by Oilprice.com • • Comments Off on EU’s Case against Gazprom over “Extortionary” Prices Cracks Russian Influence
As Russian President Vladimir Putin tries to tighten his grip over Eastern Europe with Gazprom’s vast web of natural gas pipelines, one tiny European country gained a bit of leverage over Russia: Lithuania.
by Don Quijones • • Comments Off on Spanish Judge Crosses Line by Sending Bank CEO to Jail
By Don Quijones: The Spanish magistrate Elpidio Silva is just about the only judge in the Western hemisphere to have sent the CEO of a bailed-out too-big-to-fail bank to jail. Turns out, that was huge mistake.
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on When $1.2 Trillion In Foreign Bank Funds In The US Dissipate
It fits the pattern of gratuitous bank enrichment perfectly. This time, the big beneficiaries of the Fed are foreign banks. An unintended consequence, with big impact on the “recovery.”
by Oilprice.com • • Comments Off on US on Self-Imposed Sidelines in South China Sea Standoff
Vietnam and China are in a red-hot standoff in the South China Sea over China’s oil rig in Vietnam’s 200-mile exclusive economic zone. But inaction in Congress has boxed the US into a corner.
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on Explosive Hidden Leverage Threatens To Blow Up the Markets
We don’t know what hedge fund manager Steven Cohen will do with the money he borrowed from Goldman Sachs. We don’t even know how much it is, though it’s a lot; the personal loan is backed by his $1 billion art collection. But we know how he’ll use it: cheap leverage.
by Oilprice.com • • Comments Off on Brazil’s Troubled Petrobras Becomes Hot Political Potato
Petrobras is the world’s most indebted and least profitable oil major. It has $114.3 billion in debt. Production stagnates. Its shares have lost half their value since 2010. It’s embroiled in scandals. And President Dilma Rousseff is on the hook.
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on Banks And Hedge Funds Make Curious Deal On New Structured Toxic-Waste Securities
New regulations force banks to get rid of CLOs. They’re similar to subprime-mortgage-backed CDOs that blew up in 2008. But CLOs are backed by junk corporate loans, including malodorous “leveraged loans.” And they’re booming again. So the banks made a deal.
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on Biggest Credit Bubble in History Cracks, Trips Up The Smart Money
For years, nothing could slow the tsunami of junk debt. But suddenly, something happened, and investors in leveraged-loan mutual funds, where the crappiest junk debt accumulates, ran scared and started pulling their money out. Consequences were immediate.
by David Stockman • • Comments Off on Beijing’s Efforts To Slow Credit Bubble Will End in Catastrophic Fail
In 2000, China had $1 trillion of credit market debt outstanding – a figure which has now soared to $25 trillion. No economic system can remain stable and sustainable after undergoing a 25X debt expansion in only 14 years.
