Hmmm Mar 12 2012

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THINGS THAT MAKE YOU GO

HmmmA walk around the fringes of nance

12 March 2012 1

o Subscribe to Tings Tat Make You Go Hmmm..... clickHERE

...the Spain which emerged around 1960, beginning withits economic miracle, created by the invasion o tourists,can no longer result in impassioned dedication on thepart o its intellectuals, and even less on the part o or-eign intellectuals JUaN GOYTISOLO

In order to ully realise our aspirations, wemust create in the masses o the people thesense o sacrifce and responsibility thathas been the characteristic o the anarchistmovement throughout its historic develop-ment in Spain. Frederica Montseny

It is we the workers who built these palaces and cieshere in Spain and in America and everywhere. We, theworkers, can build others to take their place. And beerones! We are not in the least afraid of ruins Buenaventura Durruti
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2.THINGS THAT MAKE YOU GOHmmm...

12 March 2012 2

Well, I promised you whenwe lst met tt I would NOT be tlking bout

Greece this me and, I am going to be true to

my word. Today, we are going to discuss two

topics that have been on my mind recently but

that the good folks of the Hellenic Republic and

their capve audience in Brussels have man-

aged to shunt from the introducon of Things

That Make You Go Hmmm....., but that remain

sources of connual fascinaon and consterna-

on for me; Spain and oil ahhhh NUTS! They did

it AGAIN.... ok...the Greek restructuring. It s not

as though I could ignore it, now, is it?

Oil can wait unl next me.... no doubt itll be

an issue then too.

So Lets begin with Spain.

Spain is a problem. A real problem.Greece today triggered the biggest sovereign

default of all me as it reneged on its commit-

ments to pay back investors the 210billion it

had promised them - some 2,400 years aer 10

Greek municipalies became the rst sovereign

enes to default when they sed the templeof Delos, birthplace of Apollo.

Greeces debts are ve mes those of Argen-

na when it became the tleholder in 2001

and Greek GDP, which stands at US$305 bil-

lion, qualies it for 32nd place on the list of

the worlds biggest countries - nestled nicely

between Denmark ($310 billion) and the UAE

($302 billion).

Spain is twelh.

Spains GDP of $1.4 trillion, somewhat surpris-ingly perhaps, puts it just behind oil-rich Russia

and Canada and people-rich India. Spain is a big

country. Spain maers.

When the PIIGS rst muscled their way up to

the trough a lifeme ago, the inial diagnosis

was that Ireland, Portugal and Greece neither

maered in the grand scheme of things nor

were likely to get out of hand, but that Spain

and more importantly, Italy, would be REAL

problems if they got sucked into the morass.

Of course, we were all reassured that both

countries (in fact all of Europe) were in robust

scal health and that we shouldnt count all ourchickens with regards a cascade of defaults:

(Reuters, Jan 19, 2009): European Economic

Aairs Commissioner Joaquin Almunia told

the same news conference that the markets

and credit rang agencies would take a

more posive view of the situaon had they

been at the ministers talks and heard the

extent of the commitment to stable public

nances.

Almunia dismissed a news conference ques-

on about the risk of any country defaulng,

saying conngency planning was not even

an issue in that regard.

But the trouble with chickens is that they have

this annoying tendency to come home to roost

and here we are, three years, several bailouts

and hundreds of billions of euro in cash later

staring down the barrel of the largest sovereign

default of all me.

Last year it was widely accepted that, should

Spain and Italy be pulled into the Europeanmaelstrom, things would take a material turn

for the worse. Conveniently, Marketwatch

laid out ve reasons why Italy, at least, is not

Greece:

1. Italys average debt maturity is much lon-

ger, meaning any rise in yields is not an im-

mediate problem and will take some me

to lter through into Italys debt burden.

2. Italy collects many more taxes than its

debt service costs, even if it hypothecallyhad to pay 7% on all its debt.

3. Its overall debt burden combining

private and public debt is relavely low

compared to developed countries.

4. More than half of Italys debt is held

domescally, which gives the government

a lile more say. For example, bond swaps

can be foisted on domesc instuons.

Domesc instuons can be required to hold

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12 March 2012 3

more government bonds in, say, pension

porolios.

5. Finally, Italy has other sources of

wealth. The country has a whole lot of gold

the fourth highest reserve in the world.

This is generally true of Europe as a whole.

There is great wealth. There is sucient

wealth in Europe in general and Italy in par-

cular to address the debt crisis.

...Italys problem is primarily one of con-

dence not solvency.

But whilst Italy may not look much like Greece,it would be dicult NOT to admit that Spain

bears more than a passing resemblance to the

country currently occupying Wall Street.

Italy may have a high sovereign

debt, but it has a low level of

private debt. It runs a primary

surplus and its scal decit is

actually quite low in comparison

with most major economies. The

completely coincidental buy-

ing of Italian government bondsthat occurred just aer the ECBs

LTRO operaons has meant that

Italian yields, while sll high in

a relave sense, are now at a

level that makes them at least

manageable even if they could

do with being lower. This is great

news for Italy. This is terrible

news for Spain.

Spain is now about to become

the country everyone caresabout all over again and, when

the worlds focus returns to the Iberian Penin-

sula, it will realise that the large, grey shape in

the corner of the room was a Spanish elephant.

When discussing Spain,much of the focus has been on its relavely low

sovereign debt-to-GDP level, which, at roughly

68%, is far lower than that of Italy which stood

at 120% in 2011 (though it has already doubled

since the crisis began in 2008). So far so good.

However, cast your minds back to September

2008 when the Irish government made a deci-sion that ranks as among the very worst since

General Custer said this looks like a nice place

to camp for the night.

(FT.com, Sep 30, 2008): Irelands govern-

ment on Tuesday unveiled a wide-ranging

guarantee arrangement to safeguard the

deposits and debts at six nancial instu-

ons in response to turmoil in the nancial

markets.

The scheme, which guarantees an esmated

400bn (315bn, $567bn) of liabilies, cov-

ers retail, commercial and inter-bank depos-

its as well as covered bonds, senior debt and

dated subordinated debt.

Most depositors were already covered by

an exisng deposit insurance scheme for up

to 100,000. But Tuesdays iniave was

primarily aimed at easing the banks short-

term funding, which had seized up in recent

days.

Shares in the countrys three biggest banks

rose sharply aer the government an-

nounced the immediate start of the scheme,

...

