Monthly Archives: September 2014

Money fund loses 0.3% of clients’ money to bailed-out African Bank

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“Absa has faced criticism for sinking 0.3% of its Money Market clients’ investments in the wake of African Bank’s crash and bailout.  Absa Money Market (AAM) clients were notified as late as Tuesday (19 August) that the fund had removed all African Bank investments from its market.  Absa had to adjust the value of its Money Market by 0.3%, effectively swiping that value off of clients’ investments, providing a 0% interest rate for the period.  With a money market value of R52.8 billion, Absa in effect swiped off R158.4 million in investments. Money Market clients were not impressed with the news, and even less so that they were notified long after the move.”

http://businesstech.co.za/news/banking/66332/why-absa-took-0-3-of-clients-money/

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Moody’s downgrades South Africa’s four biggest banks

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“Ratings agency Moody’s downgraded four South African banks on Tuesday and put them on review for further cuts, saying there was a lower likelihood of support from the central bank to protect creditors after African Bank’s debt crisis.  Moody’s cut ratings for Standard Bank of South Africa, FirstRand , Nedbank and Absa Bank, the local operation for Barclays Group Africa. The ratings agency said it was adjusting its view following the $1.6 billion bailout of African Bank by the South African Reserve Bank (SARB).  Moody’s said while SARB’s actions mitigated the risk of contagion across the banking sector, the regulator had indicated by its actions that it was willing to impose losses on creditors.”

http://www.sabc.co.za/news/a/b7f27b804529137bb9b7b9a5ad025b24/Moody’s-downgrades-South-Africa’s-four-biggest-banks

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African Bank rescue rekindles bailout fears

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“South Africa’s decision to rescue a small lender seen as neither ‘too big’ nor ‘too interconnected’ to fail shows that taxpayers worldwide may have to accept that bank bailouts are here to stay.  When South Africa’s central bank recently announced a $700 million (520 million euro) rescue of faltering African Bank Investments Limited, it scarcely made a splash outside the country.  The bank’s managers made far too many bad loans to too many South Africans who could not afford to pay them back.  Because it had not asked borrowers to put up their car or any other asset as collateral, it was left with a massive hole in its balance sheet when they failed to pay.”

http://www.moneyweb.co.za/moneyweb-financial/african-bank-rescue-rekindles-bailout-fears

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Australia to adopt tougher sanctions against Russia over Ukraine

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“Australia will escalate its sanctions against Russia, with the government barring arms exports to the country and denying Russian state-owned banks new access to the Australian capital market.  Tony Abbott told parliament on Monday that Australia would follow the European Union in adopting tougher sanctions against Russia, accusing Moscow of ‘deliberately and now openly violating Ukrainian sovereignty’.  The new sanctions will ban arms exports to Russia, bar Russian state-owned banks from further access to the Australian capital market and rule out oil and gas exports to the country.”

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/01/australia-to-adopt-tougher-sanctions-against-russia-over-ukraine

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Just Wait Until Ferguson Police Get Federally Funded Drones

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“What could possibly justify police ‘red-dotting’ peaceful protesters with laser sights, or an attempted head-shot, with a tear gas canister, at a man standing in his own yard, insisting, ‘this [is] my property!’? Here you can watch police fumigate a news crew and take down their cameras — then chase off the other journalists filming the assault.  The Ferguson clampdown has even law and order conservatives like Red State’s Erick Erickson worried about ‘the militarization of the police and overkill by local police forces.’ But maybe they’re not worried enough.  It’s no accident that technology developed for population control in foreign counterinsurgencies is being turned inward.”

http://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/just-wait-until-ferguson-police-get-federally-funded-drones

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Defence companies get boost from growing fears of conflict

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“Defence and aerospace shares have surged as the risk of conflict in the Middle East and Ukraine ratchets up and City analysts identified how companies in the sector are likely to benefit from growing geopolitical tensions.  They also suggested that spending on the military could also increase in some of BAE’s most main important markets.  ‘Looking beyond 2015, we think that the defence outlook has stabilised and could grow again in some critical countries to BAE – US, UK, Sweden, Australia, Saudi Arabia,’ they said. David Cameron and Barack Obama will call for NATO allies to increase defence spending at the security organisation’s summit in Wales which starts on Thursday.”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/industry/defence/11068001/Defence-companies-get-boost-from-growing-fears-of-conflict.html

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Australia to Fly Guns and Ammunition Into Iraq

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“An Australian military aircraft will soon fly guns and ammunition to the northern Iraqi city of Irbil to help Kurds fight Islamic State militants.  Prime Minister Tony Abbott said his government would join the United States, Britain, Canada, France and Italy in delivering rocket-propelled grenades, mortars and assault rifle ammunition at the request of the U.S. and Iraqi governments.  The opposition Labor Party, which opposed Australia sending 2,000 troops to back U.S. and British forces in the 2003 Iraq invasion, has supported the involvement in delivering weapons and munitions to the Kurds.  Abbott did not believe Australia’s military involvement in Iraq would increase the domestic terrorist threat.”

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/australia-fly-guns-ammunition-iraq-25192359

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Pushback as US Expands Surveillance, Taxing Authority?

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“The suspicion among a number of expatriates is that renunciations are growing at a rapid clip and US officials are doing what they can to slow the exodus – by complicating regulations and more importantly by raising the cost.  Between the passport system (which only came fully into being after World War II), Coast Guard policies and the US projection of its taxing authority around the world, US officials – and the Anglosphere generally – seem determined to keep a much closer eye on citizens and their financial affairs. While this sort of approach is to date a US-centric one, there are treaties now being considered that will create a US-style approach around the world.”

http://www.thedailybell.com/news-analysis/35609/Pushback-as-US-Expands-Surveillance-Taxing-Authority/

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The Final Nail in the Coffin: The Death of Freedom in Our Schools

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“Despite the fact that dinosaurs are extinct, the status fabricated, and the South Carolina student was merely following orders, his teacher reported him to school administrators, who in turn called the police.  What followed is par for the course in schools today: students were locked down in their classrooms while armed police searched the 16-year-old’s locker and bookbag, handcuffed him, charged him with disorderly conduct disturbing the school, arrested him, detained him, and then he was suspended from school. Stone’s mother was never alerted to the school’s concerns about her son’s creative writing assignment or his subsequent interrogation and arrest.”

https://www.rutherford.org/publications_resources/john_whiteheads_commentary/the_final_nail_in_the_coffin_the_death_of_freedom_in_our_schools

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