Here’s The Real Scandal From The Fed’s $7.77 Trillion Secret Lending To The Banks

A new report from Bloomberg Markets magazine reveals details about the super secret emergency loans the Federal Reserve administered to rescuing the nation’s largest banks. After adding up all the guarantees and loans, the Fed committed $7.77 trillion to rescuing the financial system as of March 2009, the report said. While that number might seem alarming, the Fed actually did its part in keeping the banking system afloat during the financial crisis.

Eric Sprott - This Financial Crisis Will Be a lot Worse Than 2008

With stocks plunging and gold and silver still consolidating, today King World News interviewed billionaire Eric Sprott, Chairman of the $10 billion strong Sprott Asset Management. KWN wanted to Sprott’s take on the ongoing financial crisis and where we are headed from here. When asked about the German bond auction, Sprott responded, “The results were that they (Germany) only sold about 65% of the issue on offer. Rates went up a little, but the fact that the Germans, who would have been regarded as the number one credit in Europe, couldn’t sell, I think it was a $5 billion euro issue, and they couldn’t sell it, I mean it’s truly shocking.”

Europe Short on Cash as Bond Fears Deepen

The euro zone is stuck in a double crisis. On the one hand, investors are no longer interested in purchasing sovereign bonds. On the other, banks with such bonds on their books are being treated with extreme caution. A massive financial crisis threatens -- and it could be worse than the last.

Sovereign Bond Auction Fizzles in Germany

Germany has been considered a safe haven of financial stability amid the ongoing euro crisis -- but that may be changing. Growing mistrust from investors seems apparent after what has been described as a "disastrous" government bond auction on Wednesday. Just two-thirds of the German bonds sold, leaving analysts concerned but not panicked.

Death of a currency as eurogeddon approaches

It's time to think what hitherto markets have regarded as unthinkable – that the euro really is on its last legs.

The eurozone crisis - an opportunity for Britain? Don’t bet on it

Whatever happens next in Europe, David Cameron is highly unlikely to win back significant powers over fisheries, agriculture or the budget.

Ireland demands debt relief, warns on EU treaties

Europe's plans for treaty changes to enforce fiscal discipline in the eurozone may fall foul of popular anger in Ireland unless the EU creditor states agree to share more of the pain.

Cash for gold in the eurozone bailout

Ever since the eurozone bond markets first started to get the jitters, hedge fund managers have been whispering that gold could play a part in resolving the crisis. Until recently this discussion has mainly been the preserve of gold market conspiracy theorists and backbench German politicians. But now the use of gold to fund a eurozone bailout is coming closer to reality. Buried within a draft of the European Commission study on joint 'eurobonds,' reported by the Financial Times this week, is the suggestion that gold could be used as collateral for these bonds.

Congress to Probe ‘Every Aspect’ of MF Global Failure in December Hearing

Jon S. Corzine, the former U.S. senator and New Jersey governor who ran MF Global Holdings Ltd. (MF) until the firm filed bankruptcy last month, has been called to testify at a House hearing on the failure next month.

MF Global: Proof that the U.S. government is not able or willing to protect investors

MF Global clients looked on as their money was stolen under the watchful eyes of your incompetent Uncle Sam.

MF Global Customers Missing $1.2 Billion Denied Committee

MF Global Inc. brokerage customers, who may be missing more than $1.2 billion from their accounts, won’t be allowed to form a committee to represent their interests in bankruptcy court, a judge ruled.

Insight: Farm belt rage over MF Global could chill markets

When the CME Group pledged $300 million of its own money to help former MF Global customers get their cash back faster, the exchange was likely thinking of customers like Kansas cattle rancher Tim Rietzke.

Margin Debt Soars By Most Since June 2007 Just In Time For November Market Rout

And so the wave of beta chasers has once again be caught flat footed. Following the 11% jump in the S&P, hedge funds, which are now down 2% YTD (more on that shortly) and getting killed with redemption requests, it was only natural that in focusing solely on performance and not on fundamentals, that margin debt would increase. Sure enough, the NYSE has reported that in October, margin debt jumped by $21 billion, the most since June 2007's $25 billion... just in time for the market rout. And as funds levered up yet again, net worth, which nets out free credit cash accounts and cash balances in margin accounts, plunged by $46 billion, the most since the Lehman collapse which saw net worth implode by $184 billion. And just as the market ramped for no reason in October, it has now already retraced almost half the gains in the prior month. Oops.

Debt crisis: live

Markets fall as Germany fails to sell 35pc of the bonds it offers at auction, sending the euro lower, and the Bank of England says the crisis in the region is getting worse.

