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UPS
shipped contraband cigarettes in NY: Lawsuit - (www.cnbc.com) The
New York state attorney general says in a lawsuit that UPSallegedly shipped 700,000 cartons of untaxed
cigarettes in the state between 2010 and 2014. Attorney General Eric
Schneiderman and New York City Corporation Counsel Zachary Carter plan to file
the $180 million lawsuit Wednesday in Manhattan federal court. According to the
Times Union of Albany, they said the shipments amounted to $29.7 million in
lost tax revenue. The lawsuit claims UPS shipped unstamped cigarettes from at
least six unlicensed vendors on Indian reservations. UPS denied the
allegations. It tells the newspaper that UPS tobacco policy strictly prohibits
the shipment of cigarettes to consumers and unlicensed dealers or distributors.
Salad chain files for
bankruptcy protection - (www.cnbc.com) Tossed salad chain Saladworks LLC has
filed for bankruptcy protection Tuesday as it seeks "to address pending
litigation and facilitate a sale or restructuring transaction." During the
Chapter 11 reorganization, the company expects normal day-to-day operations to
continue. To maximize shareholder value, the company wants to sell itself or
recapitalize. Launched in 1986, the made-to-order salad brand has more than 100
domestic and international locations. More than 80 are currently in
development.
US producer prices post
record drip on tumbling energy costs - (www.cnbc.com) U.S.
producer prices posted a record decline in January, weighed down by plunging
energy costs, pointing to very benign inflation pressures in the near term. The
Labor Department said on Wednesday its producer price index for final demand
dropped 0.8 percent, the biggest drop since the revamped series started in
November 2009, after falling 0.2 percent in December. It was the third straight
month of decline in the PPI. In the 12 months through January, producer prices
were unchanged, the weakest year-on-year reading since records started in
November 2010, after rising 1.1 percent in December. Economists polled by
Reuters had forecast the PPI declining 0.4 percent last month and gaining 0.3
percent from a year ago.
Exclusive
- Greece to run out of cash by end-March without new aid: source
- (www.reuters.com) Greece is
burning through its cash reserves and will not be able to meet payment
obligations beyond the end of March at the latest unless it secures additional
funds from its creditors, a person familiar with the figures told Reuters on
Wednesday. Athens is locked in a battle with euro zone partners over the future of its bailout
programme, which is due to expire in 10 days. Failure to clinch a deal would
leave it at
risk of bankruptcy,
though until now it had not been clear how much time Athens had until state
coffers run dry. Greece will be able to repay a 1.5 billion euro loan from
the International Monetary Fund that falls due in mid-March, but the state will
struggle to make payments after that despite continuing efforts to minimize
cash needs, the person said. "Greece can cover its needs until
mid-March or the latest by the end of March unless it secures additional
funding from official lenders," the person told Reuters. Athens has
repeatedly asked its euro zone partners to be allowed to issue more
Treasury bills beyond an existing 15 billion euro ceiling that it has already
hit but its request has been denied.
Italy
warns of Libya threat, pressure for action grows - (www.reuters.com) Italy called on Wednesday for urgent
international action to halt Libya's slide into chaos and said it was ready to
help monitor a ceasefire and train local armed forces. The U.N. Security
Council is due to meet later on Wednesday to discuss Libya, where two
rival governments, each backed by former rebels who toppled Muammar Gaddafi in
2011, are battling for power. The growing danger became apparent on Sunday when
Islamic State released a video showing the beheading of 21 Egyptian Coptic
Christians in Libya. Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni told
parliament that possible alliances between local militias and IS militants,
inspired by their counterparts in Syria and Iraq, risked
destabilizing neighboring countries. "The deterioration of the situation on
the ground forces the international community to move more quickly before it's
too late," he said in a special address on the crisis.
Student loan debt piles up to $1.16 trillion:
NY Fed - (www.cnbc.com) Even with an improved job market, those student
loans are getting harder to keep up with. While households are generally doing
a better job making payments on their mortgages and credit cards, the
delinquency rates on student loans worsened in the last three months of 2014,
according a new report from the New York Federal Reserve. "Although we've
seen an overall improvement in delinquency rates since the Great Recession, the
increasing trend in student loan balances and delinquencies is
concerning," said New York Fed researcher Donghoon Lee in a statement.
