The Buyback Of Things: IBM To Repurchase Another $5 Billion In Stock In Next Two Quarters

Christmas is approaching and those bonuses are getting bigger that way.


The Buyback Of Things: IBM To Repurchase Another $5 Billion In Stock In Next Two Quarters (ZeroHedge, Oct 28, 2014):

When all else fails, and there is no growth, what you gonna call? Buybackbusters!

A week after IBM reported atrocious earnings, due to a variety of issues but most of all because it simply repurchased the least amount of stock in the past  quarter in years (as it was approaching the limit of its buyback authorization), Big Blue is back to doing the one thing it does well: the buyback of things, in this case revealing its board has just authorized $5 billion in stock buybacks through April 2015 which means that with the $1.4 billion still under authorization, IBM is set to purchase about $3.2 billion in Q4 2014 and Q1 2015, each. And then, in April 2015, IBM will ask for an even bigger stock buyback authorization from its board. Which, clearly, the board – whose IBM stock will promptly rise as a result – will grant.

Just released by IBM:

Read moreThe Buyback Of Things: IBM To Repurchase Another $5 Billion In Stock In Next Two Quarters

China “Ghost Town Index” – Here Are China’s 10 “Ghastliest” Cities

China “Ghost Town Index” – Here Are China’s 10 “Ghastliest” Cities (ZeroHedge, Oct 28, 2014):

Who can forget China’s ghost city of Ordos: back in late 2009, when the hollow shell behind China’s torrid growth was first revealed to the world, the city near China’s Mongolia border was cooler talk for weeks. Fast forward five years later, and Ordos is all but forgotten, having been eclipsed by a veritable army of much bigger “ghosts” that make up the “ghost town network” – a list of cities created by the China Investment Network, a business newspaper in Beijing, to determine which cities were the most ghostly. Below we present the 10 biggest ones.

7 Things The Middle-Class Can’t Afford Anymore

7 Things The Middle-Class Can’t Afford Anymore (by Erika Rawes, The Cheat Sheet via USA Today, Oct 25, 2014):

Though there is some debate over the exact income a middle class household brings in, we do have an idea of who the middle class are — most working class people. Today’s bourgeoisie is composed of laborers and skilled workers, white collar and blue collar workers, many of whom face financial challenges. Bill Maher reminded us a few months back that 50 years ago, the largest employer was General Motors, where workers earned an equivalent of $50 per hour (in today’s money). Today, the largest employer — Wal-Mart — pays around $8 per hour.

The middle class has certainly changed. We’ve ranked a list of things the middle class can no longer really afford. We’re not talking about lavish luxuries, like private jets and yachts. The items on this list are a bit more basic, and some of them are even necessities. The ranking of this list is based on affordability and necessity. Therefore, items that are necessity ranked higher, as did items that a larger percentage of people have trouble paying for.

Read more7 Things The Middle-Class Can’t Afford Anymore

California Leads Housing Slowdown As Case-Shiller Home Prices Decline For 4 Months In A Row

California Leads Housing Slowdown As Case-Shiller Home Prices Decline For 4 Months In A Row (ZeroHedge, Oct 27, 2014):

Following misses in yesterday’s Markit Service PMI, Existing Home Sales and the Dallas Fed report, and today’s Durable Goods numbers, we just made it a pentafecta for misses in US econ data, when the just released August Case-Shiller data for August confirmed once again that US housing is rapidly slowing down, when the Top 20 Composite Index (Seasonally Adjusted) posted another decline in August, its fourth in a row, declining by -0.15% and missing expectations of a modest 0.2% rebound (following last month’s -0.5%) decline. The best summary of the situation came from S&P’s David Blitzer: “The deceleration in home prices continues… The Sun Belt region reported its worst annual returns since 2012, led by weakness in all three California cities — Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego.” But who cares what the birth (and death) place of every housing bubble is doing, right?