China Changing the Global Gold Market

While many investors have been distracted by the goings on in Europe, China has been making a dent in the global gold market by making it easier for investors to buy and invest in the yellow metal. The goal: To dominate the global gold market and carve out a new role for its currency, the yuan. China and other developing nations like India have been encouraging citizens to buy and hold physical gold, in forms ranging from jewelry and coins to bullion bars. China's aggressive promotion has pushed Chinese consumer demand for gold up 25% overall this year - much higher than the 7% global average. World Gold Council (WGC) Far East Managing Director Albert Cheng, who predicted in March 2010 that Chinese gold demand would double by 2020, noted: "We now believe this doubling may, in fact, be achieved far sooner." China is pushing gold because it wants the government and citizens to build financial reserves in assets stronger than the U.S. dollar, euro, and other weakening currencies. It also increases China's role in the precious metals market. But there's another effect of this push for gold ownership: it's dislodging the dollar as the world's main reserve currency.

ECONOMIST: Bernanke Is Going To End Up Bailing Out All Of Europe

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's apologetic take on the Fed's negative role in causing the Great Depression may translate into a willingness to bail out Europe, writes economics blogger James Pethokoukis. Bernanke will not be willing to let the European Central Bank's ineffectiveness infect U.S. banks and destroy the global economy.

Dollar Pre-Eminence Grows as Foreign Banks Double Deposits at New York Fed

Foreign bank deposits at the Federal Reserve have more than doubled to $715 billion from $350 billion since the end of 2010 amid Europe’s debt turmoil, buttressing the dollar’s status as the world’s reserve currency. Forty-seven non-U.S. banks held balances of more than $1 billion at the New York Fed as of Sept. 30, up from 22 at the end of 2010, according to a survey of 80 financial institutions by ICAP Plc, the world’s largest inter-dealer broker. The dollar has appreciated 7.2 percent since Standard & Poor’s cut the nation’s AAA credit rating Aug. 5, the second-best performance after the yen among developed-nation peers, according to Bloomberg Correlation-Weighted Currency Indexes.

On Capital Flight and Forced Repatriation

There are some folks in America who will wake up this morning and read that Jefferies has been sued for its role in a bond deal with MF Global and they will vote with their feet (Zero hedge Link). They will close their accounts with JEF and move to a safer address. That’s an example of capital flight.

Bidders queue for MF Global LME stake: sources

A raft of bidders including J.P. Morgan is lining up for failed brokerage MF Global's stake in the London Metals Exchange, two sources familiar with the situation said, providing some solace for creditors.

Three Doomsday Scenarios: What Happens If the Eurozone Breaks Up?

The time has come to confront an ugly truth: The possibility that the Eurozone will break up, or rather fall apart, is growing increasingly likely. In fact, I'd say given recent developments in Italy the probability of a breakup is as high as 40%. Indeed, if a country as small as Greece or Portugal were to default or abandon the euro, the effect on the Eurozone would be manageable. The debts of those countries are too small to make more than minor dents in the international financial system, and they represent too small a share of the Eurozone economy for their departure to have much impact. The psychological effect of their departure would be considerable - if only because Eurozone leaders have expended so much money and effort to bail them out. However, devastated credibility among the major Eurozone leaders is more of a political problem than an economic one. But now that the markets' focus has moved to Italy and Spain, the Eurozone is really in trouble.

Spain in race against time to avert bail-out

Markets have dashed any lingering hopes of an investor honeymoon for Spain's incoming leader Mariano Rajoy, sending the IBEX index in Madrid crashing through the 8,000 level and pushing borrowing costs to toxic levels.

America insists on speedy end to turmoil in eurozone

America has demanded a "commitment of significant resources" from Europe to stem its debt crisis as the US announced a shock cut to its growth forecast.

Our need for affordable energy can't be met by endless windfarms

The Duke of Edinburgh seems to have hit the nail pretty much on the head by branding wind farms "absolutely useless".

Family carpet company Brintons floored by Carlyle 'rescue'

It was billed as a rescue. A deal that would save a company with a 228-year history and protect 750 UK jobs.

The euro is a macro-economic weapon of mass destruction - it simply must be defused.

'There’s no such thing as an orderly break-up”, argued my friend, a perceptive and highly-educated man, as we discussed the eurozone over dinner. His argument was that a down-sizing of the single currency should be resisted at all costs.

Hungary turns to IMF as stress mounts in Eastern Europe

Hungary has returned cap in hand to the International Monetary Fund after kicking out inspectors last year, becoming the first country in Eastern Europe to succumb to contagion from eurozone debt stress.

Spain - the fifth victim to fall in Europe’s arc of depression

Let us all extend our sympathies to the Spanish people. They face the greatest national emergency since the Civil War yet their vote for drastic change is palpably useless, even if democracy has in this case at least been respected.

Sale of MF Global's LME Shares Separate to Deal For Metals Team

The sale of the metals team of MF Global Holdings Ltd. is being conducted as a separate process from the sale of the U.S. brokerage firm's near 6% stake in the London Metal Exchange due to "a high level of interest," a person familiar with the matter said. Given the interest, the process to sell the shares is unlikely to be conducted as a fire sale, the person said. MF Global is the fourth-largest holder of LME shares, with 600,000 shares, or 5.9%, and is a category-one member of the exchange, ...