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

20112010200920082007200620052004

Irish Debt-to-GDP

(2004 - 2011)

SOURCE: TTMYGH

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12 March 2012 4

Irish government debt soared from 24.9% in

2007 to 41.8% in 2008 and hasnt looked back

since - reaching 105% in 2011 and necessitat-ing the crippling austerity measures that have

blighted Ireland since 2009.

As manageable as Spains public debt would ap-

pear to be at face value, herprivate debt is n

altogether dierent story - standing at a stag-

gering 227% of GDP and, according to McKin-

sey, Spanish corporaons hold twice as much

debt relave to their output as US companies

and, in comparison to Germany, that number

goes up to six mes (incidentally, Portugal - the

PIIG that nobody cares about - has even worsenumbers with public debt at 93% and private

debt at an eye-watering 249%, - sll as high as it

was at the height of the GFC. Portugal is unsal-

vageable - its just that nobody seems to think it

will maer. It will.)

As Spain reduced its decit inaccordance with the EUs Growth & Stability

Pact, it meant an increasing reliance on private

debt ws needed in ode to polong te eno-

mous construcon boom that had been ongoingin Spain since the 1970s but which really picked

up steam in the 90s and 00s. The outcome of

that reliance? A tripling of average household

debt.

With the die cast, the Zapatero government

was voted out last year and the incoming Rajoy

administraon vowed further austerity would

be implemented in order to bring the decits

under control, but Januarys numbers wouldimply that austerity is anything but the magic

bullet that the policymakers of Europe seem to

believe it to be. When Greg Weldon, dug into

Spains unemployment numbers last month, his

ndings were chilling:

Spains January Unemployment data was

of GREAT interest, revealing the THIRD

LARGEST EVER single-month expansion in

the Number of Unemployed, pegged at

+177,470 ... which represents a MASSIVE

monthly rise equal to +4.0% ... and ... a siz-able +35.6% yr-yr increase !!!

For reference, a populaon-equivalent rise

in US unemployment would be akin to a (-)

1.2 million single month LOSS in Non-Farm

Payrolls.

Further, the oversized January increase was

enough to boost the rolling 12-Month

Change in the Total Number of Unemployed

back above +350,000, as evidenced in the

chart on display [below, le]. Indeed, by thismeasure the Spanish labor market has been

in a recession since the second half of 2007,

and with a re-acceleraon to the upside, this

gauge is back to crisis levels.

Note the acceleraon in the year-year rate

of increase in the Number of Unemployed,

dang back to the spring of last

year:

Jan-12 ... +8.72%

Dec-11 ... +7.86%

Nov-11 ... +7.55%

Oct-11 ... +6.73%

Sep-11 ... +5.20%

Aug-11 ... +4.06%

Jul-11 ... +4.38%

Jun-11 ... +3.50%

May-11 ... +3.04%

We also note that EVERY busi-

ness-industry sector posted an

increase in the Number of Unem-

SOURCE: GREG WELDON

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12 March 2012 5

ployed, which also rose across-the-board in

terms of BOTH sexes, and EVERY age group.

As a result of the oversized seasonal gain in

January, Spains Unemployment Rate seems

set to rise further when 1Q gures are

posted in two months.

Already at a MULTI-DECADE HIGH as of the

last report, for the 4Q (revealing a 22.8%

rate, which violated the previous high of

22.5% set in 1994) ... the gain in Januaryimplies a rise of one-full percentage point,

which would put the Unemployment Rate at

a newer new high of 23.8%, as evidenced in

the chart on display [above].

(You can head to www.weldononline.com to

sign up for a free trial of Gregs phenomenal

work. I cannot recommend it highly enough)

Naturally, against this backdrop of spiralling un-

employment, crippling debt levels in the private

sector and rigid austerity measures, something

had to give. That something? Well, funnily

enough, it was the Spanish governments will-

ingness to play ball with the EU. Ominously, it

was couched in somewhat naonalisc terms

which could be a harbinger of things to come:

(UK Daily Telegraph): Spain is already plan-

ning to breach its budgetary targets, defying

European leaders on the day they signed

their historic scal pact.

Mariano Rajoy, prime minister of Spain, said

the budget decit would be 5.8pc of GDP in

2012 - more than 30pc higher

than the 4.4pc target agreed by

Brussels.

In a move that was heralded in

Spain as deance against the

German-led austerity drive, Mr

Rajoy said he had decided to

set a new target rather than ex-

tract 44bn (36.6bn) from the

budget at a me of economic

crisis. Mr Rajoy said it was now

a sensible and reasonable

target. This is a sovereign

decision made by Spaniards,he said...

Mr Rajoy insisted the slippage was just

on an interim target and Spain would sll

honour its commitment to bringing its decit

down to 3pc of GDP by 2013. But the an-

nouncement was seen as rebung other

European leaders since the gures do not

have to be conrmed unl April.

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard had some thoughts

of his own on the signicance of Rajoys boldmove:

In the twenty years or so that I have been

following EU aairs closely, I cannot remem-

ber such a bold and open act of deance by

any state. Usually such maers are fudged.

Countries stretch the line, but do not actu-

ally cross it.

With condign symbolism, Mr Rajoy dropped

his bombshell in Brussels aer the EU sum-

mit, without rst nofying the commission

or fellow EU leaders. Indeed, he seemed torelish the fact that he was tearing up the

rule book and disavowing the whole EU

machinery of budgetary control.

Right on cue, the leader of Hollands Freedom

Party, an important part of the ruling Dutch

coalion, took up Rajoys baton and sprinted

ahead in surprising fashion:

(UK Daily Telegraph): The Dutch Freedom

Party has called for a return to the Guilder,

becoming the rst polical movement in the

SOURCE: GREG WELDON
http://www.weldononline.com/http://www.weldononline.com/

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12 March 2012 6

eurozone with a large popular base to opt

for withdrawal from the single currency.

The euro is not in the interests of the Dutch

people, said Geert Wilders, the leader of

the right-wing populist party with a sixth of

the seats in the Dutch parliament. We want

to be the master of our own house and our

own country, so we say yes to the guilder.

Bring it on.

Mr Wilders made his decision aer receiving

a report by London-based Lombard Street

Research concluding that the Netherlands

is badly handicapped by euro membership,

and that it could cost EMUs creditor core

more than 2.4 trillion to hold monetary

union together over the next four years. If

the policians in The Hague disagree with

our report, let them show the guts to hold a

referendum. Let the Dutch people decide,

he said...

The study said the eurozone cannot survive

in its current form. The longer Europes poli-

cians dither, the more costly it will become.

The euro can only survive if it becomes ascal transfer union with naonal sovereign

debt subsumed in eurozone bonds, said co-

author Charles Dumas.

