COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Friday, November 27, 2009

Oh My, Dubai. Hold your breath. How big the fraud?



Tokyo Shares End Down On Strong Yen, Dubai Debt Worries

  • TOKYO (Dow Jones)--The Nikkei 225 Stock Average dropped to a fresh four-month closing low Friday on continuing yen strength and worries that unfolding financial troubles in Dubai may sink U.S. stocks later in the global trading day.
  • The Nikkei 225 Stock Average fell 301.72 points, or 3.2%, to 9081.52, closing just a few points off its intraday low. The dismal finish was the biggest point decline for the index since Aug. 17, and its lowest closing level since July 13.
  • The Topix index of all the Tokyo Stock Exchange First Section issues lost 18.55 points, or 2.2%, to 811.01, its lowest closing level since April 1.
  • Trading volume was relatively robust at over 2.25 billion shares.
  • Stocks got off to a weak start after the dollar briefly fell below Y85, setting a fresh 14-year low against the yen early in the morning. As of the close of the Tokyo Stock Exchange, the U.S. currency was seen trading at 86.14 against the Japanese unit, down from 86.65 at Thursday's market close.
  • Thirty-one of 33 Topix subindexes ended in negative territory, with steel, nonferrous metal, and machinery making sectors absorbing the biggest percent losses.
  • A Nikkei report that mining giant BHP Billiton has asked major Japanese steelmakers to accept a change in their pricing mechanism for coking coal to one linked to market prices hurt the sector. Nippon Steel lost 4.0% to Y310 and JFE Holdings sank 5.8% to Y2,765 on concerns that the new method could mean higher procurement costs.
  • Stronger yen concerns hit major exporters hard, sending Honda Motor shares down 3.8% to Y2,660, and Sony shares down 4.4% to Y2,265. Canon fell 2.7% to Y3,200.
  • "The yen strengthening trend will continue," said Nikko Cordial senior strategist Tsuyoshi Kawata. "Speculative traders are assuming that the government won't take any immediate action."
  • The Nikkei sharply extended its losses late in the session on a decline in Globex U.S. stock futures. Wall Street trading resumes for a shorted session after yesterday's Thanksgiving Day holiday.
  • "After European stocks fell on Dubai debt exposure concerns, hedge selling is kicking in on worries that Wall Street may face a similar selloff," said Daiwa Securities SMBC market analyst Yumi Nishimura. Dubai World, the city state's largest corporate entity, asked creditors Wednesday for a six-month moratorium on debt repayments.
  • General contractors and other development project-related stocks were some of the biggest victims of Dubai-related speculative selling. The Nikkei newspaper reported that large builders would be among the first to be hit by the Dubai debt crisis because of major contracts tendered by Nakheel, Dubai World's property development unit. Taisei sank 7.1% to Y145, while Obayashi tumbled 8.7% to Y284.
  • December Nikkei 225 futures ended down 320 points, or 3.4%, at 9070 on the Osaka Securities Exchange.
  • For the holiday-shortened week, the Nikkei dropped 4.4%, and is off 9.5% for the month with one trading day to go. Year-to-date, it is still up 2.5%.

By Juro Osawa, Dow Jones Newswires; 813-6895-7569; juro.osawa@dowjones.com



29 comments:

  1. Dubai's problems could be round two of the credit and financial crisis.

    This could lower global demand for just about everything. That means deflation, less spending, falling wages and more unemployment.

    European banks are under severe pressure.

    Japanese exporters are in trouble and Japan may be forced to devalue the yen.

    All this while Obama and the Democrats are consumed with legislation that will structurally increase the US demand for increased government borrowing.

    Are they nuts?

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  2. Filled with US hubris, they are, deuce.

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  3. How debt is it, that Dubai is defaulting on?

