GLOBAL ECONOMIC MELTDOWN: Precursors To A Global Financial Collapse - EU On The Brink Of "TERRIFYING CRISIS" As Five Of Europe's Biggest Banks Are In Danger, Warns Expert!

Are Europe's banks heading into meltdown?

February 4, 2016 - EUROPE - Some of Europe’s biggest banks are on the brink for a crisis that echoes the 2008 meltdown, a finance expert warned today, as fears over the global economy escalate.

Deutsche Bank, Credit Suisse, Santander, Barclays and RBS are among the stocks that are falling sharply sending shockwaves through the financial world, according to former hedge fund manager and ex Goldman Sachs employee Raoul Pal.

At the height of the financial disaster in 2008, the Government was forced to step in and rescue Lloyds Banks and RBS from liquidation, while the European Central Bank gave huge bailouts to Spain, Greece, Portugal and Italy.

Last month, the head of the European Central Bank Mario Draghi raised expectations that it could undergo yet more Quantitative Easing in March – in effect printing billions of pounds worth of money – in the face of ongoing economic fears.

France last month declared a state of economic crisis adding to worries about the stability of the euro-zone.

Regulations now require banks in Europe to hold more cash as a buffer against market shocks, but Mr Pal said balance sheets haven’t been cleaned up and warned negative interest rates are hitting the firms hard.

The pundit’s comments come as a number of bank shares plunged to their lowest levels for years.

The Chancellor George Osborne has even been forced to push back Lloyds Bank’s retail share sale after stock value plunged too far.

Mr Ral told CNBC news: “I look at the big long-term share charts of them, and I think this looks very terrifying indeed. I have not seen anything like this for a long time.

“Negative rates are something the banks can banks cannot deal with and that’s being priced into share prices quickly.”

Fears over low oil prices and China’s slowing economy, tumbling stock values at the start of the year were largely driven by investors selling off oil and mining companies.

But now panic has spread into other sectors.

And Mr Pal said banking issues could be an even bigger worry than China’s growth slowdown and cheap oil. - Express.

GLOBAL ECONOMIC MELTDOWN: Another Banker Bites The Dust – MassMutual Senior Vice President Found Dead, Stabbed In The Chest In Apparent Homicide?!

November 24, 2014 - CONNECTICUT, UNITED STATES - A week after stunned Tribeca woke up to news of a grizzly death in which a Citigroup managing director living on Greenwich Street was found dead in his bathtub with a slashed throat and the lack of a suicide weapon on the scene suggesting there was foul play involved, another banking executive was killed over the weekend, when 54-year-old Melissa Millian, a senior vice president at MassMutual, was found lying in a road in Simsbury, Connecticut, having been stabbed in the chest.

As CBS reports, initially there was speculation Millian may have been in a bicycle accident, or may have been the victim of a hit-and-run.  However on Saturday, the office of the Chief State Medical examiner said the cause of her death was a stab wound to the chest, and the manner was homicide.

According to WCVB, Millan, a mother of two, was a senior vice president at MassMutual in Springfield. A spokesman for the company said she was a tremendous leader and deeply caring and that she would be missed.

Passing motorists found Millan lying on the ground Thursday at 8:04 p.m., according to Simsbury police.

Police said she could have been out jogging but that they did not yet know what happened and are investigating. Millan was taken to St. Francis Hospital where she died, according to police.

Police announced Saturday they were investigating the incident as a homicide.

As Breaking911 further adds, MassMutual was shocked by the news, with a company spokesperson saying that "Melissa’s tremendous leadership qualities, business acumen and deeply caring nature will be missed by those who had the opportunity to work with her." 

Friends, who gathered to pay their respects, said Millan was a dedicated athlete and an incredible mother.

“Devastated…shocked and angry. That a woman, such a woman’s life, could have been ended so senselessly and so cruelly,” said friend Lynne Tapper.

According to MassLive, people using the popular bike path that runs through the town said they were shocked to hear someone as stabbed to death along the trail which they consider safe.

The path is connected to a series of linked bikeways that start in Westfield and head south, running though most of Connecticut. It is popular with Western Massachusetts residents.

Sunday several people stopped at the memorial to mourn the death of the woman who was known as a triathlete as well as a parent and a skilled professional. They declined to talk to the media. A vigil was held earlier on Sunday in Farmington sponsored by Team Training New England.

The organization's website called Millan an "an extraordinary human being" and set up a memorial page for her.

"Melissa has been a pillar of the TTNE community since she first trained with us in 2006. Regardless of her formidable responsibilities at home and at work, she made every effort to mentor 'newbie' triathletes and provide moral and other support to her team members year in and year out, without fail!" the website said.

People who use the path said it is well-lit and there are always people walking or driving by.

"I was very surprised," said Donna Morris, of Simsbury, who was walking her four-month-old mixed breed dog at dusk Sunday. "I walk here sometimes and I haven't had a problem."

The path runs along Iron Horse Boulevard, a divided roadway with plenty of traffic. The memorial was set up less than 20 feet from a popular playground which was filled with children and their parents Sunday afternoon. Behind the playground is a dog park that is also popular. Across the street from the playground is a group of shops.

"It looks like someone would have seen something," Morris said. Tonia Kagan, of West Hartford, reacted with shock when she learned the bouquets had been placed there to remember Millan.

"I love this path," she said. "My husband is in the dog park now. It is a lovely place." She likened Simsbury to West Hartford, saying it is usually peaceful and violence is rare.

"I use this path a lot and I'm shocked and surprised...I always feel very safe," said Lucinda, who declined to give her last name.

Was this another targeted murder in an otherwise sleepy neighborhood, and if so, what was the motivation to take out a mother of two and active member of the local community? The police investigation is ongoing. - Zero Hedge.

GLOBAL ECONOMIC MELTDOWN: Another Banker Bites The Dust – Senior Citi Banker Found Dead In Bathtub With Slashed Throat!

November 20, 2014 - NEW YORK, UNITED STATES - The dust has barely settled on the latest high profile banker suicide in which Deutsche Bank's associate general counsel, and former SEC regulator, Charlie Gambino was found dead, having hung himself by the neck from a stairway banister, and here comes the latest sad entrant in the dead banker chronicles of 2014 when earlier today, the Post reports, a Citigroup banker was found dead with his throat slashed in the bathtub "of his swanky downtown apartment, authorities said Wednesday."

More:

Shawn D. Miller, Citigroup’s managing director of environmental and social risk management, was discovered around 3 p.m. Tuesday by a doorman in the Greenwich Street building, law enforcement sources said. “We are deeply saddened by this news and our thoughts are with Shawn’s family at this time,” said a statement sent out by Citigroup.

Bloomberg adds that "a 42-year-old man was found unconscious yesterday in the bathtub of his Greenwich Street apartment in lower Manhattan with a neck laceration and later pronounced dead, the New York Police Department said in a statement."

Medics declared him dead after responding to an emergency call about 3:11 p.m. and an investigation to determine the cause of death is continuing, police said.