The Dutch have always been Europeans to

the core and staunch allies of the Germans at

the heart of the EU. This is a troubling develop-

ment indeed for the architects of the European

Dream. Throw in Francois Hollandes promise

to renegoate the scal compact if elected

in France when elecons get under way next

month (he is currently leading in early polling)and it becomes ever-clearer that we are a long

way from being out of the woods.

With 50% of Spains under-25s out of work (a

situaon that wont improve for years), s-

ing austerity measures in place that, in order

to meet EU debt limits, will ensure that the

chance of generang any growth in the Span-

ish economy becomes about as likely as Kim

Kardashian refusing to pose for a photograph, it

is obvious that its only a mater of me before

Spain becomes the new Greece. Like Greece,

the trouble will really begin with public sector

strikes, followed by social unrest as the Summerheat hits Southern Europe and end with poli-

cian pandering to angry demands for an exit

from Europe and upheaval.

Uncannily, aer wring that previous sentence

last night, I wake up to this arcle in the FT:

(FT): Spains two largest unions, Comisiones

Obreras and UGT, voted on Friday to call

for a general strike on March 29 against

reforms they called the most regressive in

the history of Spanish democracy.

The labour reforms of Mariano Rajoys gov-

ernment grant employers greater exibility

to pay lower compensaon when they re

workers, a change Mr Rajoy argues is crucial

to increase Spains economic compeve-

ness, but one that has enraged the countrys

unions.

Spain is going to be the country on the front

pages this summer so best get yourselves ac-

quainted with the problems facing it. If it saves

you any me, they are by and large similar tothose faced by Greece - only much, much larger.

Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

Speaking o Greece, Eu-ropes perennial prodigal son, managed to hold

a gun close enough to the collecve heads of

their investors to make them realise that volun-

teering for a restructuring of their outstanding

debt was an extremely smart idea. Aer the

decision by Greece to not pay back a hundred

billion-odd euos tt it d pomised to bond-holders was nally recognised as a default this

week (sigh), and aer a marathon 8-hour ses-

sion ended in the members of the ISDA commit-

tee realising that this constuted a credit event

(8 hours guys? Seriously?) which in turn triggers

roughly $3bln in CDS payments, the terms of

the restructuring will go to the EU to be raed.

The problem is solved. That ought to allow ev-

erybody to breathe a sigh of relief, right?

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12 March 2012 8

of dollars.

Who thinks the upcoming Greek bail-out

will be the last, drawing a line under theeurozones sovereign debt crisis? asked the

senior Euromoney staer chairing the panel.

Put your hands up.

Delivered with a serious demeanour, this

was exactly the right queson. So deadly

was the inquiry, and so germane, that the

mood in the room grew uneasy, barely cam-

ouaged by an outbreak of coughing. Scan-

ning this ultra-inuenal audience, I saw

rows of delegates cowed, keeping their eyes

locked forwards but staring down slightly,

not daring to look elsewhere.

Not a single hand was raised. Not a single

hand among hundreds of the worlds lead-

ing bond market praconers was srred to

support a debt swap now presented as the

key to the world economy shaking o

the post sub-prime torpor and tak-

ing us into the sun-lit uplands

of sustainable global growth.

But perhaps the easiest way to il-lustrate the level of condence in the

Greek soluon is to look at the prices of the

restructured bonds themselves, and for that, I

will yield the oor to my friend John Mauldin

who, in another excellent leer this week had

this to say on the subject:

Greek is having an orderly default. The

taxpayers of Europe are in theory going

to lend 130 billion to Greece to pay back

100 billion in Greek debt that is owed to

private lenders. Greece has to pass several

dicult tests in order to get the money.

100 billion of debt to private lenders will bewrien o. Thus the net eect will be that

they owe 30 billion more. How does this

help Greece, except that they get 30 billion

more they cannot pay?

The new debt is already trading in the

market, even though it has not actually been

issued. (Dont bother traders with messy

details, just do the deal.) This page from

Bloomberg [below, le] is just too delicious

not to print, sent to me courtesy of Dan

Greenhaus of BTIG. It shows the new Greekbonds trading at over a 71-79% discount,

depending on the length of maturity. Note

this is AFTER the 53% haircut already

imposed. That reads to me like the market

value of original Greek debt is now between

12 and 14% of the original face value.

********

So, this weekI d pomised totalk about oil, but instead I will oer you a his-

tory lesson as well as some thoughts on taccs

and strategy in the Straits of Hormuz courtesy

of Louis de Sousa and Ambrose Evans-Pritchard

SOURCE: MAULDIN/GREENHAUS

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12 March 2012 9

on the concept of plateau oil, while Japans

nuclear power staons and the return of the

nuclear lobby also come under the microscope.

Former CEOs of Fannie & Freddie have the

chutzpah to look to the government to pay their

legal fees, margin calls sweep across Europe,

the AIJ scandal has Japans regulator in a spin.

John Mauldin examines the ramicaons of the

ISDA ruling and, of course, theres Spain. Lots of

Spain.

In our charts secon, Je Clark takes a look

at historical volality in the precious metals,

chles hUg-Smit tkes im t te die stte

of student loans in America and RIchard Ross

picks the NASDAQ and the US 10-yr as the focus

for his all-seeing eye.

Jim Grant, interviewed on CNBC last week

shows just why he is the Master, Russell Napier

of CLSA gives a fabulous interview with Jim

Puplava on what happens when credit dies and

edes get to meet good fiend of mine in

the shape of Mr. Simon Mikhailovich as he talks

to Al Korelin.

(incidentally, the real Simon looks nothing like

the picture youll see on page 22).

Tats all rom me fo noteweek aer my whirlwind trip through New York

and Dallas, Texas.

I had very lile sleep, ate too much good food

and met some extraordinary people this past

week and would like to take this opportunity to

thank them all for their hospitality, their me

and for sharing some ideas and views with me.

Truly the best part of wring this leer is the

number of smart, engaged people it brings me

into contact with from all over the world and I

treasure the me I get to spend with each and

every one of them.

I leave you with a cartoon that was sent to me

this week by one of my very favourite readers

and does a beer job of summing up the events

of the past few weeks in seven words and a

picture than I could possibly hope to do in ten

pages.

Until next time.

