Search Results for: JPMorgan

By Pam Martens: March 23, 2022 ~ As someone who has watched trading screens for the past 36 years, it’s pretty easy to spot a fake market. As the charts below indicate, there is an invisible hand (or hands) pushing this stock market up when it should be plunging. The likely suspects are U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s Plunge Protection Team, known as the Exchange Stabilization Fund; foreign central banks that are aligned with the U.S. position on Ukraine and want to help stabilize financial markets in the West; hedge funds and Wall Street’s Dark Pools owned by megabanks that are net long the market; or a combination of all of the above. One thing’s for sure, the stock market is not responding in a normal fashion to soaring inflation, a hawkish Fed, spiking interest rates, and military aggression by an out-of-control dictator with 6,000 nuclear warheads. Consider the chart below: … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: March 22, 2022 ~ As the headlines in mainstream media grew ever more alarming in late 2021 regarding Russia’s troop buildup around Ukraine, approximately $225 million per day (or $13.7 billion over a span of 61 days) had been waged in bets that Russia might default on its sovereign debt. These bets are known as Credit Default Swaps and can be used to hedge exposure or simply speculate on a debt default in hopes of making a profit. This information resides in a publicly-available swap repository maintained by the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation (DTCC). For the period of September 20, 2021 through December 19, 2021, the DTCC shows that an average of 26 trades per day were being made in the Credit Default Swaps on the Russian Federation’s sovereign debt, for a daily total of $225 million notional (face amount of credit default swaps). … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: March 17, 2022 ~ Yesterday, it was widely reported in the business press that Saudi Arabia is considering pricing its oil deals with China in China’s own currency, the Yuan, rather than in U.S. Dollars, which is the currency of choice for the bulk of the global oil trade. While it should be noted that this talk has been making headlines for the past four years without actually coming to fruition, the U.S. should stop taking the respected status of the Dollar for granted. Three of the key reasons that the U.S. Dollar has been able to maintain its status as the global reserve currency are the following: a stable government which is not subject to being toppled by coups; a large working population which allows federal tax payments to be automatically collected from paychecks in order to pay the nation’s debts on time; and, … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: March 16, 2022 ~ We received an email alert from the House Financial Services Committee last Sunday indicating that its Subcommittee on Investor Protection, Entrepreneurship and Capital Markets will hold a hearing on March 30 titled: “Oversight of America’s Stock Exchanges: Examining Their Role in Our Economy.” You can file that hearing under too little, too late. At a moment in history when the U.S. finds itself dangerously close to World War III and the U.S. financial system should be projecting itself as powerful and invincible to enemies of the U.S., we’re watching wheels come off a growing number of markets. Congress has been on notice that stock markets in the U.S. were rigged since March 30, 2014 when Wall Street veteran and bestselling author, Michael Lewis, released his book “Flash Boys,” and sat down with Steve Kroft on 60 Minutes to explain exactly how … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: March 14, 2022 ~ Nike can’t seem to take its own advice and “just do it.” On March 3 Reuters and the Wall Street Journal reported that Nike was temporarily closing its more than 100 stores in Russia. The Wall Street Journal carried this statement from Nike: “We are deeply troubled by the devastating crisis in Ukraine and our thoughts are with all those impacted, including our employees, partners and their families in the region.” This sounds like something one might say following an act of nature – like a hurricane or a flood. It doesn’t sound appropriate for a barbaric bombing attack by Russian President Vladimir Putin on hospitals, schools and apartment buildings in Ukraine that had left hundreds of civilians dead at that point. The day after Nike’s statement to the press, we could find no official statement on Nike’s website to indicate that it … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: March 10, 2022 ~ This morning Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a conference call that the economic sanctions imposed on Russia by the West were “absolutely unprecedented.” He went on to say that those sanctions made it “very hard to forecast anything.” Perhaps Putin should have thought about that before he invaded the neighboring country of Ukraine and launched a barbaric bombing assault on hospitals, schools, churches and apartment buildings. There are a few things we can help Russia forecast. Given the fact that the Russian currency, the Ruble, has plunged 40 percent against the U.S. Dollar since Russia’s murderous assault on Ukraine began on February 24, and the fact that the Ruble has continued to set lower lows against the U.S. Dollar since then, it’s a pretty good bet that the Ruble is not going to find a bottom. The Ruble is … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: March 9, 2022 ~ Deutsche Bank (symbol DB on the above chart) closed at $16.50 on the New York Stock Exchange on February 10 of this year. It closed at $10.23 yesterday – a decline of 38 percent in a month’s time. That’s a big problem because Deutsche Bank is heavily interconnected to Wall Street banks via derivatives. According to Deutsche Bank’s most recent annual report, as of December 31, 2020, it held $35.4 trillion in notional derivatives. (Notional means face amount. See the table on page 147 of the 2020 Deutsche Bank Annual Report here.) Deutsche Bank, a large German bank, was among the global banks bailed out by the Fed during the financial crash of 2008 as well as during the (still unexplained) liquidity crash that saw the Fed pump trillions of dollars in cumulative loans into global banks from September 17, 2019 … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: March 7, 2022 ~ There is a known $41 billion in Credit Default Swaps (CDS) on Russian debt. There is likely many billions more in unknown amounts. There are also billions more in Credit Default Swaps on state-owned Russian corporate debt and non state-owned Russian corporate debt. In addition to Wall Street not knowing which global banks and other financial institutions are on the hook to pay out on the Credit Default Swap protection they sold in case of a Russian sovereign debt default (or Russian corporate debt default), there is also approximately $100 billion of Russian sovereign debt (whose default is looking more and more likely) sitting on the balance sheets of foreign banks. Put it all together and you have the makings of a replay of the 2008 banking crisis when banks backed away from lending to each other because they didn’t know … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: March 1, 2022 ~ There is now an international competition for who can land the biggest insult to Russian President Vladimir Putin by severing business, financial, cultural and sports ties to Russia. Add Mickey Mouse to the growing list. Yesterday, the Walt Disney Company Tweeted this: “Given the unprovoked invasion of Ukraine and the tragic humanitarian crisis, we are pausing the release of theatrical films in Russia, including the upcoming Turning Red from Pixar. We will make future business decisions based on the evolving situation. In the meantime, given the scale of the emerging refugee crisis, we are working with our NGO partners to provide urgent aid and other humanitarian assistance to refugees.” As tens of thousands of outraged protesters take to the streets in cities around the world, some calling Putin a “war criminal,” and news photos spread of innocent Ukrainian children dying in an invasion … Continue reading →

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: February 18, 2022 ~ There are apparently stock-picking analysts across Wall Street pumping out buy recommendations on stocks to the public who have never cast their eyes on those chilling derivative charts published quarterly by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. If the analysts had cast their eyes on those charts, the last thing they would be recommending right now are megabank stocks. We’re talking specifically about JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, Bank of America and Morgan Stanley, which, together, control approximately 90 percent of the hundreds of trillions of dollars (notional/face amount) in derivatives held by all 4,900 banks and bank holding companies in the U.S. We’re also talking about the foreign banks that are significant derivative counterparties to these and other banks — such as Deutsche Bank, Credit Suisse, Nomura and Barclays. The chart above shows how these banks performed yesterday … Continue reading →