Goldman Sachs : Maîtres du monde

 Goldman Sachs : Maîtres du monde

Update July 2013

reportage de la RTS 2- Réalisation Jérôme Fritel

Learn your lesson ((second level)

From Gordon Gekko: 

"The richest one percent of this country owns half our country's wealth, five trillion dollars. One third of that comes from hard work, two thirds comes from inheritance, interest on interest accumulating to widows and idiot sons and what I do, stock and real estate speculation. It's bullshit. You got ninety percent of the American public out there with little or no net worth. I create nothing. I own. We make the rules, pal. The news, war, peace, famine, upheaval, the price per paper clip. We pick that rabbit out of the hat while everybody sits out there wondering how the hell we did it. Now you're not naive enough to think we're living in a democracy, are you buddy? It's the free market. And you're a part of it. You've got that killer instinct. Stick around pal, I've still got a lot to teach you."

La banque américaine Goldman Sachs est au coeur de toutes les crises financières depuis 2008: crise des subprimes, crise grecque, crise de l'euro.Son pouvoir est immense, et elle l'exerce dans le plus grand secret. Immersion au coeur de la banque liée à de nombreux scandales pour comprendre ce passé douteux. Des témoignages de premier plan aident aussi à expliquer comment elle est, malgré les crises, encore plus puissante qu'avant.

La première chose que l'on apprend chez Goldman Sachs, c'est que l'on ne doit pas parler de Goldman Sachs. Depuis décembre 2006, les banquiers de Goldman Sachs savaient qu'une crise financière se préparait et en ont profité. Les américains, eux, en ont subi les conséquences et commencent à se réveiller.C'est un système effrayant, "Too Big To Fail", qui ne laisse d'autre solution que de la renflouer à l'infini en appauvrissant la population. Un système qui dévore la démocratie, puisqu'il est au coeur des appareils d'Etat, finance les campagnes électorales aux États-Unis, et qu'il s'impose partout.

La banque Goldman Sachs est surnommée aux États-Unis "government Sachs" tant elle est influente sur le gouvernement américain. Le secrétaire au Trésor de Clinton, Robert Rubin, qui procéda à la dérégulation financière, venait de Goldman Sachs. Tout comme le secrétaire au Trésor de Bush, Hank Paulson, qui transféra aux États les dettes des banques lors de la crise financière. L’actuel président de Goldman Sachs, Llyod Blankfein, aime à dire qu’il fait "le métier de Dieu".En fait, Goldman Sachs est au cœur de la prédation financière mondiale et impliquée dans de nombreux scandales financiers dont celui d’Abacus, auquel a été mêlé le goldmanien français Fabrice Tourre, et des subprimes, celui de la tromperie de ses clients à qui elle recommandait d’acheter des produits financiers sur lesquels elle spéculait à la baisse, de délits d’initiés, celui du maquillage des comptes grecs et de la spéculation contre l’Euro...La toute puissante banque américaine Goldman Sachs dispose aussi d'un réseau impressionnant dans les instances dirigeantes européennes.Mario Draghi, président de la Banque Centrale Européenne depuis le 1er novembre 2011, a été vice-président de la branche européenne de la banque d'affaires de 2002 à 2005, au moment même où la banque a aidé la Grèce à maquiller ses comptes.Mario Monti, nouveau président du Conseil italien, est entré dans le cercle très fermé des conseillers internationaux de la banque lorsqu'il a quitté son poste de commissaire européen en 2005.Deux autres anciens de Goldman Sachs sont à la manoeuvre dans le sauvetage de la zone euro.Côté allemand, Paul Achleitner, le président du géant allemand de l'assurance Allianz, conseille le directeur général du Fonds Européen de Stabilité Financière, Klaus Regling. Avant de rejoindre Allianz, il a travaillé pendant douze ans pour la banque d'affaires américaine.Côté français, Philippe Gudin de Vallerin, chef du service des politiques macroéconomiques et des affaires européennes à la direction générale du Trésor, épaule le directeur du Trésor Ramon Fernandez dans la préparation technique des sommets et des négociations européennes.

