InformedTrades

"In the wake of yesterday's Malaysia Airlines crash and the start of ground operations by Israeli forces in Gaza, the world is again attuned to the various geopolitical hotspots where risk exists for major conflict to crop up. Deutsche Bank published the map below last Thursday laying out the three main areas of the globe where the risk of conflict escalation is particularly acute. " [center][img]http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/53c90ea5ecad04170b7ee562-840-579/db%20geo%20political%20hotspots.jpg[/img][/center]

"The Ruble was already losing ground on the back of US Sanctions but those losses accelerated markedly after the Malaysia Airliness jet crash news. This is the biggest drop in the Ruble since August 2011..." [center][img]http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/images/user3303/imageroot/2014/07/20140717_RUB1_0.jpg[/img][/center]

I can tell you based on what I have been told by members of the public and reviewed in publicly available documents, I believe that there's been violations of the law, The Commodity Exchange Act. They've taken place in the silver market and I think any such violation, of course, should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.  I believe there has been repeated attempts to influence prices in the silver market.  And there's been fraudulent efforts to persuade and deviously control the price."

The G20 is considering a proposal by the International Monetary Fund to create a new short-term line of credit to help countries that are facing economic shocks beyond their control, a G20 official familiar with the talks said on Thursday. In an another effort to boost liquidity, the G20 is also considering injecting billions of dollars into the global economy through a second special allocation of IMF Special Drawing Rights (SDRs). Such a move would bolster financial stability in the face of growing uncertainty caused by the euro zone sovereign debt crisis , the official said.

Click the link to watch. 

Iran ratcheted up tensions in the Middle East yesterday when its foreign minister declared the country was 'ready for war' with Israel and the West. In inflammatory remarks certain to fuel uncertainty in the volatile region, Ali Akbar Salehi warned that Tehran would 'not hesitate' to retaliate if attacked. His posturing came as Foreign Secretary William Hague urged Israel's defence minister not to fan the flames during top-level talks in London.

The UN development agency called Wednesday for a tax on foreign exchange trading deals, which are worth hundreds of billions of dollars per day, to help the world's poor deal with the effects of climate change. "A currency transaction tax has been identified as the most viable of all the sources of innovative financing," UNDP administrator Helen Clarke said as she presented the 21st Human Development Report in Copenhagen.

The renminbi has come a long way since 2009 when Beijing took the first steps to promote its use to settle trade transactions and opened up the RMB bond market. And while it certainly still has some way to go before it becomes fully convertible, that day may be coming sooner than you think - if the words of Xia Bin, an advisor to China's central bank, are anything to go by. Speaking at a City of London event this week, Xia said if the Chinese government is to turn Shanghai into an international financial centre  - a hub to rival Hong Kong or New York by 2020 - it won't be able to do so without a fully convertible RMB. "We are very close to the requirement for full convertibility. Personally, I think we are just one step away now. It will be a political decision and we are not as far away as some people think. It is not as big of a step as some people tout it," Xia said.

"In a few days' time, all this will seem fleeting and temporary." So says Amado Boudou, Argentina's economy minister and vice president-elect, of the pressure on the peso and mounting capital flight, which led the government to introduce foreign exchange controls this week. The market thinks otherwise. It patently does not buy Boudou's argument that there won't be a devaluation from the current rate of 4.265 pesos to the dollar.

Emerging Capital Partners, the Africa-focused private equity group, has money to invest and knows how it wants to spend it. The group has, historically, pumped a quarter of its investments into telecommunications and will maintain that commitment - but with a bit of a tweak. ECP thinks the African telecoms market is at an "inflection point" with the large, established operators looking for new ways to drive growth without investing vast sums on infrastructure. So, the fund has decided to concentrate on  smaller, infrastructural investments where it thinks there is value to be found - right now, that means mobile towers which can be shared by different operators to reduce costs.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is trying to rally support in his cabinet for an attack on Iran, according to government sources. The country's defence minister Ehud Barak and the foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman are said to be among those backing a pre-emptive strike to neutralise Iran's nuclear ambitions. But a narrow majority of ministers currently oppose the move, which could trigger a wave of regional retaliation. The debate over possible Israeli military action has reached fever pitch in recent days with newspaper leader columns discussing the benefits and dangers of hitting Iran.

In the wake of last week's new deal on European debt, China is serving up a steely reminder to Europe: you may have to start borrowing in renminbi to gain a sympathetic hearing from the world's largest creditor. Already officially enshrined by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as bankers to the world's biggest debtor the Americans, the Chinese have no wish to become, too, a last-ditch lender to the Europeans. The idea of renminbi borrowing has been put forward by Beijing advisers and officials as a way of lowering Chinese foreign-exchange risks caused by further exposure to Europe - and also of using the Europeans' latest discomfiture to advance China's international monetary-policy agenda.

Around 110 S&P 500 companies report earnings this week, both the ECB and FOMC make interest rate decisions and host press conferences -- the first for Mario Draghi in the case of the former -- and then oh by the way, the October employment report is released on Friday.

"The machine is a first of its kind anywhere in the world and will further revolutionise the processes by which precious metals and jewellery is bought," said Gitanjali Export Corporation chief executive Sanjeev Agarwal. The ATM offers customers the choice of up to 36 products of varying sizes, designs and prices, from 1,000 rupees to 30,000 rupees ($20 to $600). Payment is either through credit or debit card or by depositing cash.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's decision to execute a 1,000-for-1 prisoner exchange last week despite his frequently voiced opposition to such lopsided deals is seen by several Israeli military commentators as an effort to "clear the deck" before possibly undertaking an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities.

They form an exclusive group, whose loosely regulated members are often based in such tax havens as Switzerland. Together, they are worth over a trillion dollars in annual revenue and control more than half the world's freely traded commodities. The top five piled up $629 billion in revenues last year, just below the global top five financial companies and more than the combined sales of leading players in tech or telecoms. Many amass speculative positions worth billions in raw goods, or hoard commodities in warehouses and super-tankers during periods of tight supply.

Norway's $570 billion sovereign wealth fund sold all its holdings in U.S. mortgage-backed securities as part of a shift of its fixed-income portfolio. The fund holds no mortgage bonds issued by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the U.S.-controlled mortgage financiers, and an "insignificant" amount of private home loan-backed bonds, said Yngve Slyngstad, chief executive officer of Norges Bank Investment Management, today in an interview in Oslo.

The folks at the USDA released their projections for 2011/2012-food price inflation. The bad news is that feeding ourselves will cost ~4% more in 2011. The good news is that USDA thinks prices will rise only ~2.5% next year. I shop (I hate it). My food inflation is closer to 10%. It depends on what you eat.

Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney said central banks have been less than forthcoming in admitting that one of the primary aims of quantitative easing is to weaken their foreign-exchange rates, remarks that will fuel a tense debate over the effect the Federal Reserve's policies have had in stoking the currency war.

The central bank is definitely afraid of doing anything that is not being done by all of the other central banks.  They feel they are part of a brotherhood and they can't betray the rest.  They don't want to present a currency that would be viewed as out of line, that's the way they think.  It's a sad thing but this is the mentality. Thinking about it a little bit more, what happened to Mr. Gaddafi, many speculate the real reason he was ousted was that he was planning an all-African currency for conducting trade.  The same thing happened to him that happened to Saddam because the US doesn't want any solid competing currency out there vs the dollar.  You know Gaddafi was talking about a gold dinar.