Miller advised executives and clients on sustainability matters, including environmental and social policies related to industries including mining and renewable energy, according to his LinkedIn profile. He helped oversee the development and implementation of policies in more than 100 countries.

“We are deeply saddened by this news and our thoughts are with Shawn’s family at this time,” Danielle Romero-Apsilos, a spokeswoman for the New York-based bank, told Bloomberg an e-mailed statement.

However, unlike previous more "clearcut" suicides, this time there may have been foul play: the Post adds that "there was no knife recovered at the scene, leading officials to suspect the death was not a suicide, and they were trying to determine who had access to his apartment."

Miller did well: "one-bedroom apartments at the building are listed at more than $1 million."

An online profile under the man’s name calls him a “pioneer in sustainable finance” and a specialist in emerging markets at the International Finance Corp., part of the World Bank. Several former colleagues told The Post that Miller was well-liked.

It was unclear why the doorman checked his apartment.

Miller's LinkedIn profile is shown below:

- Zero Hedge.

GLOBAL ECONOMIC MELTDOWN: More Banker Suicides – Another Deutsche Banker And Former SEC Enforcement Attorney Commits Suicide!

October 25, 2014 - GLOBAL ECONOMY - 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. Just a few brief hours later the WSJ reported that yet another Deutsche Bank veteran has committed suicide, and not just anyone but the bank's associate general counsel, 41 year old Calogero "Charlie" Gambino, who was found on the morning of Oct. 20, having also hung himself by the neck from a stairway banister, which according to the New York Police Department was the cause of death. We assume that any relationship to the famous Italian family carrying that last name is purely accidental. Here is his bio from a recent conference which he attended:

Charlie J. Gambino is a Managing Director and Associate General Counsel in the Regulatory, Litigation and Internal Investigation group for Deutsche Bank in the Americas. Mr. Gambino served as a staff attorney in the United Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Enforcement from 1997 to 1999. He also was associated with the law firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate Meagher & Flom from 1999 to 2003. He is a frequent speaker at securities law conferences. Mr. Gambino is a member of the American Bar Association and the Association of the Bar of the City of New York.

As a reminder, the other Deutsche Bank-er who was found dead earlier in the year, William Broeksmit, was involved in the bank's risk function and advised the firm's senior leadership; he was "anxious about various authorities investigating areas of the bank where he worked," according to written evidence from his psychologist, given Tuesday at an inquest at London's Royal Courts of Justice. And now that an almost identical suicide by hanging has taken place at Europe's most systemically important bank, and by a person who worked in a nearly identical function - to shield the bank from regulators and prosecutors and cover up its allegedly illegal activities with settlements and fines - is surely bound to raise many questions. The WSJ reports that Mr. Gambino had been "closely involved in negotiating legal issues for Deutsche Bank, including the prolonged probe into manipulation of the London interbank offered rate, or Libor, and ongoing investigations into manipulation of currencies markets, according to people familiar with his role at the bank." He previously was an associate at a private law firm and a regulatory enforcement lawyer from 1997 to 1999, according to his online LinkedIn profile and biographies for conferences where he spoke. But most notably, as his LinkedIn profile below shows, like many other Wall Street revolving door regulators, he started his career at the SEC itself where he worked from 1997 to 1999.

"Charlie was a beloved and respected colleague who we will miss. Our thoughts and sympathy are with his friends and family,” Deutsche Bank said in a statement. Going back to the previous suicide by a DB executive, the bank said at the time of the inquest that Mr. Broeksmit “was not under suspicion of wrongdoing in any matter.” At the time of Mr. Broeksmit’s death, Deutsche Bank executives sent a memo to bank staff saying Mr. Broeksmit “was considered by many of his peers to be among the finest minds in the fields of risk and capital management.” Mr. Broeksmit had left a senior role at Deutsche Bank’s investment bank in February 2013, but he remained an adviser until the end of 2013. His most recent title was the investment bank’s head of capital and risk-optimization, which included evaluating risks related to complicated transactions. A thread connecting Broeksmit to wrongdoing, however, was uncovered earlier this summer when Wall Street on Parade referenced his name in relation to the notorious at the time strategy provided by Deutsche Bank and others to allow hedge funds to avoid paying short-term capital gains taxes known as MAPS (see How RenTec Made More Than $34 Billion In Profits Since 1998: "Fictional Derivatives") From Wall Street on Parade:

Broeksmit’s name first emerged in yesterday’s Senate hearing as Senator Carl Levin, Chair of the Subcommittee, was questioning Satish Ramakrishna, the Global Head of Risk and Pricing for Global Prime Finance at Deutsche Bank Securities in New York. Ramakrishna was downplaying his knowledge of conversations about how the scheme was about changing short term gains into long term gains, denying that he had been privy to any conversations on the matter. Levin than asked: “Did you ever have conversations with a man named Broeksmit?” Ramakrishna conceded that he had and that the fact that the scheme had a tax benefit had emerged in that conversation. Ramakrishna could hardly deny this as Levin had just released a November 7, 2008 transcript of a conversation between Ramakrishna and Broeksmit where the tax benefit had been acknowledged. Another exhibit released by Levin was an August 25, 2009 email from William Broeksmit to Anshu Jain, with a cc to Ramakrishna, where Broeksmit went into copious detail on exactly what the scheme, internally called MAPS, made possible for the bank and for its client, the Renaissance Technologies hedge fund. (See Email from William Broeksmit to Anshu Jain, Released by the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.) At one point in the two-page email, Broeksmit reveals the massive risk the bank is taking on, writing: “Size of portfolio tends to be between $8 and $12 billion long and same amount of short. Maximum allowed usage is $16 billion x $16 billion, though this has never been approached.” Broeksmit goes on to say that most of Deutsche’s money from the scheme “is actually made by lending them specials that we have on inventory and they pay far above the regular rates for that.”

It would appear that with just months until the regulatory crackdown and Congressional kangaroo circus, Broeksmit knew what was about to pass and being deeply implicated in such a scheme, preferred to take the painless way out. The question then is just what major regulatory revelation is just over the horizon for Deutsche Bank if yet another banker had to take his life to avoid being cross-examined by Congress under oath? For a hint we go back to another report, this time by the FT, which yesterday noted that Deutsche Bank will set aside just under €1bn towards the numerous legal and regulatory issues it faces in its third quarter results next week, the bank confirmed on Friday.

In a statement made after the close of markets, the Frankfurt-based lender said it expected to publish litigation costs of €894m when it announces its results for the July-September period on October 29. The extra cash will add to Deutsche's already sizeable litigation pot, where the bank has yet to be fined in connection with the London interbank rate-rigging scandal. It is also facing fines from US authorities over alleged mortgage-backed securities misselling and sanctions violations, which have already seen rivals hit with heavy fines. Deutsche has also warned that damage from global investigations into whether traders attempted to manipulate the foreign-exchange market could have a material impact on the bank. The extra charge announced on Friday will bring Deutsche's total litigation reserves to €3.1bn. The bank also has an extra €3.2bn in so-called contingent liabilities for fines that are harder to estimate.

