Juggling Dynamite

In finance, complexity has been a highly effective cloak for deceit, but eventually you run out of captive ‘dumb’ money. China seems to be finally getting there. A block in the septic system there presents problems for the flow of capital sludge through the global financial system.

On paper, China’s latest effort to rid its banks of bad loans looks sensible. By packaging the debt into securities, lenders hope to unload them onto risk-hungry investors, a potential win-win solution that garnered praise from billionaire Wilbur Ross.

But if the first deals in this 50 billion yuan ($7.6 billion) program are any guide, the whole exercise may end up just shuffling bad debt between banks, doing little to improve the health of China’s financial system as a whole. Here is a direct video link.

For those undecided or thinking it might be bad for the country if the UK votes to leave the E.U., we just heard the strongest endorsement for a yes vote yet:  JP Morgan’s commander in chief is stumping with British Finance Minister–George Osbourne like a puppet on Dimon’s lap–against Brexit.   See  JP Morgan Boss warns of Brexit job cuts if UK backs ‘terrible deal’:

“If the U.K. leaves the EU, we may have no choice but to re-organize our business model here,” Dimon said in prepared remarks provided to Bloomberg. “Brexit could mean fewer JPMorgan jobs in the U.K. and more jobs in Europe.”

A break up of the existing bank business model? That’s the most promising hope the economy has been offered to date!  The bankers have plundered the world largely unfettered the past 15 years, enabled by the politicians they have purchased.  The cartel now has the most to lose in a break up of the existing centralized, streamlined system.  Civil society and democracy have everything to gain in forcing change.

What has been great for bankers, has been devastating for the rest of us.  If the banks are against Brexit, the rest of the people have their answer:  Run away U.K., run.

Turns out ’emissions gate’ is much broader than misreps from auto makers.  Not surprising.  See:  US Energy industry emits more methane than thought.

“Methane emissions from existing sources in the oil and gas sector are substantially higher than we previously understood,” EPA head Gina McCarthy told IHS CERAWeek, the annual gathering of global oil executives.

The industry of course, remains dominated by those fixated on maintaining its profits at the expense of everything else:

So far, industry and state leaders have lined up to oppose McCarthy, who has sought industry’s help by asking them to voluntarily disclose their methane emissions.

Only eight out of nearly 8,000 U.S. natural gas producers have done so, and much of the EPA’s new data comes by combining research from other government agencies and universities.