Month: juli 2015

IMF backs (ever so peculiarly) the SYRIZA government’s debt assessment

Yanis Varoufakis

Debt relief ought to be at the centre of negotiations over a New Deal for Greece. That has been our government’s mantra from 26th of January, our first day on the job. Exactly five months later, on 26th of June, the IMF has conceded the point (as evidenced earlier today by the NYT) – on the very day Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras called for a referendum so that the Greek people could reject an IMF-led proposal that offered no… debt relief.

The IMF’s latest debt sustainability analysis (DSA) is a fascinating read:

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Why we recommend a NO in the referendum – in 6 short bullet points

Yanis Varoufakis

  1. Negotiations have stalled because Greece’s creditors (a) refused to reduce our un-payable public debt and (b) insisted that it should be repaid ‘parametrically’ by the weakest members of our society, their children and their grandchildren
  2. The IMF, the United States’ government, many other governments around the globe, and most independent economists believe — along with us — that the debt must be restructured.
  3. The Eurogroup had previously (November 2012) conceded that the debt ought to be restructured but is refusing to commit to a debt restructure
  4. Since the announcement of the referendum, official Europe has sent signals that they are ready to discuss debt restructuring. These signals show that official Europe too would vote NO on its own ‘final’ offer.
  5. Greece will stay in the euro.  Deposits in Greece’s banks are safe.  Creditors have chosen the strategy of blackmail based on bank closures. The current impasse is due to this…

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JP Morgan private banker: “We can’t make money anymore…”

1EarthUnited

JP-Morgan-logo

July 1, 2015
Singapore

Yesterday over coffee, a friend of mine leaked the news that JP Morgan’s private banking division here in Singapore is going to start charging negative interest rates.

I almost fell out of my chair.

He’s a successful hedge fund manager and one of their best customers. So when he received the notice, he rang up his private banker and demanded to know why.

Between ridiculously low interest rates (banks are closing loans here for 0.9% or lower) and the increasing costs of compliance, “we can’t make money anymore…” was the response.

It certainly paints a clear picture of how screwed up the entire financial system is.

Compliance is a major component in this. Bankers around the world are buried up to their eyeballs in paperwork and regulations now.

They can’t make a move or approve a single transaction without first doing anti-money laundering, terrorist financing, and…

View original post 796 woorden meer