Passant de l’ombre à la lumière, ce sont des hommes de Goldman Sachs qui sont aujourd’hui ouvertement poussés aux commandes. Par quels moyens ? Et pour quelles fins ?

Faire prendre en charge par les peuples les fautes des banques ? Obéir aux diktats de la finance en frappant les citoyens ? Faire sauver l’Amérique par les Européens ? Ce documentaire apporte quelques éclaircissements.

Goldman Sachs : Les nouveaux maîtres du monde

Blip TV : Best of Blip

http://blip.tv/syti/goldman-sachs-les-nouveaux-maîtres-du-monde-5752871

reportage de la RTS 2- Réalisation Jérôme Fritel

Face à la non diffusion libre du  reportage de J. Fritel nous faisons cette mise au point :

“Mark Carney, the governor of Canada’s central bank, has been informally approached as a potential candidate to replace Sir Mervyn King as head of the Bank of England in June next year,” reports the Financial Times.

“One of the world’s most respected central bankers, Mr Carney, 47, now heads the Financial

Stability Board, which oversees global financial regulation. He was approached recently by a member of the BoE’s court, the largely non-executive body that oversees its activities, according to three people involved in the process.”

Carney is also a 13-year Goldman Sachs veteran and was involved in the 1998 Russian financial crisis which was exacerbated by Goldman advising Russia while simultaneously betting against the country’s ability to pay its debt.

Although the appointment would see the highly unusual precedent of a foreigner heading up the 318-year-old central bank, according to one observer, “As a Canadian national he is a subject of the Queen…That is important.”

Carney’s possible ascension to become the next BoE head, although denied by the Bank of Canada, would be the cherry on the cake for Goldman Sachs’ financial overthrow of Europe in their bid to exploit the financial crisis to centralize power into an EU superstate.

Last year, former EU Commissioner Mario Monti was picked to replace Silvio Berlusconi, the democratically elected Prime Minister of Italy. Monti is an international advisor for Goldman Sachs, the European Chairman of David Rockefeller’s Trilateral Commission and also a leading member of the Bilderberg Group.

“This is the band of criminals who brought us this financial disaster. It is like asking arsonists to put out the fire,” commented Alessandro Sallusti, editor of Il Giornale.

Similarly, when Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou dared to suggest the people of Greece be allowed to have their say in a referendum, within days he was dispatched and replaced with Lucas Papademos, former vice-President of the ECB, visiting Harvard Professor and ex-senior economist at the Boston Federal Reserve.

Papademos ran Greece’s central bank while it oversaw derivatives deals with Goldman Sachs that enabled Greece to hide the true size of its massive debt, leading to Europe’s debt crisis.

Papademos and Monti were installed as unelected leaders for the precise reason that they “aren’t directly accountable to the public,”noted Time Magazine’s Stephen Faris, once again illustrating the fundamentally dictatorial and undemocratic foundation of the entire European Union.

Shortly afterwards,Mario Draghi – former Vice Chairman of Goldman Sachs International – was installed as President of the European Central Bank.

The U.S. Treasury Secretary at the beginning of the 2008 financial collapse was Hank Paulson, former CEO of Goldman Sachs. When Paulson was replaced with Tim Geither, Goldman Sachs lobbyist Mark Patterson was hired as his chief advisor. Current Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein has visited the White House 10 times. Goldman Sachs spent the most money helping Barack Obama get elected in 2008.

As the graphic below illustrates, the economies of France, Ireland, Germany and Belgium are also all now controlled by individuals with a direct relationship with Goldman Sachs.

Dominion over virtually all of Europe’s major economies, as well as the United States, by one international banking giant, notorious for its role in corruption and insider trading, is now almost complete.

Goldman Sachs rules the world.

Bulls Stand Up

1er Août : Swiss National Day

Bulls Stand up

Dive Into the Chinese Stars and Spangles.

