THE FED LOST $115 BILLION IN THE MONTH ON BONDS IT IS HOLDING

30 zero hedge | by Tyler Durden  /  2h  //  keep unread  //  preview Ben Bernanke Capital May P&L: ($115) Billion +Tag For all the attention paid to the 1.9% drop in PIMCO's $293 billion Total Return Fund in the month of May following one of the worst months for bonds in a long while, perhaps a far more important question is what happens when one mixes the world's largest actively managed, fixed income portfolio, that of the $3.4 trillion hedge fund located at 33 Liberty Street, and its DV01 of over $2.5 billion, with the 46 bps move in the 10 year in the month of May, and gets a P&L of ($115) billion, or double the said hedge fund's total capital. The hedge fund in question is of course the Federal Reserve Bank. While no LPs, aka taxpayers will be concerned at the biggest ever monthly "loss" of 3.5% just yet, because it is simply on "paper", at what point will that most precious of central bank commodities - fiath that the bald man behind the curtain knows what he is doing - start running in short supply? And, even worse, how long before the Fed has to start paying ever more and more reserve interest to the same banks (the majority of which are foreign) so reviled for being bailed out in the first place, until one day, it goes cash flow negative and has to request a bailout from the US Treasury and thus, the US people?

Lawlessness, Blackouts Roil Egypt As U.S. Warns Against Pyramids Tourism

Lawlessness, Blackouts Roil Egypt As U.S. Warns Against Pyramids Tourism

by TheTower.org Staff | 05.31.13 2:53 pm

Lawlessness has become so endemic in Egypt that the U.S. Embassy this week warned Americans away from visiting the country’s famed pyramids. A academic teaching at the American University in Cairo received an email from the embassy warning of “aggressiveness [that] in some cases is closer to criminal conduct… with angry groups of individuals surrounding and pounding on [vehicles]… and in some cases attempting to open the vehicle’s doors.” The warning lined up with the professor’s observations:

So, it’s not like I’m easily scared by anything that happens at the Pyramids, that repository for all of Egypt’s most villainous swindlers (every nation has some). But in recent months it has become almost unbearable. It feels almost like an openly criminal environment now. The problem is not only “lack of visible security,” but in some cases the security are either working with the vendors on their scams, or are sexually harassing female foreigners quite openly, even those who are obviously accompanied by their husbands. In short, if you visit Egypt in the near future, don’t even think of going to the Pyramids unless you’re on a large organized bus tour. Anything else is a big risk, for now.

The warning, emailed out over the embassy’s mailing list, was published the same day asa report documenting hundreds of attacks on journalists in Egypt. Most of the attacks, according to human rights adovactes, are being conducted by supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Security in Egypt has been plummeting amid blackouts that have heightened public anger against the Muslim Brotherhood-linked government of Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi:

The [energy] crisis is adding to the pressure on President Mohamed Morsi, who had promised to tackle the country’s ubiquitous power and fuel shortages, along with a host of other problems, in his first 100 days in office. Hundreds of residents in Alexandria, Kafr El Sheikh, Aswan and other areas have taken to the streets in recent weeks to voice their displeasure, blocking roads and even railway lines while chanting anti-Morsi slogans, according to the independent daily Al Masry Al Youm. More demonstrations are planned June 30, to mark the first anniversary of Morsi’s presidency.

A popular petition calling for Morsi’s removal was declared by a top Muslim Brotherhood figure today to be “null and void.”

[Photo: sheilapic76 / Flickr]

Report: New Iranian Missile Launchers Could Overwhelm Israeli Defenses

By: USNI News Editor
Friday, May 31, 2013

Iranian missile launchers in a May, 26 2013 display. Iranian Ministry of Defense Photo

Iran could have enough launchers to send a salvo of medium range ballistic missiles that would overwhelm Israeli ballistic missile defense systems, according to a Wednesday report from IHS Jane’s.

A May, 26 broadcast on Iranian television showcased a collection of transporter erector launchers (TELs) capable of launching the Iranian Shahab-3 guided ballistic missiles.

“Iranian television footage showed at least 26 TELs lined up in two rows for the event, which marked their purported delivery to the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Aerospace Force, which operates the country’s ballistic missiles,” according to the report.

The Shahab-3 is based on a North Korean design and is capable striking Israel from Iranian territory.

“The delivery of such a large number of missile launchers demonstrates the Islamic Republic of Iran’s self-sufficiency in designing and building the strategic system and shows the Iranian Armed Forces’ massive firepower and their ability to give a crushing response to the enemy,” Defense Minister Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi said in a report carried by Iranian state news.