SOURCE: UNKNOWN

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12 March 2012 10

Contents 12 March 2012

Plateau Oil meets 125m Chinese cars

More bailouts: $200M to defend crisis-era CEOs

Spains sovereign thunderclap and the end of Merkels Europe

European Banks Now Face Huge Margin Calls As ECB Collateral Crumbles

Japan Is Now Another Spinning Plate in the Global Economy Circus

Nuclear Lobby Pushes Ahead with New Reactors

Why AIJ Scandal Will Be The First Of Many

Taccs and Strategy at the Strait of Hormuz

Te ISDa Steps Up

Charts That Make You Go Hmmm.....

Words That Make You Go Hmmm.....

And Finally.....

The Gonnie, Gonnie Banks

# Bank Assets ($m) Deposits ($m) Cost ($m)

13 New City Bank, Chicago, IL 71.2 72.4 17.4

Total Cost to FDIC Deposit Insurance Fund 17.4

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12 March 2012 11

Oil spikes usuallymetastasizeonce energy costs reach 9pc of global GDP. The

longer they stay there, the greater the damage.

That proved to be the pain barrier in the 1970s

and again in 2008, and we are just shy of that

level right now. Oil is already capturing a higher

level of European GDP than in 2008, said Fran-

cisco Blanch from Bank of America.

The rule of thumb is that a 10pc rise in crude cuts

US growth by 0.2pc four quarters later, but the

science is abbily so and nobody knows where

the inexion point lies. The eect is famously

non-linear. Nothing much seems to happenunl con-

dence sud-

denly snaps.

What is

deeply trou-

bling is tt

Brent crude

should have reached fresh records in sterling

(79) and euros (94) - with a knock-on eect

on US petrol prices, mostly tracking Brent -

even though the Internaonal Monetary Fundhas sharply downgraded its world growth fore-

cast to 3.25pc this year from 4pc in September,

and even though Internaonal Energy Agency

(IEA) has cut its oil use forecast for this year by

750,000 barrels per day (bpd).

Oil is not supposed to ratchet deantly upwards

in a downturn, which is what we have with the

Euro zone facing a year of contracon in 2012,

and much of the Lan bloc sliding into full de-

pression. Japans economy shrank in the fourth

quarter.

Asias emerging powers of Asia - the key force

driving the commodity boom of the last decade

- are in various stages of so-landings aer

hing the monetary brakes last year to check

property bubbles and curb inaon. Chinas

manufacturing has been bouncing along near

contracon levels through the winter. So what

happens when it recovers?

The unpleasant fact we must all face is that the

relentless supply crunch - call it `Peak Oil if you

want, or Plateau Oil - was briey disguised dur-

ing the Great Recession and is already back witha vengeance before the West has fully recov-

ered.

The IEA said non-OPEC producon stalled in

2010 and 2011. There was no net increase. While

there was a boost from Canadas tar sands, and

Americas shale-oil, and Brazils oshore rigs,

this was oset by the relentless erosion of the

North Sea elds and Mexicos operaons, a col-

lapse in the Sudan, and Libyas woes.

Meanwhile OPEC spare capacity has fallen to

2.5m barrels a day (bpd), compared to 3.7m this

me last year during the Arab Spring, the event

that caused a comparable spike in crude prices

and arguably triggered the sharp global slow-

down a few months later.

The chain of causality is hotly disputed. A young

professor Ben Bernanke no less wrote the deni-

ve paper in 1997 - Systemac Monetary Policy

and the Eects of Oil Price Shocks - arguing that

policy-makers themselves are the villains be-

cause they over-react.O O O AMBROSE EVANS-PRITCHARD / LINK

Tree years ago, I put fomeFannie Mae and Freddie Mac CEOs Daniel Mudd,

Frank Raines and Richard Syron at the top of the

list of those responsible for the nancial crisis.

Since then, the Securies and Exchange Com-

mission and various class-acon groups have

led lawsuits alleging these former execuves

commied all sorts of accounng and securies

fraud. Sounds great, right? We the people are -

nally geng jusce, right?

Wrong. Guess whos foong the roughly $200

million in legl bills to defend tese lleged

crooks against all those legal acons? You are.

The taxpayers. The same is true of $400 million

that Fannie Mae already paid to sele an SEC

fraud suit. And thats just the tab to date; this

will go on for years and years.

Even worse, this shouldnt be happening. Crony

... What is deeply troubling is thatBrent crude should have reached reshrecords in sterling (79) and euros(94) - with a knock-on eect on USpetrol prices
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/commodities/9122311/Plateau-Oil-meets-125m-Chinese-cars.html

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12 March 2012 12

federal regulators and execuves appointed by

those same regulators aer the ailing pseudo-

government enes were brought under thefederal governments conservatorship are leng

it happen instead of doing their job of protecng

the American people.

As is typically the case, Fannie and Freddie by-

laws and contracts protect and indemnify com-

pany execuves and directors against ligaon

costs. But thats not the case if execuves or di-

rectors breach their duciary duty -- the duty of

loyalty to the company and its stockholders -- or

engage in intenonal misconduct.

And that just so happens to be what former

execuves are being accused of: overstang in-

come and manipulang prots over a period of

six years to generate more than $115 million in

improper bonuses, and misleading investors by

understang their exposure to risky subprime

mortgages, among other things.

The dilemma, of course, is that as long as the

former execuves maintain their innocence,

neither adming nor denying they did anything

wrong, regu-ltos nd te

CEOs they ap-

pointed to x

this mess say

theyre con-

tractually and

legally obli-

gated to connue to indemnify the defendants.

When the federal regulatory agency FHFA

moved to put Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac un-

der conservatorship in 2008, then FHFA directorJames Lockhart and U.S. Treasury Secretary Hen-

ry Paulson -- both of whom took deep bows for

this sweeping government intervenon -- had

the chance to deny those indemnicaon agree-

ments. The only problem is, they didnt.

So here we are, you and me and all the other

American taxpayers; proud owners of over $5

trillion in quesonable mortgages and securi-

es; prinng more and more money to cover the

$1 trillion plus bailout and execuve bonuses for

these remarkably dysfunconal pseudo-govern-

ment enes.

And the worst part about it is, when the SEC sues

Fannie and Freddie, its essenally suing you and

me, since thats who ends up paying all the pen-

ales, selements, and even the legal fees to

defend the companies and their crooked execu-

ves. In total, thats $600 million and counng.

Hard to believe.

O O O CBS / LINK

Te Spanish rebellion sbegun, sooner and more dramacally than I ex-pected.

As many readers will already have seen, Premier

Mariano Rajoy has refused point blank to com-

ply with the austerity demands of the European

Commission and the European Council (hijacked

by Merkozy).

Taking what he called a sovereign decision, he

simply announced that he intends to ignore the

EU decit target of 4.4pc of GDP for this year,

seng his own target of 5.8pc instead (down

from 8.5pc in 2011).