Can’t Find Any Inflation? Here’s A Place To Start

Can’t Find Any Inflation? Here’s A Place To Start (ZeroHedge, Oct 27, 2014):

Lately, there has been much anguished consternation, especially among the tenured US economics professors (primarily those who make 6-digits or more per year) and of course, the Federal Reserve where as we revealed last week, at least 113 government workers make $250,000 (excluding bonuses) and thus all are confined within the cozy cocoon of America’s “1%ers”, about the so-called complete disappearance and collapse in inflation. So to help these ivory tower-confined individuals in their holy grail to rediscover the inflation that is more than felt by the rest of America, here are two simple charts.

How Will The Stock Market React To The End Of Quantitative Easing?

Demanding QE4.


Beware cliff edge

–  How Will The Stock Market React To The End Of Quantitative Easing? (Economic Collapse, Oct 26, 2014):

It is widely expected that the Federal Reserve is going to announce the end of quantitative easing this week.  Will this represent a major turning point for the stock market?  As you will see below, since 2008 stocks have risen dramatically throughout every stage of quantitative easing.  But when the various phases of quantitative easing have ended, stocks have always responded by declining substantially.  The only thing that caused stocks to eventually start rising again was a new round of quantitative easing.  So what will happen this time?  That is a very good question.  What we do know is that the the performance of the stock market has become completely divorced from economic reality, and in recent weeks there have been signs of market turmoil that we have not seen in years.  Could the end of quantitative easing be the thing that finally pushes the financial markets over the edge?

After all this time, many Americans still don’t understand what quantitative easing actually is.  Since the end of 2008, the Federal Reserve has injected approximately 3.5 trillion dollars into the financial system.  Of course the Federal Reserve didn’t actually have 3.5 trillion dollars.  The Fed created all of this money out of thin air and used it to buy government bonds and mortgage-backed securities.

Read moreHow Will The Stock Market React To The End Of Quantitative Easing?

When Stress Tests Fail – Italian Banks Are Collapsing

When Stress Tests Fail – Italian Banks Are Collapsing (ZeroHedge, Oct 27, 2014):

Despite the ban on short-sales – which has never worked in the past to do anything but instil fear in traders’ holding long positions – Italian banks are in free-fall following the utter failure of Draghi’s stress tests to encourage confidence in the European banking system.

  • INTESA, UBI, UNICREDIT, MONTE PASCHI SUSPENDED IN MILAN, LIMIT DOWN

Given the post-“whatever-it-takes” world of domestic sovereign bond-buying, it is no surprise that Italian govvie risk is jumping higher and the FTSEMIB is plunging.

“A relief rally would not be justified,” said Michael Woischneck, a portfolio manager at Lampe Asset Management in Dusseldorf, Germany. “There are still a lot of problems to fix, and Italian banks still have a lot of work to do. Even for the banks that passed, what is there to be relieved about? They still have to find a business model and figure out how to get unanswered questions that a stress test just cannot answer.”

Brazilian Stocks Plunge 6% To 7-Month Lows After Election Victory Of Dilma Rousseff

Brazilian Stocks Plunge 6% To 7-Month Lows After Rousseff Win (ZeroHedge, Oct 27, 2014):

Just as we warned last night was indicated by the Japanese market’s Brazil ETFs, so the IBOVESPA has opened down over 6% this morning on very heavy volume following the ‘disappointing for the bulls’ electionvictory of Dilma Rousseff. Despite her associations with Petrobras (which may have suggested it bounced), the favorite Jim Chanos short is being crushed, down 14% at the open. The Real is tumbling too, breaking above 2.54 to its weakest against the USD since Dec 2008.

….

 

The Monetized New Millennium

The Monetized New Millennium (StealthFlation, Oct 4, 2014):

New Monetized Millennium Facts Jack:

  • US real median family income has declined to the level of twenty years ago.
  • Labor participation rate has dropped to a 36 year low.
  • Total U.S. household debt, currently over $10 trillion, nearly tripled during the new millennium.
  • U.S. debt to GDP ratio up over 100% since we entered the new monetized millennium.
  • Anemic to flat-line average Real GDP growth throughout the new monetized millennium.
  • As for the new millennium inflation results, take a peak at the chart below, it will blow your mind.

inflation

Read moreThe Monetized New Millennium

The Chart That Crushes All Credibility Of The ECB’s Latest Stress Test

One can’t make this up:

The scenario of deflation is not there because indeed we don’t consider that deflation is going to happen.”
– Vítor Constâncio, Vice-President of the ECB


The Chart That Crushes All Credibility Of The ECB’s Latest Stress Test (ZeroHedge, Oct 26, 2014):

While we would be the last to comment on the ECB’s laughable forecasting capabilities, we do have to note that there is a bit of a disconnect between the ECB’s projections of Eurozone inflation for 2014, 2015 and 2016 as presented in its March, June and September meetings

ECB inflation forecast history

… and what the market is currently anticipating based on 5Y5Y forwards which as we noted two weeks ago, recently hit an all time low.

20141009_infl

The reason we bring this up, is because just after the latest “most serious, most confidence inspiring” stress test was revealed, that perpetual troublemaker, the head of Germany’s IFO Institute, Hans-Werner Sinn, who relentlessly refuses to drink the European Kool Aid, pointed out something rather stunning. According to Bloomberg, in an emailed statement, Sinn said that “ECB avoided modelling a deflation scenario for southern Europe which explains why the capital shortfall was so small for many banks.”

Read moreThe Chart That Crushes All Credibility Of The ECB’s Latest Stress Test

Keiser Report: Sinking British Ship – TTIP & TPP (Video)


25.10.2014

Description:

In this episode of the Keiser Report, Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert discuss the increasingly bankrupt British government as a sinking ship on George Osborne’s river of denial. They discuss the remedy for the ‘too many poor people’ for democracy problem being global trade deals like TTIP and TPP whereby elected leaders can claim ‘their hands are tied’ by contractual obligations. In the second half, Max interviews Helena Norberg-Hodge of LocalFutures.org about the Economics of Happiness in a time of rising inequality.

Hillary Clinton: ‘Business Does Not Create Jobs’, Washington Does

From the article:

“The money has to go to the federal government because the federal government will spend that money better than the private sector will spend it.”

“Don’t let anybody tell you it’s corporations and businesses create jobs,” Clinton said.

You can’t make this stuff up!


Hillary_Clinton_2016_president_bid_confirmed

Hillary: “Business Does Not Create Jobs”, Washington Does (Armstong Economics, Oct 25, 2014):

We have a very serious problem with Hillary. I was asked years ago to review Hillary’s Commodity Trading to explain what went on. Effectively, they did trades and simply put winners in her account and the losers in her lawyer’s. This way she gets money that is laundered through the markets – something that would get her 25 years today.

Read moreHillary Clinton: ‘Business Does Not Create Jobs’, Washington Does

ECB Announces Stress Test Results: Here Are The 25 Banks That Failed

ECB Announces Stress Test Results: Here Are The 25 Banks That Failed (ZeroHedge, Oct 26, 2014):

As was leaked on Friday, when the market surged on news that some 25 banks would fail the ECB’s third stress test (because in the New Normal more bank failures means more bailouts, means the richer get richest, means more wealth inequality), so moments ago the ECB reported that, indeed, some 25 banks failed the European Central Bank’s third attempt at collective confidence building and redrawing of a reality in which there is about €1 trillion in European NPLs, also known as the stress test.

The ECB’s results as summarized by the central bank:

Read moreECB Announces Stress Test Results: Here Are The 25 Banks That Failed

And Another Deutsche Banker And Former SEC Enforcement Attorney Commits Suicide

gambino pic

– Another Deutsche Banker And Former SEC Enforcement Attorney Commits Suicide (ZeroHedge, Oct 25, 2014):

Back on January 26, a 58-year-old former senior executive at German investment bank behemoth Deutsche Bank, William Broeksmit, was found dead after hanging himself at his London home, and with that, set off an unprecedented series of banker suicides throughout the year which included former Fed officials and numerous JPMorgan traders.

Following a brief late summer spell in which there was little if any news of bankers taking their lives, as reported previously, the banker suicides returned with a bang when none other than the hedge fund partner of infamous former IMF head Dominique Strauss-Khan, Thierry Leyne, a French-Israeli entrepreneur, was found dead after jumping off the 23rd floor of one of the Yoo towers, a prestigious residential complex in Tel Aviv. 