The more missiles Iran can launch at once, “the greater its chances of overwhelming defensive systems, such as Israel’s Arrow, which only have a limited number of interceptors ready to launch at incoming targets,” according to the Jane’s report

Arrow is a joint U.S.-Israel BMD system which saw its first deployment in 2000.

Despite the Iranian rhetoric, some U.S. analysts doubt Iran’s ability to overwhelm Israel’s defensive systems.

“The Iranians are very good at telling themselves they have terrific and devastating technology which a cynic or skeptic like me may doubt,” naval analyst Norman Friedman told USNI News.
“It is a lot easier to multiply [launchers] than missiles.”

The training and coordination to fire enough salvos to overwhelm a modern BMD system is substantial, former U.S. Navy Rear Adm. Tom Marfiak — the anti-air warfare commander during Desert Shield and Desert Storm — told USNI News.

“Launching a single missile from a mobile TEL is a complex task for a trained crew. Much has to go right,” Marfiak said.
“Launching a number of missiles, nearly simultaneously, from multiple TEL’s, is a good deal more complicated than just lining them up for a parade.”

  

 

 

Newest Trend: Well-To-Do Hamptons Residents Go ‘Glamping’ In A Trailer Park

Homeowners Rent Out Their Spacious Digs For Big Bucks And Then 'Rough' It

May 30, 2013 8:05 PM

MONTAUK SHORES, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) — As summer approaches, some families are trading their year-round homes in East Hampton, for “trailers.” And it’s all to make some serious cash.

“It’s a piece of paradise. That we live here [is] a blessing to me,” Montauk resident Jeanette Esposito told CBS 2’s Jennifer McLogan on Thursday.

Esposito was talking about the Ditch Plains Trailer Park at Montauk Shores sitting at ocean’s edge — for 200 lucky families, complete with swimming pools and playgrounds.

Some call it “glamping” — or glamour camping.

“We don’t like to refer to them as trailers. Some people have the connotation it is rundown. I would say 90 percent of our residents live elsewhere for most of the year and they spend their summers here,” said Hugh Herbert of Montauk.

And some savvy Hamptonites are taking full advantage, squeezing in for the summer and renting out their sought after luxury million-dollar digs for the season.

Even owners of more modest homes are collecting $50,000 in rent for July and August. They will pay $1,400 a month to lease trailer space at Montauk Shores – quite a profit.

Hamptons realtors said the new trend makesfinancial sense.

“We are finding a lot more homeowners are putting their houses up for rent, due to paying for college, or economic distress,” said Jacqueline Dunphy of Corcoran Group Real Estate. “We have a place in Montauk called Ditch Plains is a very trendy trailer park. The homeowners go and live in that for whatever time period they’ve rented for.”

The Roupells from England are renting a trendy Hamptons home. Its owner went on a cruise with the cash collected. When asked if they feel they are getting bang for the buck, one said, “We definitely feel we are getting warmer weather than we ever have in London.”

Matthew Bergman lives full time in East Hampton and said he plans to rent his home for the month of August

“It’s just too much money to refuse,” Bergman said.

But the trailer park in Montauk is full and there’s a waiting list for interviews. The trailer park in Montauk has been around for more than 50 years. The people who run the place said this is the first time they remember seeing Hamptons families moving in for the summer.

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Who's next? Putin critics worry as Russia clampdown spreads

By Timothy Heritage | Reuters – 14 hours ago

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By Timothy Heritage

MOSCOW (Reuters) - A widening clampdown on groups and individuals critical or independent of Russian President Vladimir Putin has left his opponents asking: "Who's next?"

Liberal economist Sergei Guriev's flight from Russia under pressure from state investigators has deepened the sense of alarm as the Kremlin broadens a drive to stifle dissent and quell protests that began in December 2011.

Curbs on demonstrations, criminal cases against protest leaders and tough new funding rules for non-governmental organisations smack of the repression that accompanied stagnation under Soviet ruler Leonid Brezhnev in the 1970s, say critics.

Opponents say Putin is using strong-arm tactics to rebuild his authority, dented by the mass street protests, and note he has also sidelined aides who have fallen out of favour, including his political strategist Vladislav Surkov.

"Anyone dreaming of fighting (Putin) will be subject to the most severe measures," said Sergei Aleksashenko, a former deputy finance minister.