LOUIS VUITTON EXPRESS INTO SHANGHAI

If there were any doubts that Shanghai was the ‘Paris of the East’ they were surely dismissed last week as Louis Vuitton (LV) took over the city last week.  LV banners lined the streets, massive LV billboards beamed from buildings, newspaper covers were dedicated to the brand,  and entire skyscrapers lit up with LV animations and logos with the arrival of the Louis Vuitton Express in Shanghai.

Why all the pomp and dazzle? It was all the to celebrate the opening of LV’s biggest China store in Shanghai’s Plaza 66 Mall. Each Vuitton store is classified according to size, location and merchandise, with the Plaza 66 store now being one of only 16 Maison stores around the world. 

When the Hermès Carré gets married to the Mao collar

One morning of last week, having digested my tea, I went to the newsstand to buy China Daily. Its reading is very advantageous, no both on plan of information and on training of the rudiments of organised disinformation.

Instead of a newspaper, I had the right to a five columns ad. The title, subtitles and photo all had practically disappeared to leave the place in:

To give you an idea of my astonishment, imagine that french newspaper Liberation makes its headline for Hermès carré.

This advertising made noise. On one hand due to the display of an ostentatious luxury in a daily general public, on the other hand because it is about the biggest department store Louis Vuitton in China. This passion for the luxury has even made recently the top story in the Daily of the People (http://renminbao.com/), "why do Chineses so much love Louis Vuitton?" And really, I could determine a true frenzy for the luxury here.

A market which grows by 25 % a year

After these some lines, you will know which groups will use the explosion of this market.

Last year, a study of the financial group CLSA centered on the Pacific region had come to reinforce the idea that the luxury in China was just an eldorado, even more sustainable. While the market of ordinary consumption had to grow by 11 % a year, one expects up 25 % a year over five next years for the luxury.

This frenzy had naturally been followed by the biggest brands. For the only year of 2011, Gucci had opened 12 shops, and should open 10 of more this year.

However the sector noticed a slight slowing down of activity this year, in the wake of worldwide slowing down. The market should grow only by 20 % this year, against 30 % the last year. Burberry announces online results with this forecast over period September-March.

By looking at the fundamental of the market, they however do not doubt that the Chinese market is promised to a big future.

China remains a promised land for the luxury goods

Several reasons are going to be conjugated in years to come to support the two-figure growth of the market:

• The Asian markets should rebound faster after worldwide slowing down
• China is lowering taxes to the importation of luxury products
• The transition towards an economy of consumption will assure a boom in the market
• On the contrary, this transition is going to transform the market. Only the most reactive groups will be able to use it.

The Chinese luxury, from "Guanxi" in the market of mass cnsumption

Growth of the luxury goods in China is really assured, while the Chinese protectionism in relation to this sector begins being reduced.

Last March, the former minister of Trade Wei Jianguo announced that '"there will be at least two rounds of reduction [of import taxes] this year on a big number of products". The luxury is one of the big sectors aimed by this measure.

But if this fall of taxes and a probable economic recovery are going to support the market, the increasing power of mass consumption is going to transform this sector in depth. According to the magazine ParisTech, the market of the luxury in China was carried until now by very different social groups:

The tradition of "Guanxi"

It is about the social group which "cultivates" its relationships by giving luxurious presents.

The women

After the group of the "second women", that is to say the mistresses covered with presents by persons high in power, the sector is carried more and more by the larger group of the women, who acquire more and more a financial autonomy.

The tourists

Here even, I met a French tourist of Asian origin, driver of taxi in Paris, who asked the representative for the hotel where was the closest Louis Vuitton shop to bring back presents in France.

White collars

It is this category which is going to make happy the groups best installed in China. It is on one hand about the biggest category, and which will consume mainly in China.

According to Goldman Sachs, it is the emerging Chinese middle class that should support the growth of the market of the luxury goods in China from 12 % currently, to 30 % in 2015. Because remember, this one still represents only 13 % in the Chinese Society.