Clearly Deutsche Bank is slowly becoming Europe's own JPMorgan - a criminal bank whose past is finally catching up to it, and where legal fine after legal fine are only now starting to slam the banking behemoth. We will find out just what the nature of the latest litigation charge is next week when Deutsche Bank reports, but one thing is clear: in addition to mortgage, Libor and FX settlements, one should also add gold. Recall from around the time when the first DB banker hung himself: it was then that Elke Koenig, the president of Germany's top financial regulator, Bafin, said that in addition to currency rates, manipulation of precious metals "is worse than the Libor-rigging scandal." It remains to be seen if Calogero's death was also related to precious metals rigging although it certainly would not be surprising. What is surprising, is that slowly things are starting to fall apart at the one bank which as we won't tire of highlighting, has a bigger pyramid of notional derivatives on its balance sheet than even JPMorgan, amounting to 20 times more than the GDP of Germany itself, and where if any internal investigation ever goes to the very top, then Europe itself, and thus the world, would be in jeopardy.

At this point it is probably worth reminding to what great lengths regulators would go just to make sure that Deutsche Bank would never be dragged into a major litigation scandal: recall that the chief enforcer of the SEC during the most critical period following the great crash of 2008, Robert Khuzami, worked previously from 2002 to 2009 at, drumroll, Deutsche Bank most recently as its General Counsel (see "Robert Khuzami Stands To Lose Up To $250,000 If He Pursues Action Against Deutsche Bank" and "Circle Jerk 101: The SEC's Robert Khuzami Oversaw Deutsche Bank's CDO, Has Recused Himself Of DB-Related Matters"). The same Khuzami who just landed a $5 million per year contract (with a 2 year guarantee) with yet another "law firm", Kirkland and Ellis. One wonders: if and when the hammer falls on Deutsche Bank, will it perchance be defended by the same K&E and its latest prominent hire, Robert Khuzami himself? But usually it is best to just avoid litigation altogether. Which is why perhaps sometimes it is easiest if the weakest links, those whose knowledge can implicate the people all the way at the top, quietly commit suicide in the middle of the night... - Zero Hedge.

GLOBAL ECONOMIC MELTDOWN: Precursors To A Global Financial Collapse - 5th Financial Services Executive Found Dead; "From Self-Inflicted Nail-Gun Wounds"?!

February 09, 2014 - GLOBAL ECONOMY - The ugly rash of financial services executive suicides appears to have spread once again. Following the jumping deaths of 2 London bankers,  a managing director in Bangkok, and a former-Fed economist in the US, The Denver Post reports Richard Talley, founder and CEO of American Title, was found dead in his home from self-inflicted wounds - from a nail-gun. Talley's company was under investigation from insurance regulators:

The founder and CEO of American Title Services in Centennial was found dead in his home this week, the result of self-inflicted wounds from a nail gun, according to the Arapahoe County coroner.

Richard Talley, 57, and the company he founded in 2001 were under investigation by state insurance regulators at the time of his death late Tuesday, an agency spokesman confirmed Thursday.

It was unclear how long the investigation had been ongoing or its primary focus.

A coroner's spokeswoman Thursday said Talley was found in his garage by a family member who called authorities. They said Talley died from seven or eight self-inflicted wounds from a nail gun fired into his torso and head.

Also unclear is whether Talley's suicide was related to the investigation by the Colorado Division of Insurance, which regulates title companies.

The division is a part of the Department of Regulatory Agencies.

DORA spokesman Vince Plymell confirmed that the investigation was focused on Talley and the company but would not provide additional details.

Before coming to Colorado, Talley was a former regional financial officer at Drexel Burnham Lambert in Chicago, where he met his wife, Cheryl, a vice president at the company. The two married in 1989.

Talley had formed a number of companies, some now defunct, according to the Colorado secretary of state's office. Among them: American Escrow, Clear Title, Clear Creek Financial Holdings, Swift Basin, Sumar, American Real Estate Services, and the American Alliance of Real Estate Professionals.

In addition to its headquarters in the Peakview Tower near Fiddler's Green Amphitheatre in the Denver Tech Center, American Title has offices in Pueblo, Brighton, Boulder, Westminster, Lakewood, Wheat Ridge and Fort Collins, according to its website.

Talley's 1989 wedding announcement in the Chicago Tribune noted he was a graduate of the University of Miami and had a graduate degree from Northwestern University's Kellogg Graduate School of Management.

It also said he was "a member of the 1980 U.S. Olympic swimming team." A spokeswoman for USA Swimming on Thursday said Talley was not on the team.

A funeral mass is to be held at 12:30 p.m. Saturday at St. Thomas More Catholic Church in Centennial. - Denver Post.

GLOBAL ECONOMIC MELTDOWN: Precursors To A Global Financial Collapse - Financial World Shaken By 4 Bankers' Apparent Suicides In Just One Week?!

February 03, 2014 - GLOBAL ECONOMY - The apparent suicide death of the chief economist of a US investment house brings the number of financial workers who have died allegedly by their own hand to four in the last week.

50-year-old Mike Dueker, who had worked for Russell Investment for five years, was found dead close to the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in Washington State, says AP.

Local police say he could have jumped over a fence and fallen 15 meters to his death, and are treating the case as a suicide.

Dueker was reported missing by friends on January 29, and police had been searching for him.

A Sheriff’s spokesman said investigators learned that he was having problems at work but did not elaborate.

Jennifer Tice, a company spokeswoman declined to comment, however said, that Dueker was in good standing at Russell.

“We were deeply saddened to learn today of the death,” Tice said in an e-mail on Friday. “He made a valuable contributions that helped our clients and many of his fellow associates.”

Mike Dueker (Still from YouTube video/Russell Investments)

Dueker joined Russell Investment in 2008. He wrote for Market Outlook financial services publications, forecasting the business cycle and the target federal funds rate. He is the creator and developer of a business cycle index that forecast economic performance published monthly on the Russell website.

He was previously an assistant vice president and research economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, and is ranked in the top 5 percent of published economists.

Over the past two decades he wrote tens of research papers mostly on monetary policy, according to the bank’s website.

His most-cited paper was “Strengthening the case for the yield curve as a predictor of U.S. recessions,” published in 1997 while he was a researcher at the Federal Reserve.

“He was a valued colleague of mine during my entire tenure at the St. Louis Fed,” said William Poole, the bank's ex-president. “Everyone respected his professional skills and good sense.”

Dueker held an undergraduate degree in math from the University of Oregon, a master’s degree in economics from Northwestern University and a Ph.D. from the University of Washington.

Streak of bankers’ deaths

Dueker’s apparent suicide was the fourth among financial experts in a week.

A 58-year-old former senior executive at Deutsche Bank AG, William Broeksmit, was found dead on January 26 in his home after an apparent suicide in South Kensington in central London.