    Dubai World, the government investment company burdened by $59 billion of liabilities, sought to delay repayment on much of its debt

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  4. Ten-year Treasury yields fell 10 basis points. The yen gained as much as 2 percent against the dollar. Both currencies rallied against the Australian dollar, the South Korean won and the Russian ruble as investors shunned higher-yielding assets.

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  5. Dubai, which borrowed $80 billion in a four-year construction boom to transform its economy into a regional tourism and financial hub, suffered the world’s steepest property slump in the worst global recession since World War II. Home prices fell 50 percent from their 2008 peak, according to Deutsche Bank AG.

    ‘Contagion Effect’

    “People are worried about the contagion effect,” said Nader Naeimi, a Sydney-based strategist at AMP Capital Investors, which holds $75 billion in assets. “Events like this bring back all the bad memories from the global financial crisis.”

    Building companies fell on concern they may lose revenue from Dubai. Obayashi Corp. dropped 8.7 percent to 284 yen, while Kajima Corp., Japan’s biggest listed construction company, slid 14 percent to 162 yen. The companies may lose “tens of billions of yen,” Hiroki Kawashima, an analyst at Daiwa Securities Group Inc., wrote in a report.

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  6. Chicago Tribune - ‎3 hours ago‎

    I could not believe my eyes when I saw it: Best Buy had printed in its weekly ad "Happy Eid Al Adha." My heart was so very warmed, and it made me so very happy that Best Buy acknowledged the upcoming Muslim holiday.


    Walmart's big in Mexico and China.
    Best Buy is target marketing Muslims, here in the USA.

    My oh my.

    That invisible guiding hand of capital rules, even when it seems not.

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  7. Slippage every where around the White House?

    Or is it all of DC?

    Secret Service breakdown blamed for White House gate-crashing
    (LATimes)

    'Our procedure wasn't followed' at one security checkpoint at the gala, an agency spokesman says.

    ...

    An administration official said the gate-crashing was apparently a breakdown in Secret Service screening and not the work of the White House social office.

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  8. That conga line snakes around through the Secret Service personnel, too?

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  9. Looks like Tuesday and Wednesday are South Asia Rollout II.

    Unlike South Asia Rollout I, there will probably be mention of the Taliban.

    34K injection or thereabouts, still looks like. And their facilities and infrastructure still have at this point to be built from nada. No wonder they have to be staggered. Fly them into Bagram and farm them out as the logistics come into being.

    Every day is colorful commentary day at the Bar, but I expect TUE/WED will be especially so.

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  10. Only one sodden sycophant will be testifying this time. In all his sodden, sycophantic glory.




    In other news, it's a gorgeous morning.

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  11. Aw, what a shame.

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  12. I guess this kind of slows down their "Air Conditioned" Beach project, huh?

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  13. The gorgeous morning, the lone sycophant, or Dubai?

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  14. Trish, as usual, I have no idea what you're talking about.

    I was referring to Dubai. I'm glad you've got a beyootiful morning.

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  15. Speaking of "air conditioned beach":

    Japan, I believe it is, actually has this most remarkable indoor "beach." It's a gigantic wave pool and the "sand" is very fine, roundly polished stone that doesn't stick to you like sand does.

    To those of us who like the beach and hate, hate, hate sand sticking to us, the inventor of unoffensive sand deserves no less than a Nobel Prize.

    My idea, before I was aware of the faux sand, was simply shellacking the coastline. A little clumsy perhaps but at least you wouldn't have the stuff grating like sandpaper between your toes.

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  16. Did we spend our money to develop renewables? No. We sent it over to a bunch of goat-fucking, camel-jockeys so they could support terrorists, and fuck it off on "streets of gold," and indoor ski hills." Building "islands" in the Gulf to construct hotels with $35,000.00/night suites.

    We deserve whatever the motherfuckers do to us.

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  17. A lone sycophant by definition would have to be Narcissus himself. Who else could he wish to adore and flatter?