Read moreAnd Another Deutsche Banker And Former SEC Enforcement Attorney Commits Suicide

50 Percent Of American Workers Make Less Than 28,031 Dollars A Year

Real-Median-Household-Income-2014

50 Percent Of American Workers Make Less Than 28,031 Dollars A Year (Economic Collapse, Oct 23, 2014):

The Social Security Administration has just released wage statistics for 2013, and the numbers are startling.  Last year, 50 percent of all American workers made less than $28,031, and 39 percent of all American workers made less than $20,000.  If you worked a full-time job at $10 an hour all year long with two weeks off, you would make $20,000.  So the fact that 39 percent of all workers made less than that amount is rather telling.  This is more evidence of the declining quality of the jobs in this country.  In many homes in America today, both parents are working multiple jobs in a desperate attempt to make ends meet. Our paychecks are stagnant while the cost of living just continues to soar.  And the jobs that are being added to the economy pay a lot less than the jobs lost in the last recession.  In fact, it has been estimated that the jobs that have been created since the last recession pay an average of 23 percent less than the jobs that were lost.  We are witnessing the slow-motion destruction of the middle class, and very few of our leaders seem to care.

Read more50 Percent Of American Workers Make Less Than 28,031 Dollars A Year

French Unemployed Hits Record High, Hollande Demands EU Budget ‘Must Be Adapted’

French Unemployed Hits Record High, Hollande Demands EU Budget “Must Be Adapted” (ZeroHedge, Oct 24, 2014):

France’s President Francois Hollande states confidently that “everyone should respeoct treaties,” then ‘Junckers’ it with this stunningly hypocritical bullshit, “budget rules must be adapted” to support growth and France “has done what it has to do” on its deficit… one glance at the following chart suggests that Hollande has done nothing and has been enabled by Draghi… What a farce!!

French Unemployed Hits Record High

So:

  • *HOLLANDE SAYS `EVERYONE’ SHOULD RESPECT TREATIES
  • *HOLLANDE SAYS FRANCE RESPECTS DEFICIT TREATY WITH FLEXIBILITY

But:

Read moreFrench Unemployed Hits Record High, Hollande Demands EU Budget ‘Must Be Adapted’

Banker Suicides Return: DSK’s Hedge Fund Partner Jumps From 23rd Floor Apartment

Banker Suicides Return: DSK’s Hedge Fund Partner Jumps From 23rd Floor Apartment (ZeroHedge, Oct 24, 2014):

The summer, thankfully, has been largely bereft of the dismal trend of bankers committing suicide, but as Bloomberg reports, Thierry Leyne, a French-Israeli banker and partner of Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the disgraced former chief of the IMF, was found dead Thursday after apparently taking his own life by jumping off the 23rd floor of one of the Yoo towers, a prestigious residential complex in Tel Aviv. This is the 16th financial services executive death this year.

Thierry Leyne

Bloomberg reports that Thierry Leyne, the French-Israeli entrepreneur who last year started an investment firm with former International Monetary Fund Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn, has died. He was 48.

Leyne died yesterday in Tel Aviv, according to his assistant at the firm, who asked not to be identified. Le Figaro newspaper reported that he committed suicide.

Read moreBanker Suicides Return: DSK’s Hedge Fund Partner Jumps From 23rd Floor Apartment

Goldman And Blackstone Enter Spanish Real Estate – Pain And Suffering For Poor People Immediately Ensues

keep-calm-and-keep-looting

Goldman and Blackstone Enter Spanish Real Estate – Pain and Suffering for Poor People Immediately Ensues (Liberty Blitzkrieg, Oct 24, 2014):

Last year Madrid’s city and regional governments sold almost 5,000 rent-controlled flats to private equity investors including Goldman Sachs and Blackstone. At the time, the tenants were told their rental conditions would remain the same.

But as old contracts expire, dozens of people have received demands for higher rent, been told their rents will increase dramatically, been threatened with eviction or moved out to escape the insecurity. Thousands of Spain’s poor now depend for their homes on the generosity of private equity.

