InformedTrades

European banks are losing deposits as savers and money funds spooked by the region's debt crisis search for havens, a trend that could worsen economic and financial conditions. Retail and institutional deposits at Greek banks fell 19 percent in the past year and almost 40 percent at Irish lenders in 18 months. Meanwhile, European Union financial firms are lending less to one another and U.S. money-market funds have reduced their investments in German, French and Spanish banks.

The scheme promises farm gate prices of Bt14,800/tonne to farmers, 55 per cent higher than domestic prices in August. Rice farmers - whose support in July's election was crucial to the overwhelming victory of the new government of prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra - are going to be happy, but as Nomura points out, the urban poor not so much.

Now Russia has shown itself less than enthusiastic about the great Bric plan to save the world, sorry, Europe. Echoing Chinese premier Wen Jiabao, a senior Russian official said on Wednesday that Europe must come up with a clear strategy for rescuing its debt-ridden states  before Moscow could commit to increasing its eurozone bond holdings. With India also cautious about the Brazilian-inspired assistance proposal, it seems that a Bric-wide agreement is a long way off.

Recent talks between Italy and China centred on possible investments in Italy's industrial sector, not the purchase of government bonds, an Italian ministerial source said on Tuesday.

Worldwide media tablet shipments rose by 88.9% on a sequential basis and 303.8% year over year in the second calendar quarter of 2011 (2Q11) to 13.6 million units, according to the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Media Tablet and eReader Tracker. Based on this strong performance in the second quarter, and an improved outlook for the second half of the year, IDC raised its shipment forecast for 2011 to 62.5 million units, up from a previous projection of 53.5 million units.

And three: This 22-nanometer 3D-transistor architecture consumes so little power-20 times less than their current gear-that it can run on a solar cell. That's exactly what they demonstrated at the Intel's Developer Forum today: a Haswell-based Windows computer running entirely off a solar cell that was being exposed to a light bulb. Imagine that. Basically, your computer would be able to run indefinitely without ever having to power off, even if you run out of battery power to run the machine's display. I'm impressed.

Former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney believes Israel would attack Iran to prevent it from achieving nuclear weapons capacity, he said in an interview aired Monday. When asked about the possibility of an Israeli preemptive attack against Iran, Cheney told Newsmax TV that "Iran represents an existential threat, and [the Israelis] will do whatever they have to do to guarantee their survival and their security."

Revolution in Iran appears to be a matter of time, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta predicted on Tuesday, saying the Iranian reform movement was learning from revolts in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Syria. Panetta, a former CIA director who took over the Pentagon's top job in July, was asked on the Charlie Rose television show whether the Arab Spring might spread to non-Arab Iran. Panetta responded: "Absolutely."

The head of the IMF has warned that its $384bn (£248bn) war chest designed as an emergency bail-out fund is inadequate to deliver the scale of the support required by troubled states. In a document distributed to the IMF steering committee at the weekend, Ms Lagarde said: "The fund's credibility, and hence effectiveness, rests on its perceived capacity to cope with worst-casescenarios. Our lending capacity of almost $400bn looks comfortable today, but pales in comparison with the potential financing needs of vulnerable countries and crisis bystanders."

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."

On Monday, the first gold contracts denominated in the Chinese Renminbi (also known informally as "yuan") came to the Hong Kong market.  Analysts have been quick to note the implications of a yuan-denominated contract, realizing that the new contract could drive nearly three times as much demand as the dollar-denominated contract. Looking at the yuan product from the macro-view, a move into gold is about more than just gold-it's about reserve currency status. 

Brazil on Tuesday rejected the idea of buying European bonds to help ease the euro zone's debt crisis, casting doubt on a plan for major emerging market economies to offer fresh funds for the continent's rescue. European leaders had floated the idea that developing nations including Brazil and China could provide funding to buy Euro zone bonds, which would help lower yields and ease pressure on countries such as Spain and Italy.