"Student loan delinquencies and repayment problems appear to be reducing
borrowers' ability to form their own households." Overall, household debt
levels rose one percent—to $11.8 trillion—in the fourth quarter of 2014, after
a steady decline in loan balances following the Great Recession reversed course
in the fourth quarter of 2013. Outstanding balances were up for mortgages ($39
billion), student loans ($31 billion), car loan ($21 billion) and credit card
debt ($20 billion).
[Bloomberg] Libya’s
Chaos Puts Neighbors on Alert as Italy Weighs Action - (www.bloomberg.com) The
beheading of 21 Egyptian Christians by Islamic State’s affiliate in Libya is
giving impetus to calls for broader military action against Islamist militants
in the oil-rich country. Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi, whose air
force bombed Islamic State targets in Libya on Monday, said his country will
ask the United Nations Security Council to authorize intervention in the North
African nation. Italy, Libya’s former colonial ruler, said it would consider
sending a force under a UN mandate. The Egyptian military also deployed
soldiers at home to “secure vital institutions and installations,” it said in a
statement. Tunisia, Libya’s western neighbor, said helicopters and fighter jets
were conducting reconnaissance missions to monitor the border. More than three
years after NATO-led airstrikes helped Libyan rebels end Muammar al-Qaddafi’s
four decades of autocratic rule, the crisis in the holder of Africa’s largest
oil reserves is posing a threat to its neighbors as well as European interests.
Italian oil company Eni SpA is Libya’s biggest foreign oil producer.
Turkey
Central Bank Head Faces 2 Years In Jail For Not Lowering Interest Rates - (www.zerohedge.com) Having questioned the need for an independent central bank a
week ago, saying
that if they can’t cope with their duties, they will be held accountable, Turkey's
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has filed a lawsuit against the head of Turkey’s
central bank, Erdem Basci. As Trend
reports, the
prosecutor accuses Basci of serious material damage inflicted to Turkey’s
citizens as a result of an erroneous interest rate policy of the central bank. As Trend
reports,
A prosecutor of a court in Ankara, Serif Aydin, filed a lawsuit against the
head of Turkey’s central bank, Erdem Basci. Turkish news channel Haber7
reported that the prosecutor accuses Basci of serious material damage
inflicted to Turkey’s citizens as a result of an erroneous interest rate policy
of the central bank. The prosecutor said that, in case of a trial, the
Turkish central bank’s head can be imprisoned for up to two years. On Feb. 10,
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan criticized Basci’s work, saying that if
the central bank’s head can’t cope with his duties, he will be held
accountable.
Greek
Banks Need More Emergency Funds as Deposits Drop - (www.bloomberg.com) Greek
lenders are urging central bank Governor Yannis Stournaras to seek additional
emergency cash as deposit outflows accelerate, according to three people
familiar with the situation. Deposit withdrawals picked up after talks between
Greece and its euro-area creditors on extending its bailout ended in acrimony
in Brussels Monday night, said the people, who asked not to be identified
because the information is private. Stournaras meets European Central Bank
Governing Council colleagues in Frankfurt tomorrow as Greek banks exhaust their
current allocation of emergency funds, the three people said. The lenders,
unable to tap investors for funds, are bleeding deposits amid uncertainty over
their country’s future in the euro area and concern capital controls might be
used to stem outflows. Banks are being kept afloat through the Emergency
Liquidity Assistance lifeline extended by the Bank of Greece, subject to
approval by the ECB. The ELA pool, which currently stands at 65 billion euros
($74 billion), is extended to solvent lenders as a temporary measure to cover
liquidity shortages.
Hans-Werner Sinn: "Impose Capital Controls In
Greece Now To Avoid Another Cyprus" - (www.zerohedge.com) There is a saying: "strike while the rehypothecated iron is
hot", and nobody is better at it than Germany, which hours after the
latest disappointing Eurogroup summit failed - again - to reach a solution on
the third iteration of the Grexit dilemma, has decided to pour even more gas on
the fire in the form of infamous Euroskeptic, the president of the Ifo
Institute for Economic Research, Hans-Werner Sinn who in an FT op-ed beckons someone, supposedly
Europe's federalist, if non-existant, powers which in the mind of the German
have control over Greek sovereignty, to immediately 'impose capital controls
in Greece or repeat the mistake of Cyprus." And while the
key letter excerpts can be found below, the most notable section is the
following: The ECB is underwriting a temporary reprieve for Greek banks that
would otherwise be bankrupt, and doing so at the risk of eurozone taxpayers. It
is ultimately the citizens of other eurozone countries who, without having been
consulted, are providing credit at their own risk to enable wealthy Greeks to
whisk their money to safety. The Greek central bank should not be allowed to
live beyond its means. Assistance for the country’s commercial banks should be
capped at €42bn.The Greek government should then set up capital controls to
stop money from leaving the country and keep its banks solvent. The Cypriot
example should not be repeated.