    Narcissus, much loved and adored by Christo Mattingulus and is counted among the most radiant of young men, who himself is son of the great Goat of Kenya, Barack the elder, and the nymph Ann Dunham Sutoro, flower child of Aquarius, whose union with the Goat brought us the One.

    Obama, leader, seer, visionary, fleet footed warrior will destroy the dragons of Islam in their foul den and save us from the Pashtun valleys of death.

    Surly this is about which Trish speaks, who herself this very morning basks in the morning radiance of Apollo.

    Trish, misunderstood by Rufus of Switchgrass, mired in the muck of the great Mississippi, whose thoughts on this same glorious morn are on the golden city of Dubai, pondering as to how anyone with so much oil money could possibly have fucked that all up.

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  18. Don't know how well you be "unnerstanding" Trish, but you got Rufus nailed to a "T."

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  19. Well, at the risk of having missed something significant (again,) It doesn't look, to me, to be that big of a deal.

    Citibank fucked off some more of our money. They need to close that motherfucker Down. I would have bet you $1,000.00 this morning that C would be involved.

    Abu Dhabi (that's the Emerite that has ALL the oil) has the world's largest Sovereign Wealth Fund, about $800 Billion by most estimates. They will, probably let Dubai default on its debt to C, and the Euro Banks, and then go in and buy up the assets.

    Not that it matters to you, or me. We paid our taxes, the government gave it to Citi, Citi flushed it down the Dubai shitter, and Abu Dhabi gets it. Along with all the money we've given them for their oil.

    We're the biggest suckers in the history of the universe.

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  20. A lone sycophant by definition would have to be Narcissus himself. Who else could he wish to adore and flatter?

    Narcissus, much loved and adored by Christo Mattingulus and is counted among the most radiant of young men, who himself is son of the great Goat of Kenya, Barack the elder, and the nymph Ann Dunham Sutoro, flower child of Aquarius, whose union with the Goat brought us the One.


    :) heh

    and other posts

    You folks are off to a strong morning

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  21. Alleged CRU e-mails

    h/t Charles

    Dubai is a fraud, global warming is a fraud, Enron was a fraud, Obama is a fraud, the UN is a fraud....fill in your list. Get the feeling you're being taken?

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  22. The lone sycophant still cannot be without an object other than himself. So, no, it's not by definition Narcissus.

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  23. Though I think Narcissus is involved in other ways.


    "[Obama] reminds me of a chess grandmaster who has played his opening in six simultaneous games. But he hasn't completed a single game and I'd like to see him finish one." - Henry Kissinger.

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  24. Rufus: Don't know how well you be "unnerstanding" Trish, but you got Rufus nailed to a "T."

    (Miss "T" gets a claw hammer and pries Rufus back off.)

    Do Buy is the new AIG, too big to fail. The Arabs have learned the new business model very quickly, which is extortion based on a threat to take down the whole global economy. The US taxpayer's contribution to B. Hussein's Do Buy Bailout might rival the health care wealth transfer.

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  25. And against all meteorological odds, it continues to be a rather gorgeous day.

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  26. Really Smelly Guy on Maui has finger broken.

    The woman grabbed the man's hand and believes she broke one of his fingers on his right hand as she broke free, police said.

    The woman suffered minor injuries.

    The suspect was described as approximately 5-foot, 8-inches tall and "really smelly," according to police. He was slightly unshaven and wore a long-sleeve, black shirt and jeans. He had a 2-inch tattoo of a cross on his left hand.

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  27. Good news for Starling, if Rufus is right (a startling thought) this time.
    He is employed in Abu Dhabi.

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  28. I agree w/Rufus btw, that this is not that big a deal compared to what we have become used to over the last 2 years.

    I disagree that he should give Trish the pleasure of acknowledging that she has once again befuddled an EB Truthseeker with her obtuse, misdircting, wordplay.

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  29. Leave it to Rufus to describe his crucifixion w/o the use of the word "cross."

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