Resistance by Russia's elite would be crushed by a return of the communist-era choice - emigration or repression - he said, adding: "Everything will be built on his fears, manias and visions."

The former KGB spy portrays himself as the man who restored order after the chaos of President Boris Yeltsin's rule following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

He denies cracking down on opponents and has made clear he thinks there is again a need to restore order, after the biggest protests since he first rose to power in 2000.

But his critics say he seems intent on wiping out the last remnants of a protest movement that has been dwindling for months even though it poses little or no immediate threat.

NEW LAWS

Parliament has passed a series of laws which critics say he can use to undermine opponents, and several opposition figures face what they say are trumped-up criminal charges, including protest leader Alexei Navalny.

Even groups not part of the opposition are under pressure, including vote monitor Golos, which has gathered evidence of electoral fraud, and the Levada Center polling group, which has tracked Putin's falling popularity.

Both are resisting registering as "foreign agents" - a tag that has overtones of treason and echoes of the Cold War - under a new law that tightens checks on foreign-funded non-governmental organisations involved in "political activities".

Opposition figures often compare Putin's new term with that of Brezhnev's rule from 1964 to 1982. His face, imposed on a portrait of the Soviet leader - prematurely aged and decrepit - has for critics become emblematic of Putin's lengthy tenure running Russia.

Guriev's flight is seen by many as confirmation that the Kremlin has opened a new front in the war against dissenters of all stripes by putting pressure on intellectuals it mistrusts.

Behind such moves they see the influence of the "siloviki", Putin's former colleagues in the security services who are winning out as the influence of relative liberals wanes.

Guriev, a 41-year-old economist and government adviser, appears to have come under scrutiny after criticising Putin and making the cardinal sin of donating a small cash sum to Navalny.

His chances of remaining in favour were also compromised after he warned Putin could be ousted if he failed to tackle widespread corruption and reduce Russia's dependency on oil, which leaves it vulnerable to any fall in the price of its main export commodity.

NEW KHODORKOVSKY TRIAL?

Guriev's decision to join his family in France followed questioning by state investigators in a case involving the defunct oil company Yukos, once owned by a jailed former oligarch, Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

This has fuelled speculation that the next stage of the clampdown will be a new trial of Khodorkovsky and his partner Platon Lebedev, who are due for release form jail neat year.

"Their terms are coming to an end and there are people who are afraid to see them free," said Marina Khodorkovskaya, the mother of the tycoon who was once Russia's richest man but fell out with Putin after taking an interest in opposition politics.

Khodorkovsky is considered by some analysts to be of the few people who might have the stature to challenge Putin.

In a country which this year put a dead man on trial by prosecuting Sergei Magnitsky, a campaigning lawyer who exposed high-level corruption, few would rule out a new trial that could keep Khodorkovsky behind bars.

Khodorkovsky and Lebedev were arrested in 2003 and convicted in 2005 of fraud and tax evasion. They were also convicted of stealing oil from Yukos and money laundering in a second case in 2010. They are due for release next year.

Most political analysts expect Putin to see out his six-year term until 2018, even though his popularity has fallen from the peaks it hit in his first spell as president from 2000 to 2008. But he risks a backlash by putting pressure on intellectuals.

Fifteen economists and academics warned the government in an open letter on Thursday that the "foreign agents" law could threaten their independence and funding, eventually having an impact on an economy that could sliding into recession.

"There has already been a period in our history when economic science and economic analysis was fully controlled by the state," they wrote. "It is well known how it turned out for the Soviet economy.

(Additional reporting by Douglas Busine and Lidia Kelly; Editing by Jon Boyle)

Qatar Investment Authority in talks to buy Neiman Marcus

Oil money is eyeing Neiman Marcus, but the shoppers aren’t from Texas.

Deep-pocketed investors from Qatar — the petroleum-soaked Persian Gulf kingdom that owns Harrods in London — are in talks to buy the Dallas-based luxury chain, The Post has learned.

The Qatar Investment Authority, sources said, may shell out upwards of $6 billion for Neiman, parent of the swanky Bergdorf Goodman store on Fifth Avenue.

Neiman’s current owners, the private-equity giants TPG and Warburg Pincus, shelled out $5.1 billion for the retailer in 2005.

Negotiations with Qatar’s investment fund don’t appear to be exclusive, but they “are farther along than people realize,” according to one insider.

Officials at Neiman and TPG, its lead investor, declined to comment. Qatari officials didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Qatar, which is ranked by Forbes as the world’s richest country, even as it has been blasted by watchdogs for human-rights abuses, is on a luxury buying spree of late.