Greece
defies creditors, seeking credit but no bailout - (www.reuters.com) Talks
between Greece and euro
zone finance ministers over the country's debt crisis broke down on Monday
when Athens rejected a proposal to request a six-month extension of its
international bailout package as "unacceptable". The unexpectedly
rapid collapse raised doubts about Greece's future in the single currency area
after a new leftist-led government vowed to scrap the 240 billion euro ($272.4
billion) bailout, reverse austerity policies and end cooperation with EU/IMF
inspectors. Dutch Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem, who chaired the
meeting, said Athens had until Friday to request an extension, otherwise the
bailout would expire at the end of the month. The Greek state and its banks
would then face a looming cash crunch.
How
a Liquidity Squeeze Could Push Greece Out of the Euro - (www.bloomberg.com) The
standoff between Greece and its creditors on how to proceed on its bailout
program risks triggering a simultaneous cash and credit crunch, which could
drive the country out of the euro area. Here’s how a worst-case scenario could
unfold: The Greek government, companies and lenders have all effectively lost
access to international markets, due to the uncertainty over the country’s
future. The current sources of liquidity are bailout funds from the euro-area
nations, the currency bloc’s crisis fund, the International Monetary Fund and
the European Central Bank’s Emergency Liquidity Assistance. Failure to strike a
compromise means that these payments would cease. This means that the state
would be unable to service its debt obligations, which stand at 22 billion
euros ($25 billion) this year, excluding treasury bills, according to the 2015
budget. Greek aid talks in Brussels ended abruptly Monday.
West
Coast ports dispute drags on; labor secretary to intervene - (www.reuters.com) A
partial shutdown of 29 U.S. West Coast ports stretched into a third day on
Monday ahead of the U.S. labor secretary's scheduled arrival in San Francisco
to try to broker a settlement ending months of disruptions on the cargo-clogged
docks. President Barack Obama, under pressure to weigh in on a labor dispute
that has rippled through the U.S. commercial supply chain and beyond, said on
Saturday he would dispatch Labor Secretary Tom Perez to meet with the two sides
in the conflict. But there was no word on timing of the trip until Monday, when
a spokeswoman for the labor secretary said Perez was due to arrive in San
Francisco on Tuesday to join in talks between the shipping companies and the
union representing 20,000 dockworkers. Neither the International Longshore and
Warehouse Union nor the shipping companies' bargaining agent, the Pacific
Maritime Association, have spoken about the negotiations since agreeing on
Friday to honor a news blackout requested by a federal mediator. And no
face-to-face talks between the parties are believed to have occurred since
then.
Judge:
Police takeover of Henderson homes not covered by Third Amendment - (www.reviewjournal.com) According to the Mitchells’ lawsuit, a
Henderson police officer asked Anthony Mitchell to allow police to use his
house to gain a “tactical advantage” over the neighbor, but Anthony Mitchell
rejected the request. The lawsuit claims police later knocked down Anthony
Mitchell’s door with a metal ram and entered his house without either a warrant
or his permission. A Henderson police officer then arrested Anthony Mitchell,
according to the lawsuit, and multiple officers searched his home. Meanwhile,
the lawsuit alleges, police entered his parents’ home across the street without
either a warrant or permission and searched it. Michael Mitchell also was
arrested, according to the lawsuit, which claims both he and his son spent at
least nine hours at the Henderson Detention Center on charges of obstructing an
officer before they were released on bond
Negative
rates to shake up financial system - (www.cnbc.com) Falls
in European interest rates into negative territory could profoundly affect the
workings of the financial system and there is little chance of benchmark
borrowing costs rising in the year ahead, top investment managers and
strategists have warned. Yields, which move inversely with prices, have this
year dropped below zero on a rapidly expanding range of European governments' bonds
- and even some corporate bonds. The declines, which are driven by the European
Central Bank's "quantitative easing", mean historically low borrowing
costs. But senior finance experts interviewed by the Financial Times saw
worrying side effects. "This could be the makings of a completely new
environment for global bond markets," said Andrew Milligan, head of global
strategy at Standard Life Investments, at the FT's debt capital markets
conference in London. "If it actually becomes permanent . . . There could
be some very significant capital flows."