The next day, January 27, Tata Motors managing director Karl Slym, 51, was found dead on the fourth floor of the Shangri-La hotel in Bangkok. Police said he could have committed suicide. Mr. Slym was staying on a 22th floor with his wife, and was attending a board meeting in the Thai capital.

Another tragic incident occurred on January 28, when a 39-year-old Gabriel Magee, a JP Morgan employee, died after falling from the roof of its European headquarters in London.

The offices of JP Morgan in the Canary Wharf district of London (Reuters/Simon Newman)

 While creating fortunes, City and Wall Street jobs are notorious for extra-long working weeks and huge amounts of stress. In a move to ease the tension some of the world’s biggest lenders like Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and Credit Suisse have been telling junior staff to take more time off.

Some European countries like Belgium and the Netherlands have reduced the working week from 40 to 30 hours without damaging their economies, while in Germany an average worker puts in 35 hours a week and is the world’s fourth largest economy. - RT.

GLOBAL ECONOMIC MELTDOWN: Third Prominent Banker Found Dead In Just 6 Days - William Broeksmit, Deutsche Bank Banker Found Hanged In London; Russell Investments Chief Economist Dueker Found Dead; And Gabriel Magee, JP Morgan Employee Falls To His Death From High Rise In London!

January 31, 2014 - GLOBAL ECONOMY - Bloomberg is reporting this morning that former Federal Reserve economist Mike Dueker was found dead in an apparent suicide near Tacoma, Washington. Dueker, 50, a chief economist at Russell Investments, had been missing since Jan. 29 and was reportedly having troubles at work.

What’s strange is that Dueker is the third prominent banker found dead since Sunday. On Sunday, William Broeksmit, 58, former senior manager for Deutsche Bank, was found hanging in his home, also an apparent suicide. On Tuesday, Gabriel Magee, 39, vice president at JPMorgan Chase & Co’s (JPM) London headquarters, apparently jumped to his death from a building in the Canary Wharf area.

See more in the following stories:

Russell Investments Chief Economist Dueker Found Dead

Mike Dueker, chief economist at Russell Investments,
poses for an undated handout photograph released
by Russell Investments.

Mike Dueker, the chief economist at Russell Investments, was found dead at the side of a highway that leads to the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in Washington state, according to the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department. He was 50.

He may have jumped over a 4-foot (1.2-meter) fence before falling down a 40- to 50-foot embankment, Pierce County Detective Ed Troyer said yesterday. He said the death appeared to be a suicide.

Dueker was reported missing on Jan. 29, and a group of friends had been searching for him along with law enforcement. Troyer said the economist was having problems at work, without elaborating. Dueker was in good standing at Russell, said Jennifer Tice, a company spokeswoman. She declined to comment on Troyer’s statement about Dueker’s work issues.

“We were deeply saddened to learn today of the death,” Tice said in an e-mail yesterday. “He made valuable contributions that helped our clients and many of his fellow associates.”

Dueker worked at Seattle-based Russell for five years, and developed a business-cycle index that forecast economic performance. He was previously an assistant vice president and research economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

He published dozens of research papers over the past two decades, many on monetary policy, according to the St. Louis Fed’s website, which ranks him among the top 5 percent of economists by number of works published. His most-cited work was a 1997 paper titled “Strengthening the case for the yield curve as a predictor of U.S. recessions,” published by the reserve bank while he was a researcher there.

Policy Meetings

Dueker worked at the reserve bank from 1991 to 2008, starting as an entry level research economist, then advancing to senior economist, research officer, and assistant vice president, according to Laura Girresch, a spokeswoman.

He helped the bank’s president prepare for Federal Open Market Committee policy meetings and wrote and edited for economic publications, she said. Dueker served as editor of the reserve bank’s research publication, Monetary Trends, and also was an associate editor of the Journal of Business and Economic Statistics, Girresch said.

“He was a valued colleague of mine during my entire tenure at the St. Louis Fed,” said William Poole, who was president of the reserve bank from 1998 to 2008. “Everyone respected his professional skills and good sense.”

Dueker earned a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Washington, a master’s in that field from Northwestern University and an undergraduate degree in math from the University of Oregon.

Russell is owned by Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co. The company manages more than $246 billion and calculates benchmark indexes such as the Russell 3000. - Bloomberg.

Gabriel Magee, JP Morgan Employee Falls To His Death From High Rise In London

The body of JP Morgan employee Gabriel Magee, 39, could be seen by office
workers nearby. Photograph: Amer Ghazzal/Barcroft Media

An employee of JP Morgan investment bank who fell to his death from the firm's European headquarters during rush hour in London has been named as 39-year-old Gabriel Magee.

Magee, a vice-president in IT at the bank, landed on the ninth floor of the 33-floor building in Bank Street, in the busy Canary Wharf financial district, at about 8am on Tuesday. Police said they are not treating his death as suspicious.

A JP Morgan spokeswoman said: "We are deeply saddened to have lost a member of the JP Morgan family at 25 Bank Street today. Our thoughts and sympathy are with his family and his friends."

Magee had been with the firm since 2004 and was described by a source as "a respected employee, well thought of by managers". He worked in the firm's corporate and investment bank technology department, and had previously worked as an application developer for Intel.

Magee was pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics.

People in offices nearby on Bank Street spoke of their shock. David Payne said he arrived at the law firm where he works at 8.10am. He said: "A couple of my colleagues made me aware of what happened. They were upset after seeing a body of a gentleman, who appeared to have fallen from the top of JP Morgan in Canary Wharf. I witnessed the gentleman lying on the ground from my view from my desk. I believe the gentleman was in a suit, but I cannot be too sure. There was a significant amount of blood as well as broken concrete from the impact around him."

Payne said it was about four-and-a-half hours before the body, which was covered only by a small plastic sheet, was moved. "My colleagues and I, as to be expected, were upset by the incident. Around 12.30pm the body was moved with a cover put over the blood and damaged concrete and this still remains. I am not too sure what took so long as the poor man just appeared to be left alone."

Hetal Patel, a research analyst for FTSE, said people looking were looking at the scene through the window of the Bank Street office where she works when she arrived at about 8.15am. She said: "I am quite young and have just joined the [financial] industry so for me it was quite shocking. For most people [in my office] it was quite shocking."

Patel said the body could be seen from the window of the office kitchen, prompting some of her colleagues to avoid entering the room as a result.

London Ambulance Service said: "We were called at 8.04am to Bank Street to reports of a person fallen from a height. We sent one ambulance crew, a duty officer, our hazardous area response team and London Air Ambulance to the scene. Sadly, a man in his 30s was pronounced dead at the scene."

The building has been the headquarters of JP Morgan's Europe, Middle East and Africa operation since July 2012. It was formerly home to another investment bank, Lehman Brothers, before it collapsed in 2008, triggering the global financial crisis. - Guardian.

William Broeksmit, Deutsche Bank Banker Found Hanged In London

Shock: The Deutsche Bank headquarters in Frankfurt

The body of a banker is believed to have been found hanging at a house in central London.

Deutsche bank announced the death of its former executive William Broeksmit in an email to staff yesterday.