– From today’s Reuters article: Why Madrid’s Poor Fear Goldman Sachs and Blackstone

Less than a month ago, I warned the people of Spain that U.S. financial oligarchs had their sights set on the nation. The post was titled, Your Wall Street Slumlord Arrives in Europe – Goldman and Other Financial Firms Launch “Buy to Rent” in Spain, and in it I wrote:

Now that the financial oligarchs have had their way with the U.S. property market, to the point that average citizens can’t even afford to own a home (Zillow recently showed that 1 in 3 homes are unaffordable), it appears they have turned their sights overseas. What better market for bailed-out bankers to feast on than Spain, with its 50%+ youth unemployment rate and a continued depressed real estate market.

It didn’t take long for the results to be felt. Reuters published an article on the topic today. Here are some excerpts:

Read moreGoldman And Blackstone Enter Spanish Real Estate – Pain And Suffering For Poor People Immediately Ensues

25 Banks Said To Fail European Stress Test, 10 In Talks On Capital Shortfall

25 Banks Said To Fail European Stress Test, 10 In Talks On Capital Shortfall (ZeroHedge, Oct 24, 2014):

With the results of Europe’s annual AQR, aka Stress Test, due out on Sunday, most had been expecting that despite some rhetoric that various brand name banks may fail, that it would be largely more of the usual: puff. That, however, may not be the case, and as Bloomberg just reported, a whopping 25 banks are set to fail the stress test, compared to 105 which are set to pass. As Bloomberg notes:

  • 105 banks passed the test, draft document shows
  • Number of banks that would have shortfall even after capital-raising to Sept. 30, 2014, is the subject of ongoing talks, a person with knowledge of the matter says
  • Negotations continue with about 10 banks shown to have net shortfall after 2014 capital measures, the person says
  • An ECB spokesman says the central bank can’t comment on speculation about the outcome of the comprehensive assessment. Any inferences drawn as to the final outcome of the exercise would be highly speculative until the results are final on Oct. 26, spokesman says

    Read more25 Banks Said To Fail European Stress Test, 10 In Talks On Capital Shortfall

Fastest Pace Of Withdrawals From JPM’s Gold Vault In Over A Year

Fastest Pace Of Withdrawals From JPM’s Gold Vault In Over A Year (ZeroHedge, Oct 24, 2014):

While JPM’s eligible gold holdings are nowhere near the record lows hit in the summer of 2013, when they dropped to a tiny 46K ounces, sparking concerns of a potential deliverable default, yesterday according to the daily CME gold depository report, JPM saw a whopping 321,500 ounces, or about 10 tons of gold, withdrawn. This was the biggest outflow since the August 5 rebalance when nearly 1.5 million ounces were withdrawn and added, and was the biggest, and is tied with two identical 321,500 oz outflows recorded in early January. As of yesterday, JPM’s eligible gold tumbled by 40% in one day, declining to 485.K ounces from over 800K the day before: the lowest eligible gold inventory since almost exactly a year ago.

Eligible Gold JPM Oct 2014

What is perhaps more notable, is that the recent outflows of eligible golds are taking place at the same time as there has been a significant reduction in the NAV/gold holdings of the GLD ETF. A question thus arises once again: where is the gold being withdrawn to and who is doing these not insubstantial withdrawals.

Read moreFastest Pace Of Withdrawals From JPM’s Gold Vault In Over A Year

Burst Chinese Housing Bubble Leads To First Annual Price Decline Since 2012; Prices Drop In Record 69 Cities

Burst Chinese Housing Bubble Leads To First Annual Price Decline Since 2012; Prices Drop In Record 69 Cities (ZeroHedge, Oct 24, 2014):

 It has been over six months since the Chinese housing bubble has popped. What’s worse, as overnight housing numbers out of China confirmed, the government has so far failed to contain the fallout, and according to the National Bureau of Statistics, which is anything but, after a fifth straight monthly decline, Chinese home prices have now wiped out all price gains in the past year. This was immediately spun as bullish by media outlets and sellside experts as “raising expectations the government will have to implement more economic support measures to cushion the blow.” I.e., buy stocks because central banks will push risk prices artificially higher yet again. In other words, bad is still good and failure continues to be success.