China's
COSCO Dis-Assembles 8 Ships Amid Glut As Baltic Dry Hits Another Record Low - (www.zerohedge.com) You know things
are bad in the ship-building business when... amid
considerably larger than expected losses, China's COSCO announced that
it has dis-assembled 8 vessels in January alone (including 3 bulk
carriers) and will be decommissioning and disposing of them as it awaits a
"more conducive" environment. It appears that is not coming anytime
soon, as The Baltic Dry Index just hit 522 - a new all-time low (down a
stunning 53 of the last 55 days). As COSCO explains in its HKSE Statement: The
board of directors (the “Board”) of the Company wishes to inform the
shareholders of the Company (the “Shareholders”) and potential investors that
the Group had disassembled eight vessels (collectively, the “Vessels”),
including five container vessels (Hutuo He, Xinhui He, Zhaoqing He, Yangjiang
He and Yongding He) and three bulk carriers (Peng Jie, Peng Nian and Peng Cai)
from 1 January 2015 to 31 January 2015
Puerto
Rico debt worries muni bond market - (www.ft.com) Fresh
doubts over Puerto Rico’s ability to meet its debt payments are worrying the
$4tn market where US states and municipalities raise capital, casting a shadow
on the outlook for muni bonds,
the popular tax-exempt securities. Standard & Poor’s last week downgraded the rating on Puerto Rico’s general obligation debt
by three notches, citing the island’s declining revenue and a recent district
court ruling. A federal judge this month overturned a plan by the island, a US commonwealth,
that would have allowed Puerto Rico to put some government agencies into debt
restructuring, a move that angered some large debt holders. The judge’s
decision and the rating downgrade have hit demand for Puerto Rico’s debt, which
hovers around $70bn, and added to pressures on the broader muni market. Yields
on Puerto Rico’s 30-year GO debt have risen 36 basis points since the start of
the month, to stand at 8.06 per cent on Friday, according to Thomson Reuters
MMD. Yields on broad triple A-rated muni bonds with similar maturities also
jumped for the same period, climbing 37bp to 2.87 per cent on Friday.
Kaisa
Bonds Slip Further Into Distress, Shares Halted - (www.bloomberg.com) Kaisa
Group Holdings Ltd.’s dollar bonds slipped further into distressed territory as
the trouble developer halted trade in its shares, pending the release of inside
information. The company’s $800 million of 8.875 percent notes due 2018 fell
0.8 cents to 60.6 cents on the dollar as of 12:02 p.m. in Hong Kong, yielding
29 percent, according to prices compiled by Bloomberg. Its 10.25 percent 2020
debentures dropped 0.9 cents to 60.9 cents, to yield 24.4 percent. Sunac China
Holdings Ltd., another developer based in the northern Chinese city of Tianjin,
bought a 49.3 percent stake in Kaisa on Jan. 30 and on Feb. 6, proposed buying
the rest of the shares it doesn’t already own at HK$1.80 apiece. Shares in
Kaisa rallied 4.3 percent on Friday to close at HK$1.71.
Greece's
Postwar Alliances Show Europe Has More at Stake Than Money - (www.bloomberg.com) As Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras focuses on the
economic arguments for a new bailout deal for Greece, the country’s strategic
importance to the European Union may do as much to persuade Germany to grant
him concessions. With war in Syria to the east, the failure of the Libyan state
to the south and a nascent cease-fire in Ukraine to the north adding to the
perennial tensions between Israel and its neighbors, the value of Greece as a
NATO member and its ports on the eastern Mediterranean is rising. “One would be
justified to ask whether Europe, the U.S. and NATO could afford the creation of
a security vacuum and a black hole in a critical region,” Thanos Dokos,
director of the Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy, an
Athens-based research institute, said by e-mail. That may not be “an acceptable
loss for an EU with any ambitions to play a meaningful global and regional
role,” he said.