It is the continue growth of this category that brings some changes in the market. Products have to fit to these new Chinese customers who, if they remain fascinated by the picture of Western brands, they are not none the less Chinese and Asian.

How to benefit from this evolution? 

Stories on the mistakes of the Western groups in China are legion. The case of Giorgio Armani is daring. At the opening of its shop at the beginning of 2000s, the group had thought it would be good to put a huge red varnished wooden door at the entrance. The door was quickly withdrawn in front of protests. The clients did not want a "chinesed"luxury store , they wanted the luxury of Milan.

Today, the market changed. His evolutions make that foreign actors of the luxury industry have to strike a balance between their Western image and Asiatic tastes. So Bulgari decided to promote the oriental side, by putting forward the collection Serpenti. Also, the watchmaker Piaget got involved in the celebrations of the year of the dragon.

Other groups try to target new customers. So Gucci tries for some times to aim atmen and kids customers.

My advice

As the president of PPR, François Pinault, declared last Tuesday that his group was buying back a Chinese Brand. At the same time, Hermès is developing a "chinesed" brand of ready-to-wear clothes, Shang Xia. That is why I recommend you to keep an eye on title PPR.

For the most adventurous, a mark can be even more beneficial. It is about the jeweller Chow Tai Fook. In trouble on the market of Hong Kong currently, the jeweller has however a huge network of points of sales divided in 320 cities. This title will give you a better exhibition in the luxury market in Asia.

Confucius had Entered Louis Vuitton Store!

Mao was joined in the square by a figure of at least equal repute in China: Confucius. Born in 551 BC, the sage, as he is known, left behind a set of teachings as influential as any the world has known. These teachings became the basis of state ideology by the 2nd century BC, and remained so, with some ups and downs, for more than two millenniums. But with the opening decades of the 20th century, prominent intellectuals and political figures took aim at Confucian teachings, arguing that they were in large part responsible for China's backwardness and weakness relative to the West.            

                                                     

Mao in particular disliked what he believed to be the enduring effects of Confucius' "feudal" practices on the people and, during the Cultural Revolution of 1966-1976, called on the Red Guards to destroy texts, temples, sites and statues throughout China associated with Confucius. No small irony then that, suddenly, in early January, a 17-ton statue of the sage appeared in front of the north gate of the newly renovated National Museum of China — facing Mao's 15-by-20-foot visage hanging above the Tiananmen Gate.

Now, if Mao himself wasn't agitated, his loyal supporters apparently were. Confucius, after all, was an affront to all that Mao had stood — and fought — for. Consequently, Confucius, all 17 tons of him, disappeared on April 20, as suddenly and mysteriously as he had appeared three months earlier. No one has yet come forward with a formal explanation of the statue's comings and goings, but pundits assume, no doubt rightly, that Confucius' appearance and disappearance represent behind-the-scenes political jockeying between different camps within the leadership.

So, Confucius has exited the square. Enter Louis Vuitton. 

The French luxury goods company has taken up a perch almost exactly where the bronze Confucius had been set down. But rather than outside the north entrance of the National Museum, Louis Vuitton is inside the National Museum. Next to rare porcelain vases and bronze vessels, in a four-room exhibition, are LV luggage and handbags dating to the 1860s, reminding museum-goers of all the luxury the Chinese missed out on after the country's fall from power in the mid-19th century. Clever marketing, especially in a country where the world's high-end brands are all competing for visibility among a newly consumerist population.

The question that comes to mind is this: Confucius has been chased from Mao's square, but can Louis Vuitton, the representative of capitalist luxury and wasteful consumption, be any more palatable to the chairman? Is Louis' presence there preferable to the sage's?

Some Chinese, among them no doubt Mao's followers, have expressed displeasure with a Louis Vuitton show in a Chinese historical museum, of all places. Stores are one thing — there are now 27 Louis Vuitton shops in China — but a spot in the fabulously renovated National Museum in one of the world's most historically rich squares?

Gold : from the Situation Room

Money Is Technology!

