Monthly Archives: June 2014

Investors hungry for riskier bonds

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“Corporate bonds are in high demand. Investors are practically trampling one another to buy them. One measure of the appetite for these bonds is the ‘spread,’ or difference in bond yields between corporate bonds (often seen as somewhat risky) and 10-year Treasury notes (one of the safest investments).  The spread has narrowed to rates not seen since July 2007 — before the financial crisis — according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch.  It’s a sign that companies are borrowing a lot of money, and that investors don’t view corporate debt as particularly risky right now.  Investors only want an extra 1.25% when they buy corporate debt versus plain vanilla U.S. government debt.”

http://money.cnn.com/2014/06/11/investing/corporate-bonds/

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The Golden Bear: Pure Directed History?

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“Bloomberg supports the narrative of king dollar and positions the price permutations of precious metals as part of a free-market outcome. But this is surely dubious. Our position is not that the dollar is going to crash against gold any time soon.  The Wall Street Party is probably going to continue a while longer, as we have forecast. And then, at some point, precious metals will come back into vogue, either because the price suppression campaign will collapse or because those behind it will decide there is not point in continuing it. Either way, gold will have ‘another’ day. The current price structure – even if the dollar should move up against gold for a while longer – is likely unsupportable.”

http://www.thedailybell.com/news-analysis/35369/The-Golden-Bear-Pure-Directed-History/

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Falling Real Yields: A Buy Signal for Gold

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“It’s not only Treasury yields that are falling; nominal interest rates are in free-fall around the world:  German bunds yield just 1.4 percent and French government bond yields fell to 1.65 percent — the lowest level since 1746!  Two of Europe’s most troubled PIIGS, Spain and Italy, also have witnessed record low bond yields of 2.6 percent and 2.76 percent, respectively.   Yield spreads on emerging market Tdebt and junk bonds compared with Treasuries are likewise sinking toward new lows.  his compression in nominal yields around the global has important implications for investors and could prove very bullish for certain asset classes. Case in point: Gold.”

http://www.moneyandmarkets.com/falling-real-yields-a-buy-signal-for-gold-62120

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FATCA, GATCA and the Changing Investment Scene, Worldwide

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“GATCA is going to destroy financial privacy, which was pretty much destroyed in the first place. So taking your savings offshore in the form of financial accounts is going to offer you no privacy benefits. If your plan depends on privacy, you should get a new plan. That said, there are other concrete reasons to diversify internationally. As I mentioned before, offshore banks are often much safer and better capitalized than most banks in the US. Additionally, a foreign bank account cannot be seized or frozen at the drop of a hat by the US government, which would be especially useful if official capital controls are put in place.”

http://www.thedailybell.com/exclusive-interviews/35393/Anthony-Wile-Nick-Giambruno-on-FATCA-GATCA-and-the-Changing-Investment-Scene-Worldwide/

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Inside Look: Pelosi NSA Confrontation – with Andrew Demeter

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“Andrew Demeter is a 16-year-old teenager, who recently confronted House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi over her support of domestic spying.  The young man minced no words, but was still polite and cordial to the representative. Afterward, he was invited to speak on several television networks.  Demeter is our guest on the show today. He is hear to talk to us about his encounter with Pelosi, as well as spying programs. We will talk about how he came to speak with the House California representative, as well as his plans for the future.”

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Warrantless cellphone location tracking is illegal, US circuit court rules

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“A US Appellate Court has ruled that police must obtain a warrant before collecting cellphone location data, finding that acquiring records of what cell towers a phone connected to and when it was connected to them constitutes a Fourth Amendment search. This ruling, from the 11th Circuit, is in opposition to a ruling made nearly a year ago by a separate appellate court.  In its reasoning, the court notes that while the Fourth Amendment has traditionally been applied to property rights, it’s gradually expanded to protect much more, including communications.  The court cites a Supreme Court ruling that found that tracking a person using a GPS unit installed in their car requires a warrant.”

http://www.theverge.com/2014/6/11/5801238/warrantless-cellphone-location-tracking-illegal-us-court-rules

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New e-mails reveal Feds not “forthright” about fake cell tower devices

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“According to new Justice Department e-mails obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Northern California, and published on Wednesday, federal investigators have been routinely using ‘stingrays’ to catch bad guys. Stingrays aren’t new—law enforcement agencies nationwide are believed to have been using them for years. But one e-mail in the new trove reveals something brand-new: that the Feds were not fully clear about the fact that they were specifically using stingrays (also known as ‘IMSI catchers‘) when asking for permission to conduct electronic surveillance from federal magistrate judges.”

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/03/new-e-mails-reveal-feds-not-forthright-about-fake-cell-tower-devices/

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Cities reluctant to reveal whether they’re using fake cell tower devices

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“The ACLU filed a motion for public access request, requesting documents and information related to stingray use by nearly 30 Florida police and sheriff’s departments.  Among the responses published for the first time on Tuesday was the curious reply from the city of Sunrise, Florida. Sunrise officially denied the request, noting that the city would neither confirm nor deny ‘whether any records responsive to the Request exist and, if any responsive records do exist, cannot and will not public disclose those records.’  Harris requires its law enforcement clients to sign  nondisclosure agreements that forbid those agencies from publicly revealing whether they use the stingray.”

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/03/cities-reluctant-to-reveal-whether-theyre-using-fake-cell-tower-devices/

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Police hid use of cell phone tracking device from judge because of NDA

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“A police department in Florida failed to tell judges about its use of a cell phone tracking tool ‘because the department got the device on loan and promised the manufacturer to keep it all under wraps,’ the ACLU said in a blog post today.  The device was likely a ‘Stingray,’ which is made by the Florida-based Harris Corporation.  Police ‘did not want to obtain a search warrant because they did not want to reveal information about the technology they used to track the cell phone signal,’ the District Court of Appeal ruling said. ‘The prosecutor told the court that a law enforcement officer ‘would tell you that there is a nondisclosure agreement that they’ve agreed with the company.””

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/03/police-hid-use-of-cell-phone-tracking-device-from-judge-because-of-nda/

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Florida cops went door to door with fake cell device to find one man

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“This newly released transcript (PDF) provides what is likely the first-ever verbatim account of how stingrays are used in actual police operations. And it shows that stingrays are so accurate, they can pinpoint the very room in which a phone is located.  After learning the phone’s general location, cops deployed a vehicle-mounted stingray and cruised the streets. Verizon had already provided them with the phone’s unique IMSI identifier, which told the stingray exactly which handset to track. Such searches are controversial in part because stingrays necessarily capture data about all other compatible phones nearby.  Stingrays force a connected phone to transmit at full power.”

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/06/how-florida-cops-went-door-to-door-with-fake-cell-device-to-find-one-man/

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