Police today said they discovered the body of a man at a property in South Kensington on Sunday.

The bank told its employees that Broeksmit, 58, a former senior manager with close ties to co-Chief Executive Anshu Jain, had died at his home in London on Sunday.

The bank did not state the cause of death.

The Metropolitan Police said officers were called to South Kensington on Sunday shortly after midday after reports of a man found hanging at a house.

The 58-year-old man was pronounced dead at the scene.

"His death has been declared as non-suspicious," police said in the statement. - Mirror.

GLOBAL ECONOMIC MELTDOWN: Precursors To The Total Collapse Of The White Supremacy Paradigm - Cyprus Plans To Seize Cash From 'Rich' With Savings Of $25,867.73 Or More In Bank; Trading Suspended In Cyprus Amid Bailout Woes; Europe’s Leaders Run Out Of Credit In Cyprus; S&P Warns Of Socially Explosive Situation In Euro-Zone; Russian Company Offers To Bailout Cyprus In Exchange For The Gas Exploration Rights; Russia Sends Warship To Mediterranean, Is A Naval Base In Cyprus Coming Next?!

March 19, 2013 - EUROPE - Cyprus's parliament overwhelmingly rejected a proposed levy on savings in banks as a condition for a European bailout on Tuesday, throwing international efforts to rescue the latest casualty of the euro zone debt crisis into disarray.  The vote in the tiny legislature was a stunning setback for the 17-nation bloc; lawmakers in Greece, Portugal, Ireland, Spain and Italy have all accepted unpopular austerity measures over the last three years to secure European aid.  With hundreds of demonstrators facing riot police outside parliament and chanting "They're drinking our blood", the ruling party abstained and 36 other lawmakers voted unanimously to reject the bill, bringing the Mediterranean island, one of the smallest European states, to the brink of financial meltdown. 

Protesters shout slogans during an anti-bailout rally outside the parliament in Nicosia March 19, 2013.
REUTERS/Yorgos Karahalis

Cyprus To Seize Cash From 'Rich' With Savings Of $25,867.73 Or More In Bank.

EU countries said before the vote that they would withhold 10 billion euros ($12.9 billion) in bailout loans unless depositors in Cyprus, including small savers, shared the cost of the rescue; the European Central Bank had threatened to end emergency lending assistance for teetering Cypriot banks, which were hard hit by the financial crisis in neighboring Greece.  The demonstrators were unbowed: "This is a great decision for Cyprus," said Andreas Miltiadou, a 65-year-old pensioner among the crowd. "The voice of the people was heard."  The ECB said it "took note" of the vote and remained "committed to provide liquidity as needed within the existing rules".  Newly elected President Nicos Anastasiades earlier told reporters he expected parliament to reject the tax on bank deposits - "because they feel and they think that it is unjust and it's against the interests of Cyprus at large".  He was due to meet party leaders at 9 a.m. (0700 GMT) on Wednesday to explore a way forward.  Europe's demand at the weekend that Cyprus break with previous EU practice and impose a levy on bank accounts sparked outrage among Cypriots, who emptied bank cash machines, and unsettled financial markets.  Combined with Anastasiades' refusal to accept a levy of more than 10 percent on deposits above 100,000 euros, that meant taxing smaller accounts too, which savers had thought were protected by state guarantees.  An important issue in negotiations has been the high level of deposits held in the island's banks by non-EU citizens and companies, notably from Russia, where Cyprus has established itself as a major provider of offshore financial services.  Cypriot Finance Minister Michael Sarris flew to Moscow on Tuesday to seek Russian financial assistance. He denied by text message to Reuters reports that he had resigned, which had rattled markets' nerves as lawmakers were poised to vote.

BACKLASH
Stunned by the backlash, euro zone finance ministers urged Nicosia on Monday to avoid taxing accounts below 100,000 euros, and instead increase the levy on big accounts, which have always been unprotected by the state deposit guarantee. The European Union and International Monetary Fund are demanding Cyprus raise 5.8 billion euros from bank depositors to secure its bailout, needed to rescue its financial sector. A revised draft bill would have exempted savings under 20,000 euros from a 6.75 percent levy on deposits of less than 100,000 euros, leaving a shortfall. But that was not enough to sway lawmakers, even in the ruling party, to accept the tax. "You can't take a 10,000-metre jump without a parachute. And that's what they're asking of us," said George Perdikis of the Greens Party. French Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici said the euro zone could not lend Cyprus any more, since the country's debt would become unmanageable for its 1.1 million people. "Above 10 billion euros we are entering into a size of debt that is not sustainable," Moscovici told reporters in Paris. International market reaction has been muted so far but that might change. "In the very short term, this will be a small victory for the more rational observers who had looked at this move as, frankly, outrageous. But it leaves Pandora's Box wide open," Mike Moran, senior currency strategist at Standard Chartered in New York, said of the plan to make bank depositors contribute. While Brussels has emphasized that the measure was a one-off for a country that accounts for just 0.2 percent of European output, fears have grown that savers in other, larger European countries might be spurred to withdraw funds. Dutch Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem, who chairs the group of euro zone finance ministers, said there would be no need to impose a levy in any of the 16 other euro countries. Deutsche Bank Chief Executive Anshu Jain said in Frankfurt: "We see near-term contagion risk as limited. This is unlikely to be a model for other European Union states."

People wait to make transactions at an ATM outside a closed branch of Laiki Bank in Nicosia March 19, 2013.
REUTERS/Yorgos Karahalis

CASH FROM PUTIN?
Anastasiades has continued to resist raising the levy on big deposits - many held by rich Russians - fearing for the island's business model and reputation as an offshore financial haven. He asked the EU for more aid during a telephone conversation with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday. Some Cypriots hope they could instead get aid from Russia, which has bailed out Cyprus in the past. Many Russians keep their money in Cyprus and operate businesses from there. Government spokesman Christos Stylianides said Anastasiades might also speak to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has called the deposit levy "unfair, unprofessional and dangerous". Russian authorities have denied that the Kremlin might offer more money, possibly in return for a future stake in Cyprus's large but as yet undeveloped offshore gas reserves, which have raised the island's strategic importance. An influx of Russian money and influence since the collapse of the Soviet Union has led some Brussels officials to complain privately that Cyprus acts at times as a "Trojan donkey" for Moscow inside the European Union since it joined in 2004. Stunned Cypriots emptied cash machines over the weekend and banks are to remain shut on Tuesday and Wednesday to avoid a bank run. The island's stock exchange also suspended trading for another two days. ($1 = 0.7760 euros) - Reuters.

Trading Suspended In Cyprus Amid Bailout Woes.

Trading on the Cyprus Stock Exchange has been suspended Tuesday and Wednesday and will reopen again on Thursday, to avoid any potential risks to the financial system amid discussions of bailout conditions for the country, the exchange said. Cypriot banks are scheduled to remain closed until Thursday, amid worries that a controversial bank-deposit tax will create a run on the country's banks. The Cyprus Stock Exchange said in a statement that the decision to suspend trading was taken in the view of "the current very serious developments in the Cyprus economy due to recent decisions of the Eurogroup which affect the banking sector in Cyprus and the economy in general which affects banks whose securities are listed on the Stock Exchange." - Market Watch.