In the twenty years or so that I have been follow-

ing EU aairs closely, I cannot remember such a

bold and open act of deance by any state. Usu-

ally such maers are fudged. Countries stretch

the line, but do not actually cross it.

With condign symbolism, Mr Rajoy dropped his

bombshell in Brussels aer the EU summit, with-

out rst nofying the commission or fellow EU

leaders. Indeed, he seemed to relish the fact that

he was tearing up the rule book and disavowingthe whole EU machinery of budgetary control.

He is surely right to seize the iniave. Spains

economy will contract by 1.7pc this year under

his modied plans and unemployment will reach

24pc (or 29pc under the 1990s method of count-

ing). To compound this with manic scal ghten-

ing and no oseng devaluaon is intellec-

tually indefensible.

There comes a point when a democracy can no

... In the twenty years or so thatI have been ollowing EU aairsclosely, I cannot remember such abold and open act o defance by anystate
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-500395_162-57390241/more-bailouts-$200m-to-defend-crisis-era-ceos/

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12 March 2012 13

longer sacrice its cizens to please reacon-

ary ideologues determined to impose 1930s

scorched-earth policies. Ya basta.

What is striking is the wave of support for Mr Ra-

joy from the Spanish commentariat.

This one from Pablo Sebasn le me speech-

less.

My loose translaon:

Spain isnt any old country that will allow itself

to be humiliated by the German Chancellor.

The behaviour of the European Commission to-

wards Spain over recent days has been infamousand exceeds their treaty pow-

ers these Eurocrats think

they are the owners and mas-

ters of Spain.

Spain and other naons in

the EU are sick and red of

Chancellor Merkels meddling

and Germanys usurpaon

with the help of Sarkozys

France and their pretended

execuve presidency thatdoes not in fact exist in EU

treaes.

Rajoy must not retreat one

inch. The stakes are high and

the country is in no mood to

suer humiliaons from a

Chancellor who is amassing all the savings of Eu-

rope and wont listen to anybody, as if she were

the absolute ruler of the Union. Merkel and the

Commission should think hard before pung

their hand into the sovereignty of this country

or any other because it will be burned.

This then is the fermenng mood in the ercely

proud and ancient naon of Spain in Year III of

depression, probably the worst depression the

country has seen since the 1640s or have I

missed a worse one?

O O O AMBROSE EVANS-PRITCHARD / LINK

In what could prove to be the most

crical unintended consequence of the ECBs

LTRO program, we note that as of last Friday the

ECB has started to make very sizable margin callson its credit-extensions to counterpares. While

the hope was for any and every piece of lowly

collateral to be lodged with the ECB in return for

freshly printed money to spend on local govern-

ment debt, perhaps the expectaon of a truly

virtuous circle of liquidity liing all boats forever

is crashing on the shores of reality. This De-

posits Related to Margin Calls line item on the

ECBs balance sheet will likely now become the

most-watched indicator of stress as we note

the dramac acceleraon from an average well

under EUR200 million to well over EUR17 billion

since the LTRO began. The rapid deterioraon in

collateral asset quality is extremely worrisome

(GGBs? European nancial sub debt? Papandre-

ous Kebab Shop unsecured 2nd lien notes?) asit forces the banks who took the collateralized

loans to come up with more precious cash or

assets (unwind exisng protable trades such as

sovereign carry, delever further by selling assets,

or subordinate more of the capital structure via

pledging more assets - to cover these collater-

al shoralls) or pay-down the loan in part. This

could very quickly become a self-fullling vicious

circle - especially given the leverage in both the

ECB and the already-insolvent banks that took

LTRO loans that now back the main Italian, Span-

CLICK TO ENLARGE SOURCE: BLOOMBERG/ZEROHEDGE
http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/images/user3303/imageroot/2012/02/20120306_ECB.pnghttp://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/finance/ambroseevans-pritchard/100015432/spains-sovereign-thunderclap-and-the-end-of-merkels-europe/

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12 March 2012 14

ish, and Portuguese sovereign bond markets.

This huge increase in margin calls can only fur-

ther exacerbate

the sgma at-

tached to LTRO-

facing banks - and

s we noted tis

moning (some-

what presciently)

bot te LTrO-

S t i g m a - t r a d e ,

that we created,

and the potenal

fo MtM losseson the carry-

tdes tt LTrO

cash was put

to work in could indeed start a vicious circle in

European nancials, just as everyone thought it

was safe to dip a toe back in the risk pool.

What should also start to worry the Germans is

the fact a 37x levered hedge-fund central bank

with EUR3 trillion balance sheet that has ex-

tended credit in a risk-managed approach on

what appears to be an ever dwindling supply ofperforming collateral is starng to see dramac

gaps in its asset-liability exposure (but rest as-

sured Bernanke told us that our FX Swaps are

safe as houses).

One lst point sould be noted - te opes of

an LTRO3 or some such are surely now out of

the window as clearly banks have run dry of any

and all reasonable collateral or can the sovereign

bonds purchased using LTRO1 and LTRO2 funds

be lodged once again in a rehypothecated mi-

asma circling the drain?

O O O ZEROHEDGE / LINK

At the circus, you are somemestreated to the spinning plate act where a per-

fome ties to keep n impobble numbe of

plates spinning at once, racing from one plate

to the next as their wobbles indicate the need

for another dose of momentum. Considering the

numbe of spinning nd wobbling pltes tt

our central planners are managing, its easy to

be both amazed and anxious at the same me.

The dierence between the spinning plate anal-

ogy and real-world economic and nancial sys-

tems is that if a failure occurs out in the real

world, it has a very high chance of spreading

across and through the other elements of the

system. Contagion is the fear, as if in nally top-

pling, one plate will crash into its neighbor and

set o a chain reacon of falling plates.

To carry this metaphor, Japan is a wobbly plate.

For those who are in a hurry today, the boom

line is tt Jpn is in seious touble igt nowand is a top candidate to be the next black swan.

Here are the elements of diculty that concern

me the most, each one serving to reduce Japans

economic and nancial stability:

The total shutdown of all 54 nuclear plants,

leading to an energy insuciency

Japans trade balance is in negave territory

for the rst me in decades, driven largely

by energy imports

A budget decit that is now 56% larger thanrevenues (!!)

Total debt standing at a whopping 235% of

GDP

A recession shrinking Japans economy at an

annual rate of 2.3%

Renewed eorts underway to debase the

yen

As I wrote a shortly aer the earthquake in

March 2011, Japan is facing an economic melt-down. If it is not careful, it may well face a cur-

rency meltdown, too. These things take me to

play out, but now almost exactly a year aer the

devastang earthquake of 2011, the dicules

for Japan are mounng -- as expected.