It recently upped its stake in Tiffany to nearly 13 percent to become the Big Apple jeweler’s biggest investor.

Last month, the Qatari fund cut a deal to acquire Printemps, the iconic Parisian department store, for more than $2 billion.

Qatar’s upscale portfolio includes Porsche and French luxury conglomerate LVMH.

A sale to a sovereign fund was the “first option” pegged by Credit Suisse after the bank was hired this spring to explore strategic alternatives, according to a source.

Credit Suisse has likewise trained its sights on the investment arms of Kuwait and Singapore, which together acquired a 5 percent stake in TPG two years ago. Qatar, meanwhile, owns 6 percent of Credit Suisse.

Management presentations with prospective bidders are slated for the coming weeks when additional suitors are expected to enter the fray, sources said.

Recent speculation about a possible merger of Neiman and Saks appears increasingly unlikely as the market value of Saks has ballooned, insiders said.

Last week, The Post exclusively reported that Saks has hired Goldman Sachs to explore a possible sale, sending Saks shares surging as much as 20 percent.

Qatar’s interest in Neiman, however, could steal an important bidder from Saks, one source noted.

“Saks may not have the same appeal overseas” as Neiman, according to the source.

jcovert@nypost.com

Islam: Root Cause of Grooming and Rape Wave

1K FrontPage Magazine by Nicolai Sennels  /  1d  //  keep unread  //  preview Islam: Root Cause of Grooming and Rape Wave +Tag Packs of rapists and groomers seems to be epidemic in the UK. Their common denominator is their religious and cultural background. As a psychologist, I am not surprised that this horrific phenomenon emerges among immigrants from Islamic countries. Just as any other religion and culture, Islam and Muslim culture nurture certain psychological traits that influence values and behaviour. Abuse in Muslim culture The Quran’s description of women as inferior to and the property of men not only removes womens’ basic human rights; it also influence men’s view of them. As a result, Muslim cultural traditions have for centuries treated women as second class citizens, forced to marry and have sex with men against their will, and living under a constant death threat should they dishonor their family by violating the misanthropic Sharia laws. The brutal treatment of innocent young girls may be shocking to those who do not know how women are treated in Muslim countries, but it would be naive to think that people change their habits and views and raise their children to integrate into what in their eyes are blasphemous customs just because they cross a national border. The statistics speak for themselves. Research suggests that 91 percent of the between7,000 and 20,000 honor killings each year are committed by Muslims. On top of this statistic come the countless cases of non-deadly honor crimes. In Britain alone, the police estimate that 17,000 cases of honor-based “forced marriages, kidnappings, sexual assaults, beatings and even murders take place every year.” In Turkey, 42 percent of women are victims of physical or sexual abuse. In Morocco, the share is 82 percent. In Egypt, 99.3 percent of women have experienced sexual harassment. Etc. Infidel women Another factor contributing to the Muslim rape wave is the fact that Muhammed, if he ever lived, allowed Muslims to take infidel women as their sex slaves. Using female prisoners of war for sexual gratification dates 1,400 years back to their prophet, who had a large number of sex slaves and advised his male followers to imitate his example. While a Muslim husband can divorce at any time by repeating the word “talaq” three times, a married Muslim woman is her husband’s de facto slave, since she can not divorce unless a Sharia council approves her wish and sets her free. If she leaves without being allowed, her risk of getting killed is as high as the killer’s chance of remaining unpunished for fulfilling his culture’s and God’s expectations on how to treat women who leave a marriage without being allowed to. A psychologically unhealthy religion One does not have to be a psychologist to know what such a culture does to men’s view of women. No grown-up man would ever consider having sex with minors, and certainly not against her will, drugged, beaten and threatened with death. But what we are talking about here are not normal men, but males who since birth have been raised to think that women are inferior and that females who do not protect their honor by covering up are prostitutes and fair game. No man should ever wish to be subjected to such unhealthy cultural influence. The psychological consequences of closing one’s mind to female qualities and being mentally blocked from enjoying the healing and maturing experience of loving and being loved by an equal partner is obviously devastating. Remember, this is a religion and culture that sees no problem in men punishing female rape victims and forcing — often blood-related — couples to live together for life, pressuring them to have sex and bear children, no matter if they love each other or not. Is it surprising that a culture with such a primitive view of love and sex would produce such astonishing numbers of sexual offenders?