Money, although most people don’t view it as such, is technology.

Money is a human abstraction. Money is an idea that’s harnessed to certain standards. For example, archaeologists tell us that primitive societies used colored stones, seashells or pieces of bone as money. 

Then for much of human history (including now, depending where you are), mankind used gold, silver and copper as money. In the 13th century, Kublai Khan introduced what some consider the first paper currency (the “chao”) throughout China — an idea that Marco Polo brought back to Europe.

The point is that across the ages, money is a construct — an invented tool — whether it’s seashells, gold, paper currency or even digital ones and zeros on a mobile device app.

Another way of viewing it is that money is an agreed-upon standard. Money is like time zones, where it’s the same time to the east, west, north and south. Money is like a standard unit of measurement, where a pound of steel weighs the same as a pound of feathers. Or money is like the width of railway gauge, so that rail cars from one railroad can run on the tracks of another railroad.

Thus, money is, at root, technology as much as any other basic machine like the wedge, lever or wheel. And along with other basic machines, the idea of money has evolved over many thousands of years of human history.

Today, Kublai Khan’s Chinese “chao” have evolved into modern U.S. Federal Reserve notes, as well as the multitude of other world currencies, from pounds to euros to yuan and much more.

When Money Breaks Down…

Now, I’d like you to consider what happens when a system of money — a system of technology — doesn’t work, or just breaks down. It brings to mind an old expression from the Soviet Union, that “They pretend to pay us, and we pretend to work.”

In other words, the Soviet Union was a society with a centrally planned command economy. The system of account, exchange and value was geared for the good of the state, but not much geared for the overall good of the people.

Over time, the currency — the Soviet ruble — ceased being much good for anything. Indeed, the ruble was a dodgy unit of account, a poor medium of exchange and a problematic store of value. Basically, there was little to buy in the Soviet command economy, and the Soviet people behaved accordingly. Their “money” (such as it was) shaped their attitudes.

The Soviets may have had good technology when it came to things like building tanks, rockets and nuclear bombs. But the Soviet economy failed to deliver for the good of the people. Eventually, the Soviet ruble was an economic technology that failed — along with the national construct known as the Soviet Union.

The Best Time-Tested Technology: Precious Metals…Silver

Looking ahead, I’m concerned with the trajectory of U.S. governance and the future of the economy. But I don’t anticipate that the U.S. federal system will somehow collapse, like what happened with the Soviet Union — although I’m willing to have that talk at another time and place.

Still, for the life of me, I cannot envision how the U.S. will avoid more inflation. Federal spending is out of control, and the economy is struggling to gain traction.

I don’t see how U.S. “monetary technology” — the dollar — can hold its value over the long haul. Next to moving out of the country to Singapore (like Jim Rogers, for instance), my fallback position is to keep building a precious metal portfolio based on physical metal and investing in well-run miners.

Along with gold, every portfolio should have exposure to silver.

Indeed, if you don’t own physical silver — coins, small ingots, bars, etc. — then get some! Buy metal and take delivery. I’ve been saying that for a number of years, since silver was selling at $10 per ounce. Don’t dwell over the near-term ups and downs. Silver is your safety fund for if (or when) the wheels come off the economic bus.

The recent silver selloff is due to turn around — silver is currently selling in the range of $27 per ounce. That’s far above the historical lows of $5-10 per ounce from the early 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s. But it’s also far down from the high over $45 last year.

Silver has a long, steadfast history as money, going back to ancient times. Yet it’s also a substance with a promising future, thanks to its critical role as an industrial-technological metal. Aside from the traditional uses as money, silver has innumerable uses in electronics, medicine and other metallurgical applications.

In the past several years, silver prices have moved due to demand driven by investors. Silver appeals, along with gold, as a safe (at least, safer) haven as an investment in times of economic uncertainty. Like now.

Money is technology. Many modern currencies are a failing technology. It’s time to get back to basics, and that means silver.

