payments
last year to those not entitled to receive them. The Medicare program only
accounted for about half of the amount that was erroneously doled out. Congressional
investigators believe the number of inaccurate payments could be even higher.
The House Oversight Subcommittee on Government Operations is scheduled to hold
a hearing on Wednesday afternoon regarding the improprieties. "Nobody
knows exactly how much taxpayer money is wasted through improper payments, but
the federal government's own astounding estimate is more than half a trillion
dollars over the past five years," said Rep. John Mica, chair of the
subcommittee. "The fact is, improper payments are staggeringly high
in programs designed to help those most in need — children, seniors and
low-income families." The total of inappropriate awards is down from a
peak in 2010 of $121 billion.
MBIA
in Longest Slump Ever on Puerto Rico Default Concern - (www.bloomberg.com) MBIA Inc. fell
for a 13th day, the bond insurer’s longest streak of declines since going
public in 1987 amid concerns it faces losses tied to guarantees on Puerto
Rico’s debt. MBIA, based in Armonk, New York, tumbled as
much as 5.8 percent before ending trading in New York down 3.5 percent at
$9.65, the lowest since October. Bermuda-based competitor Assured Guaranty Ltd. (AGO) also extended a decline today, falling 1.7
percent to $22.71, the lowest since February and the 11th drop in 12 days. MBIA,
with $4.8 billion of net exposure, and Assured, with $5.3 billion across three
units, are sinking on their Puerto Rico guarantees after surviving U.S.
mortgage losses that toppled other bond insurers during the financial crisis.
After lawmakers in the self-governing U.S. territory last month approved a bill
allowing some public corporations to restructure debt, prices on the
commonwealth’s bonds have dropped to record lows.
Greece
Resists Troika on Third Bailout as Draghi Protests Delays - (www.bloomberg.com) Greece fought off calls to consider a third
bailout as European Central Bank President Mario Draghi warned that the pace of
economic fixes is slowing, officials said after euro-area finance ministers met
yesterday. Greece has ruled out further aid -- which would come with another
raft of conditions -- after its current rescue ends, a Greek official told
reporters in Brussels. According to the so-called troika of International
Monetary Fund, ECB and euro-area authorities, Greece may need one anyway, an EU
official said. Further emergency aid will probably be needed as the government
still faces a funding shortfall, can’t count on financial-market support and is
slipping further behind on its commitments to overhaul the economy, the EU
official said. The troika’s concerns were underlined by Draghi’s warning to
Greek Finance Minister Gikas Hardouvelis that Greece should not assume its
reforms have been completed.
Austrian
Banks’ Bad Debt Eroded 65% of Profit Since 2008 - (www.bloomberg.com) Austrian banks must reconsider a business
model that forced them to use 44 billion euros ($60 billion), or almost
two-thirds of their profit since 2008, to provision for bad debts, the central
bank said. Austria’s largest banks, the biggest lenders in eastern Europe, must strengthen capital to catch up with
competitors, cut costs and remain wary of the next bubble, Deputy Governor
Andreas Ittner told reporters in Vienna today. If they do, the former communist
part of Europe still offers more growth than their home market, he said. “It’s
not the time to pull out of eastern Europe,” said Ittner, who heads banking
supervision at the central bank. “On the contrary, growth rates are still
higher there than in western Europe, but it needs to be sustainable growth.” Erste Group Bank AG (EBS), Raiffeisen Bank International AG (RBI) and UniCredit Bank Austria AG expanded in
former parts of the Hapsburg empire after the Iron Curtain fell. Rapid credit
growth fueled bank earnings and economic growth until 2008 as clients borrowed
to buy homes, cars and consumer goods. When economic growth contracted, bad
loans and write-downs soared.
Complacency
Breeds $2 Trillion of Junk as Sewage Funded - (www.bloomberg.com) These
are boom times for complacency. To gauge just how comfortable the world of debt
has gotten, consider: -- Bond buyers handed $2 billion last month to Ecuador, whose socialist president forced a default
during the financial crisis while calling creditors “true monsters.” -- So many
investors piled into a May bond sale by Clear Channel Communications Inc. that
the radio broadcaster, with a credit rating that implies default is almost a
certainty, more than doubled the offering to $850 million. -- China’s Logan Property Holdings Co. defied
predictions of a slowdown in the nation’s real estate market by selling $300
million of bonds in May. The developer has negative cash flow and total debt
almost twice its cash and cash equivalents.
Germany
Favors Deutsche Telekom to Replace Ousted Verizon - (www.bloomberg.com) Germany favors Deutsche Telekom AG (DTE) to replace Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ)as a network provider after deciding to end the
American company’s contract in the wake of reports about spy surveillance by
the U.S. “The federal government wants to win back more technological
sovereignty and therefore prefers to work with German companies,” Tobias Plate,
an interior ministry spokesman, said today at a press conference in Berlin. Germany
is using an option in the current Verizon contract to end the arrangement next
year, Plate said, declining to confirm whether the government had any evidence
that the provider handed information from the network to the U.S. National
Security Agency.
Pope
Replaces Vatican Bank Managers as Profit Drops 97% - (www.bloomberg.com) Pope
Francis plans to replace the board and executives at the Vatican Bank after a
year of reorganization at the scandal-plagued institution in which more than
2,000 accounts were blocked and profit dropped 97 percent. “With the support of
the Holy Father and the Council of Cardinals, we are creating simpler, more
efficient structures for those serving the mission of the Catholic Church,”
Cardinal-Prefect George Pell said today in an e-mailed statement. Net income at
the bank, known as the Institute for Religious Works, or IOR, plummeted to 2.9
million euros ($3.9 million) from 86.6 million euros in 2012.