"The Entire System Has Been Utterly Destroyed By The MF Global Collapse" - Presenting The First MF Global Casualty

resented without comment, merely to confirm that the market as we know it, no longer exists. BCM Has Ceased Operations (source)

European Bond Traders Are Going For the Jugular

If you look at the crisis in Europe, the key questions to ask are clear: Will this crisis continue to spread? And will the United States get singed by the fallout? In both cases, the answer is a very clear "Yes."

The Inside Story of How Our Financial Regulators Let Us All Down

Did you hear the story about MF Global? No, not the headlines about its bankruptcy - the real story.

One Man's Mission: Building the World's Safest Bank

One Canadian entrepreneur may well be forging an innovative path to changing the global banking landscape - for the better. And in the process he may build the world's safest bank. Eric Sprott, the billionaire resource investment guru, is buying 51% of Ontario currency trader Continental Currency Exchange Corp., with the aim of making it into a financial institution that, refreshingly, will not make loans. That's not a misprint. Sprott plans to structure his new Continental Bank to take deposits and generate income from currency trading and by selling precious metals. True private banks already operate on this model. They lend no money. They simply take deposits, provide brokerage, custodial, and management services, and charge a commensurate fee. But often their minimums are $1 million and up, leaving most depositors with only standard banking options. And right now, those options aren't very appealing.

Three Lessons From the Collapse of MF Global

In today's politically charged atmosphere, it's nice to occasionally find a situation in which everybody wins. And that's exactly what we have with the collapse of MF Global. Politically, this failure unites both liberals and conservatives. Liberals can rejoice, rightly, that Wall Street's pushback against the "Volcker Rule" - the provision in the Dodd-Frank act that said banks should not engage in proprietary trading - has been exposed as completely spurious. And conservatives can rejoice in the come-uppance of a man who represented the worst of modern Wall Street's obsession with trading and flirtation with left-of-center politics. Indeed, Jon Corzine turned Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS) from a respectable corporate finance house into a dodgy trading-dominated casino. And, as if that weren't bad enough, he pushed New Jersey to the edge of bankruptcy. What a career! Of course, apart from enjoyable schadenfreude on both sides, there are lessons to be learned. But before we get to exactly what those lessons are, we must first perform an autopsy on MF Global to see exactly what went wrong.

Latin American investment promise

Will Landers, manager of the BlackRock Latin American Investment Trust, tells Robert Miller how Brazil is a significant driver of economic growth in Latin America where 55pc of the 559m population is below the age of 30.

Asian powers spurn German debt on EMU chaos

Asian investors and central banks have begun to sell German bonds and pull out of the eurozone altogether for the first time since the debt crisis began, deeming EU leaders incapable of agreeing on any coherent policy.

Latin showdown with Germany over ECB

Germany is facing a moment of strategic truth. The sacred union with France that has held together through thick and thin for half a century is in growing danger as contagion spreads North, engulfing the French bond market.

Utopian Germans risk full-blown EMU depression

The relief rally from technocrat takeovers in Italy and Greece has already wilted, once again reviving the elemental question of whether Germany will go beyond rhetoric and commit its full strategic power to halt Europe's debt crisis.

Pressure on the ECB grows as Mario Monti rides to rescue

The European Central Bank (ECB) is under intense pressure to step up purchases of Italian bonds after premier Silvio Berlusconi finally relinquished power in Rome, clearing the way for former EU commissioner Mario Monti to form an emergency government of technocrats.

Mario Monti needs a miracle

Italy's gentle saviour is tougher than he looks. Mario Monti is a free-marketeer who disguises Thatcherite views and a steel will behind a cloak of unflappable good manners.

The great euro Putsch rolls on as two democracies fall

Europe’s scorched-earth policies have begun in earnest. The inherent flaws of monetary union have created a crisis of such gravity that EU leaders now feel authorized to topple two elected governments.

New recession threatens the globe as debt crisis grows

Europe's escalating debt crisis has cast a black shadow over the world's fragile recovery, threatening to tip large parts of the global economy into a deep downturn and even outright recession.

Europe pushes Italy into the abyss

It has taken three trading days since the failure of the G20 summit to detonate the explosive charge on Italy's €1.9 trillion (£1.6 trillion) bond market, the world's third-largest stock of public debt.

America and China must crush Germany into submission

As we watch Italy's 10-year bond yields near 7.5pc and threaten to detonate the explosive charge on €1.9 trillion of debt, it is time for the world to reimpose order.

ECB stymied on debt crisis without fiscal union

Germany's top banker has vehemently rejected demands from David Cameron and other world leaders for drastic action by the European Central Bank to stop the eurozone crisis spiralling out of control.

France cuts frantically as Italy nears debt spiral

France has unveiled the toughest austerity measures since World War Two despite the looming danger of a double-dip recession, vowing to slash borrowing by €65bn over the next five years in a last-ditch effort to save the country's AAA rating.