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  1. Germany Buys CD Containing Data on 20,000 Swiss Bank Accounts
    June 9 (Bloomberg) — German authorities bought a CD containing data on some 20,000 Swiss bank accounts from an unidentified seller, raising the stakes in their pursuit of tax evaders that has ruffled relations with neighboring Switzerland.
    The federal German government shared the purchase price with the western state of Lower Saxony, whose tax authorities bought the CD, federal Finance Ministry spokesman Michael Offer told reporters today in Berlin. The CD had originally been offered to authorities in Baden-Wuerttemberg, yet the state’s premier, Stefan Mappus, turned it down in February, saying it was legally risky.
    The purchase of stolen bank data earlier this year, first by the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, sparked a conflict between the German and Swiss governments about methods used to obtain information on potential tax cheats. Switzerland has insisted it won’t offer legal assistance in cases involving stolen data.
    The purchase also caused controversy inside Chancellor Angela Merkel’s coalition about the propriety of buying tax information from data thieves. After Mappus refused to buy the second CD, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble’s staff said they would find another state tax authority to get the information.

    A government buying stolen information!!!!

    I guess this is worse than the Obama administration trying to buy off candidates competing in primaries whith the incumbents.

  2. “Not sure I follow that sentence…”

    The rest of your post implies that you followed it. I’m saying it well sell off hard.

    “…if you see a bubble it might not be a good idea to go short because the market can stay irrational longer than you can stay liquid…” – lechacal

    Yessir! Covering shorts can be brutal!

    “equity exposure is at quite low levels right now” – DIBS

    Scary shit. Nobody left but those with pipe dreams of recovering from the ’08 peak and the plunge protectors. Low volume and jagged ass volitility.

    “stock market = casino” – m4l

    Yessir!

    “ETFs are backed by physical gold.” – donatella

    Brownstone prices have bottomed.

    “If the government came out and said that [gold ownership ban] today there’d be an overthrow.” – DIBS

    We got robbed upwards of $700B and not one pitch fork! How would it be different then?

    “Donatella’s right, DIBS. US ETFs hold physical gold.” – lechacal

    How do you know? I mean how do you REALLY know? It’s quite easy for them to merely SAY that. Madoff said to his clients that they had legitimate returns.

    Will gold do an inverted double-dip? Sells off due to debt default, banruptcies, foreclosures, credit lock-up and deflation, followed by hyperinflation (rallys again)? Time will tell. The first part is certain.

    ***Bid half off peak comps***

  3. M4L – before I go, I have to tell you a story which I think you will love. I went to see a gold dealer in Dubai. He bought and sold bullion and sold to jewelry makers in City of Gold. He kept physical inventory in his office!!!! No shit. He was also a foreign currency dealer too (did forex for all merchants). He said come with me and I went into an office and he had gold bricks piled to the ceiling. I asked him about security and he said he had a metal door on the building!!!!!!! This is an Indian guy whose family lived for a generation in Oman. In Dubai, if you try to steal anything, you are lucky if they only cut off body parts.

    But there it was, a mountain in an office that looked a lot like a car service office in Brooklyn!!!

    Gotta go.

  4. Not all ETFs hold physical gold and they do it to varying degrees.

    You disbelieve this at your peril. I’m not going to argue about this anymore since I know which ones have what % exposure to gold. the amount of derivatives they own can be very large at times.

    Don’t kid yourselves.

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