Martin
Armstrong Asks "Will They Hang Bankers Again On Wall Street?" - (www.zerohedge.com) What took place in Washington over the past
two weeks with the repeal of Dodd Frank and then the effective repeal of the
Volcker Rule sounds strikingly familiar to at least three previous periods in
American History that led to total disaster. There were of course the Northern
“carpetbaggers”, whom many in the South viewed as opportunists looking to
exploit and profit from the region’s misfortunes following the Civil War. The
“carpetbaggers” would play a central role in shaping new southern
governments during the Reconstruction period who were joined by Southerners who
saw economic gain in joining the Northerners in the exploitation of the South. They
were called “scalawags”. Then there were the Silver Democrats who were bought
and paid for by the mining industry. William Jennings Bryan’s red-hot
emotional speech at the 1896 Democratic Convention will forever live on in
history. The shenanigans of the Democrats and Republicans, who tried to
overvalue silver, led to the near bankruptcy of the nation and made JP Morgan
famous thanks to the Panic of 1896 when he had to arrange a gold loan to
save the country. Then there was what people called the First Gilded Age more
than a century ago, when senators and representatives were owned by Wall
Street and big business. This culminated in the 1929 Crash.
Greek
premier prepared European ground before vote gamble - (www.reuters.com) Prime Minister Antonis Samaras has bet on
Greece's future with an early vote for the presidency. But in contrast to a
recent predecessor, he made sure before dropping the bombshell that Berlin and
Brussels wouldn't stand in the way. Samaras's decision last week to bring the
three-stage parliamentary vote forward to this month from February took the
Greek establishment and financial markets by
surprise. But a select few knew it was coming, among them GermanFinance Minister
Wolfgang Schaeuble. With Berlin playing a decisive role in European aid for Greece,
Samaras and Schaeuble spoke repeatedly by telephone in the days before the
early vote was announced on Dec. 8, according to a euro zone official
with direct knowledge of the talks.
Crude
Below $60 Tests Petrobras’ Deepwater Discoveries - (www.bloomberg.com) Petroleo Brasileiro SA (PETR4) Chief
Executive Officer Maria das Gracas Foster said in June that the development of Brazil’s giant oil
discoveries beneath a layer of salt would be cheaper than competing North
American projects. That advantage is quickly evaporating. Brent crude fell to
as low as $58.50 in London this
week, approaching the state-run producer’s break-even range of $41 to $57 a
barrel for the so-called pre-salt projects mentioned by
Gracas Foster six months ago when oil was trading above $100. Petrobras, which
planned to invest more than $100 billion to tap deposits trapped two miles (3.2
kilometers) beneath the seabed off Rio de Janeiro, is slowing total spending
after lowering its oil price estimate next year to $70 a barrel, it said last
week.
Bankers
See $1 Trillion of Investments Stranded in the Oil Fields - (www.bloomberg.com) After crude prices dropped 49 percent in six
months, oil projects planned for next year are the undead -- still standing
upright, but with little hope of a productive future. These zombie projects
proliferate in expensive Arctic oil, deepwater-drilling regions and tar sands
from Canada to Venezuela. In a stunning analysis this week, Goldman Sachs found
almost $1 trillion in investments in future oil projects at risk. They looked
at 400 of the world’s largest new oil and gas fields -- excluding U.S. shale --
and found projects representing $930 billion of future investment that are no longer
profitable with Brent crude at $70. In the U.S., the shale-oil party isn’t over
yet, but zombies are beginning to crash it. The chart below shows the
break-even points for the top 400 new fields and how much future oil production
they represent. Less than a third of projects are still profitable with oil at
$70. If the unprofitable projects were scuttled, it would mean a loss of 7.5
million barrels per day of production in 2025, equivalent to 8 percent of
current global demand.
GM,
Audi Suspend Car Sales in Russia on Ruble’s Collapse - (www.bloomberg.com) General
Motors Co. (GM), Audi and Jaguar Land Rover temporarily stopped selling cars in Russia this
week, deciding that taking a timeout from the market was the best way to deal
with the ruble’s collapse. Automakers are battling a more than 40 percent drop
in the value of the ruble since June, Russia’s biggest financial crisis since
1998. In recent weeks, Russian customers has been snapping up Porsches and
other cars to convert their savings into something tangible. That temporary
boon for the industry soon turned to a liability as the ruble’s drop ate into
what the manufacturers got for their vehicles. GM suspended
sales to dealers on Dec. 16 to “manage its business risk” in light of the
volatility of the ruble, the Detroit-based carmaker’s Russian unit said by
e-mail. GM, which didn’t set a date to resume wholesale deliveries, will
deliver Chevrolet, Opel and Cadillac cars that have already been purchased at
the agreed-on price.
Putin
Paints a Besieged Russia, Says U.S. Wants to 'Rip Out Its Teeth and Claws' - (www.bloomberg.com)
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