Europe’s Leaders Run Out Of Credit In Cyprus.

European leaders must surely know that they are taking a big risk with Cyprus. The danger is obvious. Now that everybody with money in Cypriot banks is being forced to take a hit, nervous depositors elsewhere in Europe might notice that a dangerous precedent has been set. Rather than run even a small risk of an unwanted financial “haircut” in the future, the customers of Greek, Spanish, Portuguese or Italian banks might choose to get their money out now. If that starts to happen, the euro crisis will be back on again – with a vengeance. The people behind the Cyprus plan hope that the risks of contagion are small. They reckon that the Spanish banks are on the mend, and that Greece too has pulled back from the brink. There is no reason for depositors to draw lessons from the peculiar case of Cyprus, whose banks are stuffed with Russian money.

Maybe so. And yet EU leaders have got these kinds of calculations badly wrong before. At a summit in Deauville in September 2010, they announced that the holders of sovereign bonds in bailed-out countries would lose some of their money. The result was a severe worsening of the euro crisis, as investors began to demand much higher rates to lend to risky-seeming countries, such as Italy or Spain. So why – after all the painstaking efforts to put euro-humpty back together again – have European leaders taken such a gamble in Cyprus? The answer is that they too are out of credit – political credit. This credit shortfall takes different forms in northern and southern Europe. For leaders of nations such as Germany, the Netherlands and Finland, there was a sense that their voters and parliaments just would not approve another bailout – unless heavy penalties were attached. Cyprus is a small place, and so the amounts of money needed to shore the country up are relatively small – “just” €17bn. The problem is that Cyprus is also a particularly clear-cut example of the fundamental deficit in trust between northern and southern Europeans. Ever since the crisis began, the German media has been full of stories of southern corruption. German voters have been encouraged to believe that their hard-earned money is going to shore up fundamentally rotten countries. - FT.

WATCH: Farage - EU wants to steal money from Cypriots bank accounts.

Russian Company Offers To Bailout Cyprus In Exchange For Gas Exploration Rights.

The Russian energy company Gazprom is offering to bailout Cyprus in exchange for gas exploration rights, according to media reports. "Russian energy giant Gazprom has offered the Republic of Cyprus a plan in which the company will undertake the restructuring of the country’s banks in exchange for exploration rights for natural gas in Cyprus’’ exclusive economic zone, local media reported," reports GreeceReporter.com.
"Gazprom is," the site notes, "the largest extractor of natural gas in the world and the largest Russian company." Cyprus does not appear to be interested in the offer, however:

The proposal states that Gazprom will fund the restructuring of the country’s crippled financial institutions in exchange for substantial control over the country’s gas resources while Cyprus won’t need to take the harsh bailout package offered by the EU. EU offered a 10 billion euros rescue package to Cyprus with the condition of raising 5.8 billion euros ($7.5 billion) by taking a piece of every bank account in Cyprus. The originally proposed levies on deposits are 9.9 percent for acounts exceeding 100,000 euros and 6.7 percent on anything below that. Cypriot President Nicos Anstasiades is not willing to discuss the Russian’s offer according toNewsit who cited an anonymous source close to the President. “The president is not going to discuss this plan because he wants a solution that will come from the EU,” said the anonymous source.

- Weekly Standard.

Russia Sends Warship To Mediterranean, Is A Naval Base In Cyprus Coming Next?

That Russia has previously threatened, and followed through with, sending ships to the Mediterranean is nothing new. In the past, every such episode was related to the protection of what Putin considered vital geopolitical interests in the region: whether defending the Syrian port of Tartus, various crude and natural gas pipelines in the region threatened by NATO expansion in Turkey, or offsetting heightened US presence around Gaza and Israel (and of course Iran). Which is why with the legacy conflicts in the region dormant, and the only news of any relevance being the European intervention in Cyprus against Russian oligarch interests, it is surprising we learn today that the Russian Navy will dispatch a permanent fleet of five or six combat ships to the Mediterranean Sea, with frigates and cruisers making up the core of the fleet.
How far into the Mediterranean one wonders? It wouldn’t be too difficult to put two and two together and assume that with Cyprus just a few hundreds kilometers away from Syria, Lebanon, Gaza and Israel, Russia may have not only a new geopolitical target, namely the now pseudo-insolvent Russian protectorate of Cyprus, but a perfect alibi to be in the region as well, and more importantly, have a Plan B to the Syrian port of Tartus which is Russia’s only naval base in the region. How soon until we read that Russia is willing to invest even more unguaranteed loans into the Cypriot financial system…. in exchange for one tiny little naval and/or military base? - Zero Hedge.

S&P Warns Of Socially Explosive Situation In Euro-Zone.

Standard and Poor's sees a high risk that Spain, Italy, Portugal and France will not be able to carry through necessary reforms as the unemployed become less willing to put up with austerity, S&P's Germany head Torsten Hinrichs told a newspaper. "The high unemployment in Spain, Italy and France is socially explosive," Hinrichs was quoted as saying in Monday's Neue Osnabrcker Zeitung. "There has to be a social consensus for saving measures. High unemployment ... does not help." Hinrichs said the people of Spain and Portugal had already proven they were willing to bear with austerity measures, but "this cannot continue forever". In Italy, there was the further danger that "a new government may not be strong enough for the still necessary reforms to strengthen growth," he said. Hinrichs said S&P still rated Germany as a triple A with stable outlook and did not see any reason for concern: "It is one of the few AAA and stable countries that we still have in Europe". The weak profitability of the banking sector due to the profusion of banks was the only problem in Germany, he said, although he saw positive changes in the sector in terms of equity capital and refinancing. - CNBC.

GLOBAL ECONOMIC MELTDOWN: Precursors To The Total Collapse Of The White Supremacy Paradigm - The Euro-Zone Orders Cyprus To Seize 10% Of Bank Accounts; Panicked Europeans Rush ATMs As Leaders Move To Seize Funds In The Great EU Bank Robbery; British Taxpayers To Bail Out Victims Of Outrageous Raid; Europe Braces For Fresh Turmoil With Cyprus Deposit Levy; Deutsche Bank Says "Only Jesus Can Save The Euro-Zone"; Cyprus Woes Spark Asia Sell-Off, Stocks Take A Hit!

March 17, 2013 - EUROPE - In a move that could set off new fears of contagion across the eurozone, anxious depositors drained cash from ATMs in Cyprus on Saturday, hours after European officials in Brussels required that part of a new €10 billion ($12.6 billion) bailout must be paid for directly from the bank accounts of savers. The move - a first in the three-year-old European financial crisis - raised questions over whether bank runs could be set off elsewhere. Jeroen Dijsselbloem, president of the group of euro-area ministers, on Saturday declined to rule out taxes on depositors in countries beyond Cyprus, although he said such a measure was not currently being considered. Although banks placed withdrawal limits of €400 on ATMs, most of them had run out of cash by early evening. People around the country reacted with disbelief and anger.