Exacerbated by the earthquake and tsunami, Ja-

pans current predicament has been developing

over many years and represents the aermath of

a burst nancial bubble (involving stocks and real

estate), an inability to let failed instuons actu-

... What should also start to worrythe Germans is the act a 37xlevered hedge-und central bank

with EUR3 trillion balance sheetthat has extended credit in arisk-managed approach on whatappears to be an ever dwindlingsupply o perorming collateral is

starting to see dramatic gaps inits asset-liability exposure
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/european-banks-now-face-huge-margin-calls-ecb-collateral-crumbles

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12 March 2012 15

ally fail, and repeated and stubborn aempts to

preserve what ulmately could not be sustained.

Where many analysts predicted that the tsunami

would be GDP posive because of the re-build-

ing that would follow, I predicted economic dif-

cules would be the main result due to broken

supply chains, reduced factory output, and in-

creased drag due to rising energy imports.

Japan is like the worlds largest petri dish, and

the experiment at hand is about what happens

to an advanced, industrialized economy when

its electricity producon is cut. As always, our

view is that energy is the master resource. Our

observaon is that complex systems behave in

unpredictable ways when starved for energy, but

direconally, they tend to shrink and simplify.

Electricity is a crical form of energy, and thus

the amount of electricity produced and a coun-

trys GDP are very highly correlated. Sure, there

is always some easy conservaon that can be

done that would allow an electricity shorall to

be met without any serious economic impacts.

Street lights can be turned o, air condioning

and heang can be moderated, and other low-impact conservaon eorts can reduce electric-

ity consumpon without doing much more than

lowering ulity revenues.

However, there is a certain point beyond which

conservaon can do no more and electricity re-

stricons begin to bite into economic acvity.

Plants end up running slower or even shungdown, producvity declines, and work can stag-

nate.

Before the Fukushima disaster, Japan relied on

nuclear power for 30% of its total electricity pro-

ducon. As of March 26, 2012, that number is

going to be 0%.

O O O CHRIS MARTENSON / LINK

Te road to the construcon site isanked by ruins. At one point, theres a churchthat looks like its steeple has been shaved right

o. An icy wind whistles through empty farm-

lands.

The buildings, which are slowly decaying at

the foot of a small hill, are relics of the former

German province of East Prussia. Now they

are located in the eastern part of the Russian

exclave of Kaliningrad, located between Poland

and Lithuania.

At the top of the knoll, three cranes are pivong.

A massive construcon pit comes into view, 20

meters (66 feet) deep and 500 meters long. Visi-

tors can walk down a ramp to reach its boom of

sand-brown dirt.

CLICK TO ENLARGE SOURCE: DER SPEIEGEL
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/bild-819452-325754.htmlhttp://%20http//www.chrismartenson.com/blog/japan-another-spinning-plate-global-economy-circus/72033

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12 March 2012 16

Yevgeniy Vlasenko, the director of the nuclear

power plant that will be built on the site, slips

on his hardhat. With Vyacheslav Machonin, hisconstrucon supervisor, trailing close behind,

Vlasenko heads for a mass of freshly poured con-

crete blocks. All around, workers are bending the

iron rods that will be used in the buildings ring-

shaped foundaon.

The reactor with its fuel rods will rest on top of

this, Vlasenko explains. His construcon super-

visor proudly reports to him that his workers are

mixing 2,000 cubic meters (70,000 cubic feet)

of concrete per hour for the structure. Should

there be a core melt-down, the extremely

ot unium will

dip down nd be

tpped in tis b-

sin. But, of course,

Vlasenko insists that

things will never get

to that point.

Vlasenko doesnt

wnt to spoil te

good mood on the construcon site. Everythingis reportedly going according to plan: In four or

ve years, at most, the rst block of the new Ka-

liningrad Nuclear Power Plant will begin generat-

ing 1,200 megawas of electricity. Then well

sell the energy to Europe, Vlasenko says. In-

cluding Germany.

The gaunt director and his more rotund con-

strucon supervisor cant help but laugh a bit

about the irony of selling nuclear power to Ger-

many, now that it has decided to phase out its

own nuclear power plants by 2022. You used tobuild fantasc nuclear power plants, elegant and

solid, says Machonin, who is now working on

his ninth such construcon project.

Before this project, Machnonin was in the south-

western Iranian city of Bushehr. There, we took

over and nished the Siemens building project,

he says. And we adopted some things from you

there. Both of them shake their heads. How

could the Germans just throw everything away,

asks Vlasenko. Nuclear energy isnt on its way

out; its at the beginning of a renaissance.

O O O DER SPIEGEL / LINK

Japans investment man-agement sector expects more scandalsto emerge as regulatory scruny of the countrys

domesc fund managers intensies.

Last month, Japans Financial Services Agency

(FSA) suspended the operaons of money man-

agement rm, AIJ Investment Advisors, aer it

was unable to account for the bulk of $2.6 billion

in pension funds it managed on behalf of 123 cli-

ents.The suspension follows the $1.7 billion account-

ing scandal at the Japanese camera maker Olym-

pus, which raised quesons about the preva-

lence of white-collar crime in Japan and the

ability of Japanese nancial regulators to moni-

tor oenders.

Japans nancial services minister, Shozaburo

Jimi, last week described the situaon as deplor-

able and ordered a sweeping invesgaon into

the nances of 263 other money management

companies in Japan.

As part of these invesgaons fund management

companies will be required to disclose more in-

formaon on their operaons including whether

they had set up investment trust funds overseas

and whether they use external auditors.

One Tokyo-based fund manager told IFLR the AIJ

incident had revealed the fundamental weak-

nesses at the ground level of Japans pension

fund system.

It has, for instance, become commonplace for

the countrys mid- and small-sized pension funds

to hire only one or two dedicated managers, of-

ten without the necessary skills or professional

background to manage pension funds.

Such hires were oen former employees of Ja-

pans scandal-hit Social Insurance Agency which,

before being abolished and replaced by the Ja-

pan Pension Scheme in 2010, monitored Japans

pension fund policy at the naonal level.

... Japans fnancial servicesminister, Shozaburo Jimi, last

week described the situationas deplorable and ordered asweeping investigation into thefnances o 263 other moneymanagement companies in

Japan
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,819452,00.htmlhttp://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,819452,00.html

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12 March 2012 17

For smaller funds, without the means

to hire from big names such as Goldman

Sachs, exemployees of the Social Insur-ance Agency seemed the best opon,

the fund manager said. It was assumed

they would be well qualied to do a good

job.