Byron King

Gold Is Nearing the Breaking Point

Looking to time your next purchase of gold? There’s no time like the present: The ideal seasonal “window” for gold purchases opened yesterday.

The annual Thackray’s Investor’s Guide attempts to pinpoint the best times of year in which to buy various asset classes. The 2012 edition notes, according to Canada’s Globe and Mail, “the optimal time to invest in gold bullion for a seasonal trade is from July 12-Oct. “We believe that ultimately the Fed will be forced to do quantitative easing,” the firm’s commodities research chief Francisco Blanch tells CNBC. “If it happens in September, as our economists expect, we will get a rally sooner in gold.”

For the past couple months, the yellow metal has been stuck in a trading range between about $1,550 and $1,625. But that range has been tightening, and gold has been storing up energy for another big move. That move could happen as early as next week.

Take a look at this chart of gold…

Gold is approaching the apex of its triangle pattern. That's the breaking point – where the metal either breaks out to the upside of the pattern or breaks down. Either way, there's the potential for a $140 move in either direction. And based on the chart, it could happen in the next couple weeks.

Frankly, I'd love to see the metal break down here and give us a chance to buy it near $1,450 per ounce or lower. But I'm starting to doubt we'll get that lucky.

With all the recent talk about a global recession, deflationary pressures, and Bernanke's testimony to Congress last week that he does not want a third round of quantitative easing… gold has had plenty of reasons to drop in price. But it's been holding steady above the $1,550 support zone. Maybe we won't get a chance to buy it at as huge a discount as I'd hoped.

There is a big move coming, though, and here's how I plan to trade it…

If gold breaks out to the downside of the triangle and loses support at $1,550, I'll look to buy the metal somewhere around $1,450 or lower. That will be the best gold-buying opportunity we've seen in years.

On the other hand, if gold breaks out to the upside and rallies above last month's high of $1,625, forget about buying it on sale. Just buy it. Gold will have entered "rally mode," and will likely challenge its February high above $1,775.

Either way this plays out, there's big opportunity ahead in gold.

Gold Miners are cheap, cheap, cheap !

Gold mining shares deserve their own discussion. I am bullish on gold without qualification. I am also bullish on gold miners…but with one very large qualification: they must produce positive cash flow.

I think the bull market in gold is intact. And I think gold prices will make highs within a year.

However, gold stocks have done poorly. Few have been spared. Like the other mining companies, they suffer from the same affliction: an eager willingness to take whatever cash they generate and dump it right back into the ground.

So even though the four largest listed gold miners — Goldcorp, Barrick, Newmont and Newcrest — generated $47.5 billion in operating cash flows in the last decade, they spent $62.5 billion in new mines, acquisitions and other capital expenditures. The big four have made no money in one of the greatest gold bull markets on record. In fact, they’ve lost money.

How did they make up this deficit? They sold more shares to the ever-gullible public — always a sucker for a good story about buried treasure. The number of shares outstanding rose 117% in the decade.

I’ve railed before about the management of gold miners. And I’ve tried to find gold miners in which the management teams do intelligent things. But it is hard. Even when you think you have found a team that says all the right things and looks as if it can do it, it does stuff that makes you scratch your head.

Aurizon Mines (Symbol: AZK. Price $4.43), for instance, is a wonderful miner. It generates plenty of cash. It has nearly $200 million in cash in the bank and no debt. But where is the payoff for shareholders? There is no dividend, no share buyback. Despite record revenues and cash margins, AZK’s cash balance is actually 7% lower than a year ago — again, because they put it all back in the ground. The share price is down almost 10% year over year. And this has been one of the better-performing mining stocks!

It’s very frustrating…

Still, price-to-cash-flow multiples have fallen to generational lows. During the last two decades, the XAU Index of gold mining stocks traded, on average, for 14 times cash flow. Today, the XAU is selling for less than 7 times cash flow, which is very close to its all-time low. So with smaller miners that produce cash flow, you have the chance of a good bounce to something closer to historical norms. The best case is a buyout by one of those free-spending bigger gold companies.