Lining up: People withdraw money from a cash-point machine in the Cypriot capital Nicosia. Photo: AFP

Panicked Europeans Rush ATMs As Leaders Move To Seize Funds.

''This is a clear-cut robbery,'' said Andreas Moyseos, a former electrician who is a pensioner in Nicosia, the capital. Iliana Andreadakis, a book critic, added: ''This issue doesn't only affect the people's deposits, but also the prospect of the Cyprus economy. The EU has diminished its credibility.'' In Nicosia, about 150 demonstrators massed in front of the presidential palace late in the afternoon after calls went out on social media to protest the decision, which came with almost no warning at the beginning of a three-day religious holiday.

Under an emergency deal reached early on Saturday in Brussels, a one-time tax of 9.9 per cent is to be levied on Cypriot bank deposits of more than €100,000 effective on Tuesday, hitting wealthy depositors - mostly Russians who have put vast sums into Cyprus's banks in recent years. But even deposits under that amount would be taxed at 6.75 per cent, meaning that Cyprus's creditors will be confiscating money directly from pensioners, workers and regular depositors to pay off the bailout tab.

Cyprus's newly elected President Nicos Anastasiades said taxing depositors would allow Cyprus to avoid implementing harsher austerity measures, including pension cuts and tax increases, of the type that has wreaked havoc in neighbouring Greece. That thinking appealed to some Cypriots, including Stala Georgoudi, 56. ''A one-time thing would be better than worse measures,'' she said.

But Sharon Bowles, a British member of the European parliament who is the head of the body's economic and monetary affairs committee, said the accord amounted to a ''grabbing of ordinary depositors' money'' billed as a tax. The surprise policy by the International Monetary Fund, the European Central Bank and the European Commission is the first to take money from ordinary savers. - The Age.

WATCH: ATMs drained as bailout tax triggers run on bank deposits.

Euro-Zone Orders Cyprus To Seize 10% Of Bank Accounts.

Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades (L) and European President Martin Schulz give statements to the media at the European Parliament in Brussels March 14, 2013.
Credit: REUTERS/Eric Vidal

Cyprus was working on a last-minute proposal to soften the impact on smaller savers of a bank deposit levy after a parliamentary vote on the measure central to a bailout was postponed until Monday, a government source said.  In a radical departure from previous aid packages, euro zone finance ministers want Cyprus savers to forfeit a portion of their deposits in return for a 10 billion euro ($13 billion) bailout for the island, which has been financially crippled by its exposure to neighboring Greece.  The decision, announced on Saturday morning, stunned Cypriots and caused a run on cash points, most of which were depleted within hours. Electronic transfers were stopped.  The originally proposed levies on deposits are 9.9 percent for those exceeding 100,000 euros and 6.7 percent on anything below that. 

The Cypriot government on Sunday discussed with lenders the possibility of changing the levy to 3.0 percent for deposits below 100,000 euros, and to 12.5 percent for above that sum, a source close to the consultations told Reuters on condition of anonymity.  The source said the discussions had the "blessing" of a troika of lenders from the European Commission, the IMF and the European Central Bank.  In Brussels, a spokesman for Olli Rehn, the European commissioner in charge of economic affairs, said discussions were still under way in Cyprus.  "If the Cypriot leaders agree on a more progressive scale for the one-off levy, in view of making it fairer for smaller savers and provided this would have the same financial impact, the Commission would be ready to recommend that the Eurogroup endorse such an agreement," the spokesman said. 

The move to take a percentage of deposits, which could raise almost 6 billion euros, must be ratified by parliament, where no party has a majority. If it fails to do so, President Nicos Anastasiades has warned, Cyprus's two largest banks will collapse.  One bank, the Cyprus Popular Bank, could have its emergency liquidity assistance (ELA) funding from the European Central Bank cut by March 21.  A default in Cyprus could unravel investor confidence in the euro zone, undoing the improvements fostered by the European Central Bank's promise last year to do whatever it takes to shore up the currency bloc.  A meeting of parliament scheduled for Sunday was postponed for a day to give more time for consultations and broker a deal, political sources said. The levy was scheduled to come into force on Tuesday, after a bank holiday on Monday. - Reuters.

The Great EU Bank Robbery As British Taxpayers To Bail Out Victims Of Outrageous Raid.

A gathering storm: Banker Sebastien Galy said the move could be the 'trigger' for a new eurozone crisis.

UK taxpayers will have to compensate thousands of Britons hit by a shock raid on bank accounts in Cyprus.  The debt-stricken island, which is home to around 3,000 British military personnel and civil servants, is being given an £8.7billion EU rescue package.  But – in a move condemned as ‘robbery’ – Germany says it will not fund the emergency deal unless every saver with a deposit account contributes via a bank tax.  Account holders will lose 9.9 per cent of all deposits over 100,000 euros (£85,000), with a 6.75 per cent levy on smaller amounts.      George Osborne said last night the Treasury will help out military staff and officials. But it is thought 60,000 other Britons, including holiday homeowners and expats, will lose out.  They are thought to have about £1.7billion in Cyprus’s banks – exposing them to a potential levy of at least £115million – or an average of £1,900 each. In yet another eurozone crisis:

• Cypriot banks banned online transfers and emptied cashpoints to stop withdrawals;
• The levy could be automatically taken from accounts as early as Wednesday;
• British tourists were told to ensure they had multiple sources of money;
• The chief minister of the euro area refused to rule out similar levies elsewhere;
• Analysts said the raid could fall foul of the European Convention on Human Rights;
• Traders are braced for turbulence on international stock markets today.

Exposure: German Chancellor Angela Merkel says Cypriot
banks must help pay for the bail out, but Britons have an
estimated £1.7billion in Cyprus's banks, exposing
them to a potential levy of at least £115million.

In response to cries of outrage, Cypriot president Nicos Anastasiades was last night trying to amend the bailout tax to limit the pain for small depositors. But Angela Merkel insisted it was right that all depositors in Cypriot banks should share the responsibility of bailing out the state. Addressing an election rally, the German chancellor insisted: ‘Anyone having their money in Cypriot banks must contribute in the Cypriot bailout. That way those responsible will contribute in it, not only the taxpayers of other countries, and that is what’s right.’

But economists warned the move would fatally undermine confidence in the safety of money being held in banks in other countries, risking bank runs across the eurozone. Fiona Mullen, a British economist living on Cyprus, said: ‘We knew there was a possibility they would take the deposits above the insured threshold – so above 100,000 euros – but nobody thought they would take it down to someone with five euros in the bank. ‘I was trying to take money out of the ATM but I couldn’t.’ David Symonds, another expat, predicted violence when banks reopened: ‘Tempers could get frayed. Those frayed tempers could well lead to violence.’ - Daily Mail.

Europe Braces For Fresh Turmoil With Cyprus Deposit Levy.

