Vladimir Platov — Billions of Dollars Laundered Through United Kingdom Banks

The UK National Crime Agency recently stated that “hundreds of billions of US dollars” are laundered through banks in the United Kingdom every year. London holds first place among world capitals with regard to the volume of drug trade and money laundering. Describing the global international drug trade network, Roberto Saviano, an Italian investigative journalist and author of Gomorrah, a book on the Neapolitan mafia, said a few days ago of the international drug trade that “Mexico is its heart and London is its head”. He also reminded readers of the British bank HSBC’s £1.2 billion fine for money laundering for a Mexican drug cartel in 2012.…

First appeared: http://journal-neo.org/2015/07/13/billions-of-dollars-laundered-through-united-kingdom-banks/

New Eastern Outlook
Billions of Dollars Laundered Through United Kingdom Banks

Vladimir Platov

Barclays — The Seven Broken Taboos Of The Cyprus Deal

The euro’s core founding principles, based on the Maastricht Treaty’s “irrevocable” fixing of currency rates, and of the free movement of capital, have been violated. The euro will never be the same again; its preservation now depends urgently upon economic recovery. Without the delivery of economic growth, unemployment will rise to yet higher post-war record levels, and the widespread and growing disillusionment felt by EU citizens towards their economic regime will threaten to spill over into more explicit questioning of the euro’s suitability.

Zero Hedge
The Seven Broken Taboos Of The Cyprus Deal
Barclays

Just a matter of time now for the euro? Will Cyprus turn out to be Creditanstalt redux? 

Are US import numbers the canary in the coal mine?

A much better than expected reading for the US February balance of trade (-$46 bln vs. expectations of -$51.8 bln) caused some economists to revise their Q1 GDP forecasts higher. Barclays is now calling for a 2.7% growth rate, up from its earlier estimate of 2.5%.

We all know that the trade balance factors into the "Net Export" component of GDP, which is normally a subtraction because it's perennially negative. In this case a smaller negative number would actually end up "adding" to GDP in that it takes less away. (Got that?)

But the quick decision to upgrade Q1 forecasts may be short-sighted. That's because the improvement in February's trade balance came mostly from a sharp decline in imports, which fell by $6.3 bln. Exports on the other hand, rose by only $0.2 bln.

A fall in imports speaks to softening demand, which is something the economy has been struggling with for a while now. In fact the data shows that demand, at least as measured by imports, is falling rapidly. (See chart below.)

Net exports are the smallest component of GDP, so any improvement here has only a limited impact on overall GDP, but if the demand fall-off shows up in any of the bigger components like Personal Consumption Expenditures or Business Investment, then the gains from trade would be completely offest. The import numbers may well be the canary in the coal mine.