The regulaons didnt eecvely take

those facts into account, he said. And

the gaps that developed between indus-

try assumpons and the regulatory reali-

ty created room for the AIJ to manipulate

those systemac weaknesses.

O O O IFLR / LINK

About a month ago,when Iranian ocials started venng

the idea of closing the Strait of Hormuz

to commercial trac, Western media

was prompt in reviewing the events of

1981. At that me, Iranian forces mined

the Strait and engaged commercial ves-

sels with rubber speedboats in what was largely

seen as a pathec aempt to control the area.

The media seems to think that Iranian ocialsare talking about using similar taccs today. In

reality, the military technology deployed by Iran

in the region is completely dierent today, cre-

ang a strategic scenario totally dierent from

that of 30 years ago.

According to the EIA, 17 million barrels of pe-

troleum crossed the Strait of Hormuz each day

during 2011. This makes up almost 40% of the in-

ternaonal petroleum market, clearly the most

important choke-point of the world for this com-

modity; on average 28 oil tankers cross the Strait

every day, half of them empty and inbound, the

other half outbound. Adding to petroleum is

liquied natural gas (LNG), exported by Qatar

and the UAE ; over 6 million tones of LNG cross

the Strait every month, about 25% of the inter-

naonal market. All of this trac takes place

very close to Iranian waters and shores.

Iran is a very large country, with an area of almost

1 700 000 km2, more than Spain, France, Italy,

and Germany combined. To its south, Iran has a

coast almost 1700 km long, which makes up all

the north shores of the Persian Gulf (hence thename) and the Gulf of Oman. Along this coast lie

numerous islands of assorted sizes, including Le-

van, Hendorabi, Kish, Forur, Sirri, Abu Masa, the

Tunb twins, Qeshm, Hengrn, Lark, and of course,

Hormuz. All these islands are found west of the

Strait, Hormuz being eecvely the eastern most

of them all. Qeshm is by far the largest of these

islands, with 1490 km2, larger than all the other

islands together. Contrary to what its name sug-

gests, the narrowest secon of the Strait is along

the southeastern shores of Qeshm, between the

smaller islands of Hengrn and Lark. BetweenLark and the smaller isles of Oman, there are

less than 40 km of water. Sovereignty over the

Strait waters is divided by Iran and Oman. The

noten lf is sllowe nd less suitble fo

large vessel navigaon. Being deeper, the Omani

half provides for the narrow naval corridors that

make up what has been for centuries one of the

worlds most important commercial routes.

O O O THE OIL DRUM / LINK

SOURCE: WIKIPEDIA
http://www.theoildrum.com/node/8956#morehttp://www.iflr.com/Article/2991926/Corporate/Why-AIJ-scandal-will-be-the-first-of-many.html

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12 March 2012 18

Te ISDA (the InternaonalSwaps and Derivaves Associaon) declared

today that Greece is in ocial default. This is a

derivaves-industry commiee of 15 members,

represenng the largest banks and derivave

buyers all the usual suspects. I started to write

last week about their hesitancy, but it was very

technical and I thought it likely they would issue

the ruling they did this week. There are a few

things we should note about this decision.

First, there is a widespread misunderstanding

that the ISDA is the nal answer to whether

a naon is in default. The correct answer is, itdepends. Credit default swaps are contracts be-

tween two private pares . The actual original

contract is the governing document. While most

contracts named the ISDA as the nal arbiter of

default, there are many that did not. Some ex-

pets told tei

clients there

ws poblem

with choosing a

self-inteested

industry group

to be the naljudge, and were very specic in their contracts

as to what constuted a default. (Thanks to

Janet Tavakoli, who spent an hour late one night

paently explaining the arcana and minuae

of credit default swaps. She literally wrote the

book and not just one but three of them on

swaps.)

It does not take a nance major to understand

that if you do not get your money paid back to

you, there was a default of some kind. If the

ISDA had not conrmed a default by

Greece, they would have ceased to be relevant

in any future contracts that were wrien. It will

be interesng to see how contracts are struc-

tured in future.

Secondly, the number that keeps showing up

in the press is that there are only $3 billion

of credit default swaps on Greek debt. That is

only half true. The reality is that there is a NET

$3.2 billion of CDS on Greek debt. The total or

GROSS amount of swaps wrien is esmated to

be about $60-70 billion (Dan Greenhaus, Chief

Global Strategist, BTIG). This is in the 4,323 con-tracts that are known about.

Of the net exposure, the loss is likely to be less

than the $3.2 billion, unless Greek debt goes

to absolute zero. But that does not tell the

whole story. For instance, just one Austrian

state- owned bad bank, KA Finanz, faces a hit

of up to 1 billion euros ($1.31 billion) for the

hole Greeces debt restructuring punches in its

balance sheet. That loss, which will be borne by

Austrian taxpayers, is someone elses gain. The

net number means nothing to them they loseit all, over a third of the expected total loss.

Every bank and hedge fund, insurance company,

and pension fund has its own situaon. Care to

wager that the larger banks wont win on this

trade? My bet is that there will be $30 billion in

losses, out of which maybe someone will make

$27 billion in gains.

Will the counterparty that holds your oseng

CDS be able to pay? Will all taxpayers be so ac-

commodang as Austrias? Does anyone thinkthat taxpayers will bail out a hedge fund that

cannot pay its debt, if it sold protecon and has

to default?

Would that it was only a $3 billion loss spread

among the largest losers. That would be trivial

in the grand scheme of things. Will Greece real-

ly stress the system, as it was stressed in 2008?

The answer is, not likely, since European taxpay-

ers have found 100 billion to cover the debt

and the ECB has printed over 1 trillion, which

has postponed any debt crisis for the immedi-ate future. But the queson that we must ask in

a few paragraphs is, how many more countries

will have to restructure their debt?

O O O JOHN MAULDIN / LINK

... It does not take a fnance majorto understand that i you do not getyour money paid back to you, there

was a deault o some kind.
http://www.johnmauldin.com/images/uploads/pdf/mwo031012.pdf

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19.CHARTS THAT MAKE YOU GO Hmmm...

12 March 2012 19

Based on our experi-ence, weve been saying for some

me that volality will increase as

the markets ght their way to the

mania phase of this cycle and

that once there, the gyraons will

jump even higher. This call doesnt

exactly require one to go out on a

limb; it makes sense since more

investors will be crowding in and

volality was high in the 1979-80

mania.