Newmont Mining (NYSE:NEM ) is facing protests from community-based organizers in northern Peru. The townspeople are demanding an end to the $4.8 billion Minas Conga gold mine construction as the project threatens the local water supply. Newmont Mining and its local affiliate Yanacocha are developing the Minas Conga, and if completed, it will represent one of the largest investment's in Peru's mining industry. Milton Sanchez, head of the civic group that organized the assembly, says that they "reject the presence of Yanacocha's Conga mining project because it is located at the start of a water basin," further saying that the organization will "give the company eight days to evacuate from the site." Newmont officials say that the protest has left three workers injured.

On May 31, 2011, I was invited by Russia Today's Keiser Report to discuss bitcoin, the decentralized cryptocurrency:

On several occasions in the past, we've alerted readers to potentially big moves in markets using our Trend-Vol alerts, Precious Metals being the chief focus. Trend-Vol is an early warning system that focuses on several factors to predict movement. Those factors include: historical and implied volatilities, skewness and Bollinger Band width.  This momentum indicator warns when volatility is about to increase and directional moves can be large, quick, and profitable, even after the original trigger goes off. Simply put, and stated here often; volatility breathes. We believe that it is about to exhale soon in the Precious Metals, particularly Silver, but Gold is on the radar as well. What we do not know is in which direction the markets will head…. yet. 

Russia is to build an ultra-modern city on a frozen island deep inside the Arctic Circle - in the Kremlin's latest move to back its claim to vast oil and gas reserves under the polar ice cap. Named Umka, after a popular Soviet polar bear cub cartoon hero, the initial 5,000 residents will live under a vast dome to protect themselves from temperatures sinking below minus 30C in winter. 'This city will be of strategic importance as Russia's northern outpost,' said architect Valery Rzhevskiy who has shown its modernistic designs to an approving Vladimir Putin.

The Vatican says that if a "world government" isn't created with the ability to cope with large-scale speculation, "A climate will generally progress with growing hostility and even violence to undermine the foundations of democratic institutions". The proposal includes a world central bank, taxes on financial transaction proportional to the sophistication of financial products, a fund for the recapitalization of world banks, and different rules for commercial and investment banking.

That suggests Sun Security's 107% overvaluation, the other examples cited above ranging from 56% to 126% and the average, across-the-board overvaluations of 47% were all permissible under present accounting standards. These facts indicate that regardless of statements made by politicians or Federal Reserve officials, there will be no end to Quantitative Easing or massive liquidity injections any time in the foreseeable future.  Any so-called recovery in the financial sector over the past several years appears to have been little more than an accounting trick permitted by the FASB's elimination of fair value requirements.

This summer, the State Legislature and Governor of Louisiana passed a law that bans individuals and businesses from transacting in cash if they are considered a "secondhand dealer". House Bill 195 of the 2011 Regular Session (Act 389) broadly defines a secondhand dealer to include "… Anyone, other than a non-profit entity, who buys, sells, trades in or otherwise acquires or disposes of junk or used or secondhand property more frequently than once per month from any other person, other than a non-profit entity, shall be deemed as being in the business of a secondhand dealer. " The law then states that "A secondhand dealer shall not enter into any cash transactions in payment for the purchase of junk or used or secondhand property. Payment shall be made in the form of check, electronic transfers, or money order issued to the seller of the junk or used or secondhand property…" The broad scope of this definition can essentially encompass everyone; from your local flea market vendors and buyers to a housewife purchasing goods on ebay or craigslist, to a group of guys trading baseball cards, they could all be considered secondhand dealers. Lawmakers in Louisiana have effectively banned its citizens from freely using United States legal tender.

On the very first day, reports indicate yuan gold contracts amounting to a total of 322 kilogram were traded, with the settlement price set at 346.95 yuan per gram, or US$ 1,693.9 an ounce - a significant premium on U.S. and European prices.. Some forex dealers are of the opinion that the yuan will become a dominant force in international financial markets over the next three years and rival the dollar, euro and yen. Meantime, China has formalised a rule to allow foreign direct investment (FDI) in the renminbi legally obtained overseas, as it moves to further internationalise its currency. The scheme aims at promoting trade and investment by expanding cross-border use of the Chinese currency and supporting the development of the renminbi market in Hong Kong.