InformedTrades

The Obama administration announced Wednesday that 37 community banks have received a total of $418 million in funds under a program designed to encourage local banks with less than $10 billion in assets to increase their lending to small businesses. The $30 billion Small Business Lending Fund, established under the Small Business Jobs Act of 2010, so far has provided about $1 billion to 80 community banks, including the latest funding, the Treasury Department said.

Individual municipal-bond investors aren't fleeing the market after Standard & Poor's lowered the credit rating of thousands of bonds.

Commission begins asking preliminary questions Rumours of decision to drop U.S. to AA+ were abound S&P director hints Tea Party rhetoric played a part Spokesman for agency denies any wrongdoing

The German government no longer rules out agreeing to the issuance of euro zone bonds as a measure of last resort to save the single currency, conservative newspaper Welt am Sonntag reported on Sunday. Even though Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble and Economy Minister Philipp Roesler again spoke out against euro zone bonds and debt collectivization, Welt am Sonntag reported the German government is nevertheless considering that and other measures.

Syrian forces, backed by tanks and fire from warships, killed at least 20 people as they pressed forward with their assault on the port city of Latakia, according to an activist, as the U.S., U.K. and Saudi Arabia called for a halt to the violence. The attack on the Mediterranean city, which began yesterday, also left 70 people injured, Mahmoud Merhi, head of the Arab Organization for Human Rights, said in a telephone interview from Damascus today.

The Swiss government and the central bank are in "intense" talks over setting a possible target for the franc, SonntagsZeitung newspaper reported, citing unidentified people close to the situation. The plans are "ready," and the Swiss National Bank may set such a target in "coming days," the newspaper reported. The talks are focusing on the role of the government and an "appropriate plan" may be adopted on Aug. 17, it said.

VP and General Manager Earl Zmijewsk wrote us today from Renesys, the Internet intelligence company, to let us know that, after a long, stable summer of nothing much to report, Libya's Internet has now started to fail, probably as a result of infrastructure degradation due to war and neglect. "Much of the country's Internet routing has started to show evidence of sporadic failures this week, which have gone unreported in the media," James Cowie remarked on the Renesys blog.

What's behind the volatility is unbridled speculation and computer-type HFT trading gone wild. Oil didn't drop $20 a barrel or copper 25 cents a pound because there was a sudden fall-off in demand or increase in supplies. This was all about speculative trading gone haywire.  Let me be more specific. The whole premise of the economic justification behind commodity futures trading has been bastardized.  US law has sanctioned the trading of commodity futures for the express purpose of allowing legitimate producers and consumers to hedge or transfer their price risks to speculators. But the wild price swings we are witnessing are not related to legitimate hedging. The volatility is as a result of speculators battling speculators, with real hedgers largely on the sideline. This is relatively easy to demonstrate.

Sure enough, in the 3 weeks following, M2 dropped to very much unremarkable weekly change levels. Until the week of August 1, or the week in which the specter of a US bankruptcy came to life, and in which the market took its first notable leg down. In that week, the broadest publicly released monetary aggregated - the M2 - soared to an all time high $9.5 trillion, or a $159 billion weekly change. This make it the third largest weekly spike in history After the Lehman bankruptcy and September 11.

1. Those holding gold to hedge the systemic risks of the Western Financial world simply stay in your position. 2. Traders lighten up your positions as gold approaches the next two Angels. 3. No market fails to have reactions at some point. 4. Reactions in this market will be deep, but brief when they occur. 5. The undervaluation of good gold shares has passed manic. 6. Utilization of some of your gold profits into good gold shares is pure logic. Respectfully, Jim

Given this backdrop, here's today's big question: If the dollar and euro implode... ...will the next global currency be gold or networked virtual currencies (like bitcoin)?   Until the new currency platform emerges, the safest hedge for the future is building, buying, or trading for anything that can produce food, energy, water, and products locally.

European Union states are unlikely to impose a blanket ban on short-selling of stocks in response to volatile trading in bank stocks, a regulatory source familiar with the situation told Reuters.

South Korea said North Korea fired artillery salvos near a disputed sea border that was the scene of a deadly shelling in November, a charge North Korea denied.

South American finance officials are considering creating a $10 billion to $20 billion emergency fund to assist nations that experience capital flight should the global economic crisis deepen, two government officials involved in the talks said.

More executives at Standard & Poor's 500 Index companies are buying their stock than any time since the depths of the credit crisis after valuations plunged 25 percent below their five-decade average. Sixty-six insiders at 50 companies bought shares between Aug. 3 and Aug. 9, the most since the five days ended March 9, 2009, when the benchmark index for U.S. equities reached a 12- year low, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Morgan Stanley (MS) Chief Executive Officer James Gorman and two other managers purchased 175,000 shares of the New York-based bank as the shares fell to the lowest level since March 2009, according to filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The yuan strengthened beyond 6.4 per dollar for the first time in 17 years, supported by the Federal Reserve's pledge to keep interest rates at a record low and signs China will use currency gains to help rein in inflation.

As the Bank of England considers unleashing a fresh round of QE, Dhaval Joshi, of BCA Research, argues the approach of creating electronic money pushes up share prices and profits without feeding through to wages. "The evidence suggests that QE cash ends up overwhelmingly in profits, thereby exacerbating already extreme income inequality and the consequent social tensions that arise from it," Joshi says in a new report.

The Swiss franc jumped on Wednesday after the Swiss National Bank announced fresh measures to drive down money market rates to stem the franc's strength, but refrained from direct intervention or pegging the currency as some had speculated.

Japan called on Group of Seven nations to work closely to counter market turmoil and Asian officials sought to calm investors as stocks slumped on concern the U.S. recovery is faltering. The G-7 needs "very close cooperation in coming weeks," Japanese Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda said in Tokyo, where the Topix index fell to a two-year low. Hong Kong financial official K.C. Chan urged investors to "stay calm" and not be "spooked by the market," as the Hang Seng Index slumped 3.1 percent. In Beijing, Vice President Xi Jinping said his nation will avoid an economic hard landing.

Though it fell back the latest reporting week, MZM has still increased sharply lately, being up 14.5% at an annualized rate the latest 3 months (13 weeks), up 13.3% the latest 6 months (26 weeks) and up 9.2% the latest year. For M2 the increases were even greater (13 weeks 24.9%, 26 weeks 14.8%, 52 weeks 10.2%) and for M1 greater still (44.9%/27.2%/20.5%).