First, lets put last Wednesdaysbig plunge in perspecve. Heres

a picture of the daily changes in

the gold price since 2003, based

on London x prices. (This chart is

very busy, but I want to show the

bulk of the bull market in one vi-

sual.)

A 4.8% decline is one of golds bigger one-day movements over the past nine-plus years. But as you

can see, there have been a number of days where gold rose or fell more than 5%. And it exceeded 6%

on ve occasions.

You might think this kind of volality is high and its true. Worse or beer, depending on how yousee things the volality in the underlying commodity is magnied in the related company stocks.

This is why Doug Casey calls mining stocks, especially the juniors, the most volale stocks on earth.

But the thing is, metals volality

has been higher in the past, par-

cularly during a mania.

Heres what I mean.

The following chart documents

golds daily price changes from

1976 through the end of 1980.

Take a look at the jump in volal-ity in 1979-80...

O O O JEFF CLARK / LINK

CLICK TO ENLARGE SOURCE: CASEY RESEARCH

SOURCE: CASEY RESEARCHCLICK TO ENLARGE
http://www.caseyresearch.com/articles/face-volatility?ppref=GRA442ED0312Ahttp://www.caseyresearch.com/sites/default/files/DailyGoldPriceVolatility1976to1980_0.pnghttp://www.caseyresearch.com/sites/default/files/DailyGoldPriceVolatilitySince2003_0.png

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12 March 2012 20

Richard Ross on the NASDAQ & the US 10-yr Treasury [email protected]

SOURCE: RICHARD ROSS

SOURCE: RICHARD ROSS
mailto:rross%40agco.com?subject=Things%20That%20Make%20You%20Go%20Hmmm.....%20mailto:rross%40agco.com?subject=Things%20That%20Make%20You%20Go%20Hmmm.....%20

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12 March 2012 21

We have a letspretend economy: lets pre-

tend the unemployment rate

actually reects the number

of people with full-me jobs

nd te numbe of people

seeking jobs, lets pretend

the Federal government bor-

rowing 10% of the GDP every

year is sustainable without

any consequences, lets pre-

tend the stock market actu-

ally reects the economy

rather than Federal Reservemonetary intervenon, and

so on.

We also have a lets pretend

educat ion/s tudent- loan

game running: lets pretend

college is worth the invest-

ment, and lets pretend stu-

dent loans are about educa-

on. There are three dirty

lile secrets buried under

the educaon/student-loancomplexs high-gloss sheen:

1. Student loans have lile

to do with educaon and

everything to do with creat-

ing a new prot center for

subprime-type lenders guar-

anteed by the Savior State.

2. A college diplomas value

in the real world of geng a

job and earning a good sal-ary in a post-nancializaon

economy has been grossly

oversold.

3. Many people are taking out student loans just to live; the loans are essenally a form of State

funding a.k.a. welfare that must be paid back.

Weve got a lot of charts that reect reality rather than hype, so lets get started.

o o o CHARLES HUGH-SMITH / LINK

SOURCE: NY FED/BEA

SOURCE: ZEROHEDGE
http://charleshughsmith.blogspot.com/2012/03/our-lets-pretend-economy-lets-pretend.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+google%2FRzFQ+%28oftwominds%29http://charleshughsmith.blogspot.com/2012/03/our-lets-pretend-economy-lets-pretend.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+google%2FRzFQ+%28oftwominds%29

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22.

12 March 2012 22

WORDS TH AT MAKE YOU GO Hmmm...

My very good friend Simon Mikhailovich isone of the smartest guys in any room and, mark my words,

the work he is doing at Eidesis Capital is set to make him

one of the most-recognized names in the precious metals

world.

For those of you not fortunate enough to be familiar with

Simon, this interview with another of my good friends, Al

Korelin, will give you an insight into the clarity of his think-

ing. Simon is someone you denitely want to listen to on

this, and for that maer, any subject.

It just so happens that Simon is also a prince of a man.

The photo (le) is the result of a Google search for Si-mons name and will hopefully hasten him sending me a

photo I can use going forward...

Jim Grant is temaster.

That is all there is to to say.

Watch and be educated byone of the nest minds we

have in nance..

(Via zerohedge)

Jim Puplava welcomes Russell Napier, Consultant at CLSAAsia-Pacic Markets. Russell discusses China dumping US treasuries and growing

signs of a private-sector liquidity squeeze in the US. Russell notes that when credit

dies, deaon follows, leading to greater nancial repression.

CLICK TO WATCH

CLICK TO LISTEN

CLICK TO LISTEN
http://www.financialsense.com/financial-sense-newshour/guest-expert/2012/03/09/russell-napier/when-credit-dies-european-liquidity-situation-getting-worsehttp://www.zerohedge.com/news/jim-grant-must-watch-capitalism-alternative-what-we-have-nowhttp://www.kereport.com/wp-content/uploads/0225-2-4.mp3

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SUBSCRIBE UNSUBSCRIBE COMMENTS

and fnally

12 March 2012 23

Hmmm

Regular readers othese pages will be well aware of my love for photographyand todays And Finally..... contains some magnicent lt/sh eect footage from a country

geng a LOT of press out here in Asia.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you The Next Mongolia - Myanmar.

CLICK TO WATCH

THING S THAT MAKE YOU GO HMMM..... 2012
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As a result of my role at Vulpes Investment Management, it falls upon me to disclose that, from me-to-me,

the views I express and/or the commentary I write in the pages of Things That Make You Go Hmmm..... may

reect the posioning of one or all of the Vulpes funds - though I will not be making any specic recommenda-

ons in this publicaon.

Grant

www.vulpesinvest.com

Grant Williams

Grant Williams is a porolio and strategy

advisor to Vulpes Investment Manage-

ment in Singpoe - edge fund unning

$200million of largely partners capital

across mulple strategies.

In 2012, all Vulpes funds will be opened to

outside investors.

Grant has 26 years of experience in nanceon the Asian, Australian, European and US

markets and has held senior posions at several internaonal investment houses. He

has been wring Things That Make You Go Hmmm..... since 2009

For more informaon on Vulpes please visit www.vulpesinvest.com
http://users/Grant/Library/Caches/Adobe%20InDesign/Version%207.0/en_GB/InDesign%20ClipboardScrap1.pdfhttp://www.vulpesinvest.com/http://www.vulpesinvest.com/http://users/Grant/Library/Caches/Adobe%20InDesign/Version%207.0/en_GB/InDesign%20ClipboardScrap1.pdf

Hmmm Mar 12 2012

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