Cyprus's President Nicos Anastasiades delayed a
parliamentary vote to pass the measure by a day.
Photographer: Thierry Charlier/AFP via Getty Images.

Europe braced for renewed turmoil as outrage in Cyprus over an unprecedented levy on bank deposits threatened to derail the nation’s bailout. The euro tumbled.  Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades, who bowed to demands by euro-area finance ministers to raise 5.8 billion euros ($7.6 billion) by taking a piece of every bank account in Cyprus, appealed to lawmakers in Nicosia to ratify the levy today. The vote was delayed from yesterday over the opposition of the European Central Bank amid talks to restructure the levy.  While Cyprus accounts for less than half a percent of the 17-nation euro economy, the raid on bank accounts risks triggering new convulsions in the financial crisis that began in 2009 in Greece. The tax is “a worrying precedent with potentially systemic consequences if depositors in other periphery countries fear a similar treatment in the future,” Joachim Fels, chief economist at Morgan Stanley in London, wrote in a client note.  Scenes of Cypriots lining up at cash machines raised the specter of capital flight elsewhere and threatened to disrupt a market calm since the ECB’s pledge in September to backstop troubled nations’ debt. With no government in Italy, Spain in the throes of a political scandal and Greece struggling to meet the terms of its own bailout, more turmoil could hamper efforts to end the crisis.

‘Sell Euro’ 
The euro fell below $1.30, sliding 1.5 percent to $1.2926 at 10:48 p.m. in Frankfurt. Anticipating gains in haven markets, Bill Gross, who runs the world’s biggest bond fund at Pacific Investment Management Co. in Newport Beach, California, said on Twitter that the concern in Cyprus “moves risk-on trade to backseat.” He added: “Sell euro as well.”  Anastasiades exhorted political factions to support the deposit levy, which he pledged is a one-off measure that will avert a collapse of the financial system that in turn would have led to the country’s exit from the euro.  “A bank collapse would cause indescribable misery,” Anastasiades said in the televised address. He called the crisis the country’s worst moment since the 1974 Turkish invasion that has left the country divided.

‘Uncharted Territory’ 
The ECB’s pledge to buy bonds should prevail over market panic, though the tax on deposits brings the euro area into “uncharted territory again,” Holger Schmieding, chief economist at Berenberg Bank in London, wrote in a note.  “Given the fragile state of the banking systems, especially in Greece and Spain, anything that can impede the needed rebuilding of confidence in these banking systems can potentially cause financial and economic damage,” he said. - Bloomberg.

Deutsche Bank Says "Only Jesus Can Save The Euro-Zone".

Deutsche Bank‘s global head of FX strategy, Bilal Hafeez, recently gave a speech at the annual Deutsche Bank Mittelstand (small and medium-sized enterprises) FX conference in Hamburg, Germany.  The bank’s research department transcribed Hafeez’s speech and sent it out to clients in a note.  The speech focuses on the euro area’s economic woes and the need for the currency bloc to move forward with further integration in order to be economically successful.  Hafeez opens the speech with a reflection on parenting and a child’s years as a “terrible teen.”  Then, he makes an interesting comparison to the euro area, complete with a religious allegory.  Who else has entered the terrible teens? The Euro-Area! It was born in 1999, and so is currently fourteen years old. It has all the hallmarks of teenage angst. It is ridden with internal conflicts, it is groping around for structure, and it is suspicious of authority. So who can be a positive role model for the Euro-Area? Well it cannot be the “fathers”: Germany or France.     It has to be an external figure that all Europeans respect, and whose motives and character are beyond dispute. That rules out anyone living as even the most competent person will make missteps or have something from their past dredged up to undermine them. That leaves us with historical figures whose lives have been laid bare by history. I can only think of one figure that is respected by most Europeans and has never sinned, Jesus! - MINA.

Cyprus Woes Spark Asia Sell-Off, Stocks Take A Hit.

Asian markets saw a massive sell-off across risk assets on Monday after a weekend decision by the euro zone to force depositors in Cyprus to contribute towards a bailout sparked concerns of contagion across other peripheral countries. The Nikkei 225 retreated from last week's fresh four-and-a-half-year high, Australia's benchmark lost over 1 percent and Seoul's Kospi hit a fresh one-month low. The euro zone's decision to implement a levy on bank deposits of all sizes in return for financial aid marks a radical departure from previous euro zone aid packages. Lawmakers in Cyprus are currently in the midst of working on a last-minute proposal to soften the impact on smaller savers to get the measures passed ahead of a parliament vote on Monday.

Investors are concerned that taxing depositors will set a dangerous precedent for the euro zone and ultimately risk runs on regional banks. The strategy may also provoke depositors in other debt-ridden nations to shift their money to 'safer' European banks. "It will create disintermediation in the banking sector. Trusts and banks will collapse...I think unsecured bond holders should be the first people to take hair cuts, depositors should be protected at all costs," said Peter Redward, principal at economic advisory firm Redward Associates on CNBC's 'Asia Squawk Box'. - CNBC.

GLOBAL ECONOMIC MELTDOWN: Euro Zone Turning Into a "Catastrophe" - Moody's Downgrades Credit Ratings of Six German Banks!

Ratings agency Moody's has cut the credit ratings of six German banks and three in Austria.  The biggest bank affected was Commerzbank, Germany's second-biggest lender, which was cut from A3 to A2.  Moody's delayed a decision on the rating of Germany's biggest bank, Deutsche Bank.

Commerzbank had its long-term rating cut and was put on negative outlook

"Today's rating actions are driven by the increased risk of further shocks emanating from the euro area debt crisis," Moody's said.  The downgrade indicates that Moody's thinks Germany would be hit if the euro crisis turned into a catastrophe, said BBC Berlin correspondent Stephen Evans.  "It brings the crisis in Southern Europe and Ireland closer to home in Germany," he said. The six German banking groups affected were Commerzbank, DekaBank, DZ Bank, Landesbank Baden-Wuerttemberg, Landesbank Hessen-Thueringen and Norddeutsche Landesbank. Moody's also cut the rating of the Italian bank UniCredit's German unit.  In Austria, it downgraded the three biggest banks: Erste Group Bank, UniCredit Bank Austria and Raiffeisen Bank International. 

The ratings agency said Austrian banks were also vulnerable to conditions in central and eastern Europe as well as the Commonwealth of Independent States. It also said that banks in Germany and Austria had a limited capacity to absorb losses.  In addition to having its rating cut, Commerzbank was placed on negative outlook, meaning Moody's is considering a further cut. The agency said that was because of the bank's exposure to the eurozone periphery, as well as its concentration of loans to single sectors and borrowers.  Another German bank, WGZ Bank, was not downgraded, but was placed on negative outlook as a result of its exposure to the debt of the eurozone's periphery.  The downgrades came as the focus remained on banks in weaker eurozone economies, amid fears that those in Cyprus and Spain could need more support.  The European Commission is due to announce plans later to make sure that failed banks do not have to be bailed out by taxpayers in future. - BBC.