Greek
finance minister says euro will collapse if Greece exits - (www.reuters.com) If Greece is
forced out of the euro zone,
other countries will inevitably follow and the currency bloc will collapse,
Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis said on Sunday, in comments which drew
a rebuke from Italy. Greece's new leftist government is trying to
re-negotiate its debt repayments and has begun to roll back austerity policies
agreed with its international creditors. In an interview with Italian state
television network RAI, Varoufakis said Greece's debt problems must be solved
as part of a rejection of austerity policies for the euro zone as a whole. He called for a massive
"new deal" investment programme funded by the European Investment
Bank. "The euro is fragile, it’s like building a castle of cards, if
you take out the Greek card the others will collapse." Varoufakis said
according to an Italian transcript of the interview released by RAI ahead of
broadcast. The euro zone faces a risk of fragmentation and
"de-construction" unless it faces up to the fact that Greece,
and not only Greece, is unable to pay back its debt under the current
terms, Varoufakis said.
US
Rig Count Plunges By Most Since 1993, Production Hits Record Highs - (www.zerohedge.com) Despite
the dramatic plunge in rig counts, this week saw yet another surge in
production to record highs and with storage levels getting close to full,
it would seem - despite the bounce/squeeze in prices to $53 as the data
hit - that supply remains well ahead of any demand. Total rig count dropped 98
to 1,358 - for the largest weekly drop of the 10 week run as cutting is
accelerating rapidly - now down 30%. This is the biggest weekly rig
count drop since 1993. West Virginia remains the relative hardest hit with rig
count depletions but Permian Basin collapse 49 rigs to 369 this week. US
Oil Rig Count Down 84 to 1,056. Canada Rig Count +1. Total Rig count... biggest
percentage weekly drop since 1993
The
ECB just made an worrying move in approving more emergency liquidity for Greek
banks - (www.businessinsider.com) The
European Central Bank (ECB) just increased the amount of emergency funding
available to Greek banks by €5 billion — despite indications that the savers
were pulling less of their money out in February. On Thursday, Reuters reported
that the ECB was extending the Emergency Liquidity Assistance
that can be given to Greek banks from
its current (self-imposed) maximum of €60 billion to €65 billion. However, its
reasons for doing so remain unclear. Earlier reports had suggested that fears
of deposit flight, where Greek savers withdrew their money from banks and
deprived them of a key source of funding, after the left-wing Syriza party took
power and the ECB altered its rules to prevent Greek government debt (and
government-guaranteed debt) from being used to access its emergency loan
programme were failing to materialise. A survey of Greek banks found that
although savers remained nervous about the new government's plans deposit
outflows had slowed in February, according to Reuters.
Greek
Crisis Set To Ignite Panic In Markets Around The World - (www.kingworldnews.com) Despite
many global markets near all-time highs, today one of the legends in the gold
world warned King World News that the Greek crisis will ignite panic in
markets across the globe. Keith Barron: “The Greek crisis is being
underplayed by leaders like Cameron and Merkel. Merkel even said, ‘If
they want to go, they can go.’ But a Greek exit will cause absolute
pandemonium in the banking system and Merkel knows that…. Fallout Will Be Much
More Dangerous: When little Cyprus had their crisis it reverberated all
around the world. This is a similar situation but the fallout will be
much more dangerous. I’ve been predicting for at least six months on KWN
that Greece would leave the euro. Of course if Greece leaves the euro, then the
next to go will be the Italians, Spanish and the Portuguese. One of the
problems is that there have been large withdrawals from Greek banks since the
beginning of December. The Greeks are afraid of what happened in Cyprus
after the bail-in. Everyone in Cyprus with more than 150 thousand euros
in the bank actually had their money confiscated.
Taxpayers
paying $39 billion a year for … nothing – (www.wnd.com) Americans
are paying $39 billion a year – that’s $10 from every man, woman and child in
the nation per month all year long – for essentially nothing. That’s the
conclusion of a new report by the Taxpayers Protection Alliance called “Filling the Solar Sinkhole: Billions of Bucks Have Delivered
Too Little Bang.”
Its principle conclusion is that the Obama administration’s agenda of pushing
more and more money to “green projects” isn’t helping the country and has cost
$39 billion a year for each of the last five years. That’s $3,600 out of the
grocery budget or housing budget for a family of six over that time span. “American
taxpayers spent an average of $39 billion a year over the past five years
financing grants, subsidizing tax credits, guaranteeing loans, bailing out
failed solar energy boondoggles and otherwise underwriting every idea under the
sun to make solar energy cheaper and more popular,” the report states. “But
none of it has worked. Solar energy remains prohibitively expensive – often
three times more than electricity produced from natural gas and other sources.
As a result, less than 1 percent of the electricity consumers by Americans
